Careers

Careers at Canadian Affair

Canadian Affair is the leading tour operator selling tailor made packages to Canada. Want to be the best in the travel industry? We are!

So if you are looking to join one of the youngest, most dynamic hard working teams, then read on.

With an average age of 28, over 80 staff across 2 fabulous offices locations: Paddington in London & Glasgow City Centre, you'll not only enjoy what you do but also love where you work.

We have a passion for Canada, selling, being the very best as well as enjoying our jobs. Canadian Affair knows how to look after its staff, so you'll enjoy a great salary and benefits package that includes staff travel, contributory pension scheme and private health care and progression is always possible, as is the ability to move around our different office locations.

As highlighted in the Plimsoll Portfolio Analysis of the top 1500 travel companies Canadian Affair are ranked as follows:

• • Sales/employee 4th place
• • Remuneration/employee 8th place
• • Sales growth 29th place
• • Pre tax profits 30th place
• • Overall Canadian Affair are among the top 50 companies listed as best trading partner.

So think you fit the bill? Want a new challenge? Are prepared to work hard and reap the benefits? Then send us your CV to (careersUK@transat.com) and perhaps you could be joining our dedicated team soon!

Please note that due to the anticipated high level of demand it may not be possible to respond to all applications.

Sales Adviser

Role

We are looking for experienced full time Sales Advisers who have a passion for travel and providing customers with friendly service.
The successful candidate will have a flair for selling and inspiring a dream in their customers. They must be willing to work hard, be a proven team player and very self-motivated with the experience of delivering targets in a challenging travel industry. They will be capable of handling customer queries and complaints whilst still able to stay motivated to sell.

Key Accountabilities and Activities

Selling the dream

• To be passionate on every call about the brand and the product we sell

Effective Communication

• To be inspired by the customer’s ideas for what they want from their holiday and to be able to translate that into an actual recommendation for a holiday

• To be passionate on every call about the brand and the product we sell

• To handle customer queries that involve admin which is not selling

• To handle customer complaints and resolve at first point of contact whenever possible

Target Driven

• An understanding of selling principles and to be able to close the deal

• To be focused and driven to achieve targets

• To maintain a positive mindset to overcome challenges and barriers to selling

• To be able to naturally respond to competition effectively and manage own expectations

• To be able to manage rejection of a sale so that you can move on without letting it effect you and your performance

Call Handling

• To achieve call handling quality targets by delivering the best service you can give

• To be focused on the customer demand as if they were in front of you by responding to busy periods quickly and effectively

• To be adaptable to change in shifts to accommodate business needs

• To put the customer at the heart of everything you do

Team Work

• Respect all team colleagues and provide a comfortable and friendly working environment

• To be willing to help and support your colleagues at all times

• Be strong in supporting and encouraging others to achieve their goals

• To be flexible to change to meet business needs and demands of the customer

Essential Experience, Educational and/or Training Qualifications & Certificates

• Experience in the contact centre environment preferable but not essential

• Experience in communicating with staff from different cultures and/or countries

• Strong selling skills

• High achiever

• Excellent communication skills

• Understanding of the travel/airline industry

Preferred Experience and Knowledge (type of experience)

• MS Excel/Word/Outlook & PowerPoint

• Experience in the Travel industry

• Experience in using travel systems

Necessary Technical/Functional Skills

• PC skills: Demonstrates familiarity and ease with use of PC equipment and software

• Communication skills –verbal and written-: Communicates effectively with customers and colleagues over the phone and in written transactions

• Language skills: English essential

Location: Glasgow

Shift Pattern:You will be required to work within our shift pattern which are varied on a rotation between 08:30 – 21:00 Monday to Thursday, 08:30 – 20:00 Friday, 09:00 – 18:00 Saturday and bank holidays and 10:00 – 17:00 Sundays.

To apply: Please email your CV and covering letter to: careersuk@transat.com

Operations Executive

The Role:

As an Operations Executive you will be central to the smooth running of the department and be expected to provide a broad range of support activities. If you thrive under pressure and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment we are the company and department for you.

Key responsibilities

• Management of tasks/system queues

•Assist in schedule change management from initial notification through to customer advisory

•Resolve in-house booking queries

•Maintaining operational databases

•Liaising with suppliers in Canada and UK

Post-sale:

•Assist Ticketing Team with checking bookings and issuing documentation

•Resolve in-resort issues when applicable

Other:

•Advising teams internally of flight delays

•Providing support to other business functions as required

•Resolve in-house booking queries

•Any reasonable support tasks required by the company

•Resolving any problems or queries

Skills/Experience/Requirements:

• At least one year’s previous Operations or Administrative experience would be beneficial

• General working knowledge of Galileo/Amadeus

• A strong work ethic and willingness to go “above and beyond”

• Ability to work with a team and cooperate with others to achieve team objectives

• Cool, calm and collected temperament

• Attention to detail is important

• Excellent communication skills at all levels

• Exceptional customer service skills as some passenger contact will be required

• Demonstrable time management skills and ability to prioritise workloads, juggling many tasks at once

• Highly process driven

• Good numeracy and literacy skills

• Grasp new concepts and ideas quickly

• Problem solving

• Ability to multi-task and work under pressure

• IT literate. In particular a good knowledge of Excel

Location: London

Working hours: Shift work will be required – Shift times 0900-1730 or 1230-2100. Two weekend days work will also be required on a rotational basis.

We offer a competitive salary with excellent benefits and a rewarding working environment. Full training will be provided.

To apply: Please email your CV and covering letter to: careersuk@transat.com

Social Media Executive

The Role:

Reporting into the Head of Marketing, as the Social Media Executive you will be responsible for developing, implementing, tracking and optimising our Social Media Channel strategy.

As our Social Media Executive, you will help to grow and develop the brand’s social media personality and strategy. The ideal candidate will come with proven experience managing the social media accounts for a travel brand, a keen interest in Canada and new cultures, and a focused understanding of how to leverage each social media channel’s psychology and algorithms to make online content visible, clickable, compelling and shareable. Driving both brand awareness, increasing reach with relevant audiences and augmenting qualified actions from this activity.

Responsibilities

Define a brand-appropriate social media strategy with the Head of Marketing and Marketing team to retain and increase engagement, visibility, referral traffic and followings. Including the development and planning of the Content Calendar to socials support multichannel promotions and initiatives.

• Monitor each social media channel’s unique psychology and algorithms in order to ensure Canadian Affair’s social strategy continually evolves.

• Ensure all staff members have relevant social media understanding and appreciated.

• Create brand presence across untapped or emerging social platforms where appropriate.

• Execution of all social posts across all platforms, and use deep data analysis to devise a content strategy that will generate the highest engagement, and in conjunction with all Marketing activity.

• Be intrinsically aware of current and future trends in social and how they apply to Canadian Affair.

• Obsess over tech blogs, data, analytics and changing algorithms, to develop an effective content strategy around statistics and goals, while staying true to the brand values and tone.

• Use and create the appropriate visual and editorial content to drive maximum engagement to each post across each platform – without compromising the integrity of the brand.

• Oversee social coverage and conversation around live events appropriate to the brand.

• Acting as a community coordinator in conjunction with and/or in the absence of customer support and to analyse conversations and notify the appropriate department.

• Support with the development of PR initiatives and ideas, to leverage brand and destination awareness in line with the brand and business goals.

• Produce monthly competitor, campaign and overall social media reports.

• To coordinate and implement social projects as necessary.

In addition, you are required to perform any other duties at the appropriate level of responsibility, whether specifically contained in this description or not, which is consistent with your employment and is reasonable in all the circumstances having regard to your experience, abilities and aptitudes, and all other relevant matters.

The Candidate:

• You have a keen interest in premium travel, culture and lifestyle content, plus an awareness of viral news.

• You are immersed in and passionate about the world of social media, and have proven experience of driving strong social engagement and referral traffic.

• You understand the psychology of each social platform: who it's aimed at, who are the super-users, what are the quirks and how to manipulate them to the business’ advantage.

• You have an understanding and ability to make something go viral.

• You have a firm understanding of the appropriate visuals, key words and sentiment required to drive engagement in all forms across each platform.

• Experience in quickly responding to buzzing topics, both positive and negative.

• You are on the pulse of Facebook/Instagram's changing algorithm and aware of newly emerging social platforms.

• You are a confident self-starter who’s not afraid to experiment.

• Customer focused with a passion for delivering a great online experience.

• An inquisitive mind who is motivated to work both individually and as part of a team. A hands-on problem solver.

• Natural planner, looking ahead with a passionate, proactive and can-do approach.

• Meticulous, attention to detail.

• Excellent time management and ability to multi-task.

• Knowledge of Canada/travel to Canada: advantageous.

Location: London

Working hours: You will be required to work Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:30

To apply: Please email your CV and covering letter to: careersuk@transat.com