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 most dynamic and hard working teams, then read on.

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 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.

Current vacancies

• • Sales Consultant
• • Contact Centre Manager
• • Product Executive
• • Part-time Customer Service Executive

Sales Consultant

Our offer to you:

Realistic earnings potential of £37.5K+ (uncapped commission), in addition to excellent pension scheme, private health insurance, a superb staff travel programme (starting with up-to 2 confirmed flight tickets after 1 year of service; unlimited stand-by flight tickets after 6 months service; heavy discounting on hotels, tours, cruises, all-inclusive packages etc) and much more. Homeworking an option.

The Role:

• • We are looking for experienced full-time passionate sellers with excellent knowledge of Canada.
• • 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 their targets in a challenging travel industry.
• • They will be experienced in handling customer requirements whilst still able to stay motivated to sell.
• • You need to be organised and able to manage your own diary day to day, always putting your customer first.
• • Able to learn quickly, use initiative and respond well to feedback.

Key responsibilities:

• • 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 be able to build rapport on every call and see every call as an opportunity for you and your customer;
• • 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 mind-set to overcome challenges and barriers to selling;
• • To fulfil admin duties aligned to the sales role.

Skills ⁄ Experience ⁄ Requirements:

• • Strong selling skills
• • High achiever
• • Strong customer service
• • Strong influencing skills with the ability to persuade the customer to buy
• • Pro-active and able to manage own workload effectively
• • Able to communicate confidently and enthusiastically (both verbally and in writing)
• • Agile and open to change at short notice
• • Able to work well under pressure
• • Attention to detail
• • Strong numeracy
• • Strong IT ⁄ Systems skills and experience, and experience of travel and GDS booking systems (preferably Galileo)
• • Able to multitask
• • Experienced seller of holidays
• • Passionate about Canada
• • Experience in the contact centre environment required
• • Excellent organisational skills
• • An ability to cope with potentially conflicting demands

Shift pattern, 37.5 hr working week. Mon – Fri, shift patterns 09:00 - 17:30hrs or 10:00 – 18:30hrs; Sat – 10:00-16:00hrs (every 3rd Saturday).

To apply: Please email your CV to: careers@canadianaffair.com

Contact Centre Manager

Objective / Purpose of the Job

The Contact Centre Manger will be responsible for the day-to-day supervision of the contact centre agents and Team Leaders. They will have a hands-on approach and support with Team Leaders duties as well as tracking the job performance, training, development and attendance. They will also manage simple employee issues, such as initiating onboarding or offboarding process and approving time off work. The Company operate a Hybrid policy, affording employees the choice to work remotely, accordingly, the individual must be both confident and competent in Managing a dispersed workforce. They will oversee the recruitment of new employees and develop and implement training programmes for new and existing contact centre agents while instilling the business values:

Respect: We work as a team, with openness to the ideas and expectations of our colleagues, our customers and our partners.

Rigour: We are professionals on a constant quest for excellence, tackling challenges methodically, efficiently and with integrity.

Responsibility: We go beyond our obligations to our customers, our colleagues, society and the environment.

Key Accountabilities and Activities

Coaching & Development of the team

• • To conduct weekly reviews with each Team member (sales agent and team leader) to understand their workload and focus for the week to come
• • To support and develop the Team to be the best they can be by being a positive and supportive role model
• • Identify any areas for improvement or development and plan in necessary actions to support the Team
• • Work with QA to review call evaluations while also delivering and supporting call feedback sessions each month

People management

• • Align every employee to the overall Business Goals by setting clear individual objectives and monitoring performance throughout the year via the company’s quarterly review programme
• • Utilise insight elicited via the company’s employee engagement platform, being positive and open to the feedback for your own self development and the continuous improvement of the department
• • To keep communication open and supportive being mindful of individual needs and styles
• • Ensure you follow up on any concerns around adherence to shift or attendance within the team
• • Ensure you are always aware of the overall sales team performance and discuss areas with team Coaches that require improvement
• • Ensure you and your team are always respectful of colleagues and customers and support the business focus and targets
• • Any areas of concern highlighted to you by the team or team leaders is taken up by you in the relevant format
• • Conduct a monthly 1-2-1 review with each team member to discuss their performance and their contribution
• • Conduct fortnightly meetings with the team leaders to discuss business focus and target performance and any areas requiring further focus
• • Work with the team leaders to create an inspirational environment using incentives and team activities to keep morale high

Responsibility & Customer satisfaction

• • To be on hand to support the team leaders with any customer escalation they are unable to manage and be prepared to take over
• • Use feedback from customers to feed into the team to plan development for the team to prevent further instances of customer dissatisfaction
• • Be willing and able to ‘step in’ the case of an emergency when there is requirement for shift cover by a responsible person
• • Remain actively aware of the business sales performance and areas of sales that require improvement and initiate plans to improve sale performance via upsell

Resource Management

• • Track, analyse and report centre and agent performance
• • Manage the rota and annual leave ensuring the contact centre is fully staffed
• • Manage approval/denial of annual leave, trainings, meetings using forecasted resource requirements
• • Generate reports for previous and current week’s performance
• • Identify resourcing needs weekly and monthly using historical data and make recommendations for recruitment where needed
• • Monitor real time adherence and SL and highlight adherence issues

Knowledge, expertise and qualifications

• • Minimum of 4+ years in a similar role
• • Demonstrable success in managing and developing a dispersed workforce
• • Experience of recruiting, developing and retaining remote workers
• • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• • Excellent organisational skills
• • Strong numeracy, analytical skills and high computer literacy, with ability to learn new systems quickly

To apply: Please email your CV to: careers@canadianaffair.com

Product Executive

Job Description

We are looking for an accomplished Product Executive to join our expanding brands for Canada & United States. We are looking to recruit a Product Executive to join our team at an exciting time as we build on our market leading Canadian Affair brand and develop our USA brand, American Affair. If you have experience in a product role in the US and Canada join our team as we fast-track the growth of our US brand and build on our successful Canada product.

You must be willing to work independently in a fast paced & forward-thinking environment. The position requires work to be completed to deadlines & awareness of the part the Product departments responsibility in getting our flight & holiday products to market.

Scope of work

The role requires US and Canada expertise for airline and ground product providing product & price analysis, ad-hoc product pricing, supplier contract loading & auditing, selling system & web content management & maintaining relationships with internal departments & suppliers.

Responsibilities

• • Providing scheduled and leisure airline pricing, product & ticketing information for booking requests.
• • Updating all product information on our in-house system ensuring prices and inventory are loaded in a timely fashion.
• • Analyse competitor’s products & pricing to ensure we offer the best product & price proposition.
• • Help develop new products and review/change/update existing products.
• • Ensure all products are correctly displayed and bookable on line. Updating product information for the website on our inhouse content management system.
• • Manage day to day queries and general communication with suppliers & internal customers.
• • Help plan & execute strategies to maximise sales and margin across the product range.
• • Provide the product content and pricing for marketing material and tactical marketing campaigns.
• • Communicate all product offers to the marketing and sales team.
• • Communicate product changes and any product issues during the season to the rest of the business.
• • Develop sales tactics with the marketing team.
• • Co-ordinate product training for sales staff including familiarisation trips.
• • Work closely with the Finance team to ensure proper set up of all payment terms for suppliers.
• • Assist the Customer Service team on any land product customer issues, liaising with suppliers.

Key Skills

• • Excellent written and oral communications skills.
• • Strong team player.
• • Superb decision maker.
• • Ability to develop & maintain strong relationships and work with all internal departments and external suppliers.
• • Strong problem solving and analytical thinking skills.
• • Ability to work effectively under pressure, react quickly and meet tight deadlines.
• • Advance level of Microsoft Excel & Word.

Your normal hours of work are 09:00 to 17:30 Monday to Friday.

To apply: Please email your CV to: careers@canadianaffair.com

Part-time Customer Service Executive (3 days per week)

Department: Customer Service

Location: Home working

Position Description:

Within this role you will play an instrumental part in resolving pre and post travel concerns of our clients to a satisfactory, timely resolution via several channels. Assisting Sales Support department when required to action non-operational products or changes.

Major areas of responsibility:

• Handling customer enquiries via e-mail and ensuring all calls are logged

• Responding to complaints via telephone, e-mail, and letter

• Responding to complaints/enquiries via social media & Trustpilot

• Completing admin and updating records

• Communicating with other departments, admin, finance, sales etc.

• Reporting trends and common complaints to prevent repetition

• To help customers resolve issues and protect the brands

• Work in line with company standards terms and conditions and ABTA code of conduct and ATOL license

• Handling schedule changes & product changes in a timely manner to meet clients’ requirements

• To maintain a positive mind-set in difficult cases to ensure customer satisfaction

• Enhance customer experiences of our company

Person Specification:

• Exceptional customer service skills

• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills

• Professional, highly organized with strong attention to detail

• Pragmatic approach to problem solving

• Ability to priorities and manage workload

• Experience in corporate Social Media responses – not compulsory

• Ability to work under pressure and independently when required

• Positive attitude and empathetic approach to cases

To apply: Please email your CV to: careers@canadianaffair.com