Internet Support Advisor -starting salary £13,715 - after 6 months of successful probation period they will receive another £1097 - and after their 4 week training period they will be required to take a language test and will receive another £1000.potential salary after 6 months £15,812 plus a bonus based on performance

Job Title: Internet Support Advisor

Department: Internet Support – Pan European Services

Reporting to: Internet Support Team Manager


JOB DESCRIPTION

Purpose of the Job

As part of a Pan European, multi disciplined environment, to provide a high level of service excellence in delivering technical support, sales and customer service to Eurostar’s on line customers, meeting and exceeding targets as outlined in the Internal Service Level Agreement.

Principal Accountabilities

* To respond to customer telephone and email contact in English, French and/or Flemish, providing responses to technical, sales and general enquiries, maintaining a full understanding of the customer experience through advanced navigation of the site, identifying solutions and directing customers on line.
* Supporting the sale of the E.Com and Eurostar Planet product, which includes the purchase of train only and E-Packages, incorporating hotels, car hire and entry tickets to major attractions.
* Respond to pre-travel amendments to standalone and package bookings and handle in-resort problems and complaints liaising with external suppliers to provide a prompt resolution for the customer while protecting external supplier/client contracts.
* Capture customer feedback and communicate information through line managers to the E-Commerce development team, maintaining an in-depth knowledge of the on-line product and reducing direct contact by enhancing site information and functionality.
* To maintain a high level of product knowledge in a changing and diverse environment, working to identify problems, provide solutions and communicating with the team to ensure proactive and informed responses at all times.
* To follow company and departmental procedures, demonstrating flexibility in responding to fluctuating workflows, whilst maintaining a positive attitude at all times.

Knowledge

The post-holder should possess excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills with the drive to maintain a high level of achievement in a highly competitive technical and service related environment. They should demonstrate an understanding of E-commerce functionality and web site navigation and be able to recognise opportunities for further development. They should possess a flexible and professional approach and be able to work on their own initiative to meet new challenges in an evolving workplace.

It is essential that the post holder possess at least 1 year working in a target driven sales or service environment. Conversational and written English and French or Flemish is highly desirable as is familiarity of systems technology.

Dimensions

This role requires an enthusiastic, intelligent and outgoing person with excellent interpersonal, communication and organisational skills with the ability to be flexible whilst working under pressure.

The Contact Centre is open from 8am - 9pm Monday to Friday, 8am - 8pm Saturday and 9am - 5pm Sundays and Bank Holidays. The post-holder will be required to working a shift pattern covering the full opening hours. They will also need to be flexible to the demands of the business. In these circumstances the post-holder may be required to work outside of, and in addition to, these hours.

Any other information

Medical type:

Shift pattern: As above

Full time employees will be required to work shifts to cover the opening hours - Monday to Friday 08.00 to 20.00 Saturday and Sunday 09.00 to 17.00

Part time employees will be required to work evenings and weekends the can work a minimum of 12 hours and maximum of 32.

All new employees will be required to attend a 4 week induction (Monday to Friday 09.00 to 17.00).

Training

When you join us you can expect to spend your first few weeks gaining all the skills you’ll need to help you talk to our travellers.

The initial training period will include a couple of days on the company induction course ‘Introducing Eurostar’ as well as a trip on the train to help you familiarise with our product and destinations.

Once you’ve had a chance to put your skills to good use, you can expect an ongoing commitment to your personal and career development. Eurostar have developed a number of courses under the ‘personal excellence’ banner to help you gain skills that you can use day to day and are not just about making you a better sales person!

Eurostar’s preference is to appoint managers using its own internal recruitment policy and promotion from within the business is very common.

At the Contact Centre, there are many opportunities to enhance your knowledge of the business by moving around the various departments whilst still working as a Sales Advisor.

At all times we aim to provide you with a clear career path and an idea of what you can expect to progress to.

Environment

This is a fantastic place to work – ask anyone! Many of our staff have already completed 10 years, service at the Contact Centre.

We’ve seen couples meet & marry here, we have every combination of mothers, daughters, fathers and sons working together here and we have seen many of our colleagues have children and we’ve got to know them as well. On busy days we’ve even tried giving them a headset and putting them to work.

Why? Because, without doubt, this is one of the warmest and friendliest places that most of us have ever been in.

Whilst we are not the most modern of offices, we will be. A major refurbishment plan is scheduled for completion by Summer 2006. We’ve all had our say and all of our ideas have been put into the mix. The initial plans look great and, apart from the obvious disruption, it’s going to be a very exciting time for us.

Fun Stuff.

We are so committed to injecting some fun and frivolity into our working lives that we’ve recently appointed Fun Gurus.

These colleagues have put themselves forward to take charge of organising events, fun days, theme days and outings for the benefit of the staff and their families.

The whole Contact Centre has also participated in Red Nose Day for the past two years. Our techie guys set us up as part of Comic Relief’s virtual call centre and we drag as many friends and family members into work for nothing for one incredible night.

This is an event that has to be seen to be believed. This year we surpassed our own fund-raising efforts and had every team contributing to an event that ran throughout the day as well.


We put huge amounts of effort and time into organising events that everyone can come to. A team of colleagues love to organise a themed Christmas party every year and, when budget permits, we have incentives that allow all staff to participate. Our last all-inclusive event was a private screening of the Harry Potter movie.

Travel Benefits

We are all about travel and the experience of being a Eurostar traveller, so you’d expect to get some travel perks when you work for us.

Here’s what you get:
Stay here for 1 month and you qualify for 75% discount on London Underground travel for you and your spouse and dependent children to use for leisure travel. The same pass also gives you a discount on Eurostar fares once you’ve used your free allowance up.

Stay for 1 year and you qualify for 75% discount on national rail fares for yourself, spouse and dependent children for leisure travel. You can also apply for discounted International Rail Travel.

To help you experience what we’re all about, you will get up to 3 free Eurostar vouchers per year, depending on your start date, for yourself, a companion and dependent children.

Stay 5 years and one of those vouchers is upgraded to 1st class, stay 10 years and you get 2 vouchers upgraded.

We want you to spread the word, so we also provide unlimited ‘PALS’ vouchers for you to give to friends and family to give them discounted Eurostar travel.

Apply for a Virgin Tribe card when you’ve been here 6 months and you can take advantage of a whole range of discounts on Virgin products – from air fares to hair care to hot air (balloons that is). (Some discounts only apply after 1 years service).

Finally, our partner Octopus Travel offer discounts to staff on hotel accommodation all across the world.

Some of the Other Perks

We’re sure you’ve read every line of your contract, terms and conditions and local synopsis but just in case you didn’t, here are some of the other things that are part of our package:

25 days holiday plus 8 Bank Holidays off per year. This goes up to 27 days when you’ve been here for 5 years and rises again to 29 days when you’ve done 10 years. Work a Bank Holiday and we’ll add a day to your Annual Leave.

Our salaries are index linked. This means that when the cost of living goes up, so does your salary. This is usually applied from November 1st each year. It also means that we can offer a competitive starting salary to all staff as the salary scale moves with the cost of living rise.

From time to time we launch incentive schemes for all or parts of the Contact Centre and the rewards are linked to performance, based on key performance indicators briefed to all staff.

Parking spaces at Kent House are very hard to come by, but everyone goes on the waiting list when they start working here. To make up for it, we can offer free car parking at Ashford International Terminal and that’s whether you’re coming to work or travelling from the station.

For staff working a late shift, we can offer free parking at Kent House after 4pm on weekdays and at weekends.

We offer a fantastic final salary pension scheme and benefit from some great offers from our partners. Watch out for the Disney hotel offers. We also receive discounts on theatre tickets from time to time.

A free eye test is available every 2 years and for staff with deteriorating eyesight attributed to use of the VDU, the company also contributes to the cost of glasses.

Local businesses offer discounts for staff of companies who are members of the Ashford Town Partnership and details of these offers are usually displayed at the Contact Centre.

We realises that work is not the only thing you’ve got going on in your life. To help you fit it all in, we try to be as accommodating as we can, offering flexible contracts and working patterns to staff with other commitments,to try and help you maintain a healthy work/life balance.