Customer Service Host

Ambassador Theatre Group; Oxford; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 24,000; Full time

Job summary

Ambassador Theatre Group is seeking a proactive Customer Service Host at New Theatre Oxford. You will be the main point of contact for Box Office queries, promote packages and experiences, and collaborate with Customer Experience and Security teams to maintain high service standards.

The role emphasises on-the-night sales, theatre knowledge, and delivering a premium customer experience while supporting other venue departments as needed. Flexibility for evenings and weekends is required.

Qualifications

• Excellent customer-facing communication and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong up-selling and cross-selling capabilities to maximise sales.
• Proactive in providing information about packages, offers and accessibility services.

Responsibilities

• Resolve customer issues and act as primary point of contact.
• Provide information on packages, events, travel and hotel bookings when requested.
• Coordinate with other theatre teams to ensure seamless customer experience.
• Assist with on-night ticketing operations, graduations, and VIP/Lounge guests as required.
• Handle GDPR, health & safety, and IT policy compliance in daily work.
• Liaise with Producers, Venue Management, Marketing and Revenue teams as needed.

Skills

Customer service

Sales skills

Communication

Teamwork

Flexibility

Job description

Customer Service Host

Do you have a flair for sales and are enthusiastic about delivering outstanding experiences to customers with excellent service?

We're looking for confident, energetic and sales-driven individuals to join us as Customer Service Hosts at New Theatre Oxford.

The Customer Service Host delivers an enhanced level of customer service during Box Office Counter opening times. They provide information about the production, the theatre, and the local vicinity while optimising sales and acting as the sole point of contact for Ticketing queries. You will also work alongside our Customer Experience and Security Teams, collaborating on greeting, ticket scanning and customer safety. Some of your tasks may overlap with theirs and we always work together to ensure the customers experience is the best it can be.

The Customer Service Host has to have a keen focus on optimising the opportunity of on-the-night sales, and by liaising with the Customer Experience department, offer support for packages or experiential bookings that have been made in advance. The Customer Service Host is responsible for the Ticketing operations for the performance, proactively handling enquiries and problem solving with a high level of efficiency and accuracy and processing an anticipated decreasing number of on-the-night, in-person ticket sales. It is also essential they have excellent knowledge of any corporate partnerships the theatre has cultivated with local businesses and they are able to confidently offer recommendations.

We are looking for people who will have a collaborative approach to their work, ensuring smooth communication with all theatre departments, visiting companies and producers and are an exemplary representative of the theatre by being pleasant and collaborative in their approach to their day to day work, liaising and communicating effectively with anybody and everybody that they come across.

Please note, this role may require you to work with children and vulnerable people.

Key Responsibilities

Customer

This list of duties is provided as an example of the services we will offer to patrons who request a more bespoke experience, where time constraints allow and only in addition to the primary ticketing roles being fulfilled.

• Be responsible for resolving customer issues, and initiating corrective action, acting as the responsible person and primary point of contact for customers. Keep up to date records of incidents and progress for fellow colleagues.
• Provide customers with information on packages, offers or activities to enhance their visit, such as restaurant recommendations, travel arrangements or hotel bookings, and make bookings on their behalf if requested.
• As dictated by your manager, at the beginning of relevant shifts to compile a list of any customers attending that performance who may be booked in as Members, Lounge guests, corporate guests, group bookings or other, and contacting them ahead of their arrival that they may be offered a personal welcome and an extra level of assistance for their visit.
• During times when the Customer Service Host service is not required or in low demand, take on Front of House responsibilities as directed/requested by the Customer Experience Duty Manager at the time.
• Provide support for any Access patrons that may be attending on the night. Stay up to date with ATG Entertainment’s Access membership scheme and requirements of access performances.
• Brief the relevant Customer Experience staff regarding any interval or post-show arrangements that have been made for customers, ensuring the premium customer experience continues through to the end of the performance.

Sales

• To sell and cross-sell to customers tickets, memberships & retail products in accordance with ATG Entertainment Company and Venue guidelines and to administer all payments accurately to maximise sales and minimise loss.
• Facilitate on-the-night upgrades across tickets, packages and other offers as directed by the Ticketing and Sales Manager, ensuring that regular reporting is maintained.
• Ensure all marketing collateral in the Box Office areas is up to date and relevant to achieving sales targets.
• Support the implementation of new technologies by central Ticketing and IT teams as directed by the Ticketing and Sales Manager or their Deputy.

Processes

• To complete the relevant end of day banking procedures, including recording daily Box Office takings, and dealing with discrepancies as required.
• Communicate on the night as needed with Producers, their agents, Venue Management, Marketing, Customers, central Ticketing & Revenue Management teams, as well as support the work of other venue departments as required.
• Provide holiday and sickness cover for Ticketing department as required.
• Support the Ticketing department as required for marquee nights, opening nights or any other high-profile event at which the full team may be required.
• Liaise with the Contact Centre and Groups Contact Centre in resolving on the night customer and ticket queries.
• Generate reports as needed at request by your manager and touring company manager/producers.

Policy/ Law

• Comply with all legal requirements of GDPR.
• Adhere to Health & Safety procedures to minimise the risk of injury and accidents.
• Adhere to ATG Entertainment IT policy.
• Understand access issues and anti-discrimination legislation and implement correct practices when serving access patrons.

Your skills, qualities, and experience.

If you have most of the essential criteria, and welcome transferable skills from other industries or backgrounds. We can give experience of any desirable criteria but may also use them to decide between candidates for this role.

The candidate must have the ability to work collaboratively across both the entire theatre staff and anyone else they may come into contact with to ensure that the customer experience is smooth and professionally handled at all times.

Ideally the candidate will have experience working in a customer facing role.

Essential:

• Very strong computer literacy with experience in using various Microsoft Office software, primary Excel & Teams.
• Be a motivated individual and work collaboratively with other members of your department and Customer Experience colleagues to strive for commercial success, always looking for opportunities to improve.
• Communicate effectively and respectfully with all customers and colleagues in a way that is appropriate.
• Anticipate any issues customers may face, be proactive to resolve them, and think of solutions rather than problems.
• Flexibility in approach to working with other departments as needed.
• Have a calm, polite and solution driven approach.
• Have a genuine interest in delivering outstanding customer service.
• Have the ability to identify and suggest the best option available to suit the individual needs of each customer.
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment and delivering excellent service under pressure.
• A positive attitude, strong teamwork skills and a willingness to learn.
• Flexibility to work evenings, weekends and public holidays.

Desirable

• Previous experience of ticketing systems
• Experience working towards individual or team sales targets
• Experience in a theatre, live entertainment, hospitality or events venue

About Us - Our values

ATG Entertainment’s values set the tone for how we work, how we treat one another, and the culture we continue to build across the UK and the wider organisation.

• THRIVE doing what we love (with passion and dynamism)
• CONNECT through every act (with collaboration and kindness)
• DARE to do different (with curiosity and courage)
• PERFORM at our best (with customer focus and ownership)

Our culture

You’ll help us uphold a positive culture around meeting our obligations, by having a positive attitude to health and safety, legal and insurance requirements and take care to understand our policies and procedures.

We are all expected to participate actively in the life of the company, and opportunities will arise for you to collaborate with others across the business. Everyone at ATG Entertainment is expected to be flexible and adapt as the needs of the business change, taking on new or different responsibilities as the need arises.

Our Corporate Social Responsibility pillars

Everyone at ATG Entertainment is expected to play their part in achieving our goals and upholding our Corporate Social Responsibility priorities:

• Inclusion: Committing to creating and upholding a positive, inclusive culture that nurtures potential and supports well-being.
• Sustainability: Playing your part in reducing our environmental impact and finding more sustainable ways of working.
• Next Generations: Encouraging the next generation in live entertainment by contributing to our outreach and training programmes, including mentoring students and trainees, and supporting our Creative Learning and Community Partnerships work.

Our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Mission Statement - A Stage for Everyone

Our stages are a platform for compelling stories – stories that are for all, by all, and of all. We shine our spotlight on our differences and believe that understanding and celebrating these differences makes us better global citizens. We are passionate about the pursuit of true diversity and equality. We strive to make our venues beacons of these ideals in our communities. Onstage and off, we hold ourselves accountable for nurturing an inclusive culture, one in which everyone can bring their authentic selves. At ATG entertainment, we provide a stage for everyone.

We recognise that we do not have all the answers; but we strive to listen, to learn and to change in order to ensure ATG Entertainment becomes a truly inclusive organisation. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from individuals from the widest possible range of backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from those currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We are a Disability Confident Committed Employer, which means that we are taking action to ensure that people with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will offer an interview or recruitment event to disabled candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they best meet the essential criteria for the role. Where we receive more applications than we are reasonably able to interview for any given role, we will retain applications for the next available interview opportunity wherever possible.