Manager, Travel Services

Navan; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Navan in Dallas seeks a Travel Service Manager to lead a team of Travel and Lead Travel consultants, ensuring best-in-class service while driving efficiency and inclusion. You will coach staff, monitor interactions, and guide performance improvements across travel bookings and customer support operations.

You will partner with cross-functional teams, manage escalations, and implement processes to enhance service delivery.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in travel industry knowledge.
• 5+ years progressive leadership experience in a TMC/travel industry contact center.
• 3 years travel industry experience at managerial level.
• Advanced knowledge of Sabre/Amadeus GDS and travel operations.
• CRM applications experience (Salesforce, Zendesk, etc).
• Customer-centric mindset with high engagement.
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach a team of travel consultants and leads, with regular reviews and 1:1s.
• Oversee daily responsibilities of travel consultants via email, voice and chat.
• Perform quality evaluations of interactions and bookings to maintain service standards.
• Monitor errors and provide constructive feedback and preventative actions.
• Review team performance metrics and identify opportunities for core competencies.
• Ensure SLA adherence and report weekly/monthly performance.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration to address learning needs and errors.
• Handle escalations and customer communications through resolution.
• Participate in process improvement projects impacting service delivery.
• Share global metrics with Operations & Service Leadership and align teams.

Job description

The Travel Service Manager oversees a team of Travel and Lead Travel consultants and has overall accountability for the success of their teams performance. They have overall responsibility for supporting the goals of Navan whilst retaining a best in-class degree of service focus and a culture of inclusion, trust and team spirit.

We are providing industry-leading service to our customers for them to have an exceptional and seamless travel and expense experience, while achieving unparalleled efficiency levels.

What You’ll Do

• Ensure your team is developing through regular review of interactions, coaching sessions and 1:1 meetings
• Have an in depth understanding of travel consultants daily responsibilities by conducting email, voice and chat interactions
• Perform Quality Evaluations on travel consultant interactions, effectively interrogating travel bookings (in travel tools) and requests to ensure standards of service are consistently excellent
• Monitor and highlight any errors, ensuring you are providing constructive feedback and coaching consultants on preventative actions
• Regularly review consultant and team performance metrics to identify areas of opportunity in critical core competencies and provide feedback
• Monitor contact queues and SLA performance to ensure appropriate adherence and achievement of goals - report on weekly and monthly performance of the operation and, specifically, your team.
• Communicate with clear expectations to ensure agents are self-driven and motivated to meet and exceed the expectations of their role
• Partner with all cross functional teams to address agent errors and learning needs and suggest ways to improve consultant performance.
• Manage any escalations and customer communication and own all customer issues through to completion
• Participate in various projects to help develop, guide, and implement effective processes that will have a successful impact on service delivery and results.
• Work with Operations & Service Leadership to regularly review, update and share global metrics for success and supervise performance of those metrics.
• Ensure their team is globally aligned to organization expectations, quality, performance and behaviors through team meetings.
• Lead consultants through change as an active change agent, encouraging their feedback and ensuring they are clear on how changes impact their roles.
• Support in consultant recruitment and new starter inductions to ensure team consistency.
• Highlight and manage any employee performance concerns, escalating to People Success/Senior Leadership where necessary.
• Monitor and identify processes or procedures impacting team productivity
• Cascade travel industry updates and changes to your team with confidence and knowledge
• Successful completion of all training requirements

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years sound Travel Industry knowledge & experience.
• 5+ years progressive leadership experience in a TMC/ travel industry contact support center environment, ie Agent -> Lead -> Supervisor.
• 3 years travel industry experience at the Manager level (managing team consultants, leads, supervisors etc).
• Advanced level knowledge of Sabre / Amadeus GDS and online/offline Travel operational processes.
• Knowledge of, and familiarity with, CRM applications (e.g. Salesforce, ZenDesk, etc).
• Customer-Centric: The customer is at the forefront of everything we do -- you must live and breathe customer service and promote high customer engagement through all interactions.
• Ability to build relationships and motivate people and teams, creating a knowledge sharing attitude whilst encouraging engagement.
• Proven mentor and motivator with a clear understanding of the travel service requirements, customer base, and challenges facing a fast-growing company.
• Excellent organizational skills & interpersonal skills.
• Excellent, professional written and verbal communication skills, presentation and facilitation skills
• Ability to work independently and effectively as part of a team
• Business analytics - Data driven with the ability to apply and use data analytics to gain deeper, real-time insights into agent performance and trends
• Results driven and proactive with ability to own and execute area of responsibility with excellence
• Technically proficient in all Navan technology and supplier tools
• Demonstrate ability to make effective use of available resources to complete tasks to agreed timelines
• Leading by example at all times
• Solid business acumen
• Flexibility to work non-traditional shifts where required