Title:  Senior Travel Centre Specialist

Senior Travel Centre Specialist, Passenger

Position Description

• Play a critical, hands-on role delivering results for Great Journey’s New Zealand
• Role model best practice
• Permanent, Christchurch based

He kōrero mō mātou | About us:

At KiwiRail, we connect New Zealanders sustainably, powering economic growth and ensuring vital freight and passenger services run smoothly. Our mission, "Stronger Connections, Better New Zealand," highlights our dedication to sustainability and community well-being. 

Our people make KiwiRail exceptional. By fostering a diverse, inclusive, and supportive workplace, we empower everyone to contribute their best. If you’re passionate about innovation and safety, we’d love to welcome you aboard. 

He whakamārama mo te tūranga mahi | About the role:

The Travel Centre team plays a key role in driving Great Journeys revenue growth, increasing the conversion of our unique rail tours, events and packages business by effectively managing global customer enquiries and turning sales opportunities into confirmed bookings through a structured sales funnel and pipeline.

The Senior Travel Centre Specialist is a hands-on, results driven role responsible for leading the team to improve the conversion of B2C and B2B tours, events and packages enquiries, supporting consistent follow-up and helping customers move successfully through the sales process.

The role will assist the team and manage a broad range of customer enquiries, bookings, amendments and refunds, with a strong focus on growth by understanding customer needs, providing accurate and timely information, and increasing the proportion of enquiries that result in converted bookings. This includes consistent outbound following up to pursue open enquiries, quotes and incomplete bookings, identifying barriers to conversion and helping customers confidently complete their travel arrangements.

As a senior specialist, the role will support the Travel Centre Manager by providing day-to-day performance insights, sharing product and systems knowledge, coaching colleagues and helping lift booking, customer service and conversion capability across the team. The role does not have formal people management responsibilities but is expected to role-model sales pipeline best practice through enquiry management, customer follow-up and conversion.

The role will also support the development of clearer performance reporting, including enquiry volumes, conversion rates, outbound activity and overall booking performance. It will use these insights to identify and make recommendations to improve customer processes, team practices and overall Travel Centre performance.

The role will remain closely involved in booking administration and customer servicing. It will help streamline booking processes, system improvements and the use of CRM, and support the transition from a largely end-to-end Travel Centre model to a more integrated inside sales all-of-Passenger approach that enables enquiries and bookings to be managed efficiently across the wider Passenger business.

As a Travel Centre subject matter expert, the role will also provide customer, product and process insights to the wider passenger team as required. This would most frequently involve the Tour Operations and Marketing teams. 

The role will support our Customer Contact Centre and station activity when required, including check-in, customer disruptions which could include work outside of normal office hours.

Key accountabilities include:

• Customer enquiry management and conversion
• Booking and operational excellence
• Commercial performance and insights
• Process and systems improvement
• Capability and team support

Ngā pukenga e rapu nei mātou | What (skills) you will bring:

Knowledge and experience

• You bring 5+ years’ experience in a performance-driven customer service, tourism, travel sales or contact centre environment where enquiry conversion, sales activity, customer satisfaction and accuracy are actively measured.
• You have proven ability to convert inbound enquiries and open quotes into confirmed sales revenue through structured follow-up, strong product knowledge, confident questioning and clear customer recommendations.
• You are commercially aware and understand how individual activity, response times, quote quality, booking value, conversion rates and customer experience contribute to overall performance.
• You are confident using booking systems, POS platforms, CRM or pipeline tools, to manage enquiries accurately and efficiently.
• You understand payment processing, reconciliations, refunds and transaction accuracy, and can balance customer service with sound financial control.
• You are familiar with the needs of both B2B and B2C customers and can tailor your approach for direct customers, trade partners and complex travel requirements.
• You can interpret sales and service reporting, identify gaps in performance or process, and recommend practical actions that improve conversion, efficiency and customer outcomes.

Ways of working / Work-related qualities

• You are proactive, sales-focused and motivated by clear targets, performance measures and continuous improvement.
• You work well under pressure, manage competing priorities and maintain pace, accuracy and professionalism during peak enquiry periods or operational disruption.
• You have the confidence to identify better practice and help embed more disciplined sales, follow-up and customer-management routines.
• You communicate clearly and persuasively in person, by phone and through written digital channels, adapting your style for customers, colleagues and stakeholders.
• You are customer-focused and commercially balanced,
• You are confident working independently and as part of a team, and can role-model best practice for colleagues
• You are resilient, practical and solution-oriented, with the discipline to follow through on open enquiries, incomplete bookings, customer feedback and agreed performance actions.
• You bring curiosity, initiative and a willingness to learn from external best practice, using data, customer insight and frontline experience

Other Requirements

• You can pass regular drug and alcohol screenings
• You have a current and valid NZ Driver's Licence

Qualifications

• A certificate or diploma in travel, tourism, or hospitality
  or
• Equivalent work experience in a customer-facing role in the travel industry

Kua rite, kia rite | Ready to Make a Difference?

Rā aukati | Applications Close:  20 September 2026