Director, Trade Reservations & Guest Services

Job Description:

Job Summary

As Director of Trade Reservations, you will be second in charge of overseeing the entire trade call center operation and ancillary services for the USA with the potential scope of overseeing Global trade call centers. We are looking for someone to lead and manage the reservations team, ensuring seamless operations, exceptional customer service, and strategic growth in trade reservations.

This role is pivotal in developing and maintaining relationships with travel trade partners, optimizing reservation processes, and driving sales performance to provide the necessary level of service and staffing to properly deliver the level of luxury and experience that our guest and travel partners expect from Crystal Cruises.

Essential Job Duties

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing reservations team.
• Creating and developing a leading team of reservation agents to achieve sales targets and service travel agent bookings.
• Develop, vet, and distribute processes, procedures, talk tracks, conversion tools, KPIs and metrics related to contact center performances, and ensure all service components are managed and met.
• Support and manage sales activities in accordance with board provided targets and expectations.
• Set performance goals and conduct regular reviews.
• Responsible for recruiting, hiring and training including but not limited to reservation consultants, resolutions desk, reservations admin, , and other support related roles.
• Works closely with Heads of Trade Sales and Consumer Sales to ensure cross functional collaboration is maintained a key importance within our organization for excellence.
• Work closely with the IT team to ensure necessary technology applications and services are in place to be successful.
• Collaborate with the sales team to support strategic agency relationships.
• Analyze booking trends, conversion rates, cancellation patterns, and market performance to identify opportunities for increased sales effectiveness.
•  Monitor reservation workflows, call queues, service levels, booking accuracy, and processing times to ensure optimal operational performance.
•   Develop and implement operational procedures that increase efficiency, reduce errors, and improve the advisor booking experience.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Functions, duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Competency

Education: bachelor’s degree required or equivalent experience.

Experience:

• 5+ years of leadership experience managing and developing high-performing cruise reservations or contact center teams, with a demonstrated track record of coaching entry-level reservation consultants, driving employee engagement, and overseeing workforce planning, performance management, quality assurance, training, and succession planning initiatives.

• Proven success leading contact center teams, including the development of service standards, operational procedures, performance metrics, and accountability frameworks that enhance the travel advisor and guest experience while driving booking conversion, revenue growth, and operational efficiency.

• Advanced experience utilizing contact center metrics and reporting, including service levels, abandonment rates, average handle time, occupancy, schedule adherence, booking conversion, quality scores, first-contact resolution, and customer satisfaction measures.

Skills/Qualifications:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs.

• Must be highly detailed-oriented with strong organizational and follow-up skills.
• Strong leadership presence with proven ability to recruit, develop, motivate, and retain high-performing teams in a fast-paced contact center environment.
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret complex data sets, identify business trends, and make data-driven recommendations.
• Strong understanding of contact center best practices, workforce planning methodologies, quality assurance programs, and customer experience management

Work Environment

Works in a typical office environment with quiet-to-moderate noise generated by computers, printers, and light traffic. Travel may be required.  

Physical Demands

Requires sitting, standing, walking, bending, and reaching.  May require lifting or pushing up to 25 pounds.  Requires manual dexterity sufficient to operate standard office machines such as computers, calculators, telephone, and other office equipment. 

Expected Hours of Work

The position is full-time and frequently requires working additional time outside of normal business hours.

EEO Statement

Abercrombie & Kent is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.