Fred Olsen Travel was established in 1988 with family values at its heart and knowledgeable staff across the board. As one of the UK’s most established travel companies, Fred. Olsen Travel provides outstanding customer service, choice and value for money through our distinct specialisms, covering land, river and sea to go along with the multiple high street travel agencies dotted around East Anglia and the South Coast. Fred. Olsen Travel is also the UK general sales agents for Star Clippers, Amadeus River Cruises and National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions.
Our mission is to be a world class provider of travel products and services with a reputation for outstanding customer service, unrivaled choice, exceptional quality and value for money.
We continue to go from strength to strength and are now in a position to recruit a highly motivated and dedicated Head of Customer Growth to join the Fred. Holidays team based in our Ipswich Head Office. Fred. Holidays is a tailor-made tour operator with distinct specialist sales areas including, European Land, Rail Journeys, Ocean Cruises and River Cruises. Each product is hand crafted by our specialist sales team adapting the holiday to the customers’ requirements, this includes hotel rating and location, UK departure points, inclusive activities, multi-centre stays and more. The Fred. Holidays tour operation supports both the trade and direct consumer through its ability to tailor-make each and every holiday style.
As Head of Customer Growth, you will lead the Reservations and Customer Services Contact Centres at Fred. Holidays, ensuring a consistently high standard of sales performance and customer service across all customer interactions. You will be responsible for driving departmental productivity and performance, keeping teams engaged, motivated, and focused on maximising revenue while delivering exceptional customer experiences.
This role will oversee the achievement of key business objectives, including sales and conversion targets, income performance, service levels, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and the delivery of both pre- and post-travel support services. In addition, you will play a key role in coaching and developing a high-performing team of skilled customer service and sales professionals, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.
This is an exciting opportunity to take full responsibility for the leadership and day-to-day management of both the Contact Centre and Business Development functions. You will lead and inspire the Contact Centre team, Business Development Managers, and support teams by providing clear direction, ongoing coaching, training, and personal development opportunities to build a culture of high performance and accountability. A key part of the role is driving sales performance and commercial growth, with a strong focus on delivering sales results, improving sales conversion, achieving income targets, and maintaining exceptional service levels and NPS. You will also oversee the delivery of pre- and post-travel services to ensure a seamless customer experience. In addition, you will play a central role in recruitment, onboarding, and performance management, ensuring teams are motivated, engaged, and equipped to excel. The role will further contribute to business success by supporting training initiatives to develop a team of high-performing, highly skilled experts, while representing the department at internal meetings, industry events, and sales functions to provide insights, ideas, and strategic support.
We are keen to hear from candidates with strong, proven sales leadership experience who have successfully led large sales contact centre operations and thrive in a KPI-driven environment. You should bring a track record of delivering results across metrics such as NPS, CSAT, retention, sales conversion, and service performance. Experience does not need to come from the travel industry, we welcome applicants from any sector who can demonstrate commercial acumen, operational excellence, and the ability to motivate teams to consistently achieve high performance.
Located at our Head Office (Fred Olsen House, 42 White House Road, Ipswich, IP1 5LL) this position is Full-Time, working 35 hours per week (Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm)
Fred. Olsen Travel offers a range of company benefits including Axa Private medical, Life Assurance, discounted holidays and cruises plus retail discounts and cash back incentives through our Boost Benefits scheme.
As an equal opportunity employer, we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We want to ensure that you feel supported throughout the application process and provide reasonable adjustments where necessary and requested. If you require any reasonable adjustments as part of your application and interview process, please do not hesitate to let us know.
We know our people are our biggest strength, and we’re determined to continuously enhance the way we manage, develop, and lead. Here at Fred. Olsen Travel we are proud to be accredited by Investors in People, and we take pride in putting our employees first.
Our values are:
Customer Driven: We strive to look through the lens of each customer to ensure we continuously put their needs and expectations at the heart of everything we do.
Valuing Diversity: We believe differing views and experiences make us stronger. By working to create a representative and inclusive business, we can deliver the right solution to our customers in the right way.
Investing in people: We believe that by continuously seeking to grow personally and professionally develop our people, we can improve our future today.
Winning Together: We deliver our best outcomes and results when we all pull in the same direction, creating a positive team spirit where people feel valued, support each other and share in success together.
Doing the right thing: We pride ourselves on doing what is right and building trust in every situation with our people, customers and community.
Fred. Olsen Travel offers a range of company benefits including BUPA medical, Life Assurance, discounted holidays and cruises plus retail discounts and cash back incentives through our MyBenefits scheme.
