Catering Customer Service & Inbound Sales Consultant

The Catering Dept is seeking a friendly, outgoing and highly organised Customer Service & Inbound Sales Consultant to join the team. This role is essentially the face and voice of a busy, professional and friendly corporate and entertainment catering business. The successful candidate will be joining a team of consultants responsible for all inbound enquiries and customer interactions – from fulfilling client queries and confirming their orders; assigning clients to other team members for management within the Australian team; and communications with clients right through their purchase cycle. The opportunity for promotion to Customer Service team management exists for the right candidate after a proven track record within our team.

About Us

The Catering Dept is Sydney’s premium corporate, crew and entertainment caterer. Our office team assists our clients with putting together catering and hospitality services for daily occasions from film shoots, private events and office lunches right through to cultural events and large-scale festivals – every day is different! All orders are produced and dispatched from our Alexandria, Sydney based headquarters, and operational seven days a week.

About the role

Reporting to our Office Lead, this is an important role responsible for the handling of all inbound communications and every customer interaction through to confirmation and invoicing stage – when it can then be communicated to the Operations Manager for execution. The role will involve the effective and efficient handling of all of the Catering Dept’s customer needs, working as a team with customer service colleagues on over-lapping (but not identical) rosters. The role is additionally supported by our team of Office Lead, Event Supervisor and Business Development Manager to assign customers to according to their own individual event or catering needs.

This team support is effectively managed by the implementation of the latest technology for inbound call systems (including video conferencing amongst team members and recorded video training sessions on all responsibilities and software packages), shared email inbox abilities, scripted email responses and AI chat bot assistance, interactive daily task lists, group messaging systems for team communications and shared calendars. Full training is provided on each of these key technologies and applications including, but not limited to – Flex Catering Software, DialPad, Asana, WhatsApp, Calendly and more.

Key responsibilities include

• Handle all inbound communications and enquires across all means – calls, emails, website, social media channels. Follow up all catering leads.
• Follow up all old and existing clients to understand their catering needs and generate orders.
• Generate and convert new catering leads.
• Generate referrals from existing clients and introduce them to our services.
• Building solid rapport and relationships with our clients to encourage regular repeat business.
• Enter all catering orders into Flex Catering Software and distribute to Operations Manager and Kitchen Team. Handle all customer changes and requests right up to final execution by the team. Communicate with clients throughout delivery process and final feedback, encouraging reviews.
• Communicate and document all customer dealings with colleagues within the customer service team for handover between shifts, and work overflow.
• Ensure orders are confirmed and payment received prior to final execution. Send invoices and weekly statements to regular customers.
• Participate in regular maintenance and keeping website and portals up to date.
• Complete all training sessions available for all software packages in use and maintain current video logs for future staff training.

About you

You would have a friendly demeanour and natural ability to talk to customers in a solutions based role (ideally within the catering & events industry, but not essential) with a minimum of 5 years experience in a similar role.
• University degree in communications, business management, sales, accounting or event services
• Strong computer and telephone skills
• Strong organisational skills
• Like a chat and happy talking with customers – love to help people!
• Ability to work in a team
• Strong efficiency in spoken and written English Language
• Reliable and punctual
• Sound knowledge of Event & Staff Management Software – Deputy, Flex Catering, Dropbox, Xero, WhatsApp
• Efficient in Excel, Word and standard email applications
• Keen interest in the latest technologies and love to learn!
• But most importantly, you are a happy, fun and approachable person who loves to build relationships with people.

Working hours & remuneration

There are currently two full-time roles to be filled. Please specify which roster you are applying for.

40 hours per week, 5 days per week
Roster 1:
Monday to Friday
Start 530am (Philippines timezone)
Break 9am – 930am
Break 1215pm – 1245pm
Finish 230pm

Roster 2:
Tuesday to Friday
Start 930am (Philippines timezone)
Break 1pm – 130pm
Break 345pm – 415pm
Finish 630pm

Saturday
Start 630am (Philippines timezone)
Break 9am – 930am
Break 1230pm – 1pm
Finish 330pm

Hourly rate is to be determined based on experience, and will range between $4.50 and $6.50 USD per hour.

What you need

The ability to work from your own home, comfortably and without interruption, during the rostered days and times as stipulated. You will require a reliable internet connection with your own computer and secondary monitor – running Mac OS 2016 or later; or Microsoft Windows 10 or later.