Box Office Access Booking Assistant

Closing date 10:00 Monday 15 April 2024
Interview date: Monday 29 April - Thursday 02 May 2024
Start date: Monday 08 July 2024
End date: Monday 26 August 2024
Location: Office based, central Edinburgh

Background

The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.
It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events. In 2023, 3,553 shows took place in 288 venues across Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.

The primary responsibility of the Box Office Access Booking Assistants is to provide an exceptionally high standard of service to customers of the Festival Fringe Society who have additional access requirements, including D/deaf or disabled people. Under the guidance of the Access Booking Coordinator a successful applicant will be responsible for processing Access Bookings and answering questions over the phone, email and WhatsApp.

The role will also support the Customer Service team by assisting with general customer queries and issues. You will work closely with the Box Office management team to ensure that the Fringe ethos of excellent customer service is adhered to.

The ideal candidate will have previous experience working with people with access requirements and the confidence and patience of working in a fast-paced environment. This position reports to the Box Office Operations Manager.

Role and responsibilities

The successful candidate will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:

• Processing bookings for customers with specific access requirements
• Setting up access customers to book tickets online
• Assisting access customers via email, phone and WhatsApp with customer issues and queries
• Assisting the Customer Services team to deal with customer issues and queries by email
• Following Fringe Box Office policies and procedures to ensure the professional, efficient and effective operation of the Access Booking and Customer Services team
• Assisting access customers to collect physical tickets if not able to utilise e- ticketing
• Assisting with other festivals or events that are ticketed through the 180 Box Office if the Fringe workload allows

Person specification

Essential

• Experience in a fast paced customer facing role
• Previous experience of interaction with people who have additional access requirements, including people who identify as D/deaf or disabled.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
• Ability to work calmly and efficiently in a high-pressure environment and be flexible and responsive to changing demands on time
• A polite, professional and confident manner when dealing with the public
• The ability to work in a team as well as using your own initiative
• Experience of offering support and advice to colleagues
• Proficient computer skills including a good working knowledge of Office 365 packages

Desirable

• Experience of working in a festival environment
• Knowledge of general Box Office procedures and practices
• Experience of working with a computerised ticketing system

Rate of pay and benefits

The rate of pay for this post is £12.75 per hour. Normal working hours are 35 hours per week, worked over 5 days, with a one-hour unpaid lunch break. For two weeks from Monday 29 July, your contracted hours will increase to 42 to account for an extra day worked each week. In the run up to and during the festival your hours will be set by a rota which will be issued in advance. Any additional work beyond the hours detailed below will be mutually agreed in advance and will be paid at the standard hourly rate. We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process.

We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team.

Apply now

The Fringe have identified six pillars of commitment around the sustainable delivery of their work, are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.

We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.

Application deadline: 15th April, 2024