We run through the world. Although, sometimes we wished we could just walk and wander. There is an infinite amount of little details that we want to take care of and make perfect, but we need more time or energy to curate them all carefully.
Life is short, and there are so many things we would like to do and pay attention to; and some other things that just need to get done. Those last ones are not very fulfilling but they are necessary. These things consume our time and without them, the wheel wouldn’t keep on turning.
Personal Concierges Help Ease People’s Lives
There are some tasks in life that we wish we could just skip and have done so we can focus on what we value most. Some parents want to magically get the laundry done so they can spend that time with their kids; other people wish they could have all their party details done so they can focus on finding their perfect outfit for the event.
And it is natural, the day only has so many hours. I think we all have thought about how great it would be if we could have more time. We would love to at least buy more hours in our lives, but we can’t. Time, our precious resource is finite.
But what happens with those people with fast-paced careers or extra busy lives in general; running errands, finding the time to call a restaurant to make a reservation, booking some travel tickets, or even keeping track of all their commitments is a challenge.
Time is valuable, and when the lifestyle demands lots of your attention on urgent and important things, like running a company and going to the children’s school play, calling to make the dinner reservation seems trivial and, most likely, an unwise way to spend their time.
And what can be done about it? they can’t certainly buy more hours, so what are their options? Here is where you can come into play and save the day. Those people need someone to take care of those trivialities that are key for their lives to keep functioning in the smooth way they want them to. Which becomes the space where a few personal concierge services can be very useful.
What Is A Personal Concierge?
You may or may not be familiar with the term; some say it’s another and a quite fancier way to refer to a personal assistant, and they might be mostly right, but with some subtle differences.
Personal assistants tend to work for a specific company, and personal concierges tend to be more on the independent contractor side of things. Personal concierges perform tasks that come with being a personal assistant and perhaps some more that come with being a lifestyle manager.
To be more precise, let’s dive deep into the meaning. The word concierge comes from a term used in France during medieval times: ‘comte des cierges’. Which meant ‘keeper of the candle’ and referred to the servant who attended to the whims of visiting noblemen at medieval castles.
And, it’s not that far from what we use the term for nowadays; a hotel concierge makes sure everyone is enjoying their stay, and they facilitate their client’s lives during that time by alleviating the weight on things they may need help with, like finding a tourist guide or arranging some transportation to the airport, if the client needs help with something that can be managed by the concierge, then they can consider it done.
So, long story short, a top personal concierge service is offered by a trusted person who will help with achieving lifestyle management. They are someone who will make the bag lighter and perform tasks, run errands, or make arrangements for their clients. As they say, as long as it’s legal, they can do it.
What Do They Do?
These individuals can become indispensable for some clients, they are personal helpers that get to learn about the client’s life and family so they can offer the best service they can. Their duties could vary from client to client, but in general, they round around managing these sorts of tasks.
- Event planning
- Coordinating household chores
- Personal shopper
- Carrying out personal errands
- Relocation services
- Handling dinner reservations
- Gifting
- Finding carpet cleaning services
- Technology services
- Pet care services
- Repair and maintenance services
- Travel services
And the best part is that the client just has to worry about notifying if they need help with something else, since they now hire one person, and get a diverse set of services that can adapt to their business structure and specific needs. No more finding a separate cleaner, shopper, and so on.
A personal concierge is that service people pay to keep things under control. Busy lives need a helping hand, and what’s better than an expert on making people’s lives easier?
Why Should Anyone Acquire This Service?
It may sound very practical to have a personal concierge, but you might be doubtful still why anyone would hire someone to do these kinds of things. But in today’s world, it’s a business that has found its time to grow and flourish, just think about the many benefits you would be providing your client.
Let me tell you just a few reasons why anyone might want to hire a personal concierge business for this service… And yes, anyone, not just the extremely wealthy. A personal concierge can attend to someone’s business or personal tasks, and most of us, need help in making things easier and keeping it all under control.
Saving Time
Time is money, time is life. You can’t buy more of that precious resource, but you can delegate tasks to someone so you can free up a little of your time. Handling these tasks is a time investment that some people are just not willing to make anymore, and if you can outsource them and have them taken care of, why wouldn’t you?
Planning an event or running some errands can seem like they only take a couple of hours, but when you start adding up all those couple hours, you can free up days and even weeks by hiring someone whose job is going to be making sure these things are under control.
This way, you can go out with the family on the weekend, or work on that important project as much as you can and be at peace that the holiday flight is gonna be booked and all the other arrangements will be efficiently done, so you can relax and enjoy rather than stress over what needs to be done for you to have a pleasant trip.
Convenience
Yes, you gain time, but if you look at it in a much more practical sense, it is like magic. Just imagine having a huge to-do list and being able to have it shrink while you focus on what matters most for you. Imagine that you could send a text or an email and consider your errands taken care of. Having the option to delegate to people who develop the skills to do those tasks efficiently is a blessing in disguise.
There is immense value in having one place where you can just have your errands and tasks taken care of when you don’t have the time to do them, or even the resources to complete them most effectively.
Simplifies Life
Life is complicated, we all have issues and tons of things to do… So, making our lives a little simpler by having the trusted helping hand we need is a gift we give ourselves. Getting a personal concierge makes your life simpler, since now, you can hand in your to-do list and trust it will be done when you get back. It reduces significantly the amount of stress and pressure you are under.
No more of these overwhelming feelings, you can breathe a little. It undeniably helps you regain control and freedom; no need to multitask what you value most because you need to run errands too. You do what you value doing and let someone take care of the logistics that are needed for you to continue doing what fulfills you.
Tailored To The Client’s Needs
Maybe you don’t need anyone to take care of finding gifts for your loved ones on birthdays or holidays, and you can simply not use that service. Perhaps you travel often and need a concierge business help with managing the arrangements, and that is what you will get. It is like buying clothes online and having it all be magically your perfect size.
A personal concierge has a perfectly fitted service that meets each client’s requirements. They just have to communicate what they need to get done.
What Do You Need To Become One?
For sure there are some practical requirements, like good marketing to find clients and much more. But let’s focus on some a bit more intrinsic factors you might need to develop further if you want to take the role.
Be Organized
Life is messy, and maintaining everything under control can be a challenge. Being organized with your space can help you have a clearer mind that will allow you to manage your own life and your work in a balanced manner.
Being a personal concierge is like being an executive assistant or even a project manager. Roles that without proper organization on all fronts, could indeed fall apart. So check how are you handling your space, your life, and your work. Think about how you could make them better or optimize your processes.
Develop Sharp Planning Skills
Think about it, you would have to manage someone’s lifestyle and do so gracefully. Being able to plan and keep up with the new things that might pop up is the way to do so. Keeping a calendar, and knowing how to take advantage of the tools that are at your disposal is key to your success. Planning leads to coordination which is also a vital part of this job. In some cases, you might need to plan a full event and coordinate a bunch of providers to get the event going, and planning is your best ally for that.
Solve Problems
For you to thrive at this job you need to be diligent, proactive, and innately a problem solver. Tasks will appear out of the blue, and so will problems when trying to complete them, and your planning might get challenged over and over again. But navigating through those unexpected problems and coming out of the storm with a victorious solution is what most clients value the most.
Solution-oriented people are very resourceful, they get a problem in front of them and start looking for solutions right away, no time is invested in dwelling on how it could have been different or prevented, and that comes after the problem is solved. So, they are very efficient during crises and when it comes to jobs that regard many situations that will have them finding creative solutions on the regular.
Have Great Customer Service Skills
At the end of the day, a successful personal concierge business still has to work on many skills that might be required to get their job well done. And communication skills are key.
Imagine how many suppliers they might need to call to plan a party for their client, they need some of the persuasive communication skills that customer service representatives have to get people to buy their products, in this case, personal concierges need to convince restaurants, hotels, travel agencies in behalf of their client.
Being patient is also one skill from customer service that might come in handy for concierges. Not everything happens when and how we want it to; sometimes, we take a bit too long to achieve the deal we wanted, and that’s okay. Just be patient, and you will succeed.
Find Your Niche
You need to target your service to the right target market. Finding the people who might require this service can be tricky, but don’t worry you don’t have to do it alone. For some people, creating the service, finding trustworthy providers, and perfecting the required skills is the easy part, but getting into the right circles where clients get to know them and hire their service is the difficult part.
In those scenarios, we have the solution for you… You can contact us and send us your resume to work with us! As an outsourcing company, we offer cost-effective help to multiple clients around the world, and we are the place to look if someone needs to find trustworthy talent.
To us, having you offer your service to our clients sounds like a win-win deal. If on the other hand, you are looking to hire personal concierge services, click here!
See more articles by Laura Navarro.
