subject: Personal Concierge – Bringing you free time and a better quality of life! [print this page] Personal Concierge Bringing you free time and a better quality of life!
The word concierge come from the French language, and refers to an employee who resides on the premises of an apartment building or a hoteland carries out duties similar to that of a butler.
While traditionally, concierge services were mainly found in apartment building and hotels, today there are a host of these found in places such as a hospital, and office, and even for personal reasons.
A personal concierge service runs premise, that people want things done but do not have the time to do them all. So they are happy to pay someone to attend to their tasks more efficiently, and with added quality.
Although personal concierge services are a fairly recent development, the numbers of companies that serve time-starved customers are indeed flourishing, given the demand of customers for such businesses. A certain US based personal concierge company has seen its client base double since 1996 and it continued to grow up to 50 percent annually for several years after that. Another such concierge firm that began with 25 clients in 1997, and grew to serve more than 85 clients in just a few years! Membership in the National Association of Professional Organizers, which includes some professionals who provide personal concierge services, has grown from a few hundred when founded in 1985 to more than 1,100 members by the late 1990s.
The main reason for such a huge surge in the demand for personal concierge services is that most people have accumulated so many tasks, both in the work place and at home, that they find it difficult to juggle them all in adequate time. In fact, in a recent survey by a leading designer and manufacturer of office furnishings showed that 27 percent of office workers described themselves as "pilers," while 12 percent described themselves as pack rats. Naturally, it takes time to take care of all the tasks as well as good organization! This is why people they turn to (or would like to be able to turn to) professionals to assist them in remaining organized, run errands, and see to it that their business and personal obligations are being duly met.
Although it is a known fact that the personal concierge field is flourishing, it is has not been determined yet as how many companies actually exist. The National Concierge Association, a Chicago-based group that was founded in the late 1990s as a networking and resource organization for both personal and hotel concierges, has indicated that a large number of companies have sprung up, but it has not yet announced the actual numbers or statistics pertaining to the industry. A former hotel concierge, who runs her own personal concierge business, estimates that there are at least a few hundred personal concierges throughout the United States. Several other personal concierges and concierge consultants concurred with that estimate and stated that the number of personal concierges is steadily growing!
Sara-Ann Kasner, president and founder of the National Concierge Association states, "The concierge business is exploding right now. There has been tremendous growth." What is more is that the personal concierge industry analysts claim that there is plenty of room for even more growth in this business!
