How do you feel if someone does every task on behalf of you like ‘arrange and schedule a meeting‘, ‘remind most important task‘, ‘planning of holiday‘, ‘booking appointments‘, ‘flight reservation‘ and much more? This is all that concierge does. There are too many companies that provide concierge services and their employee becomes your personal assistance OR your lifestyle manager.
Entering into concierge services – a luxury business model is a perfect choice for business in upcoming years. The popularity of this business model is rising day by day and becoming more profitable compared to the past.
Bookmark this page as a hands-on guide for starting a profitable concierge business in 2020. Because in the end, you will get ideas about how to beat your competitor in a single year through digitization.
What is a concierge?
A concierge is an individual person OR company who manage clients’ chores and charges for it monthly, hourly OR fixed cost. Let’s go through a short history of a concierge from inception and get actual ideas for ‘what is concierge’.
Concierge is a French term derived in the 17th century. I am not a pass out from French high school but I heard this term when I travelled to Canada. Here concierge obtains from origin word ‘conservus’, meaning a person who forced to obey their leaders. At that time around 1697, this term was only used for a hotel staff member who manages luggage and reservations.
From the past 450 years to the present day, concierge term used in many industries like education, business, travel, lifestyle, and much more. By now the term, as well as concierge duties and services have expanded. Wherein past, duties were limited to reservations, lighting candles and ensure journey get safe. But now research, hiring, management, planning, assisting guests to personalize manner, schedule spa services, arrange transportation, recommend the best trending place to visit, solving a tacky problem and many such duties are added and held by the concierge.
Today concierge performs most of the tasks of c-level executives, managers of banks, private parties, celebrities, weddings and much more at a variable price. The idea here is very simple i.e. take a task from a client, perform it and charge for it.
Now you have a better idea about what is a concierge, history of concierge, what concierge does and what is a concierge service. Let’s move on to why people looking for such services.
Why do people need high-end concierge services?
There are many advantages if you hire a concierge for your time and convenience. We all have 24 hours in a day, when comes to a c-level or manager level operations than due to loads of important work they are looking for a person who handles the important or routine task.
For Example, Booking a hotel, arrange a meeting, cancel a reservation, deal with important clients or customers, flight reservations, important research, suggest gifts/restaurants/nightlife, sending a parcel, receiving the parcel, and many tasks.
Now think, if these tasks are held by someone else, you can save a huge amount of time which you could spend on prioritized tasks. This is the reason today due to concierge services, people save their prime time and have breath from non-priority tasks.
The only thing is to get advantages from it, you need money in your pocket. We hope that now you have abstract ideas about why do people need this type of service. Let’s make it more clear by getting ideas about how many types of concierge service in the market.
Types of concierge services?
As we discussed, that a few decades back, only hotel concierge were in demand. But because of digitization in this service, it has expanded in many sectors. Here we gather the best 8 areas where these services are most used, in-demand and raising from inception.
1. Lifestyle concierge
Task of lifestyle concierge
- Personalize assistance
- Errand-running
- Transportation arrangements
- Event planning
- Life administrator
- Personalize shopping
- Dining
2. Medical concierge
This is one of the best winning business models because through this service, concierge get paid high from one thousand to ten thousand dollars depending on clients. Also, things to be noted here is this service is not covered by health insurance policies. So, starting this service is worth for business and to get a high ROI.
Task of medical concierge
- Answer telephones
- Add, delete and update patients records
- Fill insurance form
- Handle billing expense
- Schedule and reschedule appointments
- Keep inventory ready to supply
3. Business concierge
Task of business concierge
- Recruitment
- Business transportation
- Handle clients meeting
- Track financial reports
- Industry research
- Billing and expense management
- Arrange, schedule and reschedule meetings
- Recommend new business ideas
4. Hotel concierge
Task of business concierge
- Transportation arrangements
- Recommend place to visit
- Health and fitness care
- Keep you safe
- Help you enjoy
- Fix sticky problems
5. Travel concierge
Task of travel concierge
- Drive you to the hotel
- Translate local language
- Restaurant booking
- Healthcare
- Solve clammy problems
- Recommend place to visit
- Booking tickets for a local place to visit
- Assure your journey get safe and joyful
6. Wedding concierge
Bride/Grooms/Parents request type of services based on their budget and niche. Here concierge has enough experience to do pre-wedding plan and arrange all necessary needs before 10 hours so that the wedding event goes smooth without any dilemma.
Task of wedding concierge
- Pre-in-post wedding plan
- Venue organize with necessary layout
- Solution to the guest problem
- Food and soft drink serve
- Health safety
- Arrangement of music, dance and other activities
- Groomes and bride makeup
- Transportation arrangements
- Electricity and other accommodations
- Pre-wedding and in-wedding photography and videography
7. Learning concierge
Task of learning concierge
- Parents coaching
- Early child development
- Private tutoring
- Test preparation
- Post-school study
- Summer field trips
8. Chauffeur concierge
Task of chauffeur concierge
- Chauffeur-drive
- Reservation of meal
- Health and fitness safety
- Club reservation
- Evening amusements
- VIP nightlife
High-end concierge companies
There are so many concierge service providers but we have compiled the top 3 best companies, their revenue and when they started.
1. Quintessentially
Estimated employees – 1500
Founded – 2000
Headquarters – London, England
Website – http://quintessentially.com/
2. Oneconcierge
Estimated employees – 22
Founded – 2008
Headquarters – Lehi, Utah
Website – https://www.oneconcierge.com/
3. Pure Entertainment Group
Estimated employees – 62
Founded – 2006
Headquarters – Montreal, Quebec
Website – https://www.purentonline.com/
From this, you can get ideas about potential revenue from concierge business and why this is the best business model to start your startup journey.
Future of concierge services
In 2018, global concierge services market value around 537.6mn. This number increased by 5.3% in 2019 and expected to expand around the same pace until 2025. Today many top-level managers, VIP consumers, Influencer and celebrities faced a problem in their work-life balance. Hence these services are highly in demand to take care of each errand/chore of clients and assure to get free from a busy schedule.
Concierge service has spread all over the world as people expect more and more convenience in their life. Below is the graph in which, you can get the ideas about the U.S Concierge service market size.
Internet changes our life totally, through mobile application people browse business in any area of the globe. According to a survey, most concierge service will be availed through a mobile application and website by 2022. Even many services integrate AI to a concierge for speedy process of clients needs. ‘Google Assistance’, ‘Alexa’, ‘Mercedes’, ‘Siri’ these are live AI concierge example.
These all are the proof of rising demand of concierge services and it is one of the best business models for your startup and also have less competition as well.
So, how to start a concierge business?
In the next section, I will walk you through step by step to get your business up and running.
How to start a concierge business
Compared to other business models, starting concierge business is smooth and agile. So why waiting? Follow this step by step process to get your business up and running without any hustle.
1. Choose niche
In the world of digitization, people are busier than ever before and almost in every area people need concierge who does their chores and work on their schedule. Hence, business no shortage of ways to start a concierge business. Nearly every industry get advantages of concierge and you need to first research about which concierge services you want to provide to your clients.
You need to put extra attention to select services you want to start with, otherwise the journey gets tough and painful. We have already discussed the top 8 profitable and in-demand concierge services.
2. Name and register your business
Once you select a niche, it is time to make it live by giving your business a name. Naming your business must convey what your business is all about. Also, furnish your business with taglines like ‘Be Free‘, ‘Care Of Your‘ and ‘We For Your Chores‘. If your service works for local regions, then you can also attach a city OR area name with your business name to personalize your brand.
Research about business name always worth it because your clients refer your business through a name. After name selection, you need to make sure your name not existing and trademarked. Once you have verified everything, it is time to trademark your business name so other competitors can not take advantages in future.
3. Business license
Starting a new business with excitement is obvious. However, it is mandatory to get a license and permit before exploring your business. Additionally, you need taxing authorities if your business has employees OR sells services.
The Requirements are varied from industry to industry, most of the concierge operate business as ‘sole proprietor’ OR as L.L. C. But you need to get advice because of law and rule changes industry wise. Many companies like Nolo.com provide free advice about which one is the best and right option for you.
4. Arrange necessary asset
Each concierge services have their own asset like if ‘Learning Concierge Services‘ then need an experienced coach, if it is ‘Business Concierge‘ then need of the corporate level concierge. The answer to exact resources is quite difficult OR impossible and it depends on what services you go with.
You are alone to give exact ideas about which asset you need by asking questions to yourself ‘Whom I served‘, ‘What my clients expecting from my business‘, ‘How I impress client through services‘, ‘What separate my business from competitors‘. Answers to these questions will help you to make a list of a necessary asset.
Note that many people do not provide needful assets which leads to not refer and recommended your service twice. Remember word-of-mouth marketing always wins and If your clients are unhappy about your services then it will ultimately harm your business.
5. Finance your business
Finding financing is challenging task, whether you are looking for seed funds, capital to expand business OR money when times get tough. It is true that without money, many businesses got success but even though, arrangement for finance is worth and help you to go ahead. There are many ways to get finance, few are ‘Crowdfunding‘, ‘Venture Capital‘, ‘Angel Investor‘, ‘Friend and Family‘. Figuring out which one is the best suitable option to start your concierge business.
A website named angel.co might help you with finance management, here you can get many seed investors who are interested to be part of your business model. Things to be noted here is each option have their own interest. For example, Venture Capital takes around 40% business share. Arranging finance is optional if you have enough money to start a business and when times gets tough.
6. Set your rate and launch a business
Setting your rate is a very important part and here many businesses have faced huge losses. They make the mistake of not charging enough for their services compared to asset they have spent. You need to make every accounting information from asset cost, transport cost(if have), license expense, security taxes and other accommodations.
There is no standard charge OR fixed charge for concierge services because the needs vary from client to client and industry to industry. Collect every piece of information to help you get ideas about charging your clients and set a standard rate.
Now, everything is done from selecting a business niche, business name, licenses, asset collection, to finance and rates. It is time to launch your business.
7. Marketing your services
No business is that much lucky where a customer comes to you, business needs to go there where a customer is. You need a proper marketing plan and strategy so that your business will get enough traction. Here you need to make a decision to choose inhouse team infrastructure OR outsource marketing to a well-known marketing agency.
It is highly recommended to put more effort into digital marketing rather than a traditional one. Because people spend more time on the internet, on an average around 4 hours a day. Moreover, people spend 40% of their time browsing social media platforms. Marketing your business digitally help your brand name recognized many times and lastly convert into leads.
SEO, SEM, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing few are well known digital channel where business needs to present their brand on top of competitors.
8. Digitize your business
‘Uber’, ‘Lyft’, ‘Burger King’ and other infinite numbers of the well-known brand have a business application with an aim to access their business anytime, any place where customers are. From this customer get more loyalty for your brand and seamless brand experience. ‘Measure success‘, ‘Speed Marketing Effort‘, ‘Meet Potential Customer‘, ‘Less in Cost‘, ‘High Profit and Enough ROI‘ these are the few advantages when a business goes digital.
But, how to digitize your business?
Today everything on the internet is accessed through mobile and web applications. Provide mobile and web application that allows your customer to browse any of your services anytime on-demand. Even spending money to develop a mobile application is worth, because your business could get a massive RoI in a single year.
Many well known concierge services like ‘Quintessentially‘, ‘One Concierge‘, ‘Pure Entertainment Group‘ are still lacking in mobile application and digital marketing. None of the concierge business have best mobile application and website to browse their service by the client at any moment. Meanwhile, you are alone OR few have still chance to succeed and get potential profit from concierge business.
Making application add advantage to your business and help you to succeed in the market soon. We recommend start your digital application with fewer features (Minimum Viable Product) and grow with your customers. Launching MVP(Minimum Viable Product) will help you to do A/B testing your strategy and reduce the cost of developing an application.
Compared to past, today developing mobile application and website not too much costlier as you think. If you need any assistance for developing application then we can help you with everything. We have a team of developers and marketers, help you with not only application development but also marketing your business and generate max ROI.
Final thoughts : vital moment to start concierge service
Till now, you have understood – what is concierge service, its type, future and finally how to start a business with it. Now it’s time for the execution of business ideas. The concierge service business model is very unique and still lacking to expand globally. As we have seen how much potential market this service has and also comes with low competition. Even, we have seen how you can take advantage of digitization to provide sustainable experience to your customers.
Here, I have mentioned two ways to explore the concierge service business model.
1. Launch marketplace
Before going further, let’s start with one example. Amazon is a marketplace where buyers [who want to buy products] and sellers [who want to sell products] meet in one place. If a product gets sold then Amazon gets a commission. Another great example is Uber. Here driver and passenger meet together and if the ride gets booked then Uber gets a commission from it.
You can integrate this marketplace concept with the concierge business model. Here you can build a mobile application and website where concierge services providers and customers meet together and if service gets booked then you can earn a margin from it.
2. Own application and website
If you don’t want to create a marketplace then you can also have the second option where you create a mobile application along with the website and start marketing of your business. Soon, people will start to browse your business and provide them on-demand service. The thing to note here is, providing on-demand concierge services will create brand loyalty and increase ROI. Through digitization, you are able to provide on-demand services at any time and anyplace.
So, what are you thinking? Share your thoughts on concierge business model with us.
