HUFFINGTON
10.28.12
THE HELP
incomes. So indicators show that
this arguably superfluous industry will only strengthen over time,
despite a flagging economy.
As over the top as such expenditures are, fans of hiring concierges consider them somewhat
practical purchases: in the longrun, people argue that through
concierges, they’re saving time,
work and even bettering their
overall health and well being.
While having services tailored
to one’s individual needs is no
doubt a luxury that’s out of reach
for most people, the same reach
for outside help has translated
to lower income brackets. Some
in the industry have identified a
more affordable market for people willing to pay someone else
to do things for them. With the
emergence of more virtual assistant services, even those outside
the 1 percent are getting some
taste of what it’s like to have
hired help.
In both the concierge and virtual
service industries, what’s slowly
emerging is a new relationship between ‘the help’ and the helped, so
to speak. Instead of simply following orders, they’re taking charge of
some of the most intimate parts of
their employers’ lives.
“TARGETED MONEY”
Katharine Giovanni, founder of
the International Concierge and
Lifestyle Management Association, estimates that in 1998, there
were only around 50 individuals
offering concierge services outside
of hotels nationwide. Around that
same time, Giovanni was launching her own concierge business
and collecting information as she
researched what the industry already had to offer.
Giovanni says it was hotel concierges who started offering their
services to non-guests that pioneered the independent concierge
industry. Those concierges simply
took what they were already doing — like making reservations or
getting tickets — and started doing those tasks for other people.
Eventually, some of them started
their own businesses. Today, there
are hundreds of concierges serving
every niche imaginable.
“I know a concierge who is specializing in the patients of plastic surgeons,” says Giovanni. “If
you’re a patient and you just had
a facelift, you certainly don’t want
to go out to the grocery store.”
Giovanni admits that the concierge industry as a whole is still