The role of a concierge and the training required
Those who excel in being a concierge offer exquisite customer service, impeccable manners, utter confidentiality and are utterly dedicated to looking after the needs of their elite clients. Their job is often a challenging one with many balls to juggle at any one time remembering and planning the requirements of each request received, but at all times staying calm, helpful, being an excellent listener and never once becoming irate with those they are helping.
What are the main requirements of a concierge
A concierge is a person who offers discretion, is elegant, classy and offers the utmost in sophisticated service.
The requests to a lifestyle concierge are too many to try to list but will usually include:
- Arranging travel
- Booking taxi or limousines
- Booking tickets for the theatre
- Arranging a dinner reservation
- Assisting with tourism related enquiries
- Buying gifts
- Arranging meeting rooms
- Giving directions
- Organising babysitting services
- Arranging for a car to be taken for repair
As the role is so varied, it takes a very special kind of person to really fit the position. There needs to be a core of attribute qualities such as being honest and trustworthy and then after that it is a case of offering the required training in the first rungs of the job and then ongoing and advanced training for those with skills and experience they bring from a number of years as a concierge.
Training
The place to start is with a Hospitality qualification. These are available via college courses as either a Certificate or Diploma, or there may be the opportunity through the Apprenticeship scheme to learn the job as a trainee whilst gaining a work-based NVQ as well as improving Maths and English if necessary.
There’s no absolute requirement to have qualifications though to start working as a concierge and many of those who reach the top ranks started out working on hotel receptionists or as a bellboy.
Experience is as important as formal qualifications and so if there is an absolute desire to become a concierge, it can happen with a great deal of dedication and hard work gaining experience in all other areas of hotel and hospitality type industries.
One key element to being a concierge is having the best local knowledge of anyone else working in the same establishment. Every day will bring enquiries about places to visit and the best restaurants to dine in, so being a concierge means being a font of all knowledge with regards to the city they are located in.
Another requirement is to have a wide network of contacts in place such as taxi and limousine firms, car hire, babysitting and housekeeping services and stores which will deliver items such as flowers or particular food. This means developing a positive relationship with a large number of other people in the city and to know that if someone has a vehicle which won’t start, the lifestyle concierge can make one phone call to a garage who can collect it the same day and offer excellent quality of service themselves.
Being a concierge could mean dealing with celebrities which means keeping everything said or seen in absolute confidence. It can mean dealing with difficult to deliver requests, but unless it is illegal or unethical, all concierges must do everything in their power to make the request work. Those who offer elite concierge services such as Privee Concierge think that with personality being just as important as qualifications, if someone is focused on their goal then they can develop an excellent career as a concierge and make many people very happy.
