Each month, Luxe SF profiles a member of The Luxury Marketing Council. This month we talked with Linda Jenkinson, Chairman & CEO of LesConcierges, a global leader in the fast-expanding world of concierge service. Jenkinson explains why the luxury sector has responded so avidly to the concept of concierge service and why that trend shows no signs of diminishing as the luxury market gains in strength world-wide.

LUXESF: Please give Luxe SF readers a brief primer on LesConcierges.

JENKINSON: Basically, we are a global concierge company and are renowned for delivering customized programs for Fortune 500 companies that provides service to their customers or employees in a closed network. The programs increase loyalty evidenced by higher spend and retention rates.

We have a network of 1,000 concierges in 80 cities around the world and are headquartered in San Francisco.

LUXESF: Are you at liberty to mention client names?

JENKINSON: Basically we service some of the most prestigious brands in the world. In the Worklife, or Employer segment, we serve Fidelity Investments, Texas Instruments, and Sun Microsystems, to name a few. In the customer loyalty domain we serve top leading luxury brands including Sotheby’s, the Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd., Neiman Marcus.

LUXESF: What do you do for them?

JENKINSON: We develop inspirational loyalty programs ... a combination of experiences in concierge service including destination travel, dining, entertainment, etc., packaged into different formats. For example, let’s say that you’re a client of one of the big luxury auction houses and you carry one of their credit cards, we would work with the auction house to say, “What would your clients value?” If they’re interested in art, they might be interested in museums or meeting the artist or traveling to Paris to attend a certain showing. We would develop those inspirational experiences for the clients of the auction house.

LUXESF: Or it could be a major credit card company ...

JENKINSON: Or a major credit card company. We look at the demographic. We look at the client’s objectives. We say, “You want to have more loyalty to that credit card. What types of products could we help you offer?” What’s more, we handle the full spectrum of offerings from high-end luxury through mass-market. And we provide complete client service, including self-service through the only private label global concierge website.

LUXESF: You’ve framed the discussion so far within the context of an incentive environment. What about plain, old-fashioned concierge services? Let’s say I’m a company that wants to provide such services for its employees?

JENKINSON: Good question. Half of our business is in the incentive customer loyalty space, and the other half is to the employees of companies as you’ve just defined it.

LUXESF: And what do you traditionally offer them?

JENKINSON: We’re the largest provider of on-site concierge services, so we actually have concierge staff in more than 30 cities around the U.S. We provide on-site concierge service as well as our online platform, but we deliver the same combination of services with a different twist. So for example, in one company we provide concierge service to the employees to help with travel tickets, dining, etc. We also handle all of their experiential rewards. In another large corporation, we handle all of their recognition events, which means we handle entire event planning in addition to the mainstream concierge services provided to their employees. We offer an integrated menu of services, and our clients select based on their needs.

LUXESF: Do you ever get into the mundane issues of life -- finding an attorney to help with real estate closings ... stuff like that?

JENKINSON: We do everything you can imagine, from the most mundane to the most exotic, anything from, “I’ve got a skunk underneath my deck, and please find someone to get rid of it” to “Federal Express my Lamborghini from L.A. to New York.”

LUXESF: What won’t you do?

JENKINSON: Anything that’s illegal, immoral, or unkind -- everything else, we do.

LUXESF: You mentioned online service. When end users touch LesConcierges, what percentage of those touches are phone, versus face-to-face, versus online?

JENKINSON: We launched our web platform about 18 months ago, and haven’t yet fully leveraged it through the customer base. We’ll have that completed within the next 9-12 months. So at the moment, the on-line portion of our business is probably about 20%. The walk-up, face-to-face factor is about 30%, and then the balance is over the phone. We’ve seen changes as programs mature, and they derive more value as they migrate to the internet as a leverage point.

LUXESF: What we‘re seeing at The Luxury Marketing Council is that concierge service is a highly-attractive, growth industry that more luxury providers are finally appreciating, particularly in terms of the increased customer sales revenue to be gained in providing these services. Do you wish to comment on that?

JENKINSON: Yes, it’s interesting. Literally, the day the first Baby Boomer turned 60 was the day that the number of in-bound phone leads that we received increased fivefold. It was incredible. It was like one day we were sort of a sleepy little company, and the next day we were in a hot market. We saw this opportunity a few years ago.

LUXESF: So, what do you think is happening?

JENKINSON: Well, it’s driven by demographics. If you look at all the research, what it shows is that the Baby Boomers are redefining what this stage of their life is all about. They want to have it all. They want to be global. They want to travel. They want the good life.

LUXESF: So, Boomers are fundamentally driving this?

JENKINSON: Absolutely. For example, all of the financial institutions are focusing on relationship, and searching for how to build more intimacy with Boomers in order to capture more share of this market. You also have more luxury brands that are seeking a way to differentiate themselves, and delivering concierge service in a creative fashion is one way of doing it. And then in today’s workplace, with an older population and more challenging labor markets, companies that depend upon delivering superior service realize that they need to be serious about developing a culture that really supports their brand promise. Concierge-based programs are critical support platforms for meeting the promise. So, across the board, it’s a very positive environment for the services, products and the skills that we bring to the table.

LUXESF: Let’s talk about people. A good concierge is hard to find, I would assume, because it requires a certain personality and a unique set of attributes to do the job well. Would you agree?

JENKINSON: If you do not have the expertise, I would agree with that. We don’t face that challenge right now (touch wood). We’ve been in this business for 20 years, and we have a formula for how we attract, hire, and train people. Our average retention rate is five years. We’ve had a lot of recent growth which automatically lowers that number, but we’ve got people who have been with the company for 10 years, and our drop-out rate is very low. One of the unique processes that LesConcierges has developed is the way that we recruit and train. We’ve learned through experience that as long as we get to make all the decisions, we put together very good teams. In the past, we used to give our clients an equal right in the selection of our concierges, and when we did that, the teams failed. We’re really good at hiring hospitality people because it’s the business we know, and nobody knows it better than we do.

LUXESF: As you’re building your teams, are you bringing in young, inexperienced candidates and training them your way, or are you bringing in experienced lateral recruits?

JENKINSON: We’re doing both. We just, in fact, launched our internal management training program two months ago, because we see this is as a critical process. But we do tend to bring in a lot of experienced people as well. Our average hire is actually in their early 30s with typically a lot of hospitality tenure. That might change in the future as we move into a faster growth model. Interestingly, what we find is there are a lot of people who enter the hospitality industry in their 20s, but then, once reality sets in, they discover that the lifestyle is not as attractive as they thought it would be ... low-paying, very long hours, and not exactly an employee-friendly environment. At an organization like LesConcierges, they’re able to get the excitement of working on a global stage, of building relationships that sustain, of doing really cool things, but with a much more manageable schedule and in a much friendlier work environment.

LUXESF: To that point, what are the defining characteristics of a successful concierge?

JENKINSON: Clients will tell you that the perfect concierge goes above and beyond in every aspect of what they do. It’s just that much more personal, and it just feels different. So, it’s the ability to connect with people, the ability to listen, and then help the client translate or communicate the true need, to identify the possibility in what the client wants. If a concierge is doing a great job, part of what they’re doing is actually educating the client ... “Well, you think you can do this, but you can actually do that.” It’s all about creating possibilities for the client. Yes, and forming a real emotional connection with the client. It’s that satisfying feeling you get when you’ve accomplished something special? It’s an emotion or feeling that is so powerful, but so difficult to quantify.

LUXESF: I guess that talks to perseverance as much as anything else.

JENKINSON: Plus creativity, and the ability to understand. Great concierges are like superb negotiators. It’s unearthing what the customer’s true interest is and finding out what’s really driving it. Someone might call and say they want to go to a particular restaurant, but that’s not what they really want. What they want is a particular type of experience, so in the instance where we can’t get them what they specifically ask for, we have to create an experience that’s as good or better than what they originally sought.

LUXESF: How are you growing your client base?

JENKINSON: We do not have an outbound sales force at present. Clients are coming to us. But we’re beginning to invest in sales and marketing because we don’t want to miss marketplace opportunities. For instance, our singular involvement with The Luxury Marketing Council drives customer traffic in a major way.

LUXESF: It’s very word-of-mouth business, I assume?

JENKINSON: Very much so. We develop relationships and people talk. It’s hugely referral-oriented. We’ve just restructured our management team so we’re now able to really get out to the marketplace, and evangelize what we do so that we can increase our inbounds

LUXESF: How do you pitch LesConcierges to prospective clients?

JENKINSON: In both of the marketplaces, incentive, and what we term work-life, we are the #1 provider. We get the most utilization. We provide the most appropriate service, so we know how to put the right people in combination with the right marketing programs to have customers use the service and get value out of it.

LUXESF: #1, based on what?

JENKINSON: Size. We’re the largest provider of on-site concierge services, and we are the largest provider in the high-end B2B concierge space.

LUXESF: Let’s talk about technology. Obviously you want to migrate clients to an online question-and-response mechanism. How is technology helping you? For instance, are you providing your staff with sophisticated CRM tools?

JENKINSON: Technology is critical to delivering a superior service to our customers and we are always investing in that technology. Moreover, our online platform is much more than an AskJeeves “question-and-response” mechanism, as you’ve put it. We view our online offering as a complementary channel to the phone through which customers will receive the same style and level of personalized service. No other company in the world who offers some type of concierge service provides as robust a web channel in terms of functionality as we do. With the LesConcierges web channel, which we call MyConcierge, the customer can do much more than browse content, fill out request forms and send the concierge email. The customer can actually purchase a gift or event tickets in real time, and soon we will also offer the ability to book golf tee times, spa appointments, and dining reservations in real time. Additionally, we’ve identified initiatives that could increase our productivity by as much as 50% over the next 24 months.

LUXESF: Yet the more you rely on technology, the more you risk losing the personal factor?

JENKINSON: Not true. Your example mimics the old adage “that if you introduce videos, no one will go to the movies anymore.” It’s exactly the opposite, because the more times you touch the client, even through technology, the greater the value you bring to the relationship. The personal touch can be enjoyed on-line as much as interacting with a live person. Ironically, it encourages a stronger relationship because the customer sees more value in the process. It’s allows them to interact with us in a way that’s most convenient and effective for them.

LUXESF: What companies represent the best practice in terms of their understanding and utilization of concierge services?

JENKINSON: That’s a pertinent question because many companies talk about how they value their customers, and the telecom industry is a good example of this, but in fact, they’re in a constant war for customer acquisition, and do very little to about retention beyond the enforced contract. A lot of financial institutions do the exact same thing. One of our Board members is the president of a bank, and his returns are double what the average bank achieves because his institution really focuses on relationships. It should be no surprise that customers will leave their money there because they value that relationship. We have case studies that prove definitively that if you provide an integrated relationship-driven concierge program, it drives incremental gains, it increases the number of hotel stays, the number of interactions on a credit card, etc.

LUXESF: What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve experienced as the CEO of LesConcierges?

JENKINSON: Concierge service is generally thought of in the generic sense, something a hotel concierge does, like arranging dinner reservations. The reality is that we create experiences using concierge service as a tool. Bringing clarity to the marketplace about the impact that we can have, and making it easy for people to understand our service and product line has been our biggest hurdle. But we’re doing a better job now.

LUXESF: Did you have difficulty clarifying that internally within LesConcierges?

JENKINSON: Absolutely. Originally, if you asked us what we did, we’d trot out a list of member services, but that’s not really what we do. We’re becoming better at articulating our value. And as we get crisper at it, our way is cleared, so to speak. When we first started, you’d get the HR person to buy off on it because the CEO couldn’t see the value. So, how do we make the value so transparent that the service almost sells itself? And that’s the big challenge because it can be very complicated message and a very complex delivery system.

LUXESF: And what about the biggest unfulfilled opportunity?

JENKINSON: it’s always the belief that if you build it and they will come. Until a few years ago it was very much, “Get them and then we’ll build it.” It’s become clear to me that if I build it, they will come, and so re-gearing the company and myself to that mindset has been the biggest opportunity for us going forward.

LUXESF: You’ve lost the doubt about the future.

JENKINSON: That’s a really good way of putting it. It is just so clear to me that the opportunity is there, and it’s there for the taking. My concern is that we won’t respond fast enough to take advantage of it.

LUXESF: What’s the strangest request you’ve ever had?

JENKINSON: There are many. We have some really weird ones like someone wanting to give a party for their kids in the middle of summer. You know how hot that is? They wanted a ski party, so we had to have snow shipped in. But we did it. Or someone is walking through LAX and they look at the marble on the floor and decide they want it for their house, so we found the contractor. Then there’s guy who lost his cat. He called and said, “I’m very worried about my cat. I can hear it at night, but I can’t find it.” So we FedEx’d him night vision goggles.

LUXESF: And you’re not fazed by that stuff anymore, are you?

JENKINSON: Our people love it. We’ve got a really unique set of folks who work with us because they’re highly creative. They never know what’s going to be on the phone. It could be the most mundane inquiry or the most bizarre. They’re chatting in Spanish one second, and French the next, and English after that because they don’t know what language they’re going to encounter with each call. So it’s a very unique individual who thrives in that controlled chaos.

LUXESF: To that point, how many languages can you handle?

JENKINSON: About 15. We’ve got the world covered to a major extent because many of our clients are the big global players and the more sophisticated Boomers are global in their perspective.

LUXESF: In a nutshell and how did you get into this business?

JENKINSON: I’m a New Zealander. I restructured banks for 10 years. I built a quarter of a billion dollar on-demand career company, and now I’ve been in this business for seven years. They’re all the same business. They’re highly transactional. They’re execution-based. They’re technology, and customer service, and people-oriented. They’re relationship businesses, and I’m fascinated with the concept of how do you build leveraged relationships.