How will you act if you urgently need to find a gastroenterologist for your grandmother in Tomsk (even though you live in Moscow), find an anesthesiologist for your child, or find out where you can urgently get tested?

The simplest option - “go and Google” - is even more or less suitable if you need tests for reference in. But if you have health problems, you want to get truthful information about the doctor’s qualifications, and not conflicting reviews about hospitals that cannot always be trusted.

We'll select and write down
see a doctor for free

Download the free app

Upload to Google Play

Available on the App Store

Of course, you can look for a doctor yourself. But there is an alternative option. Representatives of a new specialty - medical concierges - can help you find a doctor. Let's take a look at what a concierge service is and try to understand how medical assistants can help us.

Who is a medical concierge

A medical concierge is a kind of intermediary between the patient and the doctor. The task of a medical concierge is to answer medical questions: how to find a pediatrician in Omsk, which cosmetology clinic in Moscow is currently offering a favorable promotion, and where you can donate blood in Vladimir.

The concierge studies open data on doctors every day, monitors medical forums, maintains databases of laboratories and clinics, and collects reliable patient reviews about various clinics. In addition, the concierge studies medical legislation: he must know how to pass a medical examination, obtain a medical book or a certificate to carry a weapon.

When searching for medical information, the concierge relies on personal experience, real patient reviews and information from the database of hospitals and doctors maintained by the concierge service. The concierge database includes only verified hospitals that employ qualified doctors.

In addition, there are medical concierges who specialize in finding doctors in foreign clinics. As a rule, international concierges recommend doctors from American, European, Australian and even Chinese and Korean medical institutions that have entered into a contract with the concierge service.

How does the medical concierge service work?

Let's say you have an urgent medical issue - for example, you need a CT scan, but you don't want to overpay for this expensive service. On the other hand, you want the tomography to be carried out by a qualified expert using good equipment.

First you must find a medical concierge and ask him your question. This can be done by calling or by writing in chat(try it). We will tell you in detail about where to look for concierge contacts in the corresponding section. What's more important to us now is what happens after you contact a medical assistant.

How does communication with a medical concierge go:

1. First, the medical concierge will ask your name and ask what city you are from. If you want to know where to find the nearest medical facility or doctor to you, check the address.
2. If it takes more than a minute to find the answer to your question, the concierge will ask you to wait a little and will soon provide an answer. If the specialist has to look for an answer in the database, he will inform you that he will call you back (or write to the chat) in a few minutes.
3. After you visit a doctor, you can leave a review about the doctor for the medical concierge. The medical concierge will take your feedback into account when recommending this doctor to the next patient.

Where to find a medical concierge

Today, two types of companies offer medical concierge services. The former specialize in working with Russian doctors and hospitals, the latter offer to find a doctor and medical center abroad.

Medical concierge services that select doctors in Russia:

• Telemed
• Medical Note

Medical concierge services that select doctors abroad:

• Ekaterinburg company "Medicine of the World" - selection of doctors in Germany, Turkey and Israel
• Anglo Medical - selection of doctors in the UK
• MedTourConsult - selection of doctors in Belarus

In addition, banks may offer concierge services. For example, in the concierge service of VTB 24 bank you can also order medical services.

How much does a medical concierge cost?

Most medical concierge services are paid. The price depends on how and which doctors the service selects. If selecting a Russian doctor is unlikely to cost more than 1-2 thousand rubles, then the cost of selecting a foreign specialist can be 10-30% of the cost of treatment.

Prices for medical concierge services that select doctors in Russia:

• Telemed - 3500 rubles
• Medical Note - free

Prices for medical concierge services that select doctors abroad:

• World Medicine - initial consultation free of charge
• Anglo Medical - selection of a doctor is included in the cost of treatment (the price of treatment depends on the prices of a specific medical center in England)
• MedTurConsult - selection of a doctor is included in the cost of treatment (thyroid cancer treatment: 620-2700 dollars; radiation therapy: 2000-3000 euros)

Although in most cases the help of a medical concierge is paid, there is a chance to use the help of a medical concierge for free. This opportunity is provided by the Medical Note application, designed for storing medical records.

By installing the application on your phone, you will have the opportunity to contact a medical concierge for free and ask him questions that interest you.

This is what a chat with a Medical Note medical concierge looks like:

The main difference between the medical concierge Medical Note and the similar service Yandex.Health is that it is not an algorithm that will work with you, but a living person. In addition, Yandex.Health does not yet provide the opportunity to sign up for medical tests or procedures such as CT scans or.

Concierge service is a new medical direction that successfully helps people every day. And, although the help of a medical concierge, fortunately, is not needed every day, it makes sense to take care of your health in advance. To do this, just install the Medical Note application on your phone. The application will always be at hand, and you can ask a medical concierge a question at any time for free.

Thanks to the countless connections and ingenuity of the organizers, as well as the unlimited budget of the client, everything impossible becomes possible.

Let's imagine that you wanted to have breakfast on top of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, or make a last-minute reservation at the famous California restaurant French Laundry, or, better yet, have dinner with the chef of this establishment, Thomas Keller, at his home.

This is not available to the vast majority of us. But if you are a member of the elite, who is also willing to pay to save your time without bargaining, then at your service there is a whole army of people - the so-called fixers - ready to satisfy your every whim. They can provide a variety of services - organize any trip for you, introduce you to any home or issue an invitation to any event.

Jacqueline Sienna India is the founder of the exclusive travel company Sienna Charles, and it is not in her rules to say “no” to a client.

India has organized trips for the top elite, including former US President George H. W. Bush

Throughout her career, India has faced seemingly impossible demands, from booking hotel rooms that have been sold out for months to shopping with top French fashion designers. But in reality, these are everyday work tasks for her.

“If I have to get on a plane or go to the other side of town to talk to a certain person to get a reservation, I do it. In the world where I work, nothing is impossible,” she says.

Once, while organizing a trip to Ethiopia for former US President George H. W. Bush, India personally carried non-alcoholic beer and peanut butter in her luggage to make sure he had everything he needed.

“It’s impossible to prepare for such things. We get a request and I start figuring out what needs to be done to make it a reality,” says India.

Clients' bottomless pockets help: "Obviously, if you have enough money, anything is possible."

But the industry is growing (the rich are increasingly spending their money on experiences rather than things), and India's company is just one of many similar premium concierge agencies. According to a 2017 study, the wealthy travel industry is growing faster than the travel segment as a whole.

Delegating different tasks, freeing up time for new experiences, reduces stress and makes a person happier.

So it's not surprising that people who can afford it buy time with money.

Breakfast on the Arc de Triomphe? Yes, it's possible - and very expensive.

In detail

Bradley Taylor is the head of visual merchandising at luxury handbag maker Mulberry, and he travels a lot for work.

Five years ago, he tried a premium concierge service and was immediately hooked.

According to Taylor, he spends most of his time away from home, between offices and airports, so outside logistical help has been invaluable.

Taylor travels with a dog, so the concierge has to find hotels with beds and treats for the animals. And sometimes, staying at a hotel in some distant country, he asks to get his favorite vodka.

He says: “It’s amazing how they manage to take care of everything. There is always some pleasant surprise waiting for me upon arrival, and they solve problems that I have not yet noticed.”

Missed your flight? Jenny Graham will find you a private jet instantly

Jenny Graham is the director of the London company whose services Taylor uses.

Clients do not have to purchase a subscription to use the agency's services, but depending on their subscription level, they receive varying levels of attention. The basic package implies a service similar to that of a regular travel agency: choosing a profitable flight or updating the route when plans change - with the participation of an extensive network of fixers around the world.

What's the catch? This is much more expensive than the services of a travel agency. A basic subscription to the concierge service starts at £5,000 per year, and an “elite membership” will cost £15,000. Next comes individual services, and such companies try not to talk about how much they cost.

Graham's company has five main offices - in Los Angeles, New York, London, Dubai and Hong Kong - and, according to her, no two days are alike in her work.

For example, she recently had to plan an extravagant 60th birthday party in California's Napa Valley in two days (and on an unlimited budget) - complete with a picnic-style dinner catered by a Michelin-starred chef. And all this in the middle of a vineyard

Two days and an unlimited budget for organizing an anniversary in the Napa Valley in California

But according to Graham, emergency situations are the hardest. She once had a client stranded in Hong Kong due to a flight delay, but he had an important meeting to catch in London about the sale of his company, and missing it would have been catastrophic.

She recalls: “Within half an hour a private jet was waiting for him at Hong Kong airport, and he arrived in London even earlier than planned.”

It all starts at the airport

India tells customers that it all starts at the airport, referring to high-end lounges that the general public may not be aware of.

There are such halls in Los Angeles, London, Paris and, for example, on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. They are not available to airline loyalty program subscribers, are completely separate from the regular airport infrastructure, and can only be accessed for an additional fee.

Exclusive private lounges at airports allow wealthy travelers to skip security lines like mere mortals

One of these rooms is The Private Suite, which opened this year at Los Angeles International Airport.

The cost of services starts from $678. For this money, a luxury chauffeured car will pick up the client, guests and luggage from the desired address and take them to a private lounge where they will be subject to their own security screening. Then they relax in luxurious interiors, and when the time comes, they go down to the airfield and climb onto the plane along a separate ramp.

It seems that in this world of luxury tourism, everything is possible - if only there was money.

Prepared by Evgenia Sidorova

The idea of ​​creating her own concierge service had been tormenting her since she was studying for a master’s degree. In order to learn the intricacies of this business, Yulia got a job as a manager in one of the capital’s concierge services, where she acquired her first skills in interacting with a VIP audience.

Concierge is a person whose responsibilities are to satisfy the requests and desires of clients, as well as provide comfortable conditions for their living. A concierge can work at a residential building or hotel.

A year later, the girl launched her own service, which, along with other services, helps expats adapt to the realities of Moscow life. Capital Concierge, the name of Lukoyanova’s company, serves over 160 private clients and more than twenty corporate clients.

Starting a Concierge Business

Julia began to feel the desire to start her own business in her youth, watching the ups and downs of famous entrepreneurs. As she admits, the craving for exclusivity and luxury haunted her from early childhood, and sometimes took forms that shocked her parents. Being an avid reader of business literature, one day she discovered an article in a London tabloid about the founder of a concierge service from England. The entrepreneur very colorfully described the advantages of this niche, opportunities and prospects - Yulia was simply amazed and realized that she wanted to engage in such a service.

This is how she describes starting her own business.

The next step was to submit a resume to one of the Moscow concierge agencies, where I was hired to work on the night shift. Despite the need for quick response and extremely delicate treatment of dear (in every sense) clients, which was very difficult for me at first, the occupation seemed incredibly romantic and prestigious. One evening an Italian approached us and asked us to find a box of very expensive dry wine, which was brought to Moscow on a special order. We traveled all over the city, but never found the brand he requested. We had to offer an alternative, after which, nevertheless, the guest of the capital was satisfied.

Employees

The time came when I realized that I had mastered the necessary basics and was ready to launch my own business. Previous work allowed me to acquire extremely important connections and acquaintances: the concierge services market in Russia is represented by a very narrow, specific segment, therefore, sooner or later, people in it collide with each other. I invited former colleagues who knew my ambition well and gladly accepted my offer to fill the position of financial and technical directors.

We recruited the rest of the team through the HeadHunter recruiting service. Severe demands are placed on the company's personnel, primarily with regard to communication skills, stress resistance, politeness and tact. Since our service is focused on providing services around the world, employees must have a sufficient level of spoken and written knowledge of common international languages. Great importance is attached to a person’s position in life, his aspirations to carry out assignments, the ability to work on tasks in a team format, and the ability to find a language with other colleagues.

There are special people on staff who analyze exclusive products and offers in Moscow in order to be able to quickly satisfy even the most sophisticated whims of sophisticated clients.

Initial Investment

There is a famous saying in the US that relates to starting a business. She says that to start your own business you need to resort to the three “Fs” - “Family, Friends and Fools”. In my case, the issue was resolved thanks to my relatives and closest friends. I simply turned to them, told them about the advantages of the business that I wanted to create and, thus, received the first investors, collecting start-up capital in the amount of 3 million rubles. Moreover, the support consisted not only of finances, but also of connections and guidance.

Based on the specifics of the service, the first item in the expense items was the rental of real estate in the center of the capital. We focus on wealthy people, so it is necessary to emphasize the level and, at a minimum, the client should be able to easily find us. A decent amount of money was spent on technical support. The essence of our business is constant telephone conversations and contacts via email or social media. In general, the work is organized according to the principle of a call center, where requests are received or clarified. We recently connected a CRM system for dynamic interaction with suppliers and clients, document flow is carried out through cloud services.

Our presence on the World Wide Web is ensured through a website where basic information on services is posted, as well as price lists and contacts for visiting or communication. The level of services is aimed at the Luxury segment, and this requires an elegant approach to page design designed to “hook” the target audience. It is planned that in half a year the main work will be completed and the site will appear online.

Unusual wishes and orders.

Rich people are by nature very eccentric and eccentric, as we have directly seen in the course of our work.

For example, there was a situation when a client approached and asked to find for him a Canadian series that had never been shown in cinemas. A search in Yandex and Google produced extremely modest results and it seemed that I would have to admit my own powerlessness. After several hours of searching, our administrator managed to find the desired film, but it was impossible to download it: it meant watching it only online. I was close to despair until another colleague brought a device for high-quality recording of streaming video from the screen. As a result, we filmed all two seasons and delivered them to the client, who, to our surprise, was as happy as a child.

One day a man called us and said that he and his wife had a problem that did not allow them to have children. Our colleagues asked if he knew where he was going. In response, he said that he knew and was waiting for help. Then our manager had to surf the Internet for several hours, collecting medical information about infertility treatment methods. It is unknown whether this helped the client, but we completed the task.

Another client was remembered for his unprecedented love for animals. He had a habit of traveling everywhere with his Chow Chow dog, which was of advanced age. During one of the flights, the dog died and the client asked to organize an air transfer of her body to her homeland for funeral while he was on a business trip in Moscow.

They even rescued a girl who was traveling from Russia to Ukraine and got stuck on the Kerch Bridge. At that time, military equipment was being delivered through the crossing, and civilian transport was forced to stand in a huge queue. We managed to establish contacts with the management of the control point and persuade the boss to make an exception for our client. There was a tearful story about fatal coincidences, but there was no other choice - anti-advertising, unfortunately. works faster than advertising.

With some pride I can state that to this day there are no unfulfilled orders in our agency. Maintaining such a balance is difficult, but it is possible if you refuse customers service when the order is directly related to a violation of the law. This means that we do not supply drugs, do not find explosives and do not provide sexual services. This approach allows the company to constantly remain within the legal framework and avoid problems with regulatory authorities.

Of course, we cannot do without excesses. One night we were contacted by a client whose communication style was questioned about her adequacy. There was a demand to immediately find a prostitute for them, and if not fulfilled, the husband would come and start a real pogrom in our office. The managers, who had seen a lot in their lifetime, were not at a loss and began to calm the furious client. After a few anecdotes and recommendations about new movies that appeared online, everything fell into place.

Expat Services

Expat (English expat, abbreviated from expatriate, comes from the Latin ex patria “outside the homeland”) - a slang name for foreign specialists, less often a self-name.

A foreign specialist arriving in Russia, in particular in the capital, requires considerable effort to adapt to local living conditions. The urban, crazy rhythm of Moscow can literally unsettle a person and significantly worsen the level of performance. In such cases, our service is more than ever available, by the way, and helps to a certain extent to erase the gap between Russia and the West. Our company conducted a special study of the basic needs of travelers from different countries, on the basis of which a special package of services was formed.

Among our clients there are those who use our services to save money. It happens that they ask for information about the cost of coffee or milk, various food products, and ask for a parallel with the pricing policy in their home country. Given this trend, we were one of the first to introduce a comparative price analysis service, which is becoming popular among expats.

Foreign guests of the capital, whether it is a tourist trip or business purposes, prefer to be accompanied in supermarkets, helped in choosing clothes or furniture, and some require the services of an interpreter to communicate with partners. We also provided services for family placement in central areas and for placing children in private kindergartens, which is not so easy to do in Moscow.

Financial question. Profit.

Over the past year, our company's revenue rose to 43 million rubles, of which net profit amounted to about 15 million rubles.

The business model of the service is based on a subscription costing 85 thousand rubles (annual subscription). It includes a wide range of services, such as providing information and consulting services, booking tables in cafes and restaurants, searching for specialists in beauty salons and recording appointments, delivering gifts, flowers, food and drinks, delivering a taxi to your home, etc.

For the provision of exclusive, non-standard services, their cost, of course, can increase - it all depends on the imagination and material well-being of the customer. On the other hand, during our work we have managed to establish partnerships with service providers who periodically give us significant discounts and provide us with up-to-date information. Such coordinated interaction allows our company to always be one step ahead of its few competitors.

To order our services, the client does not have to buy a subscription. In such situations, the cost of our services is, on average, 10% of the purchase price, and the higher their cost, the lower our percentage. The client may not be burdened with paying our bills at all if the supplier of the goods ordered by him provides the intermediaries with a sufficient commission.

The company has developed a special loyalty program for our target audience. When a client contacts us, we can even provide all possible assistance to his friends or acquaintances for free. Practice has proven that this approach works excellently and increases both the flow of our clients and the average bill for each of them.

Plans.

In the future we plan to implement interesting formats of interaction with private and corporate clients. To do this, we are developing the concept of a closed VIP community or club, where each client will have a personal qualified assistant and a special atmosphere of communication, extending not only to the performance of business tasks, but also to leisure activities. Time and the constantly changing financial situation in the country will tell how realistic this is.

Ideal assistants who can be entrusted with absolutely any task exist and are called concierge managers. These wizards work in agencies, and you can use their services day or night, being completely confident that everything will be done quickly and without unnecessary questions.

Difference in services

Now the market offers us two types of concierge services: banking and lifestyle. They have the same basis - fulfilling customer orders at any time of the day and anywhere in the world. But the operating principles are different. Lifestyle service is an affordable service provided for relatively little money. The Lifestyle Manager takes care of literally everything, from ordering coffee every morning to arranging a mortgage and organizing mushroom picking in the Austrian Alps. If you are a client of such a company, you need to warn about your movements and create a list of tasks; the managers take care of the rest themselves.

Banking concierge service is a standardized service available to owners of premium Gold and Platinum cards. The list of services includes a more formal list of functions performed, which in a large company are the responsibilities of a personal assistant to the general director.

If lifestyle service is common in the USA and Asia, then banking concierge service is a priority in the CIS countries. In Europe, there are both types of services, but the scale is much more modest; people are more accustomed to the fact that instead of a client, his manager can come to a parent meeting.

Lifestyle service is a solution to everyday and general life issues, and banking service is a service aimed at saving the client’s money and increasing his income.

Tickets, rental, delivery

Banks provide concierge service exclusively to VIP clients. Typically, the service is a bonus for the cardholder, and its price is included in the cost of servicing payment cards.

At Alfa-Bank, for example, a client’s VIP status is determined by membership in the A-Club. Membership in this elite club is possible if the client’s current account or deposit has an amount of at least $250 thousand and a Visa Gold or Visa Infinite card is open.

Depending on what card the client owns, he can receive a different set of services. In the standard version, this includes information and consulting services and booking; in the extended version, this includes organizing and planning the client’s personal time, purchasing gifts for a family on a business trip abroad, and delivering a pet to a veterinarian.

There are also more extensive lists, including translation services, booking tickets (from a hotel to an invitation to Fashion Week or a rocket launch in New Mexico), selection of service personnel (governesses, gardeners, administrators), “sober driver” service, rental of yachts and villas, ordering and delivery of flowers and gifts, representation at auctions, organizing cleaning services, installing alarm systems and selecting security structures, planning routes and trips with constant online support, searching for conference rooms, providing stock exchange reports with analysts’ comments, searching for investors, ordering parts for car, emergency door opening, calling a doctor, organizing treatment in a foreign clinic,

Banks either organize their own services or work with special concierge companies.

Complete all

To get a job in the concierge service, you need to go through almost the same selection process as in the bank security service.

“If you want to create problems for a competitor, then lure away his concierge manager,” jokes Karl Zbenek, head of the concierge division of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International.

According to Karl, sometimes very unusual requests are received, but they are carried out at the discretion of the bank manager: “If the client’s task is not related to breaking the law or infringing on someone’s rights and freedoms, then it is usually carried out, despite the absurdity or complexity.”

Anna Gore, an employee of the concierge agency “Business&Privat Concierge” (Berlin, Germany), says: “We work in three shifts, each shift lasts 8 hours, but I’m on call almost around the clock. Clients come with a variety of assignments, from walking a pet to organizing the transportation of equipment from a station in Alaska, for example, to Milan (Italy). We work with partner companies in other countries, as well as with contractors. Our agency has no staff outside Germany. Business trips are very rare; most often we solve all problems online. If the manager says that we need to go somewhere and personally oversee something, it means we are serving a very important client.”

In California (USA), there is a free lifestyle service called Candela Concierge, which performs household tasks: setting up the Internet, connecting a TV, changing a phone number and paying bills, installing an alarm system and personal security. Customers only pay for the work of subcontractors, but at minimum rates, because Candela Concierge has partnership agreements with many services in all cities of the state.

Loyalty test

Despite the low awareness of people about the possibility of using concierge services, the demand for the service is gradually growing. According to statistics for 2014, clients contacted concierge managers of leading banks about 10 thousand times with a variety of orders (statistics of VIP clients). For the most part, the tasks concerned solving problems during foreign trips.

Concierge managers solve absolutely all problems. There are no tasks that they cannot complete. Since last year, banks began to pay special attention to the work of their service departments, because this is a very significant part of the loyalty program. If the client is satisfied with the service, he is loyal. Loyalty means deposits, investments and expansion of cooperation, which automatically means an influx of funds into the bank.

Alexey Samoilenko, a client of Alfa Bank, Moscow, shares his impressions: “I recently became the owner of a gold Visa card from Alfa Bank. When completing the paperwork, the manager separately drew my attention to the fact that now I have a personal assistant to whom I can entrust the completion of a whole list of tasks (the list ended up being 2 A4 sheets). At first I didn’t even think about calling someone and asking them to do something. When my secretary couldn't connect my flights correctly and I was stranded at the New York airport over my stay, the concierge solved the problem in 45 minutes. Then I realized what it means to be a premium customer. Now I use the services of a concierge more often, handling ordinary tasks that were previously performed by an assistant. Comfortable. The assistant is busy with important work, and the concierge manager now handles hotel tickets and visa processing.”