Concierge service comes to Guyana
Kaieteur News
March 5, 2007
With the aim of lending support to the average working Guyanese, the Business and Environmental Services (BES) located at 308 Quamina and East Streets, Georgetown, has introduced its personal and errand services to the general public.
This small, innovative business is owned by Ms Denise Fraser, who has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations Development Programme. She has also been providing environmental consultancy services since 2002.
Around the world the concierge or errand service business has been growing steadily as companies increasingly make use of corporate concierges and provide them as part of their corporate benefit packages.
“Time has indeed become the commodity of the future. Concierge services stem from the fact that so many people are stressed out, overworked and need help dealing with life so that they can spend their free time nurturing themselves and their families,” according to officials at the entity.
“The pace of life in Guyana has picked up and most, if not all, working Guyanese have to do a balancing act every day.”
Statistics from a recent study of the work force in the United States revealed that the average worker spends at least 44 hours per week on the job. Thirty-six per cent said that they often feel completely used up at the end of the workday while 85 per cent claimed to have daily family responsibilities to go home to.
And while weekends are consumed with errands and housekeeping, the study revealed that it is even more strenuous for 78 per cent of married workers who also have spouses that work.
Additionally, 70 per cent of all working parents feel that they do not spend enough time with their children.
“Most of us try to cram all our little errands into lunch hours, after work and our already busy Saturdays,” is the notion put forward by BES.
“Often they creep into our regular work time since most of the people we need to do business with also do business during regular working hours.”
As a result the management of BES has observed that at the end of the day people are forced to drag themselves home to give hazy attention to their families.
And so it was against this background that the local concierge service was created.
The availability of such services can allow people adequate time to spend at their desks on their substantive work and subsequently more time to spend with their families at night.
The entity offers personal assistance and errand services such as paying bills; picking up and delivering dry cleaning/laundry; planning parties, weddings and other events; finding, wrapping and delivering gifts; making travel arrangements and meeting guests at airport and more.
It also offers corporate service.