inthenews

Chicago Tribune
(This is a portion of the article)

Tribune staff reporter, Barbara Rose

An all-service help desk
Companies offer employees a range of concierge conveniences

December 6, 2006
Such employee-friendly perks--inexpensive when compared with benefits such as
company-paid health care--go a long way toward buying goodwill in an era where time is
scarce, experts say.

"People are working harder than ever before," said Mary Clark, director of
Evanston-based non-profit Winning Workplaces. "Increasingly, as organizations
streamline, they have fewer employees and everyone is an important contributor."

Four percent of human resources professionals responding to a recent survey said their
companies provide concierge services, according to the Society for Human Resources
Management.

Twenty-three percent said they make it easier for employees to mail packages and buy
stamps by providing postal services. Thirteen percent offer dry cleaning. Two percent offer
photo-developing drop-off and pickup.

Not surprisingly, employers most likely to provide such benefits are concentrated in
industries where competition for workers is greatest, such as health care and professional
services.

Teresa Frith, co-owner of A World Class Concierge Service Inc. in Chicago, recently got a
call from a consulting company that gave her a credit card number and instructions to offer
two key employees carte blanche access to her services during the holidays.
"Charge everything to the company and do whatever they ask you to do," the company
instructed.
"I wish I worked for them," Frith said.

echo
The Student Magazine of Columbia College Chicago
Winter/Spring 2006

An extra set of hands
The quirky, unpredictable world of personal concierge services is booming.
Does it need you?
By: Kate Palm

(This is a portion of the article)

Maybe you used to be Mommy's little helper. Maybe you're the first person others come to when they need a favor.
But did you know that you could charge a fee? Over the past several years, personal assistant and concierge services
have exploded to include more than two dozen businesses in the Chicago area. As people's lives get more and more
harried, many are desperate for a helping hand with everyday chores and errands-everything from waiting for the
repairman to arrive to walking the dog to paying the bills...

Teresa Frith and Ann Van Damme founded A World Class Concierge Service, Inc., in December 2003 after discovering
they could have used such services themselves. "I used to travel 90 percent of the time", says Van Damme. "I just
never had time to get things done. When you're going all the time, your personal life starts to fall apart." Everything
from paying the bills to remembering to feed the cat had become an addition to her "to do" list.

Based in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood and serving both city and suburbs, A World Class meets the needs of "time
challenged" individuals and businesses with services such as home and office organization, party planning and
preparation, and moving assistance...

Van Damme believes this is part of the reason her company is growing. "As people get more and more job
responsibilities they have less personal time", she explains. "The time they do have they don't want to spend paying
bills, going to the cleaners. They want to be able to enjoy their leisure time."

Van Damme and Frith have 15 to 20 regular clients. ...

Regular clients rely on concierge services to perform tasks that only a best friend might otherwise be able to do. A
World Class has one customer who "always" has unusual and last minute requests," Frith says, such as finding tennis
matches that he forgot to tape for his busy wife. "That's how he found us originally," she laughs. "He said, "You have to
find this or I'm getting a divorce."

We establish a relationship with [our customers] because we are so involved in their lives," Van Damme adds. "Trust is
a big factor." ...

Crain’s Chicago Business

'Valets' hear cry for time
Tame the errand beast: Hand your to-do list to personal concierge
By Lisa Bertagnoli
February 14, 2005

(This is a portion of the article)

Some busy people hire personal assistants; others rely on spouses (or teenagers) to give them a hand with unwieldy to-do lists. How
about the rest of the time-strapped masses?

For an hourly fee, concierge services will pick up the dry cleaning, walk and feed the dog, wait for the cable guy, hire a plumber, make
dinner reservations, order flowers and even shop for groceries.

Rather like to-do lists, no two concierge services are the same. Several in the Chicago area specialize in business tasks: typing, sorting,
maintaining records and other thankless jobs. Others work as hourly housekeepers, taking care of time-consuming chores such as
waiting for deliveries, hiring and supervising repair people and running Saturday morning-type errands.

Most are sole business people offering personal services to a handful of clients. The biggest, Lisle-based Valet Today, operates on a
grander scale, offering a set menu of errands, among them DVD returns and dry cleaning pickup and drop-off, to mass populations at
train stations, apartment complexes and office buildings.

In the more personalized services, concierges charge a set hourly fee and offer package deals to steady clients. They get a key to the
house and a credit card number for purchases (such as groceries); clients can reimburse concierges with cash or checks if they prefer.
Concierges maintain lists of preferred service providers and charge those companies (not their clients) a finder's fee.

There's a trade off, of course: Those who hire concierges have to be organized enough to delegate, and they have to be well-heeled
enough to pay the fees, which can approach $50 an hour.

The payoff is more time, a gold mine for people who find it more lucrative to make business deals than wait in line at Blockbuster.

"Successful people delegate whatever they can," says Jackie Tiani, 54, a productivity expert based in Glendale Heights. She regularly
hires errand-runners herself and recommends them to clients. Surveys she's done indicate that such chores eat up 40 hours per month.

"I tell clients that a person with free time is rich beyond measure, and the envy of everybody."

A World Class Concierge Service
(773) 275-1006
www.aworldclassconciergeservice.com
The concierges: Teresa Frith and Ann Van Damme. Ms. Frith, 45, has been an accountant and a property manager, is a notary public and
has a real estate license. Ms. Van Damme, 60, was a saleswoman at a relocation company before she and Ms. Frith started their
business in December 2003.
Sampling of services: Pet-sitting, party planning, grocery shopping, waiting for packages and deliveries and assorted errands, like taking
photos to be framed
Rate: $25 an hour with a one-hour minimum; no contract
Bonded/insured: Scheduled to be by the end of February
A client: Scott M. Pierce, 55, an OB/GYN in Oak Brook. "When I don't have time to do something, I call them."
Tangible benefit: An intact marriage. After Dr. Pierce (or his TiVo) failed to record a tennis match for his wife, she stopped speaking to
him. He found Ms. Frith and Ms. Van Damme online, and they located a tape of the match at a New York tennis club and got it to him in
two days, for $200. "My wife talks to me now," Dr. Pierce says.

SMART TALK
Short on time? Service aims to save you some

Amy Eagle

May 5, 2004

If you could put time in a bottle, your mom would love some for Mother's Day. Way more than another bottle of perfume.

But if your time-encapsulation experiments have yet to pay off, Teresa Frith and Ann Van Damme of Chicago's North Side have a gift
idea that comes close.

Founders of A World Class Concierge Service Inc., the two will do whatever your mom does not have the time or inclination to
do--everything from waiting at her house for a package to preparing that house for sale.

Frith suggested moms--or other harried humans--might like help with "running-around-type things," like errands and groceries.

The company, started in 2003, serves private and corporate clients on a one-time or subscription basis. They work throughout the entire
Chicago area and, when feasible, elsewhere.

Gift certificates start at $25 (good for one hour's assistance) and are good indefinitely.

For more information, see www.aworldclassconciergeservice.com or call 773-275-1006.

Copyright © 2004, Amy Eagle
Reprinted with the permission of: Amy Eagle

This article appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, May 5, 2004
WN WOMEN NEWS section, page 3