Using Your Credit Card’s Concierge Service

Published by Alice

Today’s world is filled with Siri, in-car navigation assistance, Google, Yelp, and a variety of other tools to help make managing one’s life fast and easy. However, what if there was an option that combined all of the above conveniences using a real-live person? This service is known as a credit card’s concierge service, and while it has been around since the late 90’s, it is now more widely spread and accessible to a greater amount of customers. When the credit card’s concierge service started, it was primarily for extremely high-limit credit cards, but now it is included in more moderate-limit cards, helping the credit card companies stay competitive with the likes of smart phones. The personalized services that the concierge provides are numerous and many of them are included below.

Making Restaurant Suggestions and Reservations

A customer’s credit card concierge service is a great resource to help make dinner reservations, especially if one is traveling and he or she is not familiar with the area. When relying on an internet search to find a restaurant, the user is unable to personalize their request in the same manner he or she can with the live customer service representative. Customers may let their concierge service know certain parameters, such as the fact that they want an inexpensive BBQ restaurant in downtown that is open past 9 p.m. If customers are looking for very specific requests, the service will need ample time to do research. This means that credit card users might not be able to ask for recommendations an hour before they want to eat. Once the recommendations are received, the customer can call back to get the concierge to make his or her reservations, or he or she can call themselves, as the number should be included in whatever form of communication he or she chose their restaurant suggestions to come in. However, a possible benefit of having a credit card company make the reservation is that they may have an ongoing relationship with certain restaurants, snagging the customer arrangements at a place that is being advertised as booked. While this is not a given, it can’t hurt to relax and let a customer service representative call and try and book a table.

Planning Entertainment for the Customer’s Weekend

Whether it is a weekend concert or a weekday baseball game, the credit card’s concierge service is able to help find and book tickets. While the service is not able to provide backstage passes or free tickets, other preferences may be available. These might include knowing about pre-sale tickets, offering preferred seating options, or finding tickets to an event that is being labeled as “sold-out.” When it comes to booking tickets to a show or sporting event, the perks of using the concierge service are evident. Without a customer’s credit card concierge service, finding pre-sales and preferred seating tickets may take a great deal of extra time spent on research and extra money spent on upgrades. Credit cards like to reward customers for using their services. This is something that does not exist with Siri, Google, or Bing, as these search engines yield the same general search results for every internet user.

Planning and Booking a Trip

When looking to plan a regional or international trip, the credit card’s concierge service is the customer’s ally. The service can help recommend quality hotels and book plane tickets. This can be extremely useful in international travel, because the customer may not have a way to confirm that a hotel or restaurant is as high-quality as the website or brochure boasts. Every dining and hotel experience is precious when traveling abroad, because it may be the only time the customer gets to visit a certain country. Through utilizing the concierge service, the customer can be more assured that suitable accommodations will be made. It is true that one has every capability of visiting travel sites and booking their own trip; however, if customers desire first-class travel and hotel services, the credit card company is a beneficial tool to procure these requests.

Shopping

A less direct method of using the concierge service is to price shop and locate future purchases. A customer can call their credit card’s concierge service and request them to find the lowest priced HDTV at stores in a specific city. This will save the customer time and money as they go to make their purchase. However, price shopping is not the main function of a concierge service, so if finding the absolute lowest price on an item is of great importance to you, make sure to state this in the beginning of the call to a customer service representative. A concierge service may also be able to tell you if a specific store has a hard to find item. As with any recommendation of the service, it may take a little time to yield results.

Navigation

If a customer is lost in a foreign country or downtown in their own city, the concierge service may be able to help them find their way. It is important to remember that the concierge service is utilized over the phone, so if a blue tooth is in place; it is a hands-free service. This is much safer than trying to search for directions on one’s phone while driving. It will be helpful for the customer to know their current location or any surrounding landmarks, as the concierge does not have access to the location of the customer’s phone, as a traditional GPS would. Especially if one lost overseas, it will be reassuring and helpful to have a customer service representative who speaks the customer’s language assist in navigating him or her back to their hotel or car.

Live Customer Service Representatives

Perhaps the greatest benefit of using the concierge service on one’s phone is that the customer gets to speak with an actual person. Yes, search engines and Siri are sometimes faster, but they cannot work out specific details like a real-life person can. If the customer has specific parameters or a unique situation that they need help with, talking to someone at the credit card company can help them find exactly what they are looking for without searching through hundreds on online results and guessing as to which is the best answer. Over the years, people have taken the backseat in customer service as the internet has taken over. However, when a customer needs specific needs met in a friendly and helpful manner, nothing beats talking to a fellow human.