Private View Blog: Concierge services just the ticket for private banks looking to stand out from the crowd

Advances in technology have made it possible for concierge services to be integrated into wealth managers’ offerings, bringing benefits to both private banks and their clients

Ploughing through the entries for this year’s Global Private Banking Awards, it is clear that getting to know clients better and improving the customer experience are vital to business models.

While managing money is still very much the focus, banks are looking for other ways to meet their client needs, and one way they are able to offer that little bit more is in the area of concierge services. Banks offering these schemes claim to be able to provide access to hard-to-get concert tickets, hotel rooms, seats at top restaurants and so on.

It is clear why clients benefit from this, but what is in is for the banks?

“These services can increase the bond between the private bank and their client,” claims Alex Cheatle, CEO at Ten Lifestyle Group, which offers concierge services to private banks such as Coutts, RBC and HSBC.

They are also a way for banks to differentiate themselves. “Not many of us tell our friends who we bank with and ask who they bank with. They do say how did you get that table at such short notice or front row tickets to Hamilton? Then they said, oh it is because I bank with Coutts and suddenly you have that dialogue.”

The challenge with providing these services is they have to be very good, says Mr Cheatle, and you need to provide them without clients “paying through the nose”. Although the firm has been around for a while, technology has been a game changer in this space and Ten has spent “several tens of millions” on its new platform. It also has around a thousand staff globally who have cultivated relationships with top hotels, restaurants and the like.

The result, it claims, is that when a private bank partners with them, they get a personalised, bank-branded platform which allows its users to book seats and tickets there and then. Banks appear to like the service too, with Ten winning 19 of the last 20 tenders put out by wealth managers and private banks globally, and interest in these services definitely increasing.

The concept of concierge services has been around for at least two decades in wealth, says Seb Dovey, an independent wealth management consultant and one of our awards judges, but it was an ancillary, with no one ever really integrating it into the wealth narrative properly.

“Now that has changed. If you have the right concierge capability, platform, service model, then you can integrate it into the natural relationship the client has with the bank,” he says. “Then it actually does make a difference. And a commercial one, not just a perk. Because you can increase the level of engagement with your client, you are providing more than just money management.”

We are beginning to see the global brands, and the market leaders in their home markets, recognise that this needs to be integrated into the whole solution for private banking, says Mr Dovey, while clients are aware a concierge facility can help them reach the parts of their life that they want to enjoy more.

Those who provide this are likely to benefit, he believes. “I am keen to see it become more integrated into private banking. At the moment it is still slightly the afterthought at most firms and I think that is an error of judgement. Because it can be a considerable value add for those that get it.”

So just what is it that these wealthy individuals want to get access to? “You might think it is all about the opera, but for every opera ticket we organise, we do 100 Ed Sheeran tickets,” says Ten’s Mr Cheatle. Comedy is very big in the UK, he reports, but non-existent in Latin America or Russia, while everyone is very keen on eating out.

And is there anything he cannot get tickets for?

“HNWs sometimes put money into films, and they like the idea of going to the Oscars, but every time we have tried to do that, private security businesses have warned us off. They want to know everybody in the building. So we no longer try to buy tickets to that.”