You've gotten the correct answers already - and you know that a Hercules stand wouldn't have done this to you, but I'll add some specifics that have worked for me:
Prior to steaming, I put masking tape dams around the dings then a couple drops of distilled water into the ding itself.
The wood fibers have been compressed, and you want to give them every opportunity to expand back to their original size.
Keep adding water droplets to the dings until they won't soak in anymore.
Once you've let it passively soak until saturated, it's time to add steam.
Soak a cotton rag in distilled water and place it over the dings, then touch a soldering gun (ideally with a smoothing tip) to the rag over the ding - just long enough to get the initial burst of steam, not long enough to leave a burn mark!
Move the rag slightly to place a still-wet spot over the ding and repeat until the wood is as swollen as you can get it.
Then move to the next ding and repeat.
Let the neck dry, then (optional) put a drop of superglue where the ding was to bond & fill the finish.
Once the superglue is completely dry, roll the edges (plenty of good YouTube demos for fingerboard rolling).
Finally, sand the dings down to 600 grit or so, using a sanding block to flatten the surface.
Once the grit of the sandpaper is a little clogged, you can ditch the sanding block and feather the edges around where the dings were.
