Image
Top
Navigation
May 10, 2010

Fancy Hands – Virtual Assistant. Real Results.

If you’ve ever struggled with juggling too many tasks and wished that you had a personal assistant who could help out, then Fancy Hands is the service you’ve been waiting for. The system gives you access to a personal assistant who’s on call when you need her, but doesn’t require a full-time salary plus benefits. Instead, Fancy Hands uses personal assistants who work in a web-based cloud to handle everyday tasks like making dinner reservations, scheduling a car service, or finding the best hairstylist for you at any time, day or night.

Once you’ve signed up with your Google Account and selected a monthly pricing plan, you can get started delegating tasks to your new personal assistant. Simply choose something you’d like to get done—like ordering a flower arrangement to send to your wife—send an email to Fancy Hands describing the task, and move on with your day. An assistant from Fancy Hands will tackle the task immediately, and get back to you with any details that you need to know—such as the final price and drop off details. Because the site doesn’t take credit card information, you will still need to call the florist to pay for the item yourself, even though your assistant has gone through the trouble of selecting the arrangement and confirming all the details.

Although Fancy Hands assistants can’t handle any tasks that requires a physical presence—such as picking up laundry or taking kids to school—they can help you do all the research and planning for basic to-do list items that eat up time during your day. For anyone who’s ever wished for a second set of hands, Fancy Hands provides a cheap, easy way to get some help tackling mundane tasks in your everyday life.

Practical Uses:

  • Ask your assistant to make a restaurant reservation for you
  • Find the closest store with an iPad in stock
  • Have your next haircut scheduled by an assistant
  • Get advice on which bank is offering better rates

Insider Tips:

  • Fancy Hands assistants can’t handle any payment transactions
  • Individual tasks are routed to the assistant most qualified to handle the situation
  • Assistants will respond with updated information when a task is completed
  • Although Fancy Hands assistants will help with research on particular topics, they won’t write any research papers or school assignments for you

What we liked:

  • Requests are answered quickly and efficiently
  • Email responses let you know when a solution to your issue has been found
  • Assistants don’t just answer questions; they actually complete most tasks for you
  • Task requests can be very specific, such as getting a reservation for certain table at a specific restaurant

What we didn’t like:

  • Not being able to handle payments severely limits the types of tasks that Fancy Hands assistants can handle

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: March 2010
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: New York, New York
  • Founded by: Ted Roden
  • Web site: http://www.fancyhands.com

Costs:

  • $30 for 15 tasks per month

Submit a Comment