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Fancy Hands is a New York-based virtual assistant company that was founded in 2010. In itself, it’s not a revolutionary business model, but what sets Fancy Hands apart from its low priced outsourcing competition is its use of US-based, native-English speaking assistants. 
For that, they’re gaining a lot of momentum and exposure.
Customers primarily use Fancy Hands as a time-saving tool for small one-time tasks, like restaurant reservations, online research, and quick event planning. You can submit tasks via the web interface, email, or phone, and rumor has it a mobile app is coming soon.
Initially Fancy Hands wasn’t touching any tasks that involved making purchases online, but they’ve added the capability now to make purchases on your behalf up to $100. For these transactions, your credit card details stay hidden from the VA. They use a company card, and then just bill the card you have on file for your membership for the amount of the purchase.
Another cool feature is that adding events to your Google Calendar is free.
For just $45 a month you can outsource up to 15 tasks, and 25 15-minute tasks is just $65 a month. A smaller 5-task plan is $25 a month, and you can save 25% on all plans by pre-paying for a year in advance. The pre-pay option is a great deal but of course is a little risky for first-time outsourcers.
Fancy Hands Review
Virtual Assistant Assistant Referral Bonus: If you want to try Fancy Hands, get 50% off your first month when you sign-up through this link.
I tested Fancy Hands against a few of their competitors, both in the US and overseas. The trial pitted them against Red Butler, Efficise, and My Tasker. Please click here to read the full review of my test.
Without a dedicated virtual assistant option, Fancy Hands is aimed at a personal-use audience rather than a business-use audience. Unless of course your business requires lots of online research done in 15 minute increments, for example. Longer, time-intensive tasks like writing articles or ongoing business process tasks aren’t allowed. That said, I’ve had them do the initial baseline research for writing projects.
The company recently introduced a TeamWork platform, that gives Fancy Hands access to your entire team. For employers, it’s a nice perk to offer and allows your workers to be more productive on the job. The service is integrated with the web interface, email, phone, and Basecamp project management software.
Once you create your account, you’ll see a dashboard that keeps track of your requests and some other stats on profile. Fancy Hands has spent over 8 hours on the phone for me!
I’m a pretty happy camper to have not had to make those 138 calls myself.
Another feature added is the ability to use Fancy Hands to set up your conference calls. It’s easy and included in your subscription (only charges one task), which probably amounts to less than some other conference-calling services may charge.
The Fancy Hands App
In March 2013, Fancy Hands launched their mobile app. It has a very slick user interface with nearly all the functionality of their browser-based site.
You can check on view your usage statistics, track existing requests, and submit new ones via text or voice. Very cool. It also allows you to take pictures that might be helpful to your VA or choose an existing photo from your library.
In the Cloud
Fancy Hands virtual assistants are “in the cloud” – a largely part-time, on-demand, and remote workforce that handles tasks as they come in. The unique set-up has attracted a lot of positive press during its first year in business, including articles in Fast Company, Slate, and Forbes. Users email their requests to a common account and a Fancy Hands assistant tackles it and follows up.
One advantage of this team-based approach is 24/7/365 coverage for your requests, whereas a “real” would probably need to take some time off or sleep every now and then.
However, to give off the appearance of a dedicated assistant, you can give this team of VAs a real name. The feature is called Personal Touch, and you can set up a dedicated email account to give correspondents the illusion that you have a dedicated personal assistant.
For instance, Fancy Hands founder Ted Roden uses the name Lucille Bluth — as in “I’ll have my assistant Lucille will set up the meeting.” And regardless of which Fancy Hands VA assumes the task, the meeting request will appear to come from Lucille.
Hmm… what clever name should I use for my assistant?
If you have any experience with Fancy Hands, please share it below!
I used Fancy Hands for 2 months and really loved their service. They were fast, the quality was higher than I expected, and were really worth the money I spent. The problem was that I was struggling to find 15 requests every month so I found myself just sending things I wouldn’t normally need. Regardless, I’m a big fan and always re-considering signing back up with them.
One of the worst service ever. They didn’t even care to respond to most of my requests that lay open for few days. Now, its not about chunk size. I had given similar tasks to services that does that in 15 min. At least a courtesy to reply? I had to keep following up. I wasted more time here than I really gained.
It’s a little early for me to give a review I suppose- I just activated my account a week ago. I snagged a FAB coupon to try out the unlimited plan for the month- so far I’ve been extremely satisfied.
I’m a mother of 4 children, run my own business and work for another- I have always joked that I needed an extra set of hands. At the moment I don’t have a big enough budget to hire someone full time- or heck even part time. Fancy hands definitely fits my budget- like Josh, I’m not sure I will continue to have tons of tasks every month- but so far so good.
So far I’ve gotten a list of 3 local vendors who sell mulch & topsoil, with compiled info on costs, delivery time and contact info. An estimate for several different sized foam replacement cushions, a list of lawyers/comparison of do-it-yourself-legal options (wasn’t as impressed with that task, I was hoping for more research- I might bounce that one back to them- they used a dubious source for those answers) Rescheduled a few appointments, made a few others- had a youtube video transcribed. My list is fairly random- but then again so is my life.
I think my only complaint is the learning curve as to what is an acceptable request. I think I might have more things I could hand off if I knew more clearly the “line”. The terms of service list that tasks should take about 15 minutes to complete which is helpful but vague. Would love to see a little more documentation on that piece.
The response time I’ve gotten has been appropriate as far as I’m concerned. For me- I remember those silly to-do items late in the evening, when the business I need to connect with is closed. I’ll get a response letting me know that they will call back when they’re open/if they’ve gotten a busy signal or left a message.
I’m very happy so far- I do wish they could do a few more things (fill in forms for me, even if they call to get the answers) but if this keeps up, I plan to keep them. For the price, and knowing they’re using US-based employees and all the nonsense they’re helping me with- it’s a no-brainer.
Their quality is relatively good. Used them a couple of months.
Note, though: Signed up for the unlimited plan – which of course I wasn’t naive to believe was literally unlimited.
I’ll admit I can be a heavy user. But then, they wanted to deny service even though they’re unwilling to specify how many tasks is actually in the unlimited plan, which I think feels a bit shady.
So in terms of value for money, not so clear.
I’m well into my first month of using Fancy Hands and I’m very impressed so far. The only thing I do not like about the service is that you have to use all of your requests in the month or you lose them, they do NOT roll over. This is a bit annoying because say X month I only need 1 service request but the next I need 8, it would be nice to have them roll over since I technically paid for them. Other than that, I’m happy with the service. Response time has been within 24 hours of each request, and they always seem to be willing to do more research, if you don’t get back the exact data you were looking for.
FancyHands is really great for the outsourcing novice or expert but less for the in between user. It’s great that you can call in requests so you can do it while on the run, driving, or when you have your hands full.
I’ve been experimenting with the $45 15-task plan, and I gotta say, it’s surprisingly addicting.
My primary experience has been working with project-based VAs and long-term virtual employees so this type of service was new to me.
The thing is, it’s totally a luxury service, right? Everything I sent was stuff I could have done on my own or I could have figured out, but either didn’t want to or didn’t want to make time for.
I submitted about 1/3rd business tasks and 2/3rds personal tasks. Here are a few:
Is there WiFi on this flight? (forwarded confirmation details)
Stitch these .mov files together
Is this stuff worth anything on ebay?
Can you transcribe this 2 min. video?
Guest Blogging Opportunities in Outsourcing Niche?
Top sites to see in Bath, UK
Car insurance quotes.
Cheap folding chairs in stock nearby?
Contact the county and clarify property tax question.
What are the best traveling backpacks?
In general I was really happy with the results. The average response time was about 2 and a half hours, but some came back as quickly as 21 minutes. There were a couple that were deemed “beyond scope”, but that was fine, it was all part of the learning curve. In those cases, Fancy Hands didn’t count the task against my total for the month.
But I think more important than the results I got back was the shift in mindset for certain small tasks. I really found myself thinking with each new mini-project that came up – is this something I could delegate to Fancy Hands?
It’s hard to say whether this is going to usher in a new era of productivity or just a new era of laziness, but I will say, it’s a really cool feeling to have this resource in your back pocket you can tap into when you need it.
An on-demand personal assistant? I didn’t think it was going to be for me but I’m really liking it so far.
You can find similar services in India and Pakistan at lower price points, but if you’re on the fence about trying out a virtual assistant service like this, I would encourage you to go for it.
Like I said, I was surprised how much use and how much value I got out of it. Worst case, you try it for a month and don’t like it, you can turn it off.
If you do sign up, be sure and come back by here in a month or two and let everyone know how it’s going!
I really like Fancy Hands since they make multiple phone calls for you in one request and are super diligent. The only downside so far is the restriction on using credit card numbers. Other than that, Fancy Hands has been an amazing experience – the free scheduling makes a huge difference. Now I just forward my emails to Fancy Hands to let them add things to my calendar, it’s super convenient.
I asked them to find several stores close to where I live to ask if they had a particular product(an e-cigarette). They bungled this up incredibly. None of the stores I was given by Fancy Hands carried the product. In addition half of the phone numbers I was given were to wrong numbers. I used this service thinking that it would save me some time but the wild goose chase I went on cost me an hour of time.
I’ve been a long-time subscriber to Fancy Hands and I love their service because it helps me spend more time working on the things I want to do, and less time on the small tasks that pop up throughout the day.
Fancy Hands has been the magic in my pocket for 18+ months. I use them more than any other online service because they — constantly — help me waive goodbye to stress and spend more time on the things I love.
When I had a quick question, I emailed Fancy Hands. (‘Hey, when is the production of Wicked in Honolulu until? How much are tickets?’)
When I needed to book an appointment, I emailed Fancy Hands. (‘Can you call my chiropractor (541.555.5555) and book an appointment for Thursday, Friday, or Saturday? I dropped a jar of Apple Sauce and pulled my back. I know, I’m a goofball.’)
When I was researching an upcoming trip, I emailed Fancy Hands. (‘What hostels are on the North Shore of Oahu?’)
When I ripped my favorite pair of pants, I emailed Fancy Hands, and they tracked down a similar replacement style and called the local gap to confirm they were in stock!
I recently finished an in-depth guide on Getting Started With Fancy Hands, including
* Detailed examples of projects you can use to get started with Fancy Hands
* Word-for-word scripts so you can get the most out of Fancy Hands
* Step-by-step instructions to help you get started with Fancy Hands.
The guide is 100% free — I created it to help people I love (like you!) get started with Fancy Hands. If you’d like to download a copy of the guide for free, visit: http://kaisdavis.com/fh/
Enjoy!
I want to put this out there as someone who currently works for Fancy Hands. My reason for this is that I feel many of our clients don’t know how it works on our end, but to me it’s important to get the word out.
To start with, the assistants are deemed “independent” and not actual employees. That being said, FH does not supply us with 1099s, which I find wrong and am currently having the NYS Department of Labor investigate this. They claim that if we are paid via paypal, paypal then will issue a 1099 if we make over $20,000 a year. However, I freelance for many online sites and they pay via paypal and they send me 1099.
Also, the definition of an independent contract, as defined by the IRS, is that we have control over when we work, and we don’t answer to management. This is not the case with FH. While we can pick and choose what hours we work, there are limitations to that. Now, if we’re working on a task and put in for an answer from a third party, and that third party responds, we have 16 hours to get moving or we lose the task. I don’t mind that so much, because we should be checking our email if we have tasks still sitting waiting to be done.
But, if for example we close a task out and a client responds to say thanks! If we don’t answer that w/in 16 hours, we lose the task. Another assistant can then grab the task, say you’re welcome, and get paid for all the work we did. Not fair if we’ve left for vacation and aren’t near email — being responsible enough to leave w/o any tasks to take care of, and being on vacation from a job that technically by law isn’t defined as a job, kind of makes us always have to be on our email no matter what.
Second, we answer to management. All of our tasks get mentored and kicked back if there’s something wrong. Sometimes a mentor will be super picky about things, other (and most) times it’s usually just a spelling error or something like that.
And forget about our manager, Scott. 9 times out of 10 he’ll bite your head off when you ask him a question.
How this works: We log in and see tasks on a board. Those tasks are assigned a price, most of them $2.75. Now, if you read their Terms of Service, you’ll see that tasks aren’t supposed to take more than 15 minutes. At $2.75 a pop, if you do 4 14 min tasks, you can earn $11 an hour.
And there are tasks priced higher, $3.50 or $4.00, but those tasks are always more difficult and many times are reserved for the hourly paid. And I’ve never, ever been able to knock off 4 tasks in an hour. That’s because so many of them take longer than 15 minutes.
Even if you want me to call your cable company to get a better rate, hold times can be 15-20 min long. And clients will kick back responses a lot, saying that they want us to do more, or whatever. If we try to get a manager to say they have to submit as a new task, we get our head bitten off, have to keep plugging along, and guess what. We earned $2.75 for an hours worth of work.
So, I guess the reason I’m putting this out there is I think that clients need to be aware of how it works on our end, and maybe why your tasks sit unanswered for awhile. If you want me to do work for you that you know realistically will take me an hour, and Fancy Hands deems the cost of that task work $3, you can bet that task is going to sit there on the board for a long time.
As an independent contractor, technically we should be working with our clients directly to negotiate that cost, and bottom line is you’d get more bang for your buck. Or if FH treated us like employees, and we were ALL paid hourly, again, more bang for your buck. So the next time you submit a task, think about what you’re asking and what most likely that assistant is going to be paid for it.
I love using this company, they’ve always done a great job for me.
Useless.
I had an unlimited plan. I tried to like it. At first, maybe they were actually effective. In any case, in the end, when they started kicking off heavy users who had the temerity to say that the tasks were not done well, I am left very disappointed and maybe even feel worse about their ethics. (they are not transparent in what ‘unlimited’ means or how long a task really takes. Why are their execs looking at my LinkedIn profile?)
Here is an example: I need a piece of glass to replace one that I broke in a danish-designed teapot. Perfect, right? Someone to hunt down a replacement part. Here is what I get: first a hyperlink to the website of the manufacturer. Really? that isn’t complete work. I can do that myself. I want the part. (I say this). 2nd attempt I get a response from the company, in French (!) saying that I need to find a local dealer. (why French? b/c the FH person had a french name?) Did anyone actually read the response b/f sending this to me??
How many of these FAILed interactions does it take to realize that they are wasting more of your time than they claim to be saving?
Horribel. Dont care about the clients. DOnt answer my emails.
Ban my account and dont give me a reson.
I love you Fancy Hands! Been a happy member for a long time. Don’t forget to give your assistants a thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!