Being a virtual assistant might not seem like an eventful job. We work from home and we interact with clients virtually for a predetermined amount of time so our working life might seem pretty ordinary. But once in a while, we do get clients that ask us to do things that are not exactly part of our job descriptions. We love our clients, but we have received some unusual requests that have made us go “wait…what now?”.
We asked our virtual assistants to share some of the weirdest things they have been asked to do by clients and we came up with 10 of our favourite stories. Here are “10 weirdest things you’ve been asked to do by a client”.
#1 When the past calls, don’t answer
“A client asked me to block persons from their past on all their social media accounts, more than one client actually.”
This client is the epitome of ‘let go of the past’
#2 All research, is good research?
“My client was a stripper, starting his own business.
I had to find stripper rates for male and/or midget strippers, as well as different party ideas for strippers e.g. stork tea’s where they can “baby” the midget stripper (his example)
I received a lot of threatening emails on my private email saying: I know what you did and will expose your special crazy to all your Facebook friends if you don’t pay me xxx amount of Bitcoin. All in the name of research”
If there was ever a story that gets crazier and crazier.
#3 The virtual alter boy
“One of our clients is a church in the UK. I think the most out of the ordinary thing we do is log onto their MAC in the sound room and not only prepare the slides for the Sunday morning service, but I also log into the pro presenter and put the slides on the MAC and time it for the sound man to simply click “play” on Sunday morning.
Something also different is that I contact all the volunteers for Sunday morning via Whatsapp and roster them for the Sunday service.”
This client made sure they got their money’s worth!
#4 An Uber request for a kitty
“I had to order a pet taxi for a client. They needed their cat picked up from the vet and brought home.”
Listen, pets matter too!
#5 Its in the name
“For nearly a year I worked for a client who insisted on addressing me as, and signing off on, his previous PA’s name so that his clients weren’t aware/jarred by the change. Completely understandable. However he then moved on to another EA who was a man who also had to be addressed and sign off as this same name – a very nice ladies name. Hehehe”
I guess this client really loved that VA
#6 Fixing the leak under the sink, virtually
“Talking my client through the installation of a replacement water filter cartridge under a sink (which I’ve never seen) via a WhatsApp call.”
#7 When you work from home…
“I once had a client who had a zoom meeting with me in his dressing gown and unshaven !!!”
Some people take “work from home” to another level.
#8 When a “weird” rquest is pretty cool
I had a client buy me a self-help book and post it over for me to read so I could help him accomplish his goals of daily management. The book was ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen and helped me as much as I hope it helped him.
I also had a client use his package hours for me to watch documentaries and then give him summaries to help him decide which ones to watch himself.
I honestly wouldn’t mind reading a book or watching documentaries for a client.
#9 Some more unusual requests
“I was asked to source cocktail stirrers with naked ladies on for my client’s boyfriend!”
I wonder if they were able to source these cocktail stirrers
#10 Flying over the cheese
“My client called me in a panic one morning and told me I had to arrange for someone to pick up some cheese from a shop in London and get it to Paris for that evening!!”
I would have thought there was enough good cheese in France already!
As you can see there’s no request too strange. Our virtual assistants can do it all.
Visit AVirtual, to hire your own qualified virtual assistant today!