Virtual Dating Assistants – The world has gone mad
When the online dating industry first began gaining popularity it was pushed heavily as the answer for busy professionals whose careers have meant they don’t have enough time to get out and socialise.
As the industry spread to cover all manner of niches across occupation, religion and social status the selling point was still the time that would be saved from conducting a search for love online.
Things have now gone a step further.
So called ‘Virtual Dating Assistants’ are slowly appearing, promising to manage your online dating for you (for a small fee of course!!).
A Virtual Dating Assistant will work on your profile, conduct searches for matches based on your specified criteria and even arrange your dates for you. If you’re really short of time I’m sure you could just send them out on the dates aswell.
Seriously. What is the world coming too? In an industry that is supposed to revolve around honesty having someone else attempt to ‘represent your personality’ during communication is the height of dishonesty.
Despite this I find it hard to be enraged with those offering the service. In fact if there are people out there who make use of such services I’m tempted to set up such a business myself. Browsing dating sites and setting up dates for others looks a simple and profitable formula from were I’m sitting.
The downside surely has to come when a date is arranged? Aside from having had no interaction with your date you are reliant on your ‘assistant’ representing your personality accurately. If a topic comes up that’s been discussed in the online communication you’re screwed. If your online persona has more charisma than you then you’re screwed.
Aside from this if you are so busy that not only can you not get out and socialise, you don’t even have the time to do some online dating I would suggest it’s your career that needs reviewing rather than your love life.
Hello Dr Sticklewink. Nice article! Just have one comment. No one is actually screwed on the first date.. at least with our company. We really get to know the client pretty well during a 1 hour interview, the client reviews style examples to make sure we are in line with their personality before we make any contacts and, in some cases, the client even reviews the emails before they are sent off. Plus, you should understand that we are only exchanging a few emails before we suggest moving things offline… we are never building an ‘online relationship’… never chatting! We’ve set up over 60 dates over the past two months and so far we haven’t had any issues with this.
Cheers,
Scott
Scott Valdez
Co-Founder and President
Virtual Dating Assistants LLC
Phone: 1-305-459-3099
Email: scott@virtualdatingassistants.com
Website: http://www.virtualdatingassistants.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/OutsourceDating
If you ask me – which you waren’t of course – I say it’s ridiculous. If people think online dating is desperate, how desperate is hiring an assistant to do your online dating for you?
To me that would be a complete and utter deal breaker if I found out that my date had been using one of these services to talk to me.. Not because it would be dishonest, it would be just down right helpless – and in the future I would expect to be in contact with his personal assistant / secretary more than him, so.. No thanks. Unless he has a high credit limit for my personal use and allows other guys (and a husband) on the side.
Seriously Scott, what kind of a client base do you have and more importantly, if the dates of your clients find out, how do they react? Not that I would expect a truthful answer from you.
Hi Sebastyne,
Sorry I didn’t get back to your sooner!
I love a healthy debate and have no reason to give you anything but a truthful answer.
Our client base consists primarily of people that simply don’t have 6-12 hours per week to dedicate to online dating, which is what it takes most people (esp. men) to produce worthwhile results. They are business execs, lawyers, entrepreneurs, etc. They are primarily male (although we do have female clients) and work between 65-100 hours per week.
Obviously, revealing that you used our service to your date the first time you meet is not something we recommend. Timing is paramount. My partner told his current wife that his Virtual Assistant had sent her the emails online (background: he spent a year outsourcing his online dating to his VA prior to our launch) before he proposed marriage to her but long after they started dating. He had a feeling it wouldn’t bother her at that point in the relationship and it didn’t… she actually thought it was pretty funny. If it weren’t for his VA, he would have never met her… he didn’t have time for online dating.
Call it desperate if you want – but I don’t agree.
We are serving people whose career/business objectives do not allow them to meet interesting singles online (or offline for that matter) and, at the end of the day, I see more good coming out of our service than bad.
If nothing else, we can agree to disagree
Cheers,
Scott