Yesterday I drove south of Boston to visit eLove formerly known as Together/The Right One. Terry, Paul and I talked about the matchmaking business and how it’s slowly coming to terms with the fact that the offline folks need to start paying attention to online, and vice versa. In this regard, eLove really gets it and has taken steps to bridge the gap between online and off.
eLove has a long-established matchmaking services and over the past few years have made company acquisitions and technology upgrades to make up-selling online daters to matchmaking a fairly seamless process. The real-time CRM system they have in place is far superior to the old way of doing things and the transparency into the process of selling, matching and managing members has greatly improved their efficiency and bottom line.
I sat down with some of the matchmaker team and looked at the profiles they build, the type of information they use to match people and heard some funny and inspiring members stories. Then I got to see the matchmakers at work, the call center and the other back office aspects of the matchmaking business.
I wouldn’t be surprised if online dating companies start working more closely with matchmakers like eLove. Send qualified leads, if they convert, big payout for the dating site. Various major dating sites have looked into working with matchmakers, tried variations on the theme (Match Platinum), but as is often the case, online doesn’t get offline and the services appear to have languished. Someone at Match correct me if my assumption is incorrect.
I’d love to hear what dating sites have to say about working with offline matchmakers. Comments or privately. Is this something you would like to learn more about, get clarification on how it works and the benefits? Maybe partnerships with offline are better for niche or smaller sites, where a few referrals a month would be a huge revenue generator. Or maybe a serious dating site like eHarmony or Chemistry should send a few thousand leads a day to eLove and see how they convert?
Regardless of the size or type of site that could best benefit from working with a matchmaking company, I think both sides need to start talking more seriously to see how they can work together.
Thanks to eLove for the fascinating look into the world of matchmaking and sharing how you do business.
