Matchup: Digital Matchmaking vs. Online Dating
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The battle is on!
OK readers, we all know what online dating is (I hope). Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve likely dipped your toe into the dating app/site waters — which is good for today’s discussion because we’ll be adding a new concept to the matchup battles.
That is, digital matchmaking.
Let’s start by clarifying what qualifies as a matchmaking service. Matchmaking services share the following:
Matchmaking clients are paired with a personal matchmaker.
Said matchmaker selects matches for the client based on a series of parameters.
Typically, these matches are sourced from the company’s ‘bank’ of eligible singles.
Every matchmaking company sources their bank differently, and we will discuss that in greater detail on the matchup between digital and traditional matchmakers.
These are the basic parameters. Unlike online dating, a human being is choosing your matches for you. That is the basic construct.
Let’s be clear from the start, any type of actual matchmaking service is going to cost more than your monthly subscription to Tinder. These are real people working on your behalf, and what I’ve gleaned from talking to staff at companies like Tawkify and Three Day Rule is that there are a lot of moving parts to making a company like this tick. The point is — if you want to spend $20/month on a dating service, any type of matchmaking service (digital or otherwise) is not for you.
As my regular readers have gathered, I’m all about a case study (I simply can’t kick those business school days to the curb). Per usual, I’ve done some sleuthing to pinpoint the best fit for today’s matchup and I’ve landed on Tawkify.
Why Tawkify?
First, they are the nation’s largest digital matchmaking service (as in, they have the largest network of matches). Second, they have the best prices — which I know is important to most Little Date Book readers. To provide a summary of the company’s mission, let’s turn to DatingNews (a publication I’ve found to be trustworthy in the dating space). DatingNews talks to each company they cover directly, a strategy I myself adhere to:
Founded in 2012, Tawkify is a modern matchmaking company intent on changing the way singles meet one another and fall in love. A national network of matchmakers support relationship-minded singles with a more effective and personalized alternative to online dating. Tawkify’s affordable services have made it easier than ever to meet someone with relationship potential. The matchmaking firm employs over 160 matchmakers who search through a database of 200,000 singles to find the most compatible dates for their clients. Tawkify has spent years growing its reach and perfecting its services to meet the needs of busy professionals who don’t have the time or energy to scour the dating scene on their own.
You can read more about Tawkify on Medium, Insider and Timeout. I also found this excerpt from Business Insider to be of particular interest:
Lakritz spoke to E. Jean Carroll, cofounder of Tawkify, a network of "dating concierges," and Carroll told her that the service works at least partly because it "limits your choices." Carroll also said you have double the odds of meeting someone through a matchmaker than through online dating.
Tawkify was also my final pick for today’s matchup because it appears they provide more services than their competitors — such as, match recruiting, date planning, and date feedback.
These terms may not mean anything to you yet, but as a dedicated dating blogger, they are music to my ears.
Match recruiting means that Tawkify doesn’t rely solely on their existing network. This is very rare for a matchmaking service. They ‘recruit’ new people into their network from all kinds of sources – like LinkedIn and other dating forums and also (obviously) by tapping into their employee’s personal networks.
And they aren’t just stabbing in the dark — their fully-staffed recruitment team’s sole mission is to go out (in-person and on the internet) to find good matches for specific clients based on their specs (what?!). This is even more rare. As in, I don’t know of any other matchmaking company that does this.
To be clear, the match recruiter is not the matchmaker. The recruiting team (that Tawkify calls Emissaries, though I’m not sure why), operates as support staff for the matchmaker. The matchmaker screens however many candidates seem like the best fit and then chooses the best pick from the lot for their client, plans the date, etc… The matchmaker at Tawkify I talked to says she also does her own recruiting for clients, and doesn’t always elicit support from the recruitment team.
The flip side?
Some people seem to get their panties in a wad over this aspect of ‘recruiting matches.’
I’ve stumbled across reviews where a client complains that their match was sourced by Tawkify’s recruitment team from places like Tinder or LinkedIn.
But, here’s the deal — this is digital matchmaking. Tawkify exists to use modern technology as a means to modernize the matchmaking process. In my view, their commitment to searching and sourcing matches from anywhere/anyhow is a competitive strength. The way traditional matchmaking firms operate (with a closed, exclusive network), has always baffled me.
An unending source of potential matches for a matchmaker to choose from, is only a benefit to the client. Further, a team dedicated to sourcing new match options for clients (outside of the existing network), is simply awesome.
Stats and chart points kindly supplied by Tawkify. Thanks for the help!
If you don’t like it, don’t work with a digital matchmaker.
The other additional services unique to Tawkify’s model are date planning and date feedback. This is what it sounds like — the matchmakers plan all the dates and after each date check-in with both parties to extract learnings and relay feedback to the client.
Priceless.
Because in dating, you NEVER really know what the person across from you is thinking.
Unless, of course, the matchmaker asks, gets the entire scoop and tells you everything your date told her.
(I say ‘her’ because it seem like most Tawkify matchmakers are female.)
Now to the scary part! Pricing. Matchmaking services are expensive. These types of businesses employ a whole range of people/departments. In Tawkify’s case, we’re talking about the matchmakers themselves, but also a fully-staffed match recruitment team, an operations management team, a Member Services team, a Customer Service team. Now, don’t be too afraid, digital matchmakers typically cost significantly less than traditional matchmakers (like Millionaire Matchmaker), but you will spend more on a service like Tawkify than any online dating site/app service, for all of the obvious reasons I’ve already described.
That said, unlike traditional matchmakers (which, no joke, cost thousands of dollars each month, with the most expensive I found putting you back $150,000/year), digital matchmakers are more in the couple hundreds of dollars/month range.
Every digital matchmaking service is different price-wise, and I drill-down on those differences in this matchup, but Tawkify’s prices are indeed the most ‘reasonable’ of the lot, so to speak. They claim their prices are come-in at ‘less than half of their competitor’s prices,’ and from my analysis, that actually appears to be true. Who woulda thunk?!
Back to the battle: digital matchmaking versus online dating. In a nutshell, digital matchmakers provide significantly more service than any online dating service could even dream of providing.
So this battle truly comes down to each dater’s individual situation.
If you’re busy, experiencing dating app fatigue, desire a fresh perspective, clear date feedback, and have the budget - then digital matchmakers win this battle, clearly.
If you’re on a more modest budget, have the free time to swipe, can choose well for yourself and feel confident going-it-alone along your dating journey, then pocket the savings and opt for Bumble (my personal favorite). However, the ‘free’ Bumble service requires you respond to any matches within 24 hours - which I have to say @Bumble, is silly. No one has time for that!
For more information on the different digital matchmakers available to you, check out: Matchup: Digital Matchmaker Showdown, hitting Little Date Book next month.