For years now the debate has raged between traditional, face to face personal matchmaking companies in comparison to online dating sites and apps, as to which type of dating is is more successful or brings better results. We know that meeting online has been an extraordinarily popular way of meeting potential partners in recent years and the size of the market has grown exponentially. Is that because it is more successful or just because it is so easy and more convenient?
Recently we researched the situation of overall satisfaction ratings on high ranking review sites on Google and looked at how the ‘Big 3’ dating companies were faring. The results were actually quite amazing and shocking, as mainly they aren’t faring well at all and in the main, the majority of people were quite openly critical of the main player’s Match, Eharmony, and Elitesingles
In fact, it was quite a confidence boost for the personal matchmaking sector, with most companies coming out pretty well in reviews, generally receiving a 4 or 5-star rating on Google, for example, Berkeley International earned 3.9 stars, Attractive Partners ranked as 4.3 stars, Gray and Farrar received 3.2 stars, Elect Club had 5 stars, Drawing Down the Moon had 4.9 stars, The County Register had 4.3 stars, Avenues Dating had 5 stars and our own Searchmate had generated 4.7 stars and was rising fast. Giving an average rating of 4.41 for the face to face sector. Sadly that wasn’t the case with the competition on the other side of the industry and to prove a point here are a few of them- the top 3 paid for dating companies in the UK and maybe globally.
This is in comparison with the ‘Big 3’ in the UK, here are the comparisons:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/dating_services/match.html
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.match.com
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/dating_services/eharmony.html
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.eharmony.co.uk
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/elitesingles.co.uk
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/elitesingles.com
To summarise that gave match.com just 2 stars on www.consumersaffairs.com and only 1.2 stars on www.trustpilot.co.uk With eHarmony.com receiving 1.2 on www.consumeraffairs.com and 2.3 stars on www.trustpilot.co.uk and Elite Singles ranking at just 1.2 stars on www.trustpilot.co.uk and 1.16 stars on www.sitejabber.com which is not a happy scenario for any of them.
The conclusion has to be that satisfaction ratings and the level of success being generated from the online sector have fallen dramatically in recent years and that there most definitely is room for the highly personal service provided by the traditional dating companies. At searchmate we are proud of the success the sector is generating and particularly the value and success levels that we provide to our client base, at a fraction of the cost of some of our London based colleagues in the sector.
