Aside from being the Editor here are My One Amor, I also work as a dating coach so have a lot of interaction with matchmaking clients in the South Florida area. This past weekend I was in Miami for Art Basel and made it a point to talk to lots of single men and women. A surprising number of them asked about choosing between the big dating services or local boutique matchmaker as to which is better.
The reason we got onto the topic in the first place was the vast majority, especially women, all had bad experiences with dating apps. Some of the women had such bad experiences that they had decided to stop dating period and just be alone ! Imagine a cute bartender who had decided to stop dating just due to bad dating experiences ? Yep, I met 3 really cute (around 30) ladies who served me in 2 different places on Saturday night.
While, many of the people I talked to had heard of matchmakers, they were really confused about what they actually do.
First off, I call some of these so-called matchmakers, dating services as they are not really matchmakers in the true sense. Don’t get me wrong, they do provide a valuable service as do dating apps and online dating sites. The difference seems to come down to the one on one level of personalized service or just maybe quantity vs quality.
The real matchmaking profession, as it started years ago, was based on a select few people who seemed to have a natural knack for getting to know what a person really was looking for and then being able to see that in another person who they could match.
Today it has become more about matching profiles instead of actual people’s wants and needs.
There is also an economy of scale. A large dating service matchmaker can charge less since they can handle many clients with a preset amount of service options. As opposed to the local boutique matchmaker, who handles only a few clients at one time. It’s not uncommon to see waiting lists.
But perhaps the biggest difference, is the level of success. Most of the boutique matchmakers that I have see have at least an 85% success rate. But as you can expect, they do charge more. But do they really when you compare the actual cost of finding love or cost of countless dates ?
The bottom line is if you’re on a budget but want the personalized services of a matchmaker then the national dating service matchmakers like Tawkify or It’s Just Lunch may be options. But don’t expect much more than being matched with their database or a lot of one on one service.
If you have the budget the best bet is a boutique matchmaker and the obvious choice. Just the level of success and for a lot of professional people, time saving is worth every penny.
So when it comes to choosing between the big dating services or local boutique matchmaker as to which is better, I’d go with the one that delivers the higher level of success for sure. Here in South Florida, we do like Love Boss Matchmaking.
And also, most of these higher end boutique matchmakers don’t charge women to sign up so that’s a big plus right there.