OPW INTERVIEW -- July 25 -- When users sign up for internet dating sites, I don’t think they realise that its not ‘instant gratification.’ They have to invest time into the internet dating process. Done For You Dating takes the time investment away from end users. Agents pose as users. Its a little controversial to say the least. Here’s my interview with the CEO and Founder, Luke Chao. Your comments please… - Mark Brooks
Why did you start Done For You Dating?
I’ve had a hypnotherapy center in Toronto for the past 3 years. It takes up a lot of my time. So I said to my secretary Sue one day, “Why don’t you write a profile for me on LavaLife?” because I bought a lot of credits and I’ve had them sitting in the account for about half a year and never did anything with them. She wrote the profile and asking me, “What do I do next?” I said, “Why don’t you find some women who match these criteria and write to them?” It got to the point where we had a lot of back and forth conversations about what I was looking for and she was able to represent me very well.
It worked for me and I realized that there have to be other people who could benefit from the same service. So in April of this year I registered the domain. I started representing some friends of mine to see how it works. Because it worked for my friends as well, I then decided to launch Done For You Dating. So far the service is very new and we just started advertising on a prominent website.
How does the service work from the user perspective?
It’s not quite a matchmaker service and not quite a secretary or virtual assistant. It is something that is so new to people that they have to understand what it is about.
When people decide they want to sign up for the service, we spend about 1 to 2 hours talking with them and asking them questions about their tastes in music, film, food, places they’ve been, etc. Sue picks up the phone and she role plays a date with them which ensures an easy transition from online to offline.
After the profile is set up, we begin to send out messages on behalf of the client. Those messages are initially screened by the client and then after the client says, Okay, you can represent me well”, then we represent them like Sue represents me. We send the client photos and a profile of a woman he might be interested in. If the client says yes and the woman says “Yes, let’s meet up”, then we bill the client for the work we did and they take it from there.
I love the fact that you do the screening of the communication. There are a lot of people out there that don’t have time and they just want to go out and date. They want to use Internet dating because it’s really a value and a lot less expensive than a matchmaker. But my concern with the service is misrepresentation. When you did this with your secretary, at what stage did you let the dates know that this wasn’t you? Or did you at all?
I didn’t, actually. My philosophy is that in this case the end justifies the means. Of course, I make sure that everything that Sue sends out represents me accurately and fairly. We don’t have anybody in house right now who specialized in coaching men in dating. Sue is a young woman and she can play the role of a date and provide critiques and feedback to the client. So that is the service we offer right now. But definitely in the future, if we can also help the client be a better date then I think it will benefit both the client and the women that they meet.
What is the cost now? What kind of pricing do you think you’re going to be charging in a few months time once you’ve got the service really up and running?
Right now the most important thing is that we get clients. Until the end of July, there is no set up fee. It means we set up the profile, interview the client, we begin to find matches at no cost. We get paid when we present the match to the client and the client says, “Yes, I like her and want to go out with her.”
What do you have in mind for that, how much?
$200 to $300 for the profile writing, photo retouching services and getting to know the client. Then after that it’s $247 US per date. If the client just wants the phone number and take it from there then it’s $197. But those prices are based on the time it takes to set up a date.
Have you had any difficulties so far with working with the dating sites? How would you like to work with them?
There is one dating site we’re working with right now. I first contacted them because I wanted to advertise on the site. I told them about the service and asked if they were okay with this. They said “Yes, absolutely”. I described it as beneficial. Our service keeps people on the sites. Also the quality of the profiles, pictures and the messages improve as a result of the service.
I recently read an UrbanDaddy email about another company that is providing a very similar service. They are called Virtual Dating Assistants. I think its a great idea but I'll be interested to see if these companies can really scale...
Posted by: Mike McMantis | Jul 25, 2009 at 04:05 PM
Do you remember Match High End Matchmaking during 2006? 2007?
It was discretely buried because ..... online daters do not want friends / parents / neighbours / relatives / fans / matchmakers or other users to be involved in a private matter as building a personal relationship with future in mind.
Online Dating had evolved:
from "Browsing/Searching Options" to "Matching based on Self-Reported Data"
and now Online Dating is evolving
from "Matching based on Self-Reported Data" to "Compatibility Matching Algorithms".
Who could be interested in paying for agents posing as users for "Browsing/Searching Options" in low quality online dating sites' databases like Match?
Morever
The mutual filtering method for "Browsing/Searching Options" is in the range of 3 or 4 persons who selected each other per 1,000 persons, so in a 10,000,000 persons database (as in Match), there are as many as 30,000 to 40,000 persons to screen. 30,000 persons is the population of an average small city!!!
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]
Posted by: Fernando Ardenghi | Jul 25, 2009 at 10:10 PM
On the face of it, this service sounds excellent and perhaps some people need it. My problem with the service is that its could present people as what they are not, I mean making them look better than they are which could sabotage the prospect of a long lasting relationship arising from the date/contact made using a profile/info written by a 3rd party.
When I use online dating, part of what makes me want to meet or not meed a woman included how she write, typos etc etc all this would have been "vanished off" by professional writer which mean when I later found out that the woman in question is not as literary as her profile let me to believe I don't think I want to take the date further.
Posted by: Temi from Top UK Dating Sites | Aug 24, 2009 at 09:31 AM
I'm not even sure where to begin.
Let's just say that there's a far cry from my job as a dating coach - talking to a client on the phone, having him fill out a questionnaire, crafting a unique profile using his words, and teaching him more effective ways to communicate - than it is hiring a VA to do all of it for you.
I get it. People are busy. But there's not one thing about this business that's ethical. The ends don't always justify the means.
For what it's worth, I don't see things like this as competition - which is why I've blogged about such companies before. Yes, there IS a market for dating VA's - rich, lazy, inarticulate men. However the VA's likelihood of doing a good job is so miniscule that the very business model is untenable.
Respectfully, online dating is a science. I put 10 years into it and produced a 7 hour audio series called Finding The One Online last October. And while a young, well-meaning secretary might be smart and hardworking, she only knows as much as a young, well-meaning secretary can possibly know. And it ain't enough to get an average 50-year-old guy a date with a 35-year-old, that's for sure.
Posted by: Evan Marc Katz | Aug 26, 2009 at 04:30 AM
From the user perspective, I can see the draw of a service like this. From a business perspective, its going be tough to scale and maintain the quality of service. And yes, its totally deceptive and unethical to misrepresent oneself.
Ultimately, dating sites should offer a membership level for matchmakers to assist users. Those matchmakers could be paid professional matchmakers who have been trained and certified by the particular dating site. The site would make money from certifying them, and from an annual fee.
Posted by: Mark Brooks | Aug 26, 2009 at 07:27 AM