Confessions Of A Matchmaker

As many of you know, I host this really awesome dinner party every first week of the month, cleverly named Dinner with Strangers. It’s fun, it’s light, and there’s plenty of awesome food and great company to go around.

The next installment of Dinner with Strangers will take place at Sofia’s Restaurant, which will feature Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks, an eleven-piece band playing music of the 1920s & ’30s for your dining and dancing pleasure. [Perhaps we should name this month’s event Dancing with Strangers?]

Dinner with Strangers - February Edition is set for Tuesday, January 31. I realize that the February edition is not in the actual month of February, but I guess we’re just going to have to live with that. :-P

Click here for the official invitation. 

I’ll be hosting Dinner with Strangers tomorrow night at Ethos Gallery 51. If you’d like to join us, make sure to be at Ethos (First Ave & E. 51st St) at 7pm. Make sure to ask the hostess to direct you to Maria’s table. 

Can’t make it this week? We’ll be hosting Dinner with Strangers every first Thursday of the month. Same place. Same time. :-) 

As an entrepreneur, I welcome feedback and certainly appreciate it. But not all feedback is created equal, so if I’m not jumping up and down at your feedback, it’s not because I don’t care or have some personal vendetta against you. It’s probably because the “problem” you feel that you are experiencing isn’t really a problem or the solution you feel is necessary for this problem to be solved is not really solution. 

Someone called the office today, without addressing himself, to proclaim that “there is a problem” with my matchmaking forms. “Oh!”, I exclaimed. “What problem are you experiencing?” 

“Well, it won’t let me submit the form without a photo,” he explained. I explained to him that I only accept completed forms and completed is defined with a photo attached. “Why not attach a photo to your form?”, I suggested. 

“Well, I’m trying to fill out your form through my smart phone,” he informed me. Ah yes, mobile phones do not usually help with browsing for photos via the internet browser. I suggested that he access my website through his computer. 

“No. You should have your website smartphone compatible.” After a bit of back and forth, the gentleman was completely appalled that I wasn’t graciously thanking him for his feedback, even though I explained in great detail, after I suggested numerous times to access my website through an actual computer, why the cost benefit analysis of making my forms “smart phone compatible” was not positive. He was very terse and told me that my “customer service in regards to this phone call is extremely unhelpful and thus he cannot trust me to be his matchmaker.” I’m going to disagree, because I did give him a solution (go on an actual computer) and well, it’s okay if you don’t want me to be your matchmaker. You’re still single. 

I have access to my website’s analytics. Less than 3% of users access my website’s matchmaking forms through their smartphones. Of that 3%, only 1% actually attempt to fill out the form. So in one month, about 0-1 people attempt to flll out my form through their smartphone. I would assume that when they realize that they cannot attach a photo through their smartphone (because there is no browsing capability on smart phone browsers) they would transition to an actual computer and complete the form there if they’re really serious about matchmaking.

The gentleman kept insisting that I get rid of the photo requirement. Well, well, well… that’s a bit presumptuous, isn’t it, to question my judgement on my company’s form policy without knowing almost anything about the industry I work in? I insist on photos, like the majority of matchmakers, because I don’t have the time or the patience to haggle people I most probably don’t know (or don’t know if I can match just yet) for photos. Better that they give me a photo from the get go so we can get started. Yes, it’s necessary, and if you don’t like it, tough luck. I’m not some corporation that has to listen and adapt to your every whim, to keep my stockholders happy. I’m a boutique matchmaking firm. 

Lastly, I don’t think I want any of my members accessing my forms through their smartphones. It’s great if you access my website, my blog, my Facebook fanpage and my Twitter through your smartphone. Awesome! However, when you fill out a matchmaking form, it’s serious business. You’re taking charge, proactively, of your dating life. Just like you probably wouldn’t apply for a job through your phone, the same exact principle is used when you apply for matchmaking. I expect you to put thought into the questions that need to be answered, and like it or not, there is still something quite passe in doing this via a smartphone. Don’t believe me? Why then do we make sure to notify the recipients of our emails that we’re sending it through our smartphones? Probably as a defense mechanism if we sound hasty or riddled in typos. 

I’d like to end this post with a quote by this gentleman.

“It’s 2011. Get with the program.”

Indeed.