eHarmony Blog.com

eHarmony Blog is fortunate to be able to take PerfectMatch.com for a spin for a few weeks. In the same tradition of eHarmony Blog, here is our review of this online dating site, filled with tips and hacks:

PerfectMatch’s latest commercial

(Using actors and stock photos instead of actual successful matches in advertising makes a big difference, don’t you agree?)

PerfectMatch and Movies

The advertising world offers thousands of opportunities to effectively use one’s advertising dollars. PerfectMatch, founded in 2002 by the inventors of Kiss.com (the predecessor for Match.com), is spending their dollars in product placement in hollywood movies. PM has several movie tie-ins:

• Hitch (2005)
• Must Love Dogs (2005)
• Failure to Launch (2006)

Now to us, appearing in a romantic movie as the website that introduces the movie’s hero and heroine means nothing about the quality and usefulness of its service. Nevertheless I personally know people who would say, “Hey it worked for Diane Lane in that movie, I think it’s worth a try.”

The First eH clone

PerfectMatch is the first major eHarmony clone, before True.com, Chemistry.com and UK’s nomorefrogs.com. By “clone” I mean it is the first site that went to border on infringing eHarmony’s patent and idea of (1) matchmaking users based on an online personality test then (2) making users go through several stages of a communication process.

Thank the free-market economy for creating healthy competition. PerfectMatch is the first site to identify eHarmony’s shortcomings and offer an alternative. To be specific, PM has a chart of advantages over eHarmony:

• Accepts and Guarantees Matches for All Personality Types – i.e., their test rejects no one, including loonies.
• Divorced Members Always Accepted – i.e., PM doesn’t reject those who married more than twice.
• All Lifestyle Choices Accepted – i.e., homosexuals and bisexuals.
• Ability to Search Members
• FREE Comprehensive Duet® Profile – uh, yeah, eHarmony doesn’t have this at all!
• Endorsed Publicly by Leading Scholars – uh, they need to update this page. I think eHarmonyLabs is well endorsed.
• Duet® Total Compatibility System – ok, eHarmony doesn’t have this at all, too!
• Personal Profile Advice & Review Service – this essentially means that paying members can write PM customer service and ask them to critique their profile or troubleshoot their settings. Whether the advice is effective or not is another matter.
• Photo Cropping and Image Enhancement Service (FREE) – this isn’t an online tool; it’s something their customer service reps do manually.

(Italicized comments are ours; I believe PM hasn’t updated this list in years.)

I’m now on a few weeks’ trial. The “Perfect Matches” are slow in coming, but I can say now that eH users will find PM a familiar, refreshing alternative. Despite these features and enhancements though, PerfectMatch is not getting my money.

5 Reasons why I won’t join PerfectMatch

1. No trial offer.

Let’s face it — PM costs around 50% more than other online personals. Their justification is their complex matchmaking software algorithm. Well, does it work for me? Is the quality of the matches any good? Will any of my matches reply at all!? Well, you won’t know until you give your money. Unlike eHarmony and other competitors, PM has no risk-free trial.

eH is plagued with dead accounts, yes, but at least, new customers can bail out when they get mediocre results in their first seven days.

Speaking of dead accounts, I noticed that the PerfectMatch registration process has no step asking the registrant to write a new paragraphs of description. In other words, people who visit the site once to check it out and who never return will have neither a picture or a paragraph. OK, almost half of my “matches” are exactly like this.

2. RAOV, XBCP, what?

As you may have seen in the commercial, PerfectMatch tags each member with one of 256 letter-types. For example, it says I’m an XBOV-FCTE. Psychology students will recognize its similarity to the Myerr-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a personality test developed since the 1940s.

The PerfectMatch compatibility test is laid out so simple, lying is so easy. It consists of 8 sections for 8 character traits, each with 6 true or false questions. Lying is convenient because (1) one can retake the test anytime and (2) the test sections even identify the trait being tested. It’s the same as hearing the test proctor say, “The next six questions will find out if you have a compulsion to stealing. OK, true or false, number 1. . .” In comparison, the MBTI test has 96 jumbled true-or-false questions, or an average of 24 items per trait.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz, using her thirty years of research experience, concluded that life-long relationship compatibility relies on eight character traits:

• Romantic Impulsivity – Risk Taker (R) or Risk Averse (X)
• Personal Energy – High Energy (A) or Relaxed (B)
• Outlook – Optimistic (O) or Cautious (C)
• Predictability – Predictability (P) or Variety (V)
• Flexibility – Flexible (F) or Structured (S)
• Decision Making Style – Dominant (D) or Compromiser (C)
• Emotionality – Hot (H) or Temperate (T)
• Self-nurturing – Introvert (I) or Extrovert (E)

Eight traits and two kinds per trait gives 256 possible letter-type combinations. Since there are six true-or-false questions per trait, there are only six degrees of difference in each trait. Note also that each question forces the respondent to only two choices; for example, this question, under Personal Energy,

Even if I am in love, a great deal of my energy goes elsewhere. I invest heavily in my job, my friends, my other interests. I have a lot of energy and I use it in multiple ways.

asks the registrant to pick ‘true’ only if ALL three statements are factually true.

Lastly, please be aware that PerfectMatch loves to coin new terms, so some of these words may mean something else. As far as I can tell these eight correspond loosely to 8 or 9 of eHarmony’s 29 dimensions, “Passion: Romantic,” “Energy: Emotional,” “Self-Concept,” “Emotional Status,” “Adaptability,” “Dominance,” “Emotion Management: Anger or Mood” and “Autonomy,” respectively.

eHarmony fans will quickly notice that PerfectMatch test doesn’t measure traits such as altruism, ambition, conflict resolution, communication skills, curiosity and kindness.

I can understand that PerfectMatch made sure the test is short and fun. That it just needs 20 minutes instead of “gazillion of hours” makes it a welcome alternative to eH’s test. The comic “Dilbert” showed humour in how the engineering and the marketing department are unable to work together. In PerfectMatch, I think the marketing department had too much a hand in the design.

Is the test based on scientific research?

Are you kidding? Everything can be said to be based on scientific research. If I survey my four friends who their favourite Lord of the Rings character is, I can say it’s scientific research. In PerfectMatch, one thing is certain though: Dr. Schwartz is yet to publish a research paper in an academic journal related to PerfectMatch’s Duet Compatibility System.

Frankly I wish PM and eHarmony reveal the methodologies they used in testing and designing their compatibility profiler. You see, determining and fine-tuning the validity and reliability of a psychological test is a long and expensive process. Read “Test Validity and Reliability” in AllPsych Online for more detail.

So how or does the matching system work?

I bloody hope so. It says I’m an XBOV-FCTE, but then today the system matched me with an XAOP-SDHI — that’s six letters off, buster! How can we be compatible?! I’ll post an update further along my PerfectMatch adventure when I can answer this question. I learned one thing though:

TIP: When using dating sites based on personality tests, don’t take the letter-types seriously.

I now see value why eHarmony never shows our personality test scores to our matches. I suspect eHarmony saw that the test isn’t that reliable anyway, so why should our prospective partners see our scores and judge us by them. Test scores and letter-types close our hearts to opportunities. For example, to avoid dating lastborns, East Indians, ENFJs or Geminis.

eHarmony merely says we two are compatible for many reasons. I should say I’ve grown to love the joy of discovering them.

3. No “Find New Matches” button.

One cannot see the effect of one’s changes to the Match Settings until half a day or so.

4. In searching members it’s just an average Match.com clone.

One thing is for sure: don’t join PerfectMatch just to run member searches.

1. The search feature is very basic compared to Yahoo! and Match.
2. It can’t sort results by anything.
3. No date of last activity.
4. Search results are not mutual matches, e.g., members who only date childless caucasians still show up in everyone’s searches.
5. Because of #4, searchers must view three pages per person to ensure it’s a mutual match. Even then many match preferences aren’t shown in the profile, like the ethnicity preference. Searchers thus waste time sending unwanted messages.

TIP: PerfectMatch search results are sorted by date of last profile update. If the same search showed exactly the same top results one week later, uh, I regret to say that no one new fits your search criteria — I’m really sorry for you.

On the other hand, the search feature gives instant proof that there are registered members in one’s area. It’s more reassuring than eHarmony who asks one to wait patiently for one’s matches.

5. No one blogs about it.

The movie tie-ins probably do not work, because although they get fleeting mentions in news articles all the time (e.g., “…online dating sites like eHarmony, Match.com, PerfectMatch…”), Technorati reports less than one daily mention of PerfectMatch among bloggers. eDateReviews has 1116 anonymous reviews on eHarmony since October 2003 (average 1 review per day), while it has 19 on PerfectMatch since September 2005 (average 1 review per 27 days).

These are all signs of an inactive membership base. I hope I’m wrong.

“Choose the relationship service that works. Guaranteed!”. . . NOT!

eHarmony isn’t the only online dating site that oversells their service. However, which of the following is more overpromising?

• eHarmony: “More marriage per match than any online dating service”
• PerfectMatch: “Guaranteed Perfect Matches”

Yet the phrases are on almost every page of PerfectMatch.com. Guaranteed? Is it? Asking their customer service rep further reveals that:

1. Any match is called a Perfect Match. (Ha, you can’t beat perfection!)
2. Their Terms of Service, like everyone else, offers no guarantee of results.
3. Their Match Guarantee, like eHarmony’s, is half-crap. Both offers a number of matches based on the length of one’s subscription. Both site can have twelve profiles and match them to any and all subscribers so as to satisfy their match guarantee.

PerfectMatch.com, in a nutshell

PerfectMatch is the first notable eHarmony clone. It joined eHarmony among the first few online dating sites that stepped away from the online personals classification and into long-term committed relationships.

PROS: The ability to search members gives paying members a second means of getting their money’s worth. The ability of paying members to send messages directly is great for the sociable and the impatient.

CONS: No trial period. Letter-types may confuse members to look beyond the stereotype and learn about the person.

P.S. If you operate an online dating site, eHarmony Blog is pleased to give your site a review, in particular comparing it to eHarmony. Contact us for details.