Feedback for the eHarmony Singles Product Team


Reply
 
Topic Tools Search this Thread
eHA_Admin_Lori is offline eHA_Admin_Lori — Advice Official Moderator Post #1  June 24,2009, 9:59am
eHA_Admin_Lor…'s Avatar

My one wish for you, is love. :)

Moderator

Joined: Nov 2008

Santa Monica, CA

Posts: 5,120

See profile

Hi everyone!

I would like to get good, constructive feedback on how we can make our product better for you. I will take this information and set up a meeting to review it all with the head of our Product team.

Specifically, please answer the following questions:

If you ran eHarmony, what three changes would you want made to the Singles dating site? What benefit do you feel these changes bring to our site's users? Do you have any other ideas about what we could do to increase YOUR level of success with eHarmony?

Any comments violating our Community Standards will be deleted from this thread and not included in the feedback I provide that team.

Let's hear it! Looking forward to reading and passing along some great, constructive user feedback.

Best,
-Lori

Edited to add: I will leave this thread open for one week at which time I'll close it to collect feedback for my meeting.
 
  Reply With Quote
brneyedangel is offline brneyedangel Post #2  June 24,2009, 10:26am
brneyedangel's Avatar

would very much appreciate it if the rain would stop, now! Thanks!

Virtuoso

Joined: May 2009

northeast Ohio

Posts: 4,590

See profile

To be honest with you, I'm paying for a service, and I'm really tired of being matched with individuals who are not willing to pay for the service, as well. So I guess I would either not waste the time of the paying customers by matching them with non-paying customers OR (and this would be less favorable) I would provide some sort of flag to let the paying customers know that their match is non-paying so that they are aware of this from the start. Then it would be their choice as to whether or not they wanted to pursue this match. I just don't think it's fair for them to know that they can't communicate with me, but for me not to know that when I'm the one who is actually paying for the service.
 
  Reply With Quote
tweet37 is offline tweet37 Post #3  June 24,2009, 10:33am
tweet37's Avatar

has all the tools and can........satisfy

Power Poster

Joined: Sep 2008

New Jersey

Posts: 7,608

See profile

eH_Advice_Admin_Lori wrote :

If you ran eHarmony, what three changes would you want made to the Singles dating site? What benefit do you feel these changes bring to our site's users? Do you have any other ideas about what we could do to increase YOUR level of success with eHarmony?
1. Include widowed as a marital status. You list divorced, and single but not widowed (at least when I was subscribed). Why?

2. Provide some way to differentiate between paid and non-paid subscribers. One of the most frustrating things about using your service is the non-response of so many of our matches, which as it usually turns out, those people are non-paying freeloaders.

3. Allow us to provide our own reason for closing a match instead of just the 'canned' reasons.
 
  Reply With Quote
DancingFool is offline DancingFool Post #4  June 24,2009, 10:46am
DancingFool's Avatar

Power Poster

Joined: Jan 2009

Posts: 5,750

See profile

Most definitely differentiate between paying members and those that are not. The reason I stopped using EH is because my box was overwhelmed with non-paying profiles. Majority of other sites indicate whether the profile is currently active or not. At that point you have an option to contact them and take your chances with them coming back to read your e-mail or not. Either way, you know what you are doing.

The other thing - get rid of the reasons for closing - it's quite frankly stupid and causes so much unecessary anxiety. In fact the only reason people even think about it on EH is because those horribly irrelevant options are there. Replace it with something simple like "No thanks, good luck with your search." I'm sure you can do a nicer job with that line, but you get the idea.

Make the site work faster and get rid of the ads in the EH proper. I'm already paying you a fortune for the service and should not be subjected to ads that further slow down an already slow site. Also, it's insulting. If you want to run ads, then you better lower your fees as I'm not paying this. If you don't want to lose the revenue, give people the option - higher fee no ads, lower fee ads. You might actually get more paying customers in that way.
 
  Reply With Quote
pamcam is offline pamcam Post #5  June 24,2009, 11:00am
pamcam's Avatar

Enthusiast

Joined: Dec 2008

El Paso, Texas

Posts: 641

See profile

1. End the dishonest practice of matching us w/ non-paying members. My sub expired and I turned off matching; I don't want my profile sent to paying members, nor do I want to receive others' profiles at this time. I find EH's business practice of this to be dishonest, regardless of it's "intentions, rationalization, justification, etc." It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

2. Change the time-out on email and do away w/ the word limit.

3. I am curious if men receive anything akin to Christian Carter articles and buy my program(s). If so, I think it would be beneficial to send these "advice articles" to both genders. If men don't receive something similar , why is that?
 
  Reply With Quote
arubiana425 is offline arubiana425 Post #6  June 24,2009, 12:00pm
arubiana425's Avatar

Joined: Jun 2009

Posts: 1

See profile

I was a paying Eharmony member for approx. 4 years off and on. I think you offer a wonderful service, but it needs tweaking. I just recently peeked back into Eharmony to see what you have to offer now and not much has changed.
The biggest suggestion I have is to have an indicator for paying/non paying members. In my time on the site I had literally thousands of matches, but I suspect very few of them were active. It's frustrating when you're paying 200-300 dollars a year only to matched with people who probably aren't even logging in. I am currently a non paying member and have indicated that I am on my profile, and I have turned off being sent new matches.

The second biggest suggestions is to really pay attention to member preferences. For example, I don't have children and have a strong preference (indicated in my match settings) not to be matched with men who do have children. Yet, I get matches who have kids...not good.

Third, in my time away you guys have really poured on the ads. The site looks cluttered, and paying members put out way too much money to be hit with such blatant plugs for products.

Fourth let's do away with the canned closed match things, some of them are things people can't help/insulting. Example "I don't feel the chemistry is there." To me that's just a away of saying "You're really ugly to me!" A generic "no thank you" will suffice.
 
  Reply With Quote
DDjr is offline DDjr Post #7  June 24,2009, 12:07pm
DDjr's Avatar

Enthusiast

Joined: Dec 2008

Posts: 848

See profile

#1

I understand the business need to match non-paying members, and understand that EH is unlikely to decide to not do that. However, in service to the paying members it would be nice if the non-paying member were specifically flagged.

This will help reduce the frustration that all of us feel in terms of "why are our matches not communicating with us?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#2

Allow members to self-select body type.

Members can then select acceptable body type matches just as they do acceptable religions. (Normal flexible matching rules apply.)
Last edited by DDjr; June 24,2009 at 12:12pm.
 
  Reply With Quote
blrdancer is offline blrdancer Post #8  June 24,2009, 12:17pm
blrdancer's Avatar

Pacesetter

Joined: Mar 2009

St. Louis, MO

Posts: 293

See profile

I'm no idiot -- and I know that eHa is never going to do away entirely with matching people with non-paying members ... let's face it, that's the hook for any dating site. They match you up with members in the hopes you'll see what you're missing and join - doesn't always work and frustrates paying members in the process.

1) Instead, eHa could do what many other sites do ... let us know when the person was last active ... not perfect, but usually a better indicator of a paying member. Then, at least I'd know I'm not waiting on a response from a guy who hasn't been active in over a year or something.

2) Allow for re-opening matches. I'll admit, in the beginning I was a little overzealous in closing matches.

3) More relevant questions in profile -- I know questions like "what are you passionate about" or "five things you can't live without" are supposed to elicit quirky unique answers - but let's face it, they end up being pretty generic - and I'm not sure anyone finds them easy to answer. I'd rather have many short answer unique questions ... "How do you usually spend your Saturday nights?" "What's your ideal first date?" "What three albums/songs are currently in your MP3 player?" etc.
 
  Reply With Quote
DancingFool is offline DancingFool Post #9  June 24,2009, 12:42pm
DancingFool's Avatar

Power Poster

Joined: Jan 2009

Posts: 5,750

See profile

blrdancer wrote :
I'm no idiot -- and I know that eHa is never going to do away entirely with matching people with non-paying members ... let's face it, that's the hook for any dating site. They match you up with members in the hopes you'll see what you're missing and join - doesn't always work and frustrates paying members in the process.

1) Instead, eHa could do what many other sites do ... let us know when the person was last active ... not perfect, but usually a better indicator of a paying member. Then, at least I'd know I'm not waiting on a response from a guy who hasn't been active in over a year or something.

2) Allow for re-opening matches. I'll admit, in the beginning I was a little overzealous in closing matches.

3) More relevant questions in profile -- I know questions like "what are you passionate about" or "five things you can't live without" are supposed to elicit quirky unique answers - but let's face it, they end up being pretty generic - and I'm not sure anyone finds them easy to answer. I'd rather have many short answer unique questions ... "How do you usually spend your Saturday nights?" "What's your ideal first date?" "What three albums/songs are currently in your MP3 player?" etc.
Kind of agree with you and kind of don't. Agree that there are quite a few questions that are annoying to answer and cause people to give very bleah answers or not anwer at all. I found questions like what people notice about you, what do you want them to notice about you that they don't very bizzare. One of those questions is worded so awkwardly that most people don't even answer it properly.

On the other hand, no matter what questions you ask, if you read 100 answers they'll start to sound canned. Remember that to the poster, the answers are unique. They are not unique to you because you've read 100 posts and people tend to think similarly. Kind of like when you go to a doctor - to you, your problem is highly personal and unique, the doctor has heard the same thing 20 times since morning and can barely stifle a yawn.

Also, small talk has value when two total strangers are trying to get a conversation going. If you have a person who has so much info in the profile that you don't know what to ask them without sounding like you have not read their profile, it makes initial communication difficult. Sometimes less can be more.
 
  Reply With Quote
stevex is offline stevex Post #10  June 24,2009, 12:54pm
stevex's Avatar

Life is a blessing, it's a delicatessen.

Veteran

Joined: May 2009

Austin, TX

Posts: 1,297

See profile

1) Revise the email system to do away with time outs, perhaps use a different email system that allows drafts to be saved while the message is being typed. There is nothing worse than typing a really long message and then the site timing out.

2) Include political affiliation on the page. You have religion why not political affiliation or ideology. While I might be willing and able to date someone with different political ideology than myself I would love to be able to know.

3) Allow us to send a written final message after being closed. I had a great match close me and I wanted to write her and wish her luck in her new found love without asking her to re-open me.
 
  Reply With Quote
Reply


« review my profile - thanks! | Using eHarmony | 5 years good luck to whoever helps me with my profile »
Topic Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new topics
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off

Looking for a Great Relationship?

Get started now. Fill out this form and take the questionnaire to receive your matches.

First Name:

I'm a:
seeking

Postal Code:

Country:

Email:

Confirm Email:

Password:


How did you hear about us?


Latest on our Dating Advice Discussion Boards

“Absolutely not. I have no idea why allowing gays to marry would affect anyone's lives, unless they're sexually insecure about themselves.” –  sun73

Join the “Did our President give up the election for a single issue?” discussion

“I learned that the woman's communication style has to fit mine or else it won't work.” –  sun73

Join the “Why do 40 yr olds still play games?” discussion

“Here's where to email if you think a match might be a fraud: matchconcerns@eharmony.com . Tell them the match's name and location so they can find them. If what's making you suspicious is an email ... ” –  Simplicity-2012

Join the “Match from another country...is he a "fraud"?” discussion

“I know you clarified you just want a general opinion on when people bring this subject up, but I'm going to give you both that and also what I believe you should do. The general idea most of the ... ” –  Herkemer

Join the “When is it time to discuss your position on having kids?” discussion

“And that's a very valid point. I get the feeling that eHarmony is keeping their price high to show they they are not cheap and therefore, their members are serious.It seems to me that combining the ... ” –  MicMan

Join the “Free Communication Weekend” discussion

“How long have you all been on EH? Thanks for the advice. I signed on in late April 2012 but have been on other dating sites in the past.” –  Simplicity-2012

Join the “New Here” discussion

“The only one that bothers me is the "they weren't his kids so meh ..." But there could be a whole world of story behind that. Like "she dumped me and it was painful and I hated losing the kids in ... ” –  Simplicity-2012

Join the “Yellow flags...To Proceed or not to proceed, that is the question?” discussion



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 1:30pm.

Discussion Boards Archive

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2012, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0