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Together
Dating Service / The Right One
(Off-line Dating Chain Review)
Headquarters
5026 Dorsey Hall Drive
Suite 205
Ellicott City, MD 21042
(410-730-8866)
Websites: www.therightone.com and
www.togetherdating.com
Together Dating Service was founded in 1974, and is
now a Boston-based company called Together
Management Group, that’s run by partners Paul
Falzone and Bradford Megahan. The company has about
60 franchised locations throughout the United States
(compared to 90 in late 2002). The firm operates two
separate companies that carry different “brand”
names: Together and The Right One. Each of these
operates roughly 35 offices.
This
is one of the few “traditional” dating
service chains, with actual physical
offices, left in the industry. The
company reached a peak 170 office during
the mid-1990s. A damaging story aired on
Dateline NBC in 1997 hurt the company’s
business and ultimately forced it into
bankruptcy in 1998. The firm had 170
offices in the mid-1990s, and an
estimated $48 million in sales.
How The Service
Works
The company typically charges clients between
$2,000 and $4,000 for its services, which
consist of the following steps:
For Together…
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Client completes preliminary questionnaire.
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Phone interview with a local office, applicant is
screened, personality profile is completed.
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Office interview, meeting with your personal
consultant.
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Referral to compatible members, you pick ones that
interest you, Together gives each person the other’s
phone number.
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You
call your pick and arrange to meet in person.
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The
date
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You
provide feedback to the office about your
date/match.
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If
you want to continue seeing a person and develop a
relationship, you put your membership on hold.
The
Right One performs extensive surveys of members -
including written surveys and focus groups. In
essence, they have created the first personal
introduction service developed by its members.
Personality profiles are also required to ensure
compatible matches. The company developed
proprietary software known as The Right Match ®
system, which allows relationship specialists to
match members on a wide range of criteria including
smoking/non-smoking, job description, age, height,
religion, hobbies, etc
Commentary
This is
one of the few remaining "brick &
mortar" dating service chains out there,
that has struggled to survive agains the
majro dating websites.
The company claims to be
actively franchising today, although one
has to wonder how successful this effort
has been given that the number of
offices has fallen from 60 to 70 since
late 2002.
Together/The Right One
claims to do background checks for its
clients? Do they really? If we were
signing up and paying $2,000-4,000, we'd
demand to see a copy of the report (not
an unreasonable request).
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