If you have ever been on the dating scene (or still are), you may have observed this already: It is incredibly hard to take people that you meet online, seriously. There is such a variety of people on the world wide web, that making real connections can be a rare event. But, what if data-driven insights can help?

CMO of dating platform Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB), Delbert Ty, shared, “Our NorthStar is a ‘connection exchange’. This is when users chat and then exchange contact information like a phone number or a social media handle, which usually indicates they plan to meet in person.

CMB considers this as users having gone on a date, which is a good outcome for a dating app. It is also as far down the funnel where CMB can still reasonably track the outcome of the ‘connection’, without the daters leaving the app environment.

That’s the second observation you may gather: once a deal is sealed on a dating app (cue: wedding bells), there isn’t really supposed to be after-sales service and a recurring revenue stream from the dater – how does this benefit the app then?. And yet when talking with Delbert, one of the first things he shares is that it is very important for CMB to find for a dater, someone serious and get off the app.

“We literally bet on word of mouth happening. And we’ve seen this time and time again, that when daters find someone on the platform, honestly they can’t shut up about it, which is good. They tell everyone, have CMB-themed weddings… one even invited our CEO to officiate the wedding.”   

As a result of purely organic referrals, Delbert shared that CMB enjoys high double-digit growth year on year.

The first 24 hours

The whole dating experience for a first-time CMB user begins in the first 24 hours. “We measure very closely what happens to the user in the first 24 hours, or the first three days, or the first seven days.

“We literally bet on word of mouth happening. And we’ve seen this time and time again, that when daters find someone on the platform, honestly they can’t shut up about it, which is good. They tell everyone, have CMB-themed weddings… one even invited our CEO to officiate the wedding.”

“It is very important for us to know that the user will find some kind of success, and we have a couple of signals there,” Delbert shared. The first of these is whether the user is looking at profiles and responding to them, whether they are seeing profiles that interest them?

The second signal is whether their profiles are being liked back, in the first 3 or seven days.

The number of connections (where a user has gotten a response back on their profile) is also another measurable CMB uses, and these are all leading indicators about whether the person is going to remain on the app and/or find success on CMB.

“We do our best within our means to help our users achieve that.” CMB analyzes internal data for insights that guide their users to optimum experiences. “For example, users who upload a certain number of pictures and answer a certain number of prompts will see relatively higher success to others on the platform,” Delbert shared.

The data is also helpful in guiding CMB itself on how to optimize experience for their users. For example, the platform is currently experimenting with the order of user profiles shown to daters so as to increase their chances of finding success. Machine learning and algorithms are used to sequence the profiles in a way that leads to profile likes and matches.

Real-time dashboards help the CMB team see dips or anomalies which they can quickly act upon. Delbert explained, “We can design experiments to see how we can move a particular number up or down.”

For example, there is experimentation with different messaging during new user onboarding to see what would result in higher retention.

“It can be the difference between copy or creative changes, or even how we do sales to achieve the highest possible conversions.”

Evolution and a business with unique network effects

Coffee Meets Bagel is serious about helping them find serious relationships within 30 days of joining the platform.  This is their key strategy for retention, and perhaps minimising the burnout from constantly meeting new people and retelling one’s story on different dating platforms. 

During the onboarding process, when a user opts for something casual, CMB would actually dissuade them by indicating the user may not be ready yet for the platform. Over 90-percent of CMB users are seeking serious relationships, according to Delbert, so this intentional onboarding process aims to set the right expectations for finding long-term partners on the platform. 

“I know that the casual experience seeker is not going to be happy, they are going to churn at some point, and they might actually create a worse experience for other people. It’s a network right?”