Selective Search Offers Luxury Matchmaking to Singles Ready for Commitment

The Short Version: Matchmakers take the guesswork out of dating and give singles access to professional advice and guidance that makes finding love easier. Selective Search is a leader in the industry with over 4,000 in-house matches. The Chicago-based firm provides luxury and bespoke matchmaking services to singles across the United States. Vice President Lisa Hutcherson talked to us about Selective Search’s services and gave advice to singles who want to level up their dating game. 

I recently moved back to the town I grew up in and, as any single 20-something would, scoped out the local dating app scene. I had never really understood a desire for confidentiality while dating online until I found an old character from my past each time I opened an app.

Whether it was an elementary school classmate or a person I peripherally knew as a teenager, profiles of people I recognized streamed in from nearly every direction. I was sending out likes in hopes of reconnecting with old friends and flames, and swiping left on profiles of people I was happy not to have seen since high school.

Lucky for me, I’m OK with virtually the whole single population of my town knowing I’m on the market. But that’s not the case for all daters. Putting yourself out there online can be a daunting task, and there are many reasons people may feel hesitancy toward online dating.

Matchmaking addresses many of these concerns and caters to singles looking for a personalized, hands-on approach to finding a committed partner. Selective Search is a long-standing and leading name in the matchmaking industry and helps singles in their journey to finding a long-term relationship.

Selective Search boasts an industry-high success rate of 87% and has connected over 4,000 happy couples. Lisa Hutcherson is a Vice President at Selective Search. She told us about the matchmaking firm, its story, and how singles can use matchmaking to achieve their dating and relationship goals.

“People get so jaded in the area of finding love,” Lisa said. “Many singles are done with dealing with catfishing and ghosting, and dating can start feeling like a colossal waste of time. When singles are ready to give up and throw in the towel, that’s when Selective Search comes in to help.”

Barbie Adler founded Selective Search in 2000. Barbie was blazing a thriving career in executive recruiting when she realized the same principles she used to connect companies with stellar talent could be used to connect high-quality singles with each other.

“Our fearless leader, founder, and president, Barbie, has treated Selective Search like her baby,” Lisa said. “She transitioned from executive recruiting to putting people together for love. It was a much more fun and exciting route for her and gave her the opportunity to combine several of her interests.”

Lisa told us that Barbie’s childhood influenced her decision to enter the matchmaking industry. “Barbie’s mother was a marriage counselor and a relationship coach, so she grew up surrounded by the world of relationships. Selective Search was a way of combining her two worlds,” Lisa said.

Barbie’s professional foundation in executive recruiting shines through in Selective Search’s dedication to a cooperative work environment and finding exceptional matches. Most singles who seek matchmaking services are ready to find a committed relationship and don’t want to be bogged down by bureaucratic inefficiency. Selective Search compiles large and diverse teams to meet singles’ expectations. 

“Something that differentiates us from other firms is that there really aren’t that many high-level, luxury matchmaking firms,” Lisa said. “Our clients have whole teams, including matchmakers, recruiters, and research assistants. A lot of people are involved to make sure each match has a lot of potential.”

Selective Search matchmakers have over 150 years of combined experience and work collaboratively as a team. The firm builds teams of matchmakers, recruiters, assistants, and marketers to create a network of professionals who are all dedicated to helping singles find great partners. 

Meet Your Future is Selective Search’s proven six-step matchmaking process. The process was developed by Barbie and combines the best of executive search and matchmaking techniques. Meet Your Future was designed to holistically understand what an individual is looking for in love and then find matches looking for the same things.

“Meet Your Future is a six-step, registered trademark process designed to help our clients be successful in meeting and falling in love with the person that they’ll be with for the rest of their lives,” Lisa told us. “It’s all about long-term commitment.”

Step One of Meet Your Future is the intake process. “This is where I come in,” Lisa said. “As a vice president, I am onboarding new clients and really getting to know them. Our intake interview includes hundreds of questions, and then we create hundreds of data points of information. This can include anything about their lives, from family and religion to daily schedule and personality type.”

In Step Two, the Selective Search team develops client-approved Benchmarks for Success®, which outlines what – and who – a client is looking for. The benchmark phase explores over 225 personal, professional, and social indicators in a desired partner.

“Benchmarks are another thing that differentiates us from other firms,” Lisa explained. “We move forward with the search once we have an absolute blueprint of the person we’re looking for. There’s no guesswork, no bait and switch. The benchmark pretty much gives us the DNA of the person we’re looking for.”

Step Three is the screening phase, during which the matchmaking team conducts personal interviews to screen each potential introduction. During screening, candidates complete the same comprehensive assessment as clients, leaving no stone unturned. Step Four is when the matchmaking team makes selections for a potential introduction and presents these profiles to the client.

If the client decides they would like to go on a date with one of the potential introductions, the client and team move into Step Five, which is a meeting. After the initial meeting, clients and candidates meet independently with their teams at Selective Search.

This is Step Six, also called evaluation, and during this step, clients and their teams discuss how the date went and decide how to proceed. 

Selective Search offers matchmaking for men and women and keeps a proprietary, 100% confidential database. Selective Search relies on its two decades of experience and trademarked introductions process.

Lisa talked to us about the average Selective Search client. “Our clients are very discerning and very busy,” she said. “They hire us for a few reasons, but I think the biggest reasons are confidentiality, efficiency, and accessibility.”

Lisa continued, “Our clients want their personal information to be safe, and we keep it on lockdown. In terms of efficiency, our clients don’t want to waste time with people who aren’t as serious as them. All of our clients and all members of our database are ready for a long-term partnership. Finally, our database offers them access to pre-screened, vetted, and eligible singles.”

Matchmaking may not be on the average dater’s radar, but Lisa said it should be. While not all single people can afford matchmaking services, Lisa urged those who can to consider the service.

“We think matchmaking is the way to go for everyone,” she said. “If budget isn’t a roadblock, you absolutely want to jump into the world of luxury offline matchmaking. You know the Einstein quote about how insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Selective Services lets daters try something new– and actually get results.”