“I love your background – it’s so chic.”
“Thanks, your home office looks lovely too.”
Sirf Coffee was envisaged as a hybrid between the old school norms of Indian matchmaking, coupled with western norms of dating. Keep the “arranged”, but perhaps drop the “marriage”- at least for a little while. Amidst the myriad of matrimonial sites that employed a more “wholesale” approach, the company’s key purpose, our “why” as Mr. Sinek would put it, was to help Indians find love, through a curated, offline, and ‘no pressure’ experience.
11 years on, one of our key foundations, our USP so to speak, “the offline experience” has been fundamentally challenged by COVID 19. Our clients all over the world today (27 cities in 18 countries, & counting) have adopted to the bizarre realities of 2020 and agreed to meet on “virtual dates.” These dates are basically two seemingly lovely individuals, putting their best foot forward over a Skype or Zoom call, with the hopes that sparks fly between the two screens. No easy endeavour – virtual meetings have been historically reserved for professional settings, important work calls and such. The professional and personal have converged, akin to meeting your soulmate in the conference room or having a work meeting at a bar. Despite this blurring of the lines, the good news is that folks are a lot more comfortable being virtually introduced than they were six months ago. In 2019, about 35% of Sirf Coffee’s dates took place virtually, in 2020, that number was closer to 89%.
So then, what does this mean for physical chemistry – the smells, the posturing, the platonic hug? What does this mean for courtship overall? I guess it is too early to say. It is clear, however, that folks have used this time to introspect and pontificate their single status. Since the lockdown started about 7 months ago, we have observed the following trends:
- Clients are a lot more amenable to connecting with matches in locations they would not previously consider, outside their cities, countries, and in many cases, even continents, which has made our job that much easier.
- Etiquette prevails; treating a virtual date like a real date is important. Our clients preferred laptops over phones, speakers over headphones. Punctuality never left the building. In one case, chatting while “walking the dog” did not land very well and the date ended in under 3 minutes.
- Sparks can certainly fly online, and we have seen many couples become “exclusive” despite not having met yet. But to my earlier point around physical chemistry and courtship, it is important to have a view of meeting in person when it is safe to do so.
Looks like the current status quo is here to stay for a little while longer. With Valentines’ Day just under four months away, people should know that they are not alone when they finally muster the courage to ask, “Will you be my Quarantine?”
Sunil Hiranandani is the Founder of Sirf Coffee.
