Oana Totora manages starting seven years ago “Umbrella For Two”, the only matchmaking agency from Romania. During this period of time many people find their life partner and part of the couples matched by agency’s counselors already have children. Managers, professionals, expats, corporate employees are among the people that access the services offered by “Umbrella For Two”.
What kind of people access “Umbrella For Two” services?
“Umbrella For Two” clients are mature individuals, with active professional life that limits the time they can dedicate in searching the right partner for sharing their life. They are friendly and open minded people who aim to find a person that shares the same hobbies and interests. Basically our clients are determined to find the right partner to build a long term relationship. We support in these “journey” lawyers, entrepreneurs, doctors, designers, film directors and professionals from corporate or public sector.
The group age of the people that come to us is between 30-45 years old. Our youngest client is 23 and the eldest is 65.
Do you also have requests from expats? Are these more pretentious compared to Romanians?
Since starting the agency we had also expats clients. Some of them are presently, with our support, in stable and healthy relationships. But I would not say that being an expat means the level of expectations is higher than Romanians. Each client has individual expectations, requests, and these come from their life experience, maturity and less from nationality or language.
Why people that apparently are successful come to your agency when theoretically they have all the capabilities to find a life partner on their own?
People that come to us invest a lot of time in their career which means they do not have time for a personal life. “Umbrella For Two” offers personalized matchmaking services and do for them the “recruitment” part, we are a modern “matchmaker”: we provide a list of compatible profiles, ensure guidance, relationship coaching and counselling during the entire part of this process. A matchmaking agency offers the possibility to its clients to meet the potential partner, a partner that was evaluated first by our experts in a face to face meeting. This is something that dating sites cannot provide.
What kind of training do you and your colleagues have?
The previous experience of our team, me included, is in human resources recruitment and head-hunting in recruitment agencies, consultancy and corporate companies. The activity we do at “Umbrella For Two” is similar to a classic professional recruitment process.
But beyond the “technical” training we are passionate about what we do here, we enjoy working with people, we are empathic and we want to see people happy. We see the “birth” of relationships and when people find their perfect match for us is a reason for joy. Every one of us interacted with thousands of people during this period of seven years and we come to a point where the “hunting” process is easier.
Are there more men or ladies single?
Overall there are more women than men that request our services.
How would you convince the ones reading this interview to contact you?
First of all, we are very strict about confidentiality and discretion during the entire period of our collaboration and afterwards. Our counselors personally meet each client. The profiles that we introduce to each client are real and verified. When we start the collaboration with a client we request a copy from the ID and studies degrees, of course we keep these information under strict confidentiality, but they are a guarantee that the persons we interact with is a real person, the level of training is also real. Also we make a psychological profile and each client has a dedicated consultant that will guide him or her during this process.
Which are the differences between a matchmaking agency and a matrimonial agency?
A matchmaking agency offers strict confidentiality. Our counselors deploy a process that offers complex and relevant information to our client, we provide coaching and feedback. More, our head and heart hunting service is unique and involves a proactive search outside our database for the right life partner.
Which are the steps to follow for someone that wants to access your services?
The first step is to contact us either by creating an account on www.umbrellafortwo.ro or by phone or by sending us an email to tell us about you and your requests from a life partner. This step is followed by a face to face meeting so to know each other. The next step is making a subscription and the client’s profiling. Starting this point the matching process will start. In case there is a mutual interest for a meeting from both the man and woman we consider a match the agency organizes the first date and agrees to the next steps the client wants to take.
Which are the costs of matchmaking services?
We offer a wide range of services and costs vary depending of the degree of involvement of the agency in the matchmaking process and the services chosen by the client. Usually we have a fee of EUR 50 for a date we establish and our active matchmaking services are in the range of EUR 150-450 depending of the package the client chooses. For those that want premium services the offer will be personalized.
(Photo credit: photofortwo.ro, Nicoleta Raftu)
