A Commitment to Community: Updates to Our Product

[mjensen415]

Being part of Fiverr means being part of one of the largest digital communities in the world. We want people we can trust, people we can communicate with (whether that means problem-solving or politely leaving some arguments alone), and people who look out for the good of the community as a whole.

These basics of good communication, safety and trust are all part of the foundation of the marketplace we have created together, and improving on these things is part of growing our community.

Today we are launching a new initiative to add more tools and features to Fiverr to make the marketplace as transparent, trustworthy, and frictionless as possible.

In the coming weeks and months, you will see a gradual rollout of new features and product updates that improve the overall product, simplify the experience and raise the quality of our support.

Here’s a brief overview of some of the features you can expect to see next week:

You’ve Got Options

Fiverr’s “order in a single click” is one of the things that make the customer experience so quick and efficient on Fiverr. But like any service-based project between two people, sometimes things go sideways. Whether it is personal chemistry, communication difficulties, or expectations that just do not match, sometimes it is best to just agree to disagree. In these rare cases, buyers have the option to simply stop their communication with a seller or refrain from ordering from them.

We want to provide sellers with similar options. Soon, sellers will have the option to stop communication and orders from certain buyers, all without impacting cancellation percentages or seller rankings. Sellers will see this option from the profile page of any buyer, and can also access the option from their inbox. Once a seller exercises the option, the buyer will not be able to contact or place an order from the seller.

Learn more here!

Trust and Safety First

As a member of the community we want you to speak up when you see something wrong, and we want to create an easier way to do it. Both buyers and sellers will be able to quickly report profiles of any user they feel violate our Terms of Service or operate in a way that hurts the values of our community. Our Trust and Safety team will investigate flagged content quickly, keeping our marketplace in good shape.

Learn more here!

Changes to Level Evaluation

If you stress about the improvements that we are making to the rating system, you should know that a more accurate rating means that the reputation that you build for yourself is stronger and the system can better between your baseline performance and anomalies. For example, sometimes you do your best but still fall short of a buyer’s vision. We recognize that even when rare, these kinds of instances can be stressing. One of the first steps we are taking is to alleviate some of the pressure on sellers. So, beginning with the September evaluation, the rating threshold will be lowered from a 4.8 to 4.7 average in the last 60 days, and the lowest rated order during the period will be removed from the evaluation of the seller.

Feedback That Goes Both Ways

We are moving to a blind feedback system. What this means is that sellers will be asked to provide their feedback working with a buyer before receiving the feedback the buyer left. This is meant to assure feedback that is honest, independent and free from bias. Sellers’ feedback on buyers is extremely important to our ability to keep the integrity of Fiverr and provide sellers with better experience and protection. You can expect additional features in the coming future.
If a seller does not review the buyer from a specific transaction, the buyer’s review will be revealed 10 days after order completion. Once the sides have provided their feedback, their reviews will be made public and will be locked from further changes.

Learn more here!

That’s it for now. More updates will follow. In the meantime, please tell us what you think below!

[chrisdata]

FINALLY they listen! Applause guys.
Now we seeing lights!
Good move @micha the fiverr CEO!

[misscrystal]

This is just fantastic! Let’s all celebrate! 🍾
Good job fiverr! 😃

This will make all sellers much more happy and relaxed. Finally we can block problem buyers.

[catwriter]

On 9/12/2018 at 11:55 AM, mjensen415 said:

Once the sides have provided their feedback, their reviews will be made public and will be locked from further changes.

What happens if the buyer doesn’t provide their feedback?

And what happens if the buyer complains in their feedback, and the seller would like to explain what happened?

[misscrystal]

Does this mean if we get a bad review we cannot leave any response after we see what they said? I think we should be able to do that. The review they leave is how we know if they are unhappy usually.

It’s going to look weird if a seller gives a buyer a great review and then the buyer leaves horrible feedback everyone can see. Potential buyers appreciate seeing how the seller responds to bad reviews.

[retouchstudio1]

Great news…finally!
Indeed a light in the tunnel 🙂

I do hope the lifetime reviews will be back…

[kha1ed]

How about orders by “mistake”? Can we cancel it without affecting our ratings?
" You’ve Got Options" is not clear to me, whats the new thing? Previously, we could simply block the buyer and they can’t order from us anyway, whats the new thing here? Is it after the order is placed?

Thanks

[ezeomanwaneri]

It’s great that sellers would be able to terminate orders without affecting ranking.😃

[kha1ed]

It’s great that sellers would be able to terminate orders without affecting ranking.😃

Its not correct my friend, check the link again. You can prevent the buyer from placing any orders in future, but that does not mean you can cancel the current order without affecting you rate.

[ezeomanwaneri]

Its not correct my friend, check the link again. You can prevent the buyer from placing any orders in future, but that does not mean you can cancel the current order without affecting you rate.

oh ok. thanks for clarifying

[eoinfinnegan]

On 9/12/2018 at 12:29 PM, chrisdata said:

FINALLY they listen! Applause guys.

Now we seeing lights!

Really glad to see you say this - I feel the same.

On 9/12/2018 at 11:59 AM, misscrystal said:

Does this mean if we get a bad review we cannot leave any response after we see what they said? I think we should be able to do that. The review they leave is how we know if they are unhappy usually.

I imagine that this is potentially moving towards Buyer reviews being public and so a seller’s honest opinion of their experience is more valid than a response to the buyer’s feedback. I agree with you and think it might be frustrating at times to not be able to respond but I think seeing feedback on every buyer would be a lot more valuable to sellers than simply being able to respond in kind to a bad review.

[miiila]

Some of that sounds pretty good.

I’m not quite convinced that the change to a blind review system is good though, see the concerns already voiced above, it would be bad to lose the ability to reply to a bad, or even malicious (whether ‘real’ buyer or competitor) review. (Eta, as I only now saw Eoin’s comment above mine, was still typing while he posted: not to reply “in kind” but to have the chance to explain what might have gone wrong, like buyer didn’t read gig description, ordered 1 piece of X but expected 4 pieces of X and leaves a bad review when he doesn’t get 4, etc.
I agree though that it might be a good deal to sacrifice that if it leads to buyers’ reviews being just as visible on buyers’ profiles.

While I’m rather sure sellers will always rate buyers 5* unless they are really horrible, it could be a good warning sign from really horrible buyers, especially with the option to block certain people from ordering. It still could lead to badly rated buyers resorting to always ordering without contact, though, as there’s still no option to accept/not accept an order.
However, if buyers’ reviews won’t bec9me public like sellers’, I think for both sellers and Fiverr, it would be better to stick with the current system instead of blind review.

This could also lead to a “review paralysis”, but we’ll see, I guess.)

What most of us have been waiting for regarding review changes is that the reviews buyers get are visible on their profiles just as for sellers.

And we’d like our hard-earned lifetime reviews back.

[ssj1236]

Great changes but this does mean that Fiverr Support has to step up their performance. Fiverr really needs live chat support so that users can talk to an actual person that can actually help them and not just share some premade response.

[andaluzia]

On 9/12/2018 at 12:46 PM, miiila said:

Some of that sounds pretty good.

I’m not quite convinced that the change to a blind review system is good though, see the concerns already voiced above, it would be bad to lose the ability to reply to a bad, or even malicious (whether ‘real’ buyer or competitor) review. (Eta, as I only now saw Eoin’s comment above mine, was still typing while he posted: not to reply “in kind” but to have the chance to explain what might have gone wrong, like buyer didn’t read gig description, ordered 1 piece of X but expected 4 pieces of X and leaves a bad review when he doesn’t get 4, etc.

I agree though that it might be a good deal to sacrifice that if it leads to buyers’ reviews being just as visible on buyers’ profiles.

While I’m rather sure sellers will always rate buyers 5* unless they are really horrible, it could be a good warning sign from really horrible buyers, especially with the option to block certain people from ordering. It still could lead to badly rated buyers resorting to always ordering without contact, though, as there’s still no option to accept/not accept an order.

However, if buyers’ reviews won’t bec9me public like sellers’, I think for both sellers and Fiverr, it would be better to stick with the current system instead of blind review.

This could also lead to a “review paralysis”, but we’ll see, I guess.)

What most of us have been waiting for regarding review changes is that the reviews buyers get are visible on their profiles just as for sellers.

And we’d like our hard-earned lifetime reviews back.

I am not a big fan either of the blind review. I like to have the option of defending myself in the case of a negative review.

I just think it’s an extra stress for me. 😨 

[Guest hanshuber16]

This is AWESOME news!!! IT covers A LOT of concerns many people have been waiting for Fiverr to address… For soooo long (apparently)… 👍

[nikavoice]

Kinda long, coz I have have a few things to say, k? 🤡

WowWee~ I got a message to come over and read the forum. I was certainly in for a treat! So, thank you to "you know who you are" you weren’t lying LOL. 😛

I’ll be honest many Sellers have become demotivated and turned from lean 🥩 entrepreneurs to salty ones if ya know what I mean. This change came at a good time, sure I’d like to touch on different subjects but for right now I appreciate the effort Fiverr has taken.

"Our voices were heard loud and clearly"

See, I knew you guys and gals weren’t oblivious. 😎

You’ve Got Options

Quote

Soon, sellers will have the option to stop communication and orders from certain buyers, all without impacting cancellation percentages or seller rankings.

Oh, HAPPY day this is one is for the books. 🎉

Trust and Safety First

This is HUGE because sometimes, reports are made and the profile in question is still up & operating in a shady way. So, hearing T&S commitment to combat these issues quicker is just awesome. :ok_hand:t4:

Changes to Level Evaluation

Quote

the rating threshold will be lowered from a 4.8 to 4.7 average in the last 60 days, and the lowest rated order during the period will be removed from the evaluation of the seller.

A good start.

Feedback That Goes Both Ways

This sounds eerily similar to your competitor, yanno, the UPs people. So, I’m very familiar with how this works. I actually, like the transparency of this blind feedback system. No pressure, just an honest opinion of services rendered and dealing with the client.

I’m saying this on the behalf of those amazingly honest Buyers. Like moi a Pro Buyer, Gina etc. The ones who will not abuse this system, but use it in fair way.

Thank you for listening, 5r!

---

OK, so now that’s out of the way…

I want to foot the bill to buy the entire Fiverr Staff coffee.😁

Or maybe I should just stick with treating Matt or @micha to coffee? ☕

Of course, I understand we can’t have our cake 🍰 and eat it, too. But, I’m ready to nibble and enjoy this piece of cake.

Anyway, cheers!

 

[arty182925]

Once the sides have provided their feedback, their reviews will be made public and will be locked from further changes.

What happens if the buyer doesn’t provide their feedback?

And what happens if the buyer complains in their feedback, and the seller would like to explain what happened?

And what happens if the buyer complains in their feedback, and the seller would like to explain what happened?

I want to know this as well. We don’t have option to explain our side anymore???

[misscrystal]

What are sellers supposed to say if a buyer is difficult? It’s not a good reflection on a seller to talk bad about any buyer. Sellers do not often say bad things about customers in public.

It’s going to be very terrible if for example a seller says:
This buyer was extremely hard to please and wanted much more than the gig offered and asked for too many revisions. Not recommended.

Then if the buyer says:
Great seller, did just what I wanted, highly recommended.

It’s going to look like a devil seller.

[mjensen415]

How about orders by “mistake”? Can we cancel it without affecting our ratings?

" You’ve Got Options" is not clear to me, whats the new thing? Previously, we could simply block the buyer and they can’t order from us anyway, whats the new thing here? Is it after the order is placed?

Thanks

Orders by mistake are not related to this.

[webdivine]

On 9/12/2018 at 2:02 PM, mjensen415 said:

Fiverr’s “order in a single click” is one of the things that make the customer experience so quick and efficient on Fiverr.

That will be great feature for Fiverr buyers. If the buyers ordered a $5 gig without communicating sellers and want to make a full website or branding for $5, whereas the gig price would be $500+. Later they canceled the order and sellers drops their level because of order cancellation.

If you make a feature for Sellers something like, Sellers can accept or decline the orders from buyers before the order starting. That will not hampers Sellers order cancellation rate.

Thank you.

[Guest armejndi]

This post started good, and then it hit rock bottom with the feedback. What if sellers mistakenly leave a say 3 star review and they immediately want to change it? We can’t send a request now? At least don’t take that away from us as we all know what is the reponse time from CS. And the buyer won’t log in anymore.

[cyaxrex]

On 9/12/2018 at 2:25 PM, mjensen415 said:

So, beginning with the September evaluation, the rating threshold will be lowered from a 4.8 to 4.7 average in the last 60 days, and the lowest rated order during the period will be removed from the evaluation of the seller.

So… Why even bother with the level system? 4.8 would be easy for most sellers to maintain. If, of course, things like buyers ordering services which sellers do not provide didn’t have to count against them. That and the 4.7 app review bug. Also, 4.7 star reviews get rounded down to 4.5 stars by Fiverr.

And the removing of the lowest rated order from the past 60-days? How does this help buyers? If I order from a seller and leave a legitimate 1-star review, I’m going to have less, rather than more trust in the rating system if my review is just going to get removed.

4.8 is a good baseline. Take it down to 4.7 and instead of nasty, mediocre and good sellers, you’re just left with nasty and excellent. Would it really have been so hard to fix a few bugs and give CS agents the power to cancel orders without these affecting sellers?

[mjensen415]

On 9/12/2018 at 2:56 PM, cyaxrex said:

So… Why even bother with the level system? 4.8 would be easy for most sellers to maintain. If, of course, things like buyers ordering services which sellers do not provide didn’t have to count against them. That and the 4.7 app review bug. Also, 4.7 star reviews get rounded down to 4.5 stars by Fiverr.

And the removing of the lowest rated order from the past 60-days? How does this help buyers? If I order from a seller and leave a legitimate 1-star review, I’m going to have less, rather than more trust in the rating system if my review is just going to get removed.

4.8 is a good baseline. Take it down to 4.7 and instead of nasty, mediocre and good sellers, you’re just left with nasty and excellent. Would it really have been so hard to fix a few bugs and give CS agents the power to cancel orders without these affecting sellers?

Hi @cyaxrex, I think you misunderstand. The “removal” of the lowest rated is only for the level system evaluation. This change is for the rating system and its relation to the cancellations stats. 

[cyaxrex]

Hi @cyaxrex, I think you misunderstand. The “removal” of the lowest rated is only for the level system evaluation. This change is for the rating system and its relation to the cancellations stats.

I think you misunderstand.

Not really. I get what you are doing. 4.7 for average ratings just seems too low. I wouldn’t have had any reviews lower than 4-stars this year if I hadn’t felt pressured into working on orders which I should have cancelled. I just see this as a being like trying to fix a squeaky door by dipping a whole house in WD40.

[misscrystal]

I think you misunderstand.

Not really. I get what you are doing. 4.7 for average ratings just seems too low. I wouldn’t have had any reviews lower than 4-stars this year if I hadn’t felt pressured into working on orders which I should have cancelled. I just see this as a being like trying to fix a squeaky door by dipping a whole house in WD40.

Come on Andy don’t ruin this.