Gig feedback and reviews

[humayunkabir171]

I’m not sure putting reviews of the buyer and the things they bought on their profile is a good idea privacy-wise, especially if they didn’t agree to this and if they have no way to turn this feature off. Does this fully agree with data protection legislation and will it also apply to past orders? Also do the buyers only get reviews on their profile if they also review the seller’s gig?

I agree with you. Thanks Mr. @uk1000

[ydrawing]

Over the last few weeks, there have been many threads about feedback and user reviews. As mentioned earlier, the team has been working to roll out some updates to make sure the review system is something that works for everyone.

I’d like to announce we’re beginning the second phase of double-blind reviews:

• We will start presenting reviews on buyers in the buyer’s profile (and only there, not in the gig page anymore) to give seller better visibly to whom they are working with.
• We will add the option to respond to a buyer’s review after the review was published. the response will appear under the buyer’s review in the gig page.

As always, the best way to address and understand the buyer’s needs and to guarantee their satisfaction is through communication before and during the order. The buyer’s review process is done on a completed order - and it isn’t the place to start addressing buyer’s issues and inquiries on the order.

These evolutions will be rolled out in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open for them. As always, comment with ideas, suggestions, and feedback here in the forum.

• We will start presenting reviews on buyers in the buyer’s profile (and only there, not in the gig page anymore) to give seller better visibly to whom they are working with.
• We will add the option to respond to a buyer’s review after the review was published. the response will appear under the buyer’s review in the gig page.

At last… The only thing now is to remove that blind review. That’s awful.

[humayunkabir171]

• We will start presenting reviews on buyers in the buyer’s profile (and only there, not in the gig page anymore) to give seller better visibly to whom they are working with.
• We will add the option to respond to a buyer’s review after the review was published. the response will appear under the buyer’s review in the gig page.

At last… The only thing now is to remove that blind review. That’s awful.

Thank you @mjensen415 for providing help full information

[nativechina]

Fiverr is becoming a fairer and fairer marketplace. I suggest adding an automatic positive system to reflect the real order quantity of a seller. I mean if there is no any dispute or manual rating between both parties, the system will leave a positive for both parties after maybe 14 days after the gig is marked as finished. Take myself as an example, I have been working here for 7 years and have finished more than 5,000 orders, but I gain only 2200+ positive reviews. A lot of buyers are not will to leave reviews, they are just too busy to remember it.

[voiceoverpete]

The main question is: why/when a buyer deserves a bad review?

Every buyer ticks a box to confirm that they have read a gig description and supplied all the necessary information a seller needs to get started.

I am sick and tired of orders coming in EVERY week without fail which are beyond preposterous.

This week alone:

• A buyer orders a 350-word blog article. Says in their requirements: “I know this will be a little different to what you usually do.” Then asks for a 1,000-word response to an email they have received from a major IT company regarding their GDPR policy
• A fellow seller selling a service worded pretty much exactly like mine outsources a huge video to me, regardless of the fact that I explicitly state that I do not offer what they have ordered in my gig.
• A buyer orders an article on cryptography. Then turns around and says they wanted a Bitcoin price analysis article

Sellers have absolutely no recourse to situations like this. Practical help from CS when dealing with such matters is rarer than a Unicorn egg.

Buyers like this waste massive amounts of time, cause significant stress and impact Fiverr’s bottom line. Why? Because they make sellers like me reluctant to work with any new buyer. Not to mention the fact that these same buyers often leave scathing reviews, even if sellers do deliver but dare ask for extra payment and deadline extensions etc.

So far, it is not reasonable for any seller to call out a buyer like this in a blind review when they can not see or respond to reviews left by such buyers. However, if it transpires that reviews do start appearing on buyer pages, I will be more than willing to go all out pointing out with every single such person, how stressful and exploitative it feels working with them.

At the same time, I will make sure to leave glowing reviews for every single buyer who orders responsibly, communicates pleasantly, and seems to know what they are doing. - Even if I can not see that such a buyer has actually left me a horrid 1-star review.

In doing this. Sellers like myself can potentially start helping other sellers feel safer and less exploited, while also making it painfully clear to some buyers that Fiverr is not some kind of deranged “I can pay for whatever I want and do what the hell I like” pit stop for whatever appalling personality traits they want to project onto the world.

A good day to you MR. Jensen. I appreciate the effort to tweak and improve any part of the platform. However, this is ground that has been plowed already by other platforms. As an executive, it sounds surprising that you ‘trying’ procedures when you can already learn from other tried and true platforms. Why not attend CS Trade Shows, learn from best practices and apply what works well here? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Mr. Cyaxrex, I agree with you mostly. You articulated well the lose-lose position of many a buyer/seller relationship. But Fiverr needs to step and address both with a simple 2 step approach. 1. Proper “On-Boarding” for both the Seller and the Buyer. 2. Training. Let me elaborate for a moment.

!. On-Boarding. Right now, Fiverr gets a 1 star for providing no proper process so they constantly shoot themselves in the foot. The revolving door for Buyers is awful. Why? Lots of reasons but let’s just focus on one, get Buyer & Sellers On-Boarded with a series of videos on “Buyers: How to Order” and Sellers: “How to be a Millionaire”. Right now, Sellers spend much of their time teaching and training Buyers on how to become savvy and work through a massive & complex system. (I could enumerate further but I’ll stop here)

2. Training. Fiverr has one of the worlds largest Sales team in the world. Yet, do they offer Sales Training? (Sales training is a billion dollar industry and Fiverr spends $0). The CEO has plans to bring Fiverr to IPO. Great! If the BOD (Board of Directors) wants to have strong revenue numbers then do what every leading salesforce does, train them how to sell. Mr Jensen began the thread with the basically addressing the Buyer & Seller relationship. Guess what Fiverr, you need constant, regular training for your massive salesforce. If CEO wants to have a billion dollar IPO, then I know how to double the IPO. Incent Sellers how to sell! The whole platform is all about Sales and yet zero is done for proper sales training. (Again, I could spend pages discussing this topic alone because it is critical to every business. No sales = No business. Sales is the gasoline of every business. How do you increase the octane level in your sales team, train them)

Mr. Cyaxrex, my friendly suggestion to all Sellers is simple; qualify! Qualify & Qualify. Try to determine first, if you want that Buyers’ business. Second, they place an Order and you see they are trouble, now what? (Time waster already but until Fiverr figures out their own self-imposed channel conflict on who they want to be when they grow up, it will continue). Take them by the hand and help them. Only when you see that you have a Bad Behavior buyer, would I suggest a Cancel. Due to the current algorithm, it hurts a seller less if you cancel than if you get a negative review.

Be smart Sellers. Work around the potholes, every business has them. Be a Boss so that Fiverr knocks on your door and asks you how are you doing what you’re doing. Bottomline is this, Sellers, you want have 90%++ of your business on this platform, then own it. Figure out works and what doesn’t. Know it better than your own business. Because if you don’t, you won’t succeed on the platform.

[melanielm]

Over the last few weeks, there have been many threads about feedback and user reviews. As mentioned earlier, the team has been working to roll out some updates to make sure the review system is something that works for everyone.

I’d like to announce we’re beginning the second phase of double-blind reviews:

• We will start presenting reviews on buyers in the buyer’s profile (and only there, not in the gig page anymore) to give seller better visibly to whom they are working with.
• We will add the option to respond to a buyer’s review after the review was published. the response will appear under the buyer’s review in the gig page.

As always, the best way to address and understand the buyer’s needs and to guarantee their satisfaction is through communication before and during the order. The buyer’s review process is done on a completed order - and it isn’t the place to start addressing buyer’s issues and inquiries on the order.

These evolutions will be rolled out in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open for them. As always, comment with ideas, suggestions, and feedback here in the forum.

As always, the best way to address and understand the buyer’s needs and to guarantee their satisfaction is through communication before and during the order. The buyer’s review process is done on a completed order - and it isn’t the place to start addressing buyer’s issues and inquiries on the order.

This is true, but only works if all the buyers also follow it. They don’t.

Thank you for giving us the ability to respond to reviews now. That was desperately needed.

[write_article91]

yh i think the idea was really needed

[misscrystal]

A good day to you MR. Jensen. I appreciate the effort to tweak and improve any part of the platform. However, this is ground that has been plowed already by other platforms. As an executive, it sounds surprising that you ‘trying’ procedures when you can already learn from other tried and true platforms. Why not attend CS Trade Shows, learn from best practices and apply what works well here? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Mr. Cyaxrex, I agree with you mostly. You articulated well the lose-lose position of many a buyer/seller relationship. But Fiverr needs to step and address both with a simple 2 step approach. 1. Proper “On-Boarding” for both the Seller and the Buyer. 2. Training. Let me elaborate for a moment.

!. On-Boarding. Right now, Fiverr gets a 1 star for providing no proper process so they constantly shoot themselves in the foot. The revolving door for Buyers is awful. Why? Lots of reasons but let’s just focus on one, get Buyer & Sellers On-Boarded with a series of videos on “Buyers: How to Order” and Sellers: “How to be a Millionaire”. Right now, Sellers spend much of their time teaching and training Buyers on how to become savvy and work through a massive & complex system. (I could enumerate further but I’ll stop here)

2. Training. Fiverr has one of the worlds largest Sales team in the world. Yet, do they offer Sales Training? (Sales training is a billion dollar industry and Fiverr spends $0). The CEO has plans to bring Fiverr to IPO. Great! If the BOD (Board of Directors) wants to have strong revenue numbers then do what every leading salesforce does, train them how to sell. Mr Jensen began the thread with the basically addressing the Buyer & Seller relationship. Guess what Fiverr, you need constant, regular training for your massive salesforce. If CEO wants to have a billion dollar IPO, then I know how to double the IPO. Incent Sellers how to sell! The whole platform is all about Sales and yet zero is done for proper sales training. (Again, I could spend pages discussing this topic alone because it is critical to every business. No sales = No business. Sales is the gasoline of every business. How do you increase the octane level in your sales team, train them)

Mr. Cyaxrex, my friendly suggestion to all Sellers is simple; qualify! Qualify & Qualify. Try to determine first, if you want that Buyers’ business. Second, they place an Order and you see they are trouble, now what? (Time waster already but until Fiverr figures out their own self-imposed channel conflict on who they want to be when they grow up, it will continue). Take them by the hand and help them. Only when you see that you have a Bad Behavior buyer, would I suggest a Cancel. Due to the current algorithm, it hurts a seller less if you cancel than if you get a negative review.

Be smart Sellers. Work around the potholes, every business has them. Be a Boss so that Fiverr knocks on your door and asks you how are you doing what you’re doing. Bottomline is this, Sellers, you want have 90%++ of your business on this platform, then own it. Figure out works and what doesn’t. Know it better than your own business. Because if you don’t, you won’t succeed on the platform.

you need constant, regular training for your massive salesforce.

While I agree that sales ability and training are usually a good idea, in this case they can’t or they become, according to U.S. tax laws, employers. It’s a bit of a grey area legally, but they can’t get involved in actually directing our activities.

Selling is also a skill that is native or inborn to a large extent so training really works for those who have good basic communication skills to begin with as well as people skills.

[misscrystal]

A good day to you MR. Jensen. I appreciate the effort to tweak and improve any part of the platform. However, this is ground that has been plowed already by other platforms. As an executive, it sounds surprising that you ‘trying’ procedures when you can already learn from other tried and true platforms. Why not attend CS Trade Shows, learn from best practices and apply what works well here? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Mr. Cyaxrex, I agree with you mostly. You articulated well the lose-lose position of many a buyer/seller relationship. But Fiverr needs to step and address both with a simple 2 step approach. 1. Proper “On-Boarding” for both the Seller and the Buyer. 2. Training. Let me elaborate for a moment.

!. On-Boarding. Right now, Fiverr gets a 1 star for providing no proper process so they constantly shoot themselves in the foot. The revolving door for Buyers is awful. Why? Lots of reasons but let’s just focus on one, get Buyer & Sellers On-Boarded with a series of videos on “Buyers: How to Order” and Sellers: “How to be a Millionaire”. Right now, Sellers spend much of their time teaching and training Buyers on how to become savvy and work through a massive & complex system. (I could enumerate further but I’ll stop here)

2. Training. Fiverr has one of the worlds largest Sales team in the world. Yet, do they offer Sales Training? (Sales training is a billion dollar industry and Fiverr spends $0). The CEO has plans to bring Fiverr to IPO. Great! If the BOD (Board of Directors) wants to have strong revenue numbers then do what every leading salesforce does, train them how to sell. Mr Jensen began the thread with the basically addressing the Buyer & Seller relationship. Guess what Fiverr, you need constant, regular training for your massive salesforce. If CEO wants to have a billion dollar IPO, then I know how to double the IPO. Incent Sellers how to sell! The whole platform is all about Sales and yet zero is done for proper sales training. (Again, I could spend pages discussing this topic alone because it is critical to every business. No sales = No business. Sales is the gasoline of every business. How do you increase the octane level in your sales team, train them)

Mr. Cyaxrex, my friendly suggestion to all Sellers is simple; qualify! Qualify & Qualify. Try to determine first, if you want that Buyers’ business. Second, they place an Order and you see they are trouble, now what? (Time waster already but until Fiverr figures out their own self-imposed channel conflict on who they want to be when they grow up, it will continue). Take them by the hand and help them. Only when you see that you have a Bad Behavior buyer, would I suggest a Cancel. Due to the current algorithm, it hurts a seller less if you cancel than if you get a negative review.

Be smart Sellers. Work around the potholes, every business has them. Be a Boss so that Fiverr knocks on your door and asks you how are you doing what you’re doing. Bottomline is this, Sellers, you want have 90%++ of your business on this platform, then own it. Figure out works and what doesn’t. Know it better than your own business. Because if you don’t, you won’t succeed on the platform.

Due to the current algorithm, it hurts a seller less if you cancel than if you get a negative review.

No it’s the opposite. At least that’s my opinion, others may differ with me on this.

[uk1000]

Fiverr is becoming a fairer and fairer marketplace. I suggest adding an automatic positive system to reflect the real order quantity of a seller. I mean if there is no any dispute or manual rating between both parties, the system will leave a positive for both parties after maybe 14 days after the gig is marked as finished. Take myself as an example, I have been working here for 7 years and have finished more than 5,000 orders, but I gain only 2200+ positive reviews. A lot of buyers are not will to leave reviews, they are just too busy to remember it.

Buyers may decide not to review a product for whatever reason. Maybe they just don’t want to leave a public review and have everyone see everything they bought. They might decide not to leave a review if the what they received in the gig wasn’t good enough. Adding an automated review that automatically gives 5 stars to a seller or a high rating for every gig wouldn’t reflect the service the buyer actually got in a lot of cases, so the automated rating would lead to inaccurate ratings (though they could be more accurate than they are now since the level system gives pressure to leave 5 star ratings).

Maybe Fiverr could just show the number of orders a seller has completed if that would be beneficial to buyers. Maybe an average rating for the gig could be based on private ratings that was updated in a way where it wouldn’t be obvious to the seller who gave what private rating (eg. it could get updated every so often and wouldn’t immediately take every review into account).

[nativechina]

Buyers may decide not to review a product for whatever reason. Maybe they just don’t want to leave a public review and have everyone see everything they bought. They might decide not to leave a review if the what they received in the gig wasn’t good enough. Adding an automated review that automatically gives 5 stars to a seller or a high rating for every gig wouldn’t reflect the service the buyer actually got in a lot of cases, so the automated rating would lead to inaccurate ratings (though they could be more accurate than they are now since the level system gives pressure to leave 5 star ratings).

Maybe Fiverr could just show the number of orders a seller has completed if that would be beneficial to buyers. Maybe an average rating for the gig could be based on private ratings that was updated in a way where it wouldn’t be obvious to the seller who gave what private rating (eg. it could get updated every so often and wouldn’t immediately take every review into account).

Your update to my suggestion is excellent. 👍

[janakanandana]

Thank you so much for your important information

[coolwebdevelop]

I think it’s a better idea, thanks

[lilychinadancer]

Sounds good … let’s see what will be happen 🙂

[dikdoyosanaji]

In essence, their satisfaction is through communication before and during the order. That’s what is fair in buying and selling this and we do it. Greetings please:mengedipkan:

[arthurcd1]

Or they could just have pressed the wrong number of stars on the mobile app by mistake without realising? 😉

That happens more often than it should. I received a 3.5 stars review because the buyer accidentally left 1 star in one of the fields by mistake. They offered to correct their review right away, but there’s nothing I can do. I submitted a ticket so fiverr can assist them in doing that (and referred them to our messages, so they can see I didn’t offer anything in return), but the cryptic auto-response from fiverr was no help at all. And after that they just marked the ticket as resolved, even though it wasn’t. So now I’m stuck with that review 🙂

[estherrandell]

This is really great news!

[misscrystal]

They need to bring back the ability to respond immediately. This is still being a big problem.

[maanza_55]

I got a couple of blind reviews even after the announcement. So, I’m guessing they haven’t rescinded this system yet? Is everyone still dealing with them?

[jonbaas]

I got a couple of blind reviews even after the announcement. So, I’m guessing they haven’t rescinded this system yet? Is everyone still dealing with them?

I got a couple of blind reviews even after the announcement. So, I’m guessing they haven’t rescinded this system yet? Is everyone still dealing with them?

The announcement stated that it will be rolling out over the next few weeks. It is not going to be a sudden change.

[misscrystal]

I came close to leaving a less that 5 star review today for a repeat buyer but at the last second decided not to and I’m so glad I did. I spent time worrying about what to do.

[fogi]

I came close to leaving a less that 5 star review today for a repeat buyer but at the last second decided not to and I’m so glad I did. I spent time worrying about what to do.

It’s still a bit meaningless of what feedback I leave to a buyer. So why pick a fight? Just give 5 stars and move on.

[maanza_55]

I got a couple of blind reviews even after the announcement. So, I’m guessing they haven’t rescinded this system yet? Is everyone still dealing with them?

The announcement stated that it will be rolling out over the next few weeks. It is not going to be a sudden change.

Ah, I see. Thank you!

[Guest merciavideo]

I got a couple of blind reviews even after the announcement. So, I’m guessing they haven’t rescinded this system yet? Is everyone still dealing with them?

They’ve added the ability for sellers to reply to buyers’ feedback, but that’s in addition to the current system - it’s not going back to how it was.

The initial review from the buyer, and then the seller, will still be blind. Only then will the seller be able to see the buyer’s feedback to leave a reply.

[lenasemenkova]

A scorned buyer will not be a returning buyer, will cause all sorts of problems for the seller ‘why did you leave me negative feedback when I left you 5 stars?’, and will be a CS and PR nightmare.

The main question is: why/when a buyer deserves a bad review?

If a buyer breaks TOS he deserves a bad review and he will understand why he is given a bad review even if he gave you 5 stars! I wouldn’t like this buyer to place another order therefore I don’t mind if he is not happy.

I don’t see any orher reasons for a bad review. I have just read on the forum that a seller left 3 stars to a buyer who was not responsive. I wouldn’t do that. I personaly consider that this situation is completely normal. Our buyers are not available 24h/24 and may be on holidays or working on more important things… We have to deal with that risk and configure our gigs accordingly (delivery time, mandatory requirements…)

The main question is: why/when a buyer deserves a bad review?

• Buyer failing to provide accurate instructions (after being repeatedly contacted and explained what you need). Or failing to mention something major that would have changed your entire approach to the project.

• Buyer with very poor communication skills, to the point we can’t understand each other at all.

• Buyer trying to change the terms of the gig after the gig is purchased (“btw, I need this in 24 hours”, etc.)

• Buyer oversharing about their personal life and using the comments of the order page as a chatroom after being told repeatedly you’d like to keep it strictly job-related.

In my view, though, all of that above would warrant 3*. Anything 1-2* worthy for me is downright abusive behavior (treats, insults, placing the order after being asked not to, out of spite) that deserves a report/cancellation treatment.

When we first got blind reviews system I was hoping the ability to rate buyers in any way was where this all was going and I’m happy it got confirmed. It’s not perfect but it’s something.