How to deal with buyers who like to talk?

[lenasemenkova]

How do you deal with buyers who talk too much? Not in a mafia way where some concrete and the bottom of the river get involved eventually. Just when the person is chatty, I suppose, and it seriously gets in the way of your process.

I am “on the spectrum” which seems to be a fashionable term for it these days. I’m also Slavic and was once told that “your people’s communication style would be considered insulting in Canada”. I may be spoiled in a way because my day job was in digital advertising and I was fed perfectly conscience and straight-to-the-point briefs my entire career.

My question is, how do I politely stop a deluge like this?

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I put “:)” at the end of my sentence to show that I was there for them emotionally (which I wasn’t really). But some buyers get offended when you aren’t friendly enough by their standards. That seemed to only exacerbate the problem.

PS The pre-order discussion was even longer. There was also a conversation after the order was complete.

[melanielm]

Try not to let it bother you. I think you did fine. Just stay professional and perhaps post something like, “I need a final decision to move forward. I want to deliver exactly what you want.” You certainly don’t have to engage in a conversation about everything they say.

[coerdelion]

Lol! You should see my current order page - longer than yours by a mile.

Depends. I’m happy to chat … but not when it’s micromanaging (yours isn’t, neither’s mine - this one at least!). However, the kind of “of course we’re friends now” chatting can be very off putting.

I do find that closing the fiverr seller tab - which indicates to the buyer that you’re not online - can help.

[sandrineisen]

I agree with @melanielm.
By staying straightforward and professional with your clients, they will understand that you’re not on Fiverr to find friends.
On Fiverr, I met different kind of buyers and the “we are friends now” can be highly time-consuming. By providing messages short and straight to the point (like you have done it), you maximize your chance to keep your buyer in the professional relationship.

I have to say that I also feel uncomfortable when a buyer moves to personal matters or irrelevant questions. What I do is I answer in a polite though professional way.
Hope it helped you?
Did your buyer continue to be chatty afterwards?

[coerdelion]

Yes. And their friend turned out to be nightmare client!

Arms length is important … but helpful at the same time … a balancing act.

[sandrineisen]

Yes. And their friend turned out to be nightmare client!

Arms length is important … but helpful at the same time … a balancing act.

Unfortunately I agree with you…

Often the “now we are friend” buyer turns nightmare after a while…

As a result, I think it is better to stay professional at all time.

[lenasemenkova]

Lol! You should see my current order page - longer than yours by a mile.

Depends. I’m happy to chat … but not when it’s micromanaging (yours isn’t, neither’s mine - this one at least!). However, the kind of “of course we’re friends now” chatting can be very off putting.

I do find that closing the fiverr seller tab - which indicates to the buyer that you’re not online - can help.

You should see my current order page - longer than yours by a mile.

It’s an excerpt. 🙂 I have more of that in my inbox, including them trying to find out where I live “just to be friendly”.

It absolutely could be much worse but it’s above my comfort level at this point. Just answer the dang question and we’ll get this done quickly and efficiently.

The worst, I think, is when revision requests are being handled this way. You’ll get your standard revision request to change 1), 2), 3), get it done, refresh the page (which is a habit I had to develop) to find 10+ new messages, all of them adding to that original revision request. While getting through those, you’ll get another 5 and so on.

I do find that closing the fiverr seller tab - which indicates to the buyer that you’re not online - can help.

Great idea. I’ll try that.

[lenasemenkova]

Try not to let it bother you. I think you did fine. Just stay professional and perhaps post something like, “I need a final decision to move forward. I want to deliver exactly what you want.” You certainly don’t have to engage in a conversation about everything they say.

That’s pretty much how I talk but a few buyers through the years got upset I wasn’t friendly enough. I just tell people it’s cultural at this point. Just throw my entire culture under the bus to explain the lack of emojis in my messages. 🙂

[lenasemenkova]

I agree with @melanielm.

By staying straightforward and professional with your clients, they will understand that you’re not on Fiverr to find friends.

On Fiverr, I met different kind of buyers and the “we are friends now” can be highly time-consuming. By providing messages short and straight to the point (like you have done it), you maximize your chance to keep your buyer in the professional relationship.

I have to say that I also feel uncomfortable when a buyer moves to personal matters or irrelevant questions. What I do is I answer in a polite though professional way.

Hope it helped you?

Did your buyer continue to be chatty afterwards?

Did your buyer continue to be chatty afterwards?

Oh yes, he went straight into my inbox asking me where I lived. Inbox is easier to handle because you can just say “fiverr ToS insists the inbox should be kept strictly for business inquiries”. As in, we’d be best buds but the forces beyond our control won’t let us be together. Fiverr’s ToS is pretty strange and restricting when it comes to communication but it sure comes in handy in situations like this.

[sandrineisen]

Did your buyer continue to be chatty afterwards?

Oh yes, he went straight into my inbox asking me where I lived. Inbox is easier to handle because you can just say “fiverr ToS insists the inbox should be kept strictly for business inquiries”. As in, we’d be best buds but the forces beyond our control won’t let us be together. Fiverr’s ToS is pretty strange and restricting when it comes to communication but it sure comes in handy in situations like this.

Indeed, you never know what type of buyer you can have.

It’s better to be safe than sorry, right?

I also use a lot the Fiverr ToS to let buyers know when they are getting inappropriate or not in line with it.

Thank God, a lot of buyers are friendly people and pleasant to work with.

[Guest humanissocial]

That’s pretty much how I talk but a few buyers through the years got upset I wasn’t friendly enough. I just tell people it’s cultural at this point. Just throw my entire culture under the bus to explain the lack of emojis in my messages. 🙂

It’s so weird to me how much our culture frowns upon frankness. People invent meanings for things. It’s weird.

I get straight to the point but I’m very jovial when I do it. So I’ve never had an issue. I just explicitly ask for what I’m looking for but I’m jovial about it.

[volodymyrfedoru]

Ask him to just write everything in 1 message box 😇 inside the message will help him understand that you just want to organize everything easier for yourself and for him. But what I see is a disaster. Chaotic Flight of thoughts.

[muztre]

mark only important sentences to answer and answer them as needed, play with your conversation and lead them to placing orders for further discussion.