Very Late Order⚠️

[addytor]

Hi people, so I've started getting a lot of orders(touch wood), but that causes me to ask for multiple extensions from a single client and although I stay professional and try to give them an even better product, to still get good reviews, but recently I've started letting the orders lat and very late for my regular clients who I'm comfortable that I can talk about an extension later on.

So

If I let them get late but later on extend the order duration, will it affect my stats.

Thanking in anticipation.

[joyh97]

Yes, it will affect your stats to deliver late, even if the client is ok with it.

If you are getting so many orders that you cannot fill them on time, you have some options:

1. Limit your orders. In the my gig section, you can set a maximum amount of orders in your order queue.

2. Increase your delivery time. The time you advertise should be the time you can GUARANTEE to finish an order in, without extensions. Adding extensions is poor customer service and unprofessional. 

3. Increase your prices. This should mean you will get less orders, but they will be higher value, giving you more time to deliver a better product overall to each client.

Extending should be as a last resort that is rarely done. Even if a client gives you a good public rating, this is something that will likely be reflected in your private feedback score.

[smashradio]

20 minutes ago, addytor said:

Hi people, so I've started getting a lot of orders(touch wood), but that causes me to ask for multiple extensions from a single client and although I stay professional and try to give them an even better product, to still get good reviews, but recently I've started letting the orders lat and very late for my regular clients who I'm comfortable that I can talk about an extension later on.

So

If I let them get late but later on extend the order duration, will it affect my stats.

Thanking in anticipation.

If you extend the order after it's gone late, that alone won't affect your stats. But as @joyh97 pointed out, it may affect the customers review of you, and that will affect your buyer satisfaction rate. No one likes late deliveries, even if they appear to be understanding. 

If you're frequently running late, do what she suggested and increase your delivery time. I also love her advice about increasing your prices. This is the way I do it, too. If I have more work on my plate than I'm comfortable with, I'll increase my rates a bit. 

[addytor]

Thanks @joyh97@smashradio for that quick response, now I have been thinking about this for a while now is that the service that I offer is already considered expensive comparing to some of the sellers who offer similar services, but not as expensive as it is being offered outside the marketplace. I want to increase the price, like I'm literally sleeping 4 hours, but doing so will lead to losing a lot of regular clients. In a bit of a pickle here guys. 🥲 

[smashradio]

1 minute ago, addytor said:

Thanks @joyh97@smashradio for that quick response, now I have been thinking about this for a while now is that the service that I offer is already considered expensive comparing to some of the sellers who offer similar services, but not as expensive as it is being offered outside the marketplace. I want to increase the price, like I'm literally sleeping 4 hours, but doing so will lead to losing a lot of regular clients. In a bit of a pickle here guys. 🥲 

Here's how I think of it: 

If I have too much work, increasing my rates will make some regular buyers move on. But if those buyers are sending too much work my way, it has several consequences: 

• It will affect the quality of your output, thereby your buyer satisfaction rate
• It will affect your mental health
• It will affect your family and loved ones
• It will affect the clients who are willing to pay a premium for your services

Part of my goal is to send a few of those regular buyers on their way. By letting a few of them go, you make room for new, higher-paying clients, which means you should earn more while working less. 

So yes, some regular clients will disappear, and that's perfectly fine. It should be your goal.

It can be scary and sad to lose clients. Some of my all-time top buyers don't work with me anymore because I raised my rates. And I'm okay with that because I now work with new regular clients who don't mind paying my going rate.

I've tripled my earnings using this method, but I work less than I used to, not more. 

The increases should be incremental. We live in weird times with record inflation and an increased cost of living. It's fair to increase your rate to match the added costs. 

Too much demand is a luxury.  What happens when the supply is unchanged while demand is growing? Prices go up. 

[addytor]

15 minutes ago, smashradio said:

 

Here's how I think of it: 

If I have too much work, increasing my rates will make some regular buyers move on. But if those buyers are sending too much work my way, it has several consequences: 

• It will affect the quality of your output, thereby your buyer satisfaction rate
• It will affect your mental health
• It will affect your family and loved ones
• It will affect the clients who are willing to pay a premium for your services

Part of my goal is to send a few of those regular buyers on their way. By letting a few of them go, you make room for new, higher-paying clients, which means you should earn more while working less. 

So yes, some regular clients will disappear, and that's perfectly fine. It should be your goal.

It can be scary and sad to lose clients. Some of my all-time top buyers don't work with me anymore because I raised my rates. And I'm okay with that because I now work with new regular clients who don't mind paying my going rate.

I've tripled my earnings using this method, but I work less than I used to, not more. 

The increases should be incremental. We live in weird times with record inflation and an increased cost of living. It's fair to increase your rate to match the added costs. 

Too much demand is a luxury.  What happens when the supply is unchanged while demand is growing? Prices go up. 

@smashradio That is very well said, I completely agree and that was my go to mindset when I started out six months back, but I'm seeing some top rated seller in my category, they're definitely not working alone, because I'm a video editor and I can hardly edit 30 videos a month, and they have 80 orders in queue which is impossibe for a single person to handle, charging less than me, so won't buyers move to them as they are cheap and have more than 1K reviews.

 

[smashradio]

31 minutes ago, addytor said:

@smashradio That is very well said, I completely agree and that was my go to mindset when I started out six months back, but I'm seeing some top rated seller in my category, they're definitely not working alone, because I'm a video editor and I can hardly edit 30 videos a month, and they have 80 orders in queue which is impossibe for a single person to handle, charging less than me, so won't buyers move to them as they are cheap and have more than 1K reviews.

 

Some of them will. But that's why you need a unique selling point and value proposition. Take my translation gig as an example. I charge way more than my competition. I think my rate is about double that of competing sellers. They have more orders than me, but the difference I offer is: 

• I'm a journalist by trade with years of experience in media, content production, writing, and marketing. It dramatically affects my output. 
• I have more time to spend on each project. Again, it affects the quality of my output because I take the time to research, correct, edit and perfect the content. 
• I was raised in a multilingual home. I've spoken Norwegian all my life and English at home since I was six. 

Because of the above, the buyer can expect more than just a word-for-word translation: I make great content. 

Yes, my rate is higher, but if they don't understand the value of what I'm offering, I see no reason why I should work with them. Perhaps the other sellers in my category can grind through more words in a day, but I'm here for when the buyer needs impeccable results. 

I also deal with more complex content; for instance, I just translated a document covering the maintenance of satellite LIDAR atmospheric measurement equipment for a subcontractor to NASA. That's a translation job you send to the guy who will read books on the subject to understand the concept before he starts translating, and not to the McDonald's employee doing translations at night while watching Netflix. 

So what's your value proposition? What makes you unique and different from those top-rated sellers with 80 jobs in their queue at half the rate? 

 

Immediately, I can think of a few ideas: 

• A single point of contact: the guy you're chatting with is the same guy editing your video. 
• You personally take the time to understand each client, their needs, customers, and marketing strategy
• Because you charge a premium, you take on fewer projects, meaning more attention is given to each client

Those are just a few ideas for value propositions that align well with a higher rate. Only you can decide if they are true or not and to what extent, but it all depends on your business model, type of work, and strategy. So you have to think about this for yourself. I see you work mostly with streamers. Perhaps you could try to get a famous streamer on your client list? Having worked with "big names" is something you can use to sell more expensive services. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by smashradio

[joyh97]

 but doing so will lead to losing a lot of regular clients.

-

What I have done in cases like this is messaged my regulars that I want to keep, and let them know I will be increasing my general prices, but that I am happy to continue keeping their personal rates at the same cost for the next 3-6 months. Tell them to ask you for custom offers instead. This is a really great strategy because it allows you to test the waters - you can still keep your regular clients at your regular pricing, but all new clients will be at the higher price point. You can then test it out and see if you are still getting too many new orders, or not enough, while having the "guaranteed" income from regular clients, who are also usually grateful for the discount.

My very first client who ever ordered from me on Fiverr in 2018 still orders from me regularly now in 2022, even though my prices have increased by literally 10x in that time. You might be surprised!

[addytor]

@joyh97You super smart person, I guess this is the right choice to make, I can shoot a text to my regular clients, and I'll test out new prices, if they don't work, I can just return to those prices. Why didn't I think of this, thanks a ton Joy.

@smashradioI understand your point, and although I'm good at what I do, but lately I'm not getting time to keep up skilling myself, just pumping out orders, playing race against time, what @joyh97 suggested would give me enough time to explore more in my background without crippling my business income.

Thanks to both of you guys, I really appreciate your response 🙂

6 hours ago, joyh97 said:

 but doing so will lead to losing a lot of regular clients.

-

What I have done in cases like this is messaged my regulars that I want to keep, and let them know I will be increasing my general prices, but that I am happy to continue keeping their personal rates at the same cost for the next 3-6 months. Tell them to ask you for custom offers instead. This is a really great strategy because it allows you to test the waters - you can still keep your regular clients at your regular pricing, but all new clients will be at the higher price point. You can then test it out and see if you are still getting too many new orders, or not enough, while having the "guaranteed" income from regular clients, who are also usually grateful for the discount.

My very first client who ever ordered from me on Fiverr in 2018 still orders from me regularly now in 2022, even though my prices have increased by literally 10x in that time. You might be surprised!

 

[joyh97]

Good luck! I'm sure you'll find that the new prices work well. Remember to give it at least a month or two to give the new prices a chance before deciding whether to swap back - whenever I change my pricing, there is usually a couple of slow weeks before it picks back up. The only thing I have ever regretted is not changing my prices sooner!

[mdsohelerana]

19 hours ago, smashradio said:

 

Here's how I think of it: 

If I have too much work, increasing my rates will make some regular buyers move on. But if those buyers are sending too much work my way, it has several consequences: 

• It will affect the quality of your output, thereby your buyer satisfaction rate
• It will affect your mental health
• It will affect your family and loved ones
• It will affect the clients who are willing to pay a premium for your services

Part of my goal is to send a few of those regular buyers on their way. By letting a few of them go, you make room for new, higher-paying clients, which means you should earn more while working less. 

So yes, some regular clients will disappear, and that's perfectly fine. It should be your goal.

It can be scary and sad to lose clients. Some of my all-time top buyers don't work with me anymore because I raised my rates. And I'm okay with that because I now work with new regular clients who don't mind paying my going rate.

I've tripled my earnings using this method, but I work less than I used to, not more. 

The increases should be incremental. We live in weird times with record inflation and an increased cost of living. It's fair to increase your rate to match the added costs. 

Too much demand is a luxury.  What happens when the supply is unchanged while demand is growing? Prices go up. 

great