How to go about with this shadow-ban?

[mariavana]

Hello, fellow Fiverrians!

 

On Friday 16/4, I got alerted that my translation gig was unpromotable. Fine, no biggie, let's see what this is about, and surely we can resolve the situation without getting kicked in the knee.

 

As I went to my Ad performance tab, I found out that the Gig was not promotable due to 'possible quality issues'. Wait, hold your horses! 

 

This is where it started to get deeper into the questionable, as I also found out my gig, if not my account, has been shadowbanned from the platform. It can not be found anywhere other than a direct link, which is a huge hit as most of my (and I imagine many others) traffic comes from within the search engine on the platform itself. It was time to contact support. 

 

I contacted Fiverr about this travesty, providing screenshots of my 100% performance sliders topped with 1h response time, as well as an image of my all-time 5-star ratings. I asked for information about this situation, as well as help in making it better. Everything is good, surely this is some glitch in the system and they'll sort me right out!

 

Fiverr support has not been very helpful in this manner, offering me generic tips and even sending out some quite outrageous statements from ''You can continue working with your existing Buyers" to "Do your best to give high-quality and keep the Buyers satisfied". Well, sheesh. As if my record does not show that I have done a smashing job doing exactly that.

 

They gave me some criteria that we, the ever-vigilant Fiverrians, must fulfill to be eligible for the Ads, and besides the shady 'additional quality metrics' (that are unknown to us Fiverrians), I fill them all with no questions asked. 

 

When it comes to the shadow ban from the whole search engine, Fiverr suggests that my 'poor performance' has something to do with it. The gig in question had, before this situation, a steady trickle of orders and all 5-star reviews, while I do my best to deliver before deadlines and am available before, during, and after my services. This means that the 'helpful' advice from Fiverr (including adhering to TOS, delivering on time, providing high-quality services, etc) is more or less useless as I face this capital punishment for no apparent reason whatsoever, and so, can not even be in the competition.

 

While I keep knocking on the corporate door, the lone, small translator of an obscure language that I am, I would also like to know how you guys, my fellow Fiverrians, have dealt with these situations.

 

I've read some of the posts on this topic, and it seems most of the time the only thing to do is wait and pray. Not to mention the speak of 'private ratings', as if it is somehow ok if that is going on, as Fiverr does not seem to check the viability of any such claims before smashing down the ban hammer. In my honest opinion, such practices are extremely bad for business, not only for the Sellers, who have no way of protecting themselves from the malicious unjust reports of god only knows who.  

 

How can I improve my standing on the platform, and get my gig back on the searches, besides the generic (do better, advertise outside, etc)?

 

Thank you in advance!

[smashradio]

Hey fellow translator and Nordic person!

I am sorry to learn about your recent experience.

It appears that you may have received some unfavorable private feedback, based on what I can see from your post.

The public star-rating is only a portion of the system used to evaluate buyer satisfaction rate (BSR). The private reviews carry more weight.

Even if a buyer leaves a positive public review or no review at all, they might say something entirely different when responding to Fiverr's private survey.

Although the response from customer support may not have been the one you hoped for, it indicates issues with your BSR.

To address it, you need to deliver exceptional services from now on, hoping that some of your buyers will push your BSR in the other direction. Just remember to never ask for positive feedback. 

The buyer satisfaction rate is typically calculated over a 60 or 90-day period (I don't remember which), so you probably have to wait it out along with doing a great job for regular buyers. 

As for private reviews being bad, I disagree. Buyers tend to be more honest when providing anonymous feedback, which helps Fiverr match the best sellers with the right buyers. If you consistently perform well, this usually works in your favor. However, I do wish there was more transparency about it, helping us to better understand what causes these things to happen.

Other sellers and I have spoken directly to Fiverr about this during our meetings with the team at Fiverr. This whole private feedback-thing started without Fiverr even acknowledging it, and we've gotten to the point where Fiverr now admits it exists and has given us many clues about how it works, so we know a lot more today than a couple of years ago. Things are moving in the right direction. 

Here are a few strategies to enhance your buyer satisfaction rate:

• Manage expectations before and during the order.
• Regularly follow up with your clients during the order to ensure they feel safe. Don't wait for buyers to ask you for updates. 
• Under-promise and over-deliver.
• Exceed expectations on every order by going above and beyond.
• Be polite and helpful, to the point of thinking of yourself as a customer service agent, not just a translator. 

Pay particular attention to all of this if Fiverr informs you that a buyer is new to the platform. Fiverr recently began assigning greater weight to feedback from new buyers in order to improve customer retention.

I hope this helps! 

Edited April 22, 2023 by smashradio

[mariavana]

Thank you for the very thorough answer!

I shall do my best to give the best service possible, much like I've done thus far. And usually get very positive feedback in the conversations even. Of course, I have had a few situations where I could've been clearer, or where the Buyer was just simply either not understanding or being difficult for other reasons.

While I agree about honesty, It is very unfortunate that in the event that someone carrying an ill will could be the reason behind the private ratings going down.

 

[jacobmarx297]

Experiencing the exact same thing. Said I couldn't promote my gig anymore and then all of my gigs dropped to almost nothing in impressions. Straight shadow banned with no reasoning or answer. Went from 7K impressions a day to 0 overnight. Never have I had a negative review or any bad analytics. Whatever fiverr is doing is messed up. 100 5 star reviews in 3 months and now I'm shadow banned with no answer. 

[mariavana]

Ikr? It's such a bad policy for us Sellers since we can't do anything about it. We can't improve our service, since the information about what we've supposedly done wrong is never given to us—such shady dealings. It is such a hit to us Fiverrians, bad for business.

I hope your situation gets resolved soon! (And mine too)