Tip: Manual AutoResponse (a method that doesn't affect response rate)

[themarineiguana]

Who likes sleep?

I like sleep. I really like to sleep. 😴

But when you have someone contact you after hours, it can be difficult to maintain an optimal Response Rate if you're like me and enjoy being able to fulfill a basic human need.

Fiverr's built-in "Auto-Reply" feature is OK, but it's no alternative to actually being able to touch base with a prospective buyer to keep your Response Rate high.

If you're a new seller, your best bet is to do a "Manual AutoResponse", which may seem as oxymoronic as "jumbo shrimp" at face value, but trust me... it helps immensely.

What is Manual AutoResponse?

Manual AutoResponse is a technique for touching base with your prospective buyer very briefly so you can go back to catching z's. 💤

It works like this:

1. Make sure you have a SmartPhone.
2. Write about 3 "away messages" for different situations, "Copy" them to your phone's "Clipboard", and then 🔒 lock all the away messages to your clipboard.
3. Away messages should be something like a) "Currently away from computer, should be back in the morning." or b) "Out to lunch, should be back in an hour." or c) "Watching the birth of my first child, should be back in 2 hours".
4. Set up the alarm that plays when Fiverr sends a push notification to be a brief, sharp tone that can wake you from sleep.
5. Then when someone contacts you during your resting hours, quickly open the Fiverr messenger, "Paste" the most relevant away message, and then immediately go back to sleep.

Why is this important?

Because sleep is important? 🛏️

No, seriously...

Because sleep is important!

Sellers tend to do their best work when they're well-rested, not burnt out, or exhausted...

... and — as a result — not questioning whether they should escape into the depths of the Canadian wilderness and live like a sasquatch, manbear, or Great Uncle Pete who was never the same after that maple syrup explosion...

And if new sellers want to keep competitive, having an optimal response rate is a good way to gain trust from potential buyers... and being able to function without crippling exhaustion is a good way to follow through on orders.

What are the risks?

Same as AutoReply, that the prospective customer goes to someone else. But the fact is, I've had about a 50% success rate with at least being able to get further along on negotiations with people who I ask to wait, so it is probably worth it.

So in conclusion...

Grab those teddy bears 🧸, grab those smart phones 📱, and throw away that subscription to "How to Live as a Hermit (Swimsuit Edition)", because it's time to get some rest and keep your response rate high.

Edited June 18, 2023 by themarineiguana

[smashradio]

While I certainly agree that maintaining a good response rate is essential, and with your conclusion to grab that teddy bear and get some shuteye, I don't think you need to wake up at night to respond to buyers.

But before I go into why I think you can enjoy uninterrupted sleep while being successful on Fiverr (I've done it for nine years), you don't need to bother with your phone's clipboard to make the above tip work if you're insistent on being woken up every time a buyer wants something from you at 3 a.m in the morning.

Fiverr has a great feature called Quick Responses. It's premade message templates you can send with a click. Just wanted to mention that because they're truly a powerful and time-saving feature, even if you're like me and refuse to get up in the middle of the night because a client feels entitled to a response 24/7. 

Back to why I think you can enjoy your deep and dreamless slumber. 

Your response rate (not time, but rate) is based on how many messages you've responded to within 24 hours of receiving them for the past 60 days. So unless you're asleep for more than 24 hours in one go (and if so, how?!), you should be able to maintain a 100% response rate without waking up at night. 

Your response time stat is based on your average response time for the past 60 days. Mine is consistently at 1 - 2 hours (mostly 1-hour average), even though I don't respond to buyer messages after work hours. That's because I'm always very fast at responding during work hours. 

When a buyer tries to contact you at night (your night), they will get a notification about it being nighttime where you're at, informing the buyer that getting a response might take some time.

Now, I've seen arguments about being affected because of time zones before (i.e., it's night where you are when it's day where your buyers are), and yes, that can certainly affect your response time. If that's the case, you can consider just using an autoreply (an automatic one) to let the buyer know you'll be back during local business hours. It doesn't do anything to your rate or time, as the OP mentions, but it can help retain a buyer. 

If the buyer expects you to wake up in the middle of the night to get to them, they have no respect for your time, and I would avoid working with them.

But hey - if you don't mind being interrupted at night, go for it.

There are studies (like this one, published in the scientific journal Sleep) that show interrupted sleep to be even worse than too little sleep. According to the study, people whose sleep was frequently interrupted for three consecutive nights reported significantly worse moods than those with less sleep due to later bedtimes. Interrupted or fragmented sleep can also contribute to insomnia, sleep deprivation, daytime sleepiness, and other potential consequences.

Interrupted sleep can also change the composition of our natural microbiota, decreasing beneficial bacteria and increasing bacteria associated with disease, according to Sleepdoctor.com. 

Personally, I prefer to be well-rested, alert, and at my best while working. I approach running my business a bit like Jeff Bezos (I only wish I was as rich as him, too!), and here's what he had to say about sleep:

 

 If you ask me, the man makes sense. 

[vickiespencer]

15 minutes ago, smashradio said:

I don't think you need to wake up at night to respond to buyers.

I agree. I sleep at least nine hours a night, and my phone is off at that time. Yet, my response rate is 100%, and my response time is one hour. I now do not use Auto Response, as I noted that at least two buyers on the Forum said it was annoying.  Besides, I disliked scrolling through the Auto Response to get to the text box where I could reply to the buyer. 



 

[themarineiguana]

As smashradio pointed out... yes, I meant the...

⭐⭐⭐ Response Time Stat ⭐⭐⭐
... not the Response Rate stat.

(Boy, I wish there were a longer "grace period" on editing posts ⏰😅).

Edited June 18, 2023 by themarineiguana

[akhiakter70]

My response time is 4 hour .so, how do possible to auto response rate?

[mervehuyuk]

Yes I also agree but as I am a new member I only receive message from some people who want to communicate on fiverr and I reject them.  I really wonder if I can get a job here. I do not want to lose my faith:(

[themarineiguana]

10 hours ago, akhiakter70 said:

My response time is 4 hour .so, how do possible to auto response rate?

Hmm... looking at your profile, I think your major challenge to improving your response time is going to be the "time zone gap" ⏰, because I'm guessing the majority of your potential customers are going to be many hours behind you in the UK, US, and Canada.

If you use the technique I mentioned in my first post, it might help.

Also, even though gig descriptions apparently have to be in English (link), I have seen gig titles in other languages... so there might be untapped market potential in advertising to time zones slightly closer. Since you're also fluent in German, you might be able to offer a new, different service in German (and yes, I do realize Germany's not THAT much closer... but you get the idea). Here's an example of a gig with a German title, but an English description: https://www.fiverr.com/realartrandy/qualitative-designs-erstellen-und-anbieten
 

5 hours ago, mervehuyuk said:

Yes I also agree but as I am a new member I only receive message from some people who want to communicate on fiverr and I reject them.  I really wonder if I can get a job here.

Buyers are like "mama birds", and we sellers are all like "baby birds" 🐤 trying to get their attention for food.

And there are so.... so many of us "baby birds" 😅

A lot of people like to sugarcoat it by saying "I succeeded, you can too!", but mathematically speaking 📊 it's not that simple.

Some of the biggest sellers (though probably not all) have the age-old mentality of "the have nots just need to work harder"... much like a Dickensian antagonist... but many of those same sellers also don't realize that a more new seller-friendly environment of the past had better allowed them to work hard and "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" (as we say in the States).

(Note: When I started in 2019, Fiverr policies were better than they are now, and it still took 2 months for me to wade past the scammers and get my first legit order.)

So the million dollar question is this: Is it possible to make Fiverr work in the Year of our Lord 2,023?

It's probably going to require more than it did in the past. Honing your skills and putting your best foot forward are a good start, sure... but now it potentially requires staying one step ahead of AI and also continuing to "light the proverbial fire" under Fiverr by speaking up and saying "treat your sellers and buyers more equitably, 'kay? thanks!".

5 hours ago, mervehuyuk said:

I do not want to lose my faith:(

I'm a big believer in the power of faith, if you saw the Jesus fish necklace in my avatar you probably guessed as much. 🙂

But when it comes to faith, I've found that adding too many constraints can make it difficult to keep your faith high.

I've found it's better to have faith that you will be successful in general in life, instead of trying to have faith that a specific organization (e.g. Fiverr 💵) will be the one to ensure that success.

Edited June 20, 2023 by themarineiguana

[gayanchamira]

I think time zones difference will affect to the seller and buyer from different zones and most of sellers in fiverr from Asian countries like India Pakistan and buyers are from USA  UK like so why you need to pay attention during your sleeping time in midnight because your main client base may start the works at this time

 

[aaarifur]

have any ringtone or software? which can be set for message tone for fiverr?

[bilha2018]

On 6/18/2023 at 9:48 PM, smashradio said:

Personally, I prefer to be well-rested, alert, and at my best while working

This took me back to when I started out on Fiverr in 2018. I used to be obsessed with my response time stat. I would wake up at 1 am or 2 am to respond to my clients. I would even connect my phone to a Bluetooth speaker on most nights when going to sleep so that I wouldn't miss a notification.😂 I was a bit of an extremist. 

But after doing that for a couple of months, I started noticing a decline in my productivity and quality of work. That's when I began to appreciate the importance of logging off and getting some good quality sleep. I mean, what good is your response time if you don't unplug and recharge? A healthy work-life balance is just as important. It will help unlock a renewed sense of creativity and passion for your work. 

[themarineiguana]

On 7/15/2023 at 2:46 AM, aaarifur said:

have any ringtone or software? which can be set for message tone for fiverr?

And now to reveal my Dad's wisdom for how he notifies himself of text messages: "Hey [INSERT NAME HERE]! You have a message!" 😅😅😅

I would probably recommend something like that for a notification, because hearing your own name really gets your attention.

As for software, there are probably quite a few apps out there for recording MP3s right on your phone. However, Dad did all his voice recording on the computer... he used Audacity 🔊 (with the "LAME MP3 Encoder") and then used Sweech to transfer the MP3 to his phone. Easier to control the quality of the final recording this way, but I suppose an app could be easier if you prefer.

• Note that he did this only for text messages though (he doesn't use Fiverr).

For apps like Fiverr, I think you need to:

1. Long press the app.
2. Press "App Info".
3. Go to "Notifications".
4. Specifically choose "Inbox messages".
5. Click "Sound".
6. Then change the sound to the recording of your choice.

• (it should appear if you moved it to the "Notifications" folder).

Note: This may be different on other versions of Android. 📱

[jyoti_517]

On 6/20/2023 at 2:20 AM, akhiakter70 said:

My response time is 4 hour .so, how do possible to auto response rate?

Always try to response within one hour. It will fix your response time gently. This is from my experience.

On 7/15/2023 at 5:35 AM, bilha2018 said:

This took me back to when I started out on Fiverr in 2018. I used to be obsessed with my response time stat. I would wake up at 1 am or 2 am to respond to my clients. I would even connect my phone to a Bluetooth speaker on most nights when going to sleep so that I wouldn't miss a notification.😂 I was a bit of an extremist. 

But after doing that for a couple of months, I started noticing a decline in my productivity and quality of work. That's when I began to appreciate the importance of logging off and getting some good quality sleep. I mean, what good is your response time if you don't unplug and recharge? A healthy work-life balance is just as important. It will help unlock a renewed sense of creativity and passion for your work. 

well said.  If we get sick, it is impossible to provide quality service. thank you very much for the valuable advice.

[jabirahamed20]

I personally don't use auto response messages. Didn't set yet or maybe not going to do that. Because I think as I am always in front of my system (as a web developer I always have to work some other tasks as well) so that I didn't use that. I use Fiverr app on my phone that is way more enough to get notified about if any new order or client drop me any message.