Pitch Me Your Ideas - Meeting with Micha

nickj2013 · July 7, 2023

3 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

Agreed but it won't happen and we know that. The chances of Fiverr removing those private reviews are minimal. I am sure many buyers had complaints that they don't have time to review. And obviously Fiverr cares about customer satisfaction. We will see but as I said, I don't think they will revert their approach towards reviews. If anything, with the cancellation reviews they are doubling down on reviews..

I don’t get it though. If you don’t/won’t have time to review something. Why buy it? This happens in retail also. People buy things, then return weeks later with a complaint. It’s malpractice. When I buy anything, I examine every nook and cranny to make sure I’m satisfied.

websparkles · July 7, 2023

In my view the private reviews are not fair to sellers at all. If a buyer is really unhappy, they are going to leave a low rating even on public review anyway and if they are happy they will leave a good review. I don't see the point of private reviews when we have a public review already. Having two different reviews means psychologically the buyer might leave a different ( lower) rating thinking it is private anyway and it should be different from the public review. Just my two cents.

leannelrivers · July 7, 2023

On 7/6/2023 at 8:03 PM, terrygrantvo said:

One review, that occurs at the time of accepting the delivery and closing the order. A simple check box that allows you to make the review public if you want to. Regardless of which you choose, the review counts the same. If you don't close the order and it auto-completes, there is no review. Period.

That's it. No follow up surveys with dumb terms like 'perfect' in them. No vague multiple choice emails a week later. One review, your choice as to whether or not it's seen by the seller, and it counts the same either way... and the best part - no unnecessarily hounding buyers and punishing sellers for things they can't control.

I second this. The fact that the buyer reviews are requested days apart means that many sellers are not giving honest reviews to buyers because they know the buyer still has the chance to review privately. I've been guilty of it in the past. I've left a 5-star review for a terrible buyer because of the private review risk. It also renders the buyer insights somewhat untrustworthy. And terms like 'Perfect' and 'Exceeded Expectations' should be reconsidered.

The private review system is generally tough. It's not the buyer's review itself that's the problem, but the way the algorithm sends the seller hurtling to purgatory for weeks because of it. Perhaps the punishment for being imperfect could be softened a tad. If a seller consistently delivers poor quality work and receives negative reviews, that's a different story. It has been good for Seller Plus, though. I pay $39 a month just so new buyers can't order directly from me before I scope them out.

donnovan86 · July 7, 2023

2 hours ago, nickj2013 said:

When I buy anything, I examine every nook and cranny to make sure I’m satisfied.

Maybe I want to buy it now and have it ready at a certain date? I agree that most people should check the delivery quicker, but we can't force buyers man. Obviously Fiverr will cater to buyers since that's where money come from.

catwriter · July 7, 2023

9 hours ago, levinewman said:

What if it were a paywall in the sense that they had to invest $25 and that could in turn be used for gig promotion?

While some way to vet sellers would benefit the platform as a whole, "pay to be able to work here" reminds me of scammers who try to get sellers to talk to them outside of Fiverr, then offer them work, buuut, the seller is supposed to "pay a deposit" first. Of course, it's just a scam, and the seller will never get paid (nor will they get that deposit back).

In other words, it might make Fiverr look as a scamming site, and Fiverr's reputation is bad already.

leannelrivers · July 7, 2023

It would be fantastic to be able to send offers in other currencies as well, instead of having to send it in dollars and then see what the outcome is. I get many complaints about this. And these complaints are the kind of thing that can end up going into the private review because that's pitched as feedback for the overall experience, yet the functionality of the platform has nothing to do with sellers.

Edited July 7, 2023 by leannelrivers

sunboatrecords · July 7, 2023

1 minute ago, leannelrivers said:

It would be fantastic to be able to send offers in other currencies as well, instead of having to send it in dollars and then see what the outcome is. I get many complaints about this.

+1

And it can get pretty rough if the buyer's local currency is some kind of dollar. e.g., Australian, Canadian etc.

I always make sure to inform the buyers that the standard currency is USD to avoid any misunderstandings - I learned the hard way.

miiila · July 7, 2023

In addition to what was already posted, and namely, for my category, "Writing & Translation", the need to let sellers decide how many gig multiples people can buy/auto-increase the delivery time with bought multiples (VO category got exactly that fix ages ago, so it must be possible technically),

it would be great if you could pitch the idea of allowing one change of username - or perhaps one change every 5 😉 years or so, as some people's (main) line of business shifts or may shift (who knows, how many of us will need to adapt vastly with ChatGPT and whatnot).

When signing up it is/wasn't (don't know how the sign-up process is now) clear that the username isn't just something that's an identifier in the back end and will appear like everywhere.

It can be confusing for customers in addition to the display name, especially, where username and display name are different, and many people are stuck with a visible username that doesn't fit their display name, or doesn't reflect their (current) business, with something they made up on the fly, when registering "to see if this Fiverr is really a thing", etc.

Of course, there needs to be a backend unique identifier, which could either be the username or just some assigned number, as there can't be two of John Smith or Jane Doe, but there are companies that handle this with ID numbers in the background, so it can be done.

It will require some coding and time, and that costs, and therefore (and to keep people from "constantly" changing their username, but that also could be done by restricting the option to "once only/only every 5 years, so, think it through well"), I think it's completely reasonable to offer the option at a fee to cover that cost.

Thank you for asking and reading all these comments, and a "Hi, there's always room for improvement, but Fiverr is really really awesome!" to Micha. Have fun 🙂

imagination7413 · July 7, 2023

Have you read Frank's topic for suggestions in his meeting?

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/277979-a-personal-milestone…/

Edit: concerning my third, rambling post in that thread, and your request to suggest solutions along with the problems.

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/276820-please-message-me-before-placing-an-order/?do=findComment&comment=1920419

"A global marketplace connecting, and facilitating communication between, service-seekers to talented freelancers offering thousands of custom digital and remote services, so that Buyers can get exactly what they want."

Edited July 7, 2023 by imagination7413

uk1000 · July 7, 2023

Since Fiverr has created the new AI categories recently for sellers to create gigs in and buyers are being encouraged to buy from those

(eg. see https://blog.fiverr.com/post/an-open-letter-to-ai)

couldn't Fiverr clarify the legal position for sellers when working with the main apps in those categories (given the lawsuits against Stability AI, MidJourney etc., including those in relation to ChatGPT) and for buyers in those categories?

Also could Fiverr offer some sort of legal protection for sellers and buyers of gigs in those categories?

Also for Fiverr, couldn't the rating system be adjusted? If buyers weren't expected to give 5 stars for everything and the minimum avg rating wasn't 4.7 for the levels then wouldn't that help buyers (and sellers)? eg. for most sites (including Amazon) a 4 star or 4.5 star review is a good review but any average <4.7 stars is enough to make someone lose their level on Fiverr. So couldn't that required avg rating for levels be adjusted a bit so buyers don't feel pressured to give 5 stars for everything? Maybe Fiverr could also take into account the text of the review, not just the rating scores given, when determining buyer satisfaction rate.

And also couldn't sellers give private ratings for buyers just like buyers can give private ratings for sellers (and maybe that average shown to sellers)?

Edited July 7, 2023 by uk1000

levinewman · July 10, 2023

In reference to all the memes making fun of me.

I was at my grandmother's funeral this weekend, so it was really nice to come back after such a sad experience and find that I was being made fun of for trying to support my fellow Fiverr sellers. Never quit being you, Fiverr sellers. You're clearly the reason nobody takes us seriously at any sales level. It's also not ironic at all that a 60-year-old "Pro" is the one who started it.

Edited July 10, 2023 by levinewman