Buyer is not happy with the brief/matchmaking system

[hedayetsaadi556]

As the title says, Fiverr's brief/match making system does not favor the buyer as we can see a buyer posted a help-seeking post on Reddit. Please have a look at the following snapshot of that post.

 

 

That client is trying to saythat Fiverr is giving a headache, and s/he can't figure out where the post request went. On the flip side, Fiverr's competitor is winning the game when a buyer is about to find an appropriate freelancer. I believe Fiverr should collect feedback and reconsider the "Buyer Request" feature. In that case, a few things may be implemented to reduce the low-quality proposals like others are doing.

Edited December 29, 2023 by hedayetsaadi556

[katakatica]

43 minutes ago, hedayetsaadi556 said:

As the title says, Fiverr's brief/match making system does not favor the buyer as we can see a buyer posted a help-seeking post on Reddit. Please have a look at the following snapshot of that post.

 

 

That client is trying to saythat Fiverr is giving a headache, and s/he can't figure out where the post request went. On the flip side, Fiverr's competitor is winning the game when a buyer is about to find an appropriate freelancer. I believe Fiverr should collect feedback and reconsider the "Buyer Request" feature. In that case, a few things may be implemented to reduce the low-quality proposals like others are doing.

I think what Fiverr should do is be better about communicating what briefs are (and where you can find them/etc.) Buyers' request as it was was AWFUL. More scam than anything as a buyer. However, for people who prefer that way of buying (which is NOT really Fiverr's main business model) briefs should work just fine as long as people know where they are/etc. As a new buyer, finding my old BRs was just as hard as figuring out where my briefs are once I post them. 

What a lot of people don't know (based on other websites/etc) when they come on here is that Fiverr is meant to be a bit more like a catalogue, for now at least. Think about how Amazon and Etsy (or just other supermarkets) work. You don't just post a request that you need two loaves of bread and get ten offers for it!

I understand the confusion for sure, but I think people should be able to do a bit of research and know that different sites work, well, differently! 

[vickieito]

Hi @hedayetsaadi556 & @katakatica,

I think both of you touched on a really good point. Fiverr doesn't make it easy for new buyers to navigate the platform or find good freelancers.

3 hours ago, hedayetsaadi556 said:

That client is trying to saythat Fiverr is giving a headache, and s/he can't figure out where the post request went.

3 hours ago, katakatica said:

I think what Fiverr should do is be better about communicating what briefs are (and where you can find them/etc.)

@katakatica, Can you share your experience with briefs and how to access them? I haven't created a brief yet because I don't want buyers having unlimited access to my inbox simply because they've responded to a brief once. It seems easier to just do my own research and contact the sellers I would like to do business with myself. However, I'd like to be more helpful to buyers, especially first-time buyers, who would like to use the brief feature.

Fiverr could do better about improving communication in general. It took me 3 months to figure out how to contact CS (I didn't know I had to keep clicking through all the options to get to the ticketing system). I also recently received a buyer email (and saw @Kesha's corresponding post) that let me know that as a buyer, I could schedule a call with a Customer Success Manager here:

https://go.oncehub.com/CustomerSuccessManager

Or email them directly here:

buyer-success@fiverr.com

I didn't know this option was available, and I don't often look too closely at the buyer emails that Fiverr sends me.

It would be helpful to have an easy access button to these resources in a sidebar on the main Fiverr platform so that buyers, myself included, don't feel stupid when trying to get familiar with the platform, contact CS, or find the right freelancer. As a seller, once I found the forum, I felt supported by Fiverr. However, as a buyer, it took me over a year to feel comfortable, even though I was placing ~10-13 orders each month. I only stuck with it because of the great experience I have on the seller side.

[hedayetsaadi556]

8 hours ago, vickieito said:

It would be helpful to have an easy access button to these resources in a sidebar on the main Fiverr platform so that buyers, myself included, don't feel stupid when trying to get familiar with the platform

I never posted any brief though, don't know what it looks like. But from that Reddit post, I can make sense new buyers are facing difficulties in navigating things. So I think there might be areas to work on.

[katakatica]

12 hours ago, vickieito said:

Can you share your experience with briefs and how to access them? I haven't created a brief yet because I don't want buyers having unlimited access to my inbox simply because they've responded to a brief once. It seems easier to just do my own research and contact the sellers I would like to do business with myself. However, I'd like to be more helpful to buyers, especially first-time buyers, who would like to use the brief feature.

From what I remember, there IS a way to access briefs, but just like how BR was kind of hidden (at least to a reasonably new user), it's a bit obscured as well.  I - think - you need to wait for a notification and then can access it. I'm sure there's a different spot for it as well, of course, but I think it's a little tricky to find. 

My biggest issue with briefs (personally) is that buyers don't seem to be encouraged to fill them out fully. The idea is that we are matched based on, well, the same criteria (and some more) as for BR in theory - but I feel that many times things just aren't filled out. For example, someone might give a budget that's relatively close to what I charge but then ask for 10k words. BR has this issue as well, to be honest (and was a lot spammier.)

I think in general, I'd love it if Buyers were informed about the resources they have (I saw the post you mentioned as well and never heard about it before, could be a reasonably new feature?) and just general things about the site (e.g. technically 'I don't like it', isn't grounds for cancellation, you should not buy 10 things and buy only one, you need to communicate frequently, etc.) in a gentle but informative way. I think a lot of people don't really know where to look for the TOS/etc. if that makes sense.