Update: Addressing new level system questions and feedback

[szybkaiokienko]

3 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Stop doing that, that's part of the problem. Not only you're being underpaid, you're actively devaluing your entire vertical. 

Yes, that really good piece of advice but my category has still all lower prices on Fiverr. I thought that If I gradually bring my prices up the others would stop going for such a price competition and will bring their prices also but for most it is not the case and I still have prices 3 times higher than the rest. You know that I cant deliver in much higher prices than people on Fiverr because no one will choose me on Fiver. 

I already sell in different places at the right prices. I'm trying to bring prices gradually up in my category but if others can't follow I'm doomed to leave Fiverr. 

[visualstudios]

2 minutes ago, szybkaiokienko said:

You know that I cant deliver in much higher prices than people on Fiverr because no one will choose me on Fiver. 

You'd be surprised. Unless you're in a low value vertical (in which case, what's the point? Do something else), there's buyers for every price point. There are people who won't buy from someone too cheap. Those are the clients you want.

[szybkaiokienko]

7 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

You'd be surprised. Unless you're in a low value vertical (in which case, what's the point? Do something else), there's buyers for every price point. There are people who won't buy from someone too cheap. Those are the clients you want.

I'm all conscious. I have the same idea of business on a different platform but here it seems to be a completely different client.

That is the target to gradually go up with prices  🙂 . Also gradually switching to other canals. I can't though make prices higher while Fiverr is almost not showing me because of a 4 rating on this particular gig (it is why I cant make my prices higher just now because I have a low coverage on this particular gig and the higher price will make less people interested - in such situation, it is not an advantage - I need to get this rating higher firstly so more "right buyers" will see it. 

And the silver lining is - thanks to Fiverr I have coverage on quite a fine amount of bigger projects. So I'm underpaid in one place (still quite fine with my work tempo) and then I take a bigger project (higher price, not the work mostly) that gives me 90% of monthly profit (on Fiverr).

Advantages and disadvantages as everywhere. I'm not pro-low prices, quite opposite. I just try to get as much coverage as I can at the moment. I'm planning to have as high prices as I can afford. 

[fittranslate]

Remark: I was Level 2 seller with:

• 2400+ completed orders with average price $100,
• 94 repeated business score rating,
• 5 stars reviews in average (903 reviews),
• 1 hour response time, 100% in time delivery,
• 100% response rate.

I have success score 5, with a customer satisfaction — strong negative impact... Now I'm Level 1

After long-long communications with different representatives, I receive such message with closed ticket. 

Fiverr support level — PRO, maybe in this way I need to communicate with clients to improve customers satisfaction and other metrics? Insane update and situation where old, proven and reliable freelancers are suffering now...

Edited February 16 by fittranslate

[shopgurue]

12 minutes ago, fittranslate said:

Remark: I was Level 2 seller with:

• 2400+ completed orders with average price $100,
• 94 repeated business score rating,
• 5 stars reviews in average (903 reviews),
• 1 hour response time, 100% in time delivery,
• 100% response rate.

I have success score 5, with a customer satisfaction — strong negative impact... Now I'm Level 1

Yeah this is absolutely ridiculous! I haven't been selling as long as you, but I have 30 reviews that pin me at a 4.9 star rating for one gig, and just one order with a 5 star review on a secondary gig and my success score is a 4.

This is what CS said:


Absolutely ridiculous.

[chronos_1]

Will extending order mutually without any conflict result in negative score?

- I had a buyer who did not have time to check his order and we kept on extending it for 4-5 months I think, I did not mind as the buyer is genuine, I have worked with him before. 

 

[modernmarvel]

@Kesha My Name is Pradyumn and i am part of the Fiverr community since 2019. It was an amazing journey till now as we all saw the ups and downs of the market together but have always been so fortunate to rise again with all odds, But a recent new level system storm hit us all badly. There are a few suggestions that i would like to make here so that we all have fairground play. 

Concern:

I served 35k + customers till now and i am being compared with all of those who might just start and completed a few orders till now It is unrealistic ground for a seller who has given 24/7 customer support across all time zones and achieved level 2 in the most competitive overcrowded category which is logo design. If you want to consider a new level system score should be visible in decimals so as a seller I can track and improve at a minute level. Overall this new level system does sound logical or rational and it's not the voice of just a few, every seller feels concerned about the same. 

Suggestion:

One cant improve on past 2 years' score with just 1 month of the grace period. Either it should be adjusted based on the amount of work a seller did in the last two years or evolution time should start from next month and monitor data for the next 6 months then implement this new level system with real-time/ daily data so I can see where I am lacking and improve on it. I am not just one who works to manage 30+ orders/revisions a day, we are a team & for them its important that I give them a roadmap to comply with the new level system and train them to perform well. 

I hope team Fiverr will carefully listen to all of the suggestions and create a more positive and trustworthy marketplace for all.

Ultimately the bottom line is....

One shoe can't fit all!

 

[Kesha]

23 hours ago, jackdharry said:

Hello, what happened to a flagged account? can we still withdraw the funds

Hi! In certain situations, flagged account are still able to withdraw funds, but it is a case by case situation since there are many different reasons why an account may be flagged. To get help for your specific case, please contact the Customer Support team here.

[arianelaurent]

@Kesha Do revisions count in the "conflict" orders metric?

[Kesha]

23 hours ago, arianelaurent said:

Does this include revision requests?

Revision request are a normal part of the collaborative process and does not inherently effect your performance. It is still important, however, to make sure you set proper expectations from the beginning and make the final delivery on time.

[vhskid]

3 hours ago, logoflow said:

the key metrics are also determine a score relative to other freelancers so based on that what I can understand is success score is a competition or can say it's clear comparison with the other freelancer.

I got the same response from CS as you attached and learning about the comparison part of the scoring makes me more worrisome because of my specific situation (but not unique on this platform).

As a higher-ticket freelancer with less frequent but longer orders, I'll be compared against sellers whose orders are "smaller" / shorter but much more often than mine. So I'll have much fewer opportunities to influence my score at a given period (if I only knew specifically how / what to improve).

Edited February 16 by vhskid

[virgoca]

@Kesha could you please clarify how extending the delivery time is affecting us? There is a myriad of reasons why an extension might be needed, plenty of them because of outside factors from either the buyer's end or the seller's end. If extending an order through a mutual understanding and satisfaction for both the seller and buyer negatively affects us, I believe this to be a borderline abusive metric.

[cal5086]

5 minutes ago, virgoca said:

@Kesha could you please clarify how extending the delivery time is affecting us? There is a myriad of reasons why an extension might be needed, plenty of them because of outside factors from either the buyer's end or the seller's end. If extending an order through a mutual understanding and satisfaction for both the seller and buyer negatively affects us, I believe this to be a borderline abusive metric.

Anything that is mutually agree upon by the seller and the buyer shouldn't have a negative impact on anyone. I don't understand why it would be any other way, it doesn't make sense to me. 

[virgoca]

On 2/15/2024 at 9:27 AM, chronos_1 said:

I have score of 10 but here is my input: 

1) Remove or change value for money:

- I set a price which I feel is justified for the experience and expertise I bring. Buyer is unknown about the work that gets put behind the curtains nor has expertise on how it is done.

- If the buyer thinks that price for the service required is high then he/ she should not start the order itself.

- I think this forces seller to reduce the prices as we get directly compared to other gigs with lower prices and provide same services. However, prices are based on final quality that you would receive which cannot be quantified without asking 2 sellers to do exact same work. 

 

2) Success score to remain TRS which is 9 is high in my opinion and it should be 8. Same goes for rating, since the new rating system has come into effect it seems 4.7* is the new 5*. To remain TRS we need to have 4.7* which I think is not good.

I wished I could heart this more than once. Most clients do not judge your value for money based on how good of a job you did, or if you are worth your price, they judge it based on how much money they managed to save for themselves, even if unreasonably. This just forces us to drop our prices and basically enslave ourselves. I'm just saying, if I have to drop my prices, yet continue to deliver the same quality I do right now to stay competitive, I AM NOT taking more orders than I am right now. I'd like to see how Fiverr feels when the entire platform is doing the same amount of work for cheaper, which = less profit for them too in the end. This whole thing is detrimental for EVERYONE!

Edited February 16 by virgoca
missing word

[maitasun]

6 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

in my case I have 4 gigs now, and it looks like this.

 

6 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

So, with a bit of math, I assume my score is 9.25, right? It would be great if we could see those decimals though. 

As @vibronx said, not necessarily. Paused gigs still count and are factored in.

[ahunyady]

1) I agree, the rating spread should be widened; that is a valid concern.

2) The way Fiverr went about this is the WORST idea possible. Why can't buyers simply be shown a slider of 1 to 5, with the demotion threshold marked as the “acceptable” level. Break it down into 3 sliders if you want, but buyers MUST know what the “acceptable” level is. Anything below 4.7 means the buyer does not feel the seller should remain on the platform. Anything above 4.7 means the buyer wants the seller to keep selling on the platform. Buyers do not currently understand this—Kesha, I can provide proof if necessary. The buyer can even be presented with (clearly labeled) private feedback that goes directly to the seller, but which does not affect their score, indicating areas where they can improve. Reduce the pressure, let the buyer know what their ratings mean for sellers and everyone’s happy.

3) To widen the spread, simply multiply everyone’s public rating score by a certain factor to spread out the distribution as fairly as possible, and reduce the level threshold proportionally. 

Edited February 16 by ahunyady

[charlsmcfarlane]

2 hours ago, visualstudios said:

This doesn't work, and can't be implemented. If I know an order impacted the score negatively, I know which buyer impacted the score negatively. Not sure what you're trying to say here. 

Hell, I have a "strong negative impact" on customer satisfaction in one of my gigs (still at 9 score, somehow), and I know exactly which client is responsible for that lol. 

This suggestion has nothing to do with private reviews. I’m talking about objective, system-recorded metrics. For example, maybe in order “x”, which has been flagged as a negative for communication, I review it and see that my communication score was impacted because I didn’t respond to a buyer within 24 hours. That’s something I can identify and address. The buyer is irrelevant. If you review the original message I sent, it adds the extra context.

Edited February 16 by charlsmcfarlane

[Kesha]

21 hours ago, bobstouch said:

@Kesha does it mean we that have our account flagged won't be able to partake in the level system 'Forever"?! If yes, this is wild.

All my years of hardwork in the mud.

@bobstouch Hi. It's best to reach out to Customer Support for assistance with your specific case. They can provide further clarification and help resolve any issues. Good luck!

 

[Alex.M]

7 minutes ago, maitasun said:

Paused gigs still count and are factored in.

well that sucks, they are forcing us to delete them even if they are new... 

I have a gig that offers aerial footage ( drone video ) from my country, I only had 5-6 big orders without any issues at all , today I woke up with a score of 3/10 without any reason, it says it has a negative impact when it comes to effective communication which is completely false and that's the only ' metric ' available for that gig. My overall success score is still 10/10 , many things are wrong with the new system.

 

If you have a few successful gigs you are forced to stick with them. Who creates new gigs if in a short period of times they'll have bad success scores for them that eventually on the long run will harm your account?   I don't understand why is Fiverr shooting itself in the foot like that. 

[martian_guy]

9 minutes ago, Kesha said:

@bobstouch Hi. It's best to reach out to Customer Support for assistance with your specific case. They can provide further clarification and help resolve any issues. Good luck!

 

The customer support is sending just copy pasted response to everyone. 

They are not talking about the future of the flagged accounts. 

Also they are not telling the exact reason for this ban, it looks like even they are not sure why our accounts were flagged! 

Customer support seems useless in this situation! 

Edited February 16 by martian_guy

[yonixer]

6 minutes ago, Kesha said:

@bobstouch Hi. It's best to reach out to Customer Support for assistance with your specific case. They can provide further clarification and help resolve any issues. Good luck!

 

the CS is just sending us copy paste messages with no explination arent flagged account need to have warnings like the following terms from fiverr tos :

If it's your first warning, you will be reminded of Fiverr's Terms of Service. Repeat violations may result in account suspension. A second warning of the same type will result in account suspension.

[Alex.M]

1 minute ago, yonixer said:

he CS is just sending us copy paste messages with no explination arent flagged account need to have warnings like the following terms from fiverr tos :

the truth is that for now they don't know either , I assume that this will be solved in the following days , don't worry too much about it for now. 

[cal5086]

16 minutes ago, ahunyady said:

1) I agree, the rating spread should be widened; that is a valid concern.

2) The way Fiverr went about this is the WORST idea possible. Why can't buyers simply be shown a slider of 1 to 5, with the demotion threshold marked as the “acceptable” level. Break it down into 3 sliders if you want, but buyers MUST know what the “acceptable” level is. Anything below 4.7 means the buyer does not feel the seller should remain on the platform. Anything above 4.7 means the buyer wants the seller to keep selling on the platform. Buyers do not currently understand this—Kesha, I can provide proof if necessary. The buyer can even be presented with (clearly labeled) private feedback that goes directly to the seller, but which does not affect their score, indicating areas where they can improve. Reduce the pressure, let the buyer know what their ratings mean for sellers and everyone’s happy.

3) To widen the spread, simply multiply everyone’s public rating score by a certain factor to spread out the distribution as fairly as possible, and reduce the level threshold proportionally. 

This 100% true about the ratings.

As a TRS or any seller on the platform, only two scores are positive a 4.7 and a 5. So the buyer has 2 options to pick from that are positive and about 10+ options to pick that are all 100% negative. The buyer has zero idea how this effects us as sellers because I have gotten glowing reviews and tips with a score of 4. A score of 4 should be a B, but on here it's the equivalent to a 1 the way it is weighted. 

The score of 4 shouldn't be negative, the score of 3 should be neutral.... and so on.

As of now every score we get below 4.7 is basically a negative score for us sellers.

Edited February 16 by cal5086
spelling

[virgoca]

@Kesha I don't mean to put pressure on you. I understand you must be DROWNING on the amount of questions, demands and requests you are receiving as a result of the chaos this new system has created. However, I'd like to say that, for a system that's boasting and nearly bragging about the newly "improved transparency", answering all of our concerns with scripted replies that don't acknowledge nor clarify any of our doubts and issues is the furthest thing from transparency, and all this is doing is breaking the trust between Fiverr and it's sellers. This goes not only for you on this forum, bur for Customer Service, and the Success Managers. If you aren't able to answer these questions, or don't know what's going on, and no one on the administrative side knows either, perhaps rolling this system back until everyone is internally educated on it is the best you guys could do, and would be the best way to salvage what little trust and confidence there is left amongst us sellers. So far, what it looks like from our side is that none of you know what's going on either, and we are discussing our livelihood here, not an inconsequential subject. It's bad optic, and the PR firefighting the scripted replies are trying to do, is just generating worse PR than it's helping.

[maitasun]

10 minutes ago, Alex.M said:

the truth is that for now they don't know either , I assume that this will be solved in the following days , don't worry too much about it for now. 

Oh, they DO know!!!! That they don't want to admit it, that's another story.