Update: Addressing new level system questions and feedback

[emmatopping]

29 minutes ago, anniejenkinson said:

I feel very vulnerable here

I think many of us do, unfortunately, feel very vulnerable. There ought to be a duty of care to freelancers here, many who rely on the platform for their livelihoods and family's wellbeing. 

[Kesha]

On 2/15/2024 at 7:52 AM, emmatopping said:

@Kesha

Aside from the updates about levels, about which I have many questions, can you please inform us about the new Seller Plus Premium programme? It appears that many of the usual Seller Plus features are being moved to a new premium level which costs $39/month, up $10 from the previous programme? So, no dedicated success manager, early payout, request to order etc. unless we pay Fiverr an additional $10 a month?

Please explain the rationale behind this move and why this hasn't been communicated?

Hi! We have not increased the pricing for the Seller Plus program. It remains $19/month for the standard tier, and $39/month for the premium tier. The premium tier comes with several more benefits and therefore costs more. I hope this helps clarify things. Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

[melanielm]

2 hours ago, Kesha said:

One key point raised is cancellations rectified by Customer Support affecting success scores. We recognize this oversight and are actively working to resolve it before the transition period concludes.

Good, because otherwise it is completely unfair. 

2 hours ago, Kesha said:

t's not a one-size-fits-all formula; rather, it considers multiple variables for each Gig,

But we have no way of knowing what they are or how they're weighted, which completely destroys any claims of "improved transparency." When you add 50 new things to the opaqueness of a score, the score doesn't become more transparent.

 

2 hours ago, Kesha said:

it represents a move towards enhanced transparency, providing you with deeper insights into the underlying evaluation processes

This feels so disingenuous and blatantly false.

The explanations here: https://www.fiverr.com/cp/success-score-explained are just the same 'do good work' stuff that's always been in the help pages. 

HOW does Fiverr know if we've communicated effectively, for example. How do you determine if we needed to ask questions of the buyer or not? Does NOT offering a Zoom call penalize us? (It better not, as that is blatantly discriminatory against people with disabilities who cannot offer such things at all!) If we don't share progress along the way, are we penalized? That simply isn't needed for quick, simple orders.

I could go on... and on...

None of this is more transparent. 

[emmatopping]

8 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Hi! We have not increased the pricing for the Seller Plus program. It remains $19/month for the standard tier, and $39/month for the premium tier. The premium tier comes with several more benefits and therefore costs more. Sellers who join the premium tier with the "early bird" pricing or during promotions can lock in a rate of $29/month for the premium tier as long as they do not leave the program. If they leave and wish to rejoin, they will have to pay the $39/month. I hope this helps clarify things. Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

Thank you for clarifying this @Kesha I had wrongly assumed this was part of the new levels system. I'm glad to know I was wrong.

[leonormiserol]

@Kesha It seems to me that errors abound even on this topic. I have over 1500 positive reviews. I only canceled 2 orders in 2 years. Only 2! It's not fair that this is happening. My clients always leave me good reviews and tips, doesn't this mean they are satisfied?

My reviews do not go below 4 stars, the majority being 5. Now according to this system it says that I am at level 0 because "Order cancellation -Negative impact"
How is this possible? Having explained that I do not have a high cancellation rate.

[Kesha]

3 hours ago, carminesannino said:

Another crucial point, is Effective communication. How is this metric determined? I am Italian, and I often converse in my own language. I read on the forum that the evaluation is dictated by an Ai, how is that possible? Honestly after 7 years of hard and constant work, which has taken so much effort out of me, I feel with empty pockets. This change is not meritocratic, but you just have to be lucky not to have private reviews from a picky user. It is literally a lottery...

Hi @carminesannino! I would love to help clarify this for you. This metric focuses less on your language proficiency and more on your professionalism. To excel in this category, try to always be as polite, responsive, and communicative as possible with your buyers. You can read more about each key area, what it takes into account and tips on how to improve in this article here. Also, we recently did a webinar addressing the best practices of order communication. You can check out the notes here or watch the replay here. Lastly, this evaluation is not dictated by an AI. That information is not correct. 

[rapidtech1898v2]

This are all many and nice words - but at the end what can i do about the metrics and i am still not sure for example regarding the following impacts:

When understand it correct this negative impacts only is the result from private customer feedback and nothing else.
Is this correct?
So the single only thing i can do is to try to get better private feedbacks.
Is this correct?

Or are these impacts influenced from something else also?

Edited February 15 by rapidtech1898v2

[dianeofmusgrave]

4 minutes ago, leonormiserol said:

@Kesha It seems to me that errors abound even on this topic. I have over 1500 positive reviews. I only canceled 2 orders in 2 years. Only 2! It's not fair that this is happening. My clients always leave me good reviews and tips, doesn't this mean they are satisfied?

My reviews do not go below 4 stars, the majority being 5. Now according to this system it says that I am at level 0 because "Order cancellation -Negative impact"
How is this possible? Having explained that I do not have a high cancellation rate.

I feel your pain. Orders that were canceled that had no effect because I went through customer service or were canceled before they submitted requirements and two minutes after placing them are killing my success score and customer service is not helping. 

[fittranslate]

2 hours ago, smork said:

This is absolutely not happening for a tremendous amount of people.  In fact, quite the opposite.

Where are those of us who are stuck not knowing how to proceed meant to go from here? 

In my case your system is threatening to remove my TRS rank that I have maintained since 2015 for stats that I cannot see or respond to / address.  I tagged you in a post on the very large thread you started yesterday

Here is a screenshot of a section from that post where today I your system warns me I'm going to lose my rank:

You can see how this is so detrimental to someone's well being right? 

The support team are using copy and paste answers and are not responding to direct questions - So that leaves people like me and many others in a limbo of dread because we can't get any clear guidance right now.

Support team really communicate like bots..without answering on my problems.

 

[stanhenderson]

Isn't the goal of providing us metrics to give us something to learn from so that we are able do a better job?

How can we learn and evolve from this? It's so vague that it isn't helpful to anyone. I also read that this is based on machine learning. However, machine learning is still not effective enough to monitor and understand human behavior correctly. So why is this introduced on Fiverr, where this is crucial?

I hope everyone who is unhappy with these changes lets Fiverr know by commenting and giving the original post a sad emoji.

[alliemadison12]

As a pro seller and TRS with a 10 in multiple categories but 8 in a few others, I have concerns about how this success score is calculated.

A few gigs state that I need to work on communication. Can you please shed light on how this is calculated? I am professional, prompt and reliable in all messages and have never had any complaints in this regard. I even have a college degree in communication. Clients always rate 5 stars for communication. It is unclear on how to improve this metric when I am already following good practices. Many other sellers are the same.

Secondly, can you please address our concerns regarding the new "value for money" metric? I've received a 4/5 rating from multiple clients who were ecstatic about services and had 0 complaints or feedback on what could be better.  There is also a disconnect when a buyer is purchasing a $500 service + pays additional fiverr fees but we're receiving less than 80% of that amount. Especially as a higher-end seller, it's a very uncomfortable position to be rated based on price. $50 for one buyer may be a lot, while $2k for a corporation is a bargain. 

[fittranslate]

@Kesha I'll continue writing here and to the support in terms of justice and to support each freelancer like me, who suffered from new unfair and incorrect level system.
All cancelled orders were not from my fault, mostly reason:"the buyer can't be no longer contact" I wrote each time to the support team to update my cancellation score.

Please pay attention to Fiverr system and I think it need to be updated.

I think all freelancers have a right for clear explanation what's going on, why for example: I'm seller 2 with 2400+ completed orders, 94 repeated business score rating, 5 stars reviews in average ( 903 reviews) 1 hour response time, 100% in time delivery, 100% response rate... must suffer from unfair and incorrect system... and downfall to the Level 1!

I'd love to work here and be part of the Fiverr community, but this changes try to make like punishments on good and proven freelancers ... Please try to put priority to my and other peoples similar questions/situations, pay attention to this details... It's really important and MASSIVE...

This level system ruins working progress and motivation...Because it's empty for any exact explaination, all that support members write and try to explain — general words from Fiverr announce and updates..  No one is deeply involved or directly engaged in my situation. 

 

Edited February 15 by fittranslate

[ellamicheler]

1 minute ago, alliemadison12 said:

Secondly, can you please address our concerns regarding the new "value for money" metric? I've received a 4/5 rating from multiple clients who were ecstatic about services and had 0 complaints or feedback on what could be better.  There is also a disconnect when a buyer is purchasing a $500 service + pays additional fiverr fees but we're receiving less than 80% of that amount. Especially as a higher-end seller, it's a very uncomfortable position to be rated based on price. $50 for one buyer may be a lot, while $2k for a corporation is a bargain. 

I agree, it seems the new review system will encourage a race to the bottom when it comes to pricing. If Fiverr wants to get away from the perception that it is a platform for scam freelancers, they need to encourage buyers to understand that fair pricing is important for quality work. Of course buyers will always be happier to get something more cheaply. Yet by predicating a system on rewarding the cheapest offer, it's damaging to the livelihoods of freelancers who have worked hard to earn a living wage. 

I work in the field of translation, where rates are depressingly low despite the time, education and hard work that goes into quality translations. Fiverr, please don't encourage buyers to punish us for pricing our work fairly.

[rehman_b]

My simple question is: how can i improve this? I do not need a link to the article; just explain it to me.
Thank you @Kesha

[rehman_b]

47 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Ok, that's bizarre. Fiverr's choice gigs should be selected based on buyer satisfaction. It makes no sense to promote a gig that is internally scored at 4. @Kesha, how can something like this happen?

Same happening with me too

@Kesha

[Kesha]

3 hours ago, smartdezigns said:

@Kesha

Question: Will the overall Success Score be affected if we pause or delete those gigs which rarely sells? 

 

1 hour ago, iaumairrajpooot said:

Yes I've same question in my mind

Thanks for this question! Deleting the Gig will remove the score of the deleted gig from the overall success score, but please note that deleting a Gig will also remove all Gig information and history. Additionally, keep in mind that deleting a Gig and opening a new Gig may result in lower visibility for this new Gig. Pausing a Gig will not affect the success score.

[palmreader37]

I just want to know;

@Kesha

I qualify for a top rated seller yet I am level 0 according to the new system due to my success score being 4 on my main gig. This gig over 2000 five star reviews, my clients are happy and leave tips often. I am lost for words.  I am writing here because I have already spoken to CS and they seem to offer copy-paste generic answers without saying anything solid. 

Edited February 15 by palmreader37

[emmatopping]

@Kesha I notice that the 'paid consultations' option is also being a metric. It's a service that is very rarely used by my clients, so I have decided to remove it. It no longer appears on my profile, yet the metric still remains in my success score. I have asked CS if they can adjust this, but would like to know how quickly the metric will be removed from my success score?
Thanks

[charlsmcfarlane]

13 minutes ago, ellamicheler said:

I agree, it seems the new review system will encourage a race to the bottom when it comes to pricing. If Fiverr wants to get away from the perception that it is a platform for scam freelancers, they need to encourage buyers to understand that fair pricing is important for quality work. Of course buyers will always be happier to get something more cheaply. Yet by predicating a system on rewarding the cheapest offer, it's damaging to the livelihoods of freelancers

This is one of my biggest concerns. If you ask someone about the quality of the delivery whilst also asking them about the price, people will naturally think, “well, it could have been cheaper”. Delivery quality is a variable and cost is a variable, so they should be surveyed separately.

[jackdharry]

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

[smartdezigns]

11 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Thanks for this question! Deleting the Gig will remove the score of the deleted gig from the overall success score, but please note that deleting a Gig will also remove all Gig information and history. Additionally, keep in mind that deleting a Gig and opening a new Gig may result in lower visibility for this new Gig. Pausing a Gig will not affect the success score.

@priyank_mod Here you go. Finally, I got my answer.  

But it looks like that pausing a gig is the better option rather than deleting it.

[melanielm]

11 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Additionally, keep in mind that deleting a Gig and opening a new Gig may result in lower visibility for this new Gig. Pausing a Gig will not affect the success score.

@KeshaSo, the official word is that we should never delete a gig or open a new one because it could damage our score. We can pause ones, but if we launch a new one, it will bring our overall score down automatically because it does not have a history and therefore will not have a high score. That's what you're saying here, yes?

Noted. I'll never open another gig again. (Sigh!)

[Kesha]

3 hours ago, duashahid345 said:

I'm sorry but I didn't understand this at all. And the issue of only a few parameters (like 2 or 3) being reflected to show our SS is not addressed. Also please explain regarding "Conflict of Orders", what does this comprise of?

Hi! The Conflict of Orders metric, looks into unresolved matters regarding delivery times and cancellations requests, as well as the number of disputes that had to be escalated to the Fiverr Customer Support Team. The score will also take into account any indications that the client had a bad experience and was unsatisfied with the delivery. For tips on how to improve this and other key areas of your Success Score, read more here. 

[krrishsodho]

4 hours ago, jamesoliver132 said:

fter careful review, your account has been flagged due to location inconsistencies or other activities indicating a connection to violations of our Terms of Service. Consequently, your participation in Fiverr's level system is permanently restricted."

I am seeing a lot of accounts flagged, A lot of stories posted on Social Media, Well I feel like these people have multiple accounts. Just a guess as I saw this with someone I know and he was using multiple accounts.

Edited February 15 by krrishsodho

[arianelaurent]

Just now, Kesha said:

Hi! The Conflict of Orders metric, looks into unresolved matters regarding delivery times and cancellations requests, as well as the number of disputes that had to be escalated to the Fiverr Customer Support Team. The score will also take into account any indications that the client had a bad experience and was unsatisfied with the delivery. For tips on how to improve this and other key areas of your Success Score, read more here. 

Does this include revision requests?