Let's talk about the WORST fiverr new metrics updates: SUCCESS SCORE

[ndm_archviz]

Hello everyone! 

I am an architect and, just as all of you, I am also a freelancer on Fiverr, who tries to do 110% to guarantee the client satisfaction. We all put effort and dedication to carry on this job on this platform, and sometimes having to deal with difficult clients or buyers that just disappears. Other times, fortunately, you can establish a strong relation with your buyers, starting a long term job or just repeating the order. 

Till December 2023 the metric to reach the upper levels seemed to be fair, focusing on the clients rating, average response time or earnings. But now Fiverr decided to introduce the WORST metrics ever: SUCCESS SCORE. 

My field is architecture and digital art. I've being a Fiverr freelancer for less than a year, so I completed few orders, also because this would be just a second job for me and I don't take more than 2 client at the same time. So my Gig with most reviews (10 reviews with 5 stars and some of them from the same buyers) has evaluated by the success score as "strong negative client satisfaction" and "negative impact". How does it is possible? It doesn't make sense. So I asked to the Fiverr Help Center and they explained to me that this metrics considers also the "anonymous buyer evaluations" (i didn't even know about this) and for the other freelancer ratings.

So just to sum up, all my effort for creating a gig, making a presentation video, guarantying multiple revisions without any additional cost, being highly responsive with my client to reach the bests result, all of this is USELESS because Fiverr has introduced a new metric with totally LACK OF TRANSPARENCY, based on some unpredictable statistic of other freelancer of some anonymous reviews of a client (?). IT'S A SHAME AND A LACK OF RESPECT FOR US AS FREELANCERS. In this way it will me even more difficult to be promoted for free and to reach the next levels. 

FIVERR SHOULD RECONSIDER THIS NEW METRICS CHANGE AND COME BACK TO THE OLD EVALUATION SYSTEM. I repeat, I use Fiver as a second job, but now I highly demotivated. Why should I keep using this platform? (furthermore between taxes and conversion rate fiverr and banks keeps almost the 30% of the earnings). Does it steel make sense? 

I invite all the freelancer to thinking along that. Fiverr it's doing bad. 

[drorrozentraub]

HI 🙂 

Under the success score, in the client satisfaction area I also have a negative impact. All these areas are basically ratios and once the ratio is above a certain threshold it will provide with a different impact/score. 

I was also a buyer and I am aware of the hidden reviews. And as a seller I am almost sure someone gave me a not-so-good hidden review. What I did to improve that? I increased my prices so I could avoid these type of buyers (Usually they were buyers that wanted a lot for a cheap price). 

2 days ago my Client Satisfaction area was 'strongly negative impact' and after delivering 2 orders and getting 5 stars it changed to 'Negative impact' and my order cancellations area jumped to 'positive impact'.  And my gig has 15 5 star reviews (and overall 25 order done).

So from that, you need to have at least X amount of orders overall and the ratios for each area should be above a certain threshold.

As long as you don't see a reduction in number of orders you shouldn't be worry too much for now. Just try to avoid the problematic buyers.

 

[ndm_archviz]

Thank you for the answer. Unfortunately I usually have few orders (I prefer quality instead of quantity), so I think this statistic would increase very slowly. My other concern, in fact, is about the price: maybe, increasing the price would upset some client that still want the job from you, but then he can leave a bad hidden review. 

In my opinion, let this kind of thinks making the difference for the level pass it is a big mistake.

[drorrozentraub]

Okay, I researched it a bit more and I think that these metrics are also affected by other factors such as delivery extensions and if the customer accepted your delivery or the delivery was automatically accepted. I do agree with you that previous algorithm was easier to level up. 

I also don't get too many orders each month and I only accept quality orders (I started to receive more serious customers once I increased the prices). I try not to focus too much on my gig ranks (perhaps I will check how I can become a Fiverr pro) and only focus getting good customers. If I see an increase in sales and quality orders each month, I really don't care if I am level 1 or level 2 seller. 

I say - try to experiment with the prices and see what happens. Sometimes setting higher prices will make your brand seem more lucrative (customers will think that you are more professional than others). Also, it will also help you deliver better work since you will have a greater motivation to finish successfully (you will feel your time is more valued). 

I did work for maybe 10-15$ an hour and I wasn't motivated. Now I do work for 55$ an hour and I don't mind to go the extra mile to make my client happy.

[designer_gang]

On 2/16/2024 at 4:36 AM, ndm_archviz said:

Hello everyone! 

I am an architect and, just as all of you, I am also a freelancer on Fiverr, who tries to do 110% to guarantee the client satisfaction. We all put effort and dedication to carry on this job on this platform, and sometimes having to deal with difficult clients or buyers that just disappears. Other times, fortunately, you can establish a strong relation with your buyers, starting a long term job or just repeating the order. 

Till December 2023 the metric to reach the upper levels seemed to be fair, focusing on the clients rating, average response time or earnings. But now Fiverr decided to introduce the WORST metrics ever: SUCCESS SCORE. 

My field is architecture and digital art. I've being a Fiverr freelancer for less than a year, so I completed few orders, also because this would be just a second job for me and I don't take more than 2 client at the same time. So my Gig with most reviews (10 reviews with 5 stars and some of them from the same buyers) has evaluated by the success score as "strong negative client satisfaction" and "negative impact". How does it is possible? It doesn't make sense. So I asked to the Fiverr Help Center and they explained to me that this metrics considers also the "anonymous buyer evaluations" (i didn't even know about this) and for the other freelancer ratings.

So just to sum up, all my effort for creating a gig, making a presentation video, guarantying multiple revisions without any additional cost, being highly responsive with my client to reach the bests result, all of this is USELESS because Fiverr has introduced a new metric with totally LACK OF TRANSPARENCY, based on some unpredictable statistic of other freelancer of some anonymous reviews of a client (?). IT'S A SHAME AND A LACK OF RESPECT FOR US AS FREELANCERS. In this way it will me even more difficult to be promoted for free and to reach the next levels. 

FIVERR SHOULD RECONSIDER THIS NEW METRICS CHANGE AND COME BACK TO THE OLD EVALUATION SYSTEM. I repeat, I use Fiver as a second job, but now I highly demotivated. Why should I keep using this platform? (furthermore between taxes and conversion rate fiverr and banks keeps almost the 30% of the earnings). Does it steel make sense? 

I invite all the freelancer to thinking along that. Fiverr it's doing bad. 

Same thing happened with me, very bad platform, just need to leave 

[designer_gang]

Same thing happened to me, very bad platform just need to leave 

[ananatsvlishvil]

@drorrozentraub Did it change right away after you delivered? Or did it take some time? I have exact same situation and I guess cancellation are also effecting it too. But satisfaction metric is something I can’t understand at all, since I only have positive reviews. I delivered 2 orders both with positive feedback but nothing changed anyways. 

[elikent]

On 2/16/2024 at 10:36 AM, ndm_archviz said:

So just to sum up, all my effort for creating a gig, making a presentation video, guarantying multiple revisions without any additional cost, being highly responsive with my client to reach the bests result, all of this is USELESS because Fiverr has introduced a new metric with totally LACK OF TRANSPARENCY, based on some unpredictable statistic of other freelancer of some anonymous reviews of a client (?). IT'S A SHAME AND A LACK OF RESPECT FOR US AS FREELANCERS. In this way it will me even more difficult to be promoted for free and to reach the next levels. 

You nailed it.
The lack of transparency is a huge let down, and a slap in the face of every seller. If someone has had a negative experience, you should know who and what the negative experience was.

It is outrageous to have a 5 star rating from someone but also a 1 star in private rating. It makes no sense that there are two rating systems - what the heck does this achieve? The bigger problem is you can easily destroy all of your competition by leaving all of them 1 horrible private review (that they will never even know about).

There you go - that's what happens when things aren't transparent, you encourage criminal-like behavior.

[donnovan86]

1 minute ago, elikent said:

It is outrageous to have a 5 star rating from someone but also a 1 star in private rating. It makes no sense that there are two rating systems - what the heck does this achieve?

Well there are plenty of sellers begging/forcing buyers to leave a 5 star rating before they send their work. There are lots of sellers that consciously manipulate the system, curate reviews by canceling, etc. You can find lots of posts from buyers upset that their sellers delivered very poor work or even scammed them and got their 5 star review and then did not send anything. Obviously that reached Fiverr and they started implementing all kinds of things.

What's funny to me is that before this level and review system change, we had pretty much the same metrics, but more of them were hidden. Now we can see waht metrics affect our success score, so there's more info than we ever had, and people are outraged.

The problem here is not the info we get, it's the success score being affected by private ratings, and the success score affecting what level you are. As you said, if a buyer randomly leaves a private review at 3 AM (which happened to me by the way, a public 1 star review because the buyer was tired, and the review text was positive), then that will affect you for months. 

[rofiyat_exp]

On 3/17/2024 at 1:41 PM, designer_gang said:

Same thing happened to me, very bad platform just need to leave 

Why? What happened? People say Fiverr is easy, and straighforward.

[priyank_mod]

4 minutes ago, rofiyat_exp said:

 People say Fiverr is easy, and straighforward.

Who are these people??

Can you pleaseeeeee tag them here?? We need their expaarttt guidance too!!

[rofiyat_exp]

30 minutes ago, priyank_mod said:

Who are these people??

Can you pleaseeeeee tag them here?? We need their expaarttt guidance too!!

You know it is possible to have bad experience while another person has good experience. Both individual will say what they have to say as per their experience.

[ahmad_freelancr]

1 hour ago, priyank_mod said:

 We need their expaarttt guidance too!!

 

[elikent]

19 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

Well there are plenty of sellers begging/forcing buyers to leave a 5 star rating before they send their work. There are lots of sellers that consciously manipulate the system, curate reviews by canceling, etc. You can find lots of posts from buyers upset that their sellers delivered very poor work or even scammed them and got their 5 star review and then did not send anything. Obviously that reached Fiverr and they started implementing all kinds of things.

Of course the public rating system isn't perfect but it is monumentally better than a private scoring system. Anonymity is a sure way to corruption. As I said, I can easily purchase one of your gigs, leave a public 5 star but leave you a 1 star in private and destroy all your credibility. This is the problem, the system can be gamed EASILY.

[donnovan86]

7 hours ago, elikent said:

This is the problem, the system can be gamed EASILY.

Yep. And I can say for a fact this happened to me. I don't know what client did it, if it was a mistake or not, but last year I had only 5 star reviews for months, yet Fiverr's success manager that I had at the time said my buyer satisfaction rate was low. And she specifically said that private review scores and public reviews scores can differ wildly, you can easily have 5 stars publicly and a bad private review, as you said. And the worst thing is that you never know who did that, why they did it. It's private feedback, but I don't receive any feedback or reasons why the person was unhappy. I will say this, I had people randomly leaving public reviews too, because they were busy or it was late. So at the end of the day, I just focus on what I can control.

I do think private reviews will not go away. It's a great way for Fiverr to level the playing field and it makes ranking gigs easier for them. Because if every buyer leaves a 5 star review, try to rank gigs only with that data. I don't blame that they are using any possible data to rank gigs, because there are millions of them. What I don't like is the lack of transparency when something is wrong. If there is something wrong, they should give us reasons why an order went wrong. Anonymously, not sharing the order number or anything. But I doubt we will see that.. ever, or for a very long time. 

[provoiceworks]

UPDATE...

Dropped to a level 4 since this new Levels system went active. Still my 2 best selling and highest review gigs are the ones with worst success. scores of 4 each. INSANITY. They won't make sense of it. They want us to be successful but hold us back from doing so UNLESS WE PAY THEM for seller plus. This site went from great to GREED quick. 

Fiverr's choice to hold client feedback against us that we have no clue on what it is or how to fix the issues. I have started communicating on EVERY order as soon as I get one, created automatic greetings and other messages to drop in. Yet communication still strong negative impact. I am at a loss on this platform. Over 10 years strong, 9 of them TRS, now I hardly see any sales (even with promoted gigs) and this stupid levels system is killing my business here. I will no longer promote fiverr and will be looking into other platforms and focusing on new relationships with other radio imaging and dj drop websites.

[usama_pes]

Delivering in time. and got 5-6 5star ratings. Still client satisfaction not getting better. I dont what else I have to do. Really dissapointed with this new system. The thing is fiverr is saturated now. Sellers are more than buyers. Thats why they made it even more hard/ strict for sellers. And also they dont care much about sellers. 

 

Believe me I got 7-8 orders in game development niche. And I got 4-5 5 star. All orders delivered without any extension. Only in 1 order client asked for revision and then I got 5 stars from that order too. After all these things still no improvement in client satisfaction.

[donnovan86]

9 minutes ago, usama_pes said:

Sellers are more than buyers.

Not only that, but a lot of buyers are leaving. And new buyers coming in... let's just say they aren't as many. AI, but also some of the website changes and bad experiences with meksells ended up pushing lots of buyers away. I used to see a lot of buyers with accounts from 2010, 2011, now those are a rarity. At least to me, that says a lot.

[emmaki]

41 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Not only that, but a lot of buyers are leaving. And new buyers coming in... let's just say they aren't as many.

Judging from my inbox, sellers are also getting a lot more choosy about who they work with. That's going to have an impact soon, especially if the only people who will do the work are the meksells. 

I might not have the high-level overview and vision that the leadership of Fiverr does, but it's pretty clear that Fiverr has some major issues at the moment. It should fix those before it tries to go upmarket, not do shady things with Pro to pretend the marketplace improved. 

Ugh. I'm still tutting and shaking my head over my SM's insistence that Fiverr isn't "deceiving" anyone yesterday. OK, she kinda has to say that, but still. 

[gbrl_c]

It's also being hard for new sellers. Achieved everything for Level 1, except success score. Got five 5 star reviews, all deliveries on time, excellent communication etc.

[ryanforkel1]

On 4/4/2024 at 2:42 PM, donnovan86 said:

Not only that, but a lot of buyers are leaving. And new buyers coming in... let's just say they aren't as many. AI, but also some of the website changes and bad experiences with meksells ended up pushing lots of buyers away. I used to see a lot of buyers with accounts from 2010, 2011, now those are a rarity. At least to me, that says a lot.

I can say for me personally that I was one of those that had been with Fiverr since around 2011 or so and stayed for about 5 years. I got SO FRUSTRATED with the lack of help and transparency in understanding how Fiverr's system worked. It seemed that no matter what I did to improve nothing helped and no one else had any ideas or help either. In fact I got so mad with them that I cancelled my seller account and said I would never go back. Of course I did come back with more success now. But it was from researching and watching other people's trial and error that I was able to do a little better than before.

Fiverr CS doesn't understand that if I am at a place to seek out help from them it is because I have exhausted all other means and resources. Instead they send me generic answers that anyone with half a brain and Google could figure out in half a second.

Sorry for the vent. And for the record, this new "Success Score" system needs a lot of work. I was told by Fiverr CS they also base it somewhat on how everyone else in your category scores also. So apparently Fiverr is grading on a curve...Doesn't seem fair but it is what it is for now.

[donnovan86]

2 hours ago, ryanforkel1 said:

I was told by Fiverr CS they also base it somewhat on how everyone else in your category scores also.

Yes that is true, Kesha I think said exactly the same thing. 

The problem is that not all accounts are the same way. Some people work alone, like me. Others outsource everything and deliver 10x what I do, and there are also agencies. How is it fair to compare a solo worker with an agency and also penalize the solo worker because an agency just delivers stuff way faster due to its nature?