Are Picky Buyers and Multiple Revision Requests Negatively Impacting Me? Help!

[harperjohn]

I have been a successful seller on this platform for about two years, and recent changes to the Seller rating system have left me unsure how to deal with somewhat difficult orders/buyers. 

Despite me almost always having great feedback from buyers, two recent buyers in particular seem to have come at the same time. I am truly worried that something like this will affect my Seller score and success on this platform, despite two years of 99% 5-star ratings. 

For the first order, the buyer has now made 4 revision requests and he is using revisions as a way to figure out what he actually wants in his final product. The buyer I am communicating with is not the only person giving feedback on my deliveries. His friend is also giving feedback, despite me having no way to communicate directly with the friend. Often these revision requests are complete changes in what the buyer asked for. The buyer requested specific details to be mentioned in his song, and now on the fourth revision request he is asking me to remove some of the original requests. All of that to say, I simply have no control over how many times this buyer can ask for a revision. As it stands, I am waiting for the Buyer to hopefully approve my now 4th delivery. I am scared if I deny a revision request, I will suffer a poor rating. 

Similarly, the second buyer was using revision requests as a way to figure out what he wanted from me. Despite me making efforts to fully understand the request, the buyer has been particularly difficult to satisfy. He gave me a reference recording of his own vocals and told me because he didn’t like how his vocals sounded, he wanted me to record the same lyrics. The dilemma stems from the fact that he also wanted me to record the vocals to sound like his. I struggled to find a common ground, because it was not clear how I was supposed to improve upon his recording and sound like his recording at the same time. 

I somehow have managed to get the two pickiest buyers I've ever had in the same week, and it is worrying me. 

For fear that this buyer would continue to make revision requests and negatively impact my Seller score, I asked the buyer to cancel the order. For both of these orders, I have little confidence in the buyer’s ability to communicate properly. What I am unsure about his how to handle these situations?

Will my Seller score be negatively impacted for requesting buyers to cancel orders like these?

Will my Seller score be negatively impacted when buyers make so many revision requests?I

I've averaged a 5-star rating on this platform, getting 191 5-star ratings and three 4-star ratings (that only came when the seller rules changed), so should I have to worry that two untimely bad buyers will have a big impact on my success score?

Please please please help me understand how I can navigate situations like these.  I have been slowly improving my performance on the platform, but for the duration of these two orders, my performance numbers have started to go down.

I try so hard to do this the right way. And all it takes is two buyers to make me feel like my livelihood will be at risk. I don't know if I'm over stressing. I've submitted a Support ticket about this but I have no idea what the reply will be. Any advice would be very much appreciated. 

[smashradio]

I don't know why so many sellers think revisions are a bad thing. In most creative work, it's just part of the process. It's not something to get stressed about.

Unless you delivered something totally off from what was initially agreed upon, I wouldn't worry about it affecting your performance.

The buyer has a few options when asking for a revision, one of them being that the quality was low, another that the delivery was empty. The top choice is "I still need revisions" and that won't affect you negatively. The other two might get you flagged, though.

Maybe your stats went down because you've been busy working with those clients instead of finishing other orders.

With that said, I charge for anything more than 2 revisions (and I consider revisions as minor changes within the original scope of work).

So if a client ever tried pulling that on me, I'd say, "I'd be happy to make that revision for you. Here's a custom offer for an additional revision, since we're now beyond the original scope of this order," or something along those lines.

I always let my clients know about my revision policy upfront, and if they need help figuring out what they need before placing an order, I offer paid consultations to help them out.

What I don't do is work for free.

I've had orders go from $200 to $800 thanks to revisions, and that's always a good thing. If a client wants to pay for my time to brainstorm with them, I'm all for it. The keyword is "pay". 

But unless you've specified that before the order started, or if you offer unlimited revisions (nobody should ever do that!) you're stuck working for free at this point. If so, I can perfectly understand why you'd be stressed out and annoyed. If that's the case, take this opportunity to learn from it, make your buyers happy and then move on to bigger and better things. 

I hope this helps 🙂 

[sohaib_khaan]

Revisions are a part of every order, so it doesn't affect you but disputes etc can badly affect the profile. 

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, harperjohn said:

I simply have no control over how many times this buyer can ask for a revision.

You are misunderstanding the revision policy. Your gig offers 1 revision as part of the package. Once you provide the one free revision you are no longer expected to work for free. This is maybe the most common misunderstanding on Fiverr. 

Now that he has used his one free revision, you are expected to simply charge for each additional one. Like ordering additional items in a restaurant, they all go on the bill, and to expect that they would be free is silly. This becomes a problem when sellers are afraid to explain that in a professional way to buyers for fear of a bad review.

Bottom line, you have only 2 choices:

1. Get used to doing free work out of fear if you cannot say in a professional way, "Sure, that will be $50.

2. Realize that charging for additional work is what every successful business in the world does, otherwise you become an indentured servant, all because you won't say no. 

Canceling because you won't charge for revisions is not an option because it makes you work for free, is seen as sanitizing your reviews and makes zero revenue for both you and Fiverr, so in that scenario they would be correct to tank your success score and drop your visibility. Communicating professionally with buyers and preserving the revenue is a skill that is required.  Cancelling makes no one profitable, except the "buyer" who scammed you out of free work, which they will probably use anyway. 

Edited April 7 by newsmike

[harperjohn]

32 minutes ago, newsmike said:

You are misunderstanding the revision policy. Your gig offers 1 revision as part of the package. Once you provide the one free revision you are no longer expected to work for free. This is maybe the most common misunderstanding on Fiverr. 

Now that he has used his one free revision, you are expected to simply charge for each additional one. Like ordering additional items in a restaurant, they all go on the bill, and to expect that they would be free is silly. This becomes a problem when sellers are afraid to explain that in a professional way to buyers for fear of a bad review.

Bottom line, you have only 2 choices:

1. Get used to doing free work out of fear if you cannot say in a professional way, "Sure, that will be $50.

2. Realize that charging for additional work is what every successful business in the world does, otherwise you become an indentured servant, all because you won't say no. 

Canceling because you won't charge for revisions is not an option because it makes you work for free, is seen as sanitizing your reviews and makes zero revenue for both you and Fiverr, so in that scenario they would be correct to tank your success score and drop your visibility. Communicating professionally with buyers and preserving the revenue is a skill that is required.  Cancelling makes no one profitable, except the "buyer" who scammed you out of free work, which they will probably use anyway. 

Thanks for the reply. I understand all of this. My dilemma is I am aware that multiple revisions can negatively impact my success score. I am aware that Fiver has stated "revisions alone will not affect your score, but they are part of many determining factors." The issue is Fiverr, as far as I'm aware, has not clarified specifically what that means. What are the other factors and what percentage do revisions contribute to it? I am not able to gage if one order has four revision requests, will Fiverr determine this as bad? I also have been charging for additional revisions and do communicate that clearly to customers both before the order is placed and if/when additional services are needed. 

[harperjohn]

I think my biggest struggle is the new rating system is vague in it's determination of my success and despite having a lot of success on this platform, the recent drop in my business since the new rating system came out is making me overthink everything. 

I do a lot of the things being suggested in this thread, I have literally never gotten a bad public review, and somehow I just can't make as much money as I did before the rating system changed. 

So two really tough orders in one week and a noticeable drop in orders coming during that same time has feeling like I've hit a wall. 
 

Edited April 7 by harperjohn

[smashradio]

4 hours ago, harperjohn said:

The issue is Fiverr, as far as I'm aware, has not clarified specifically what that means. 

Actually, they have. I've learned that you don't need Fiverr to specifically tell you what they do with the info they collect: you just have to see what they collect. In the case of revisions, they ask the buyer why they need a revision - was it just because they still need revisions? If so, it shouldn't affect you at all. Was it because you delivered poor quality? That can affect you, if not, they wouldn't ask. The same goes for the "emtpy delivery" option, which is there to stop sellers from delivering without doing the actual work. I've seen sellers get flagged for this before, so the questions asked by Fiverr when the buyer asks for a revision clearly has an effect. 

4 hours ago, harperjohn said:

I think my biggest struggle is the new rating system is vague in it's determination of my success

So was the old one. Perhaps even more so. People constantly complained about not being visible on the platform for years, and always without knowing why. This is why I don't trust Fiverr to determine how I perform - that's something I constantly analyze myself based on my own work. Here and there I'll see something I could improve upon. So I try to do that. We can rage all we want about the new system, but it's here to stay. Nothing we can do about that, beyond doing our best.