Is 4.3 the New 5.0? How Fiverr's Rating System is Jeopardizing Profiles and Gigs

[alexiscottray]

3 hours ago, alexiscottray said:

Not educating the clients about the rating system and keeping the collaboration with this kind of client is the perfect way to lower my global score in a few months and loose the Top Rated Seller one day. 

Received the following feedback from Fiverr support: 

"First of all regarding your client taryells.
As you might assume different clients have different views and understandings of what excellent means which is why their rating might be lower than 5 stars.
 
Unfortunatealy, this is not something that can be affected directly on your end without negatively affecting your account.

However, if you beleive such clients will leave more lower ratings in the future which will eventually affect your overall rating and cause you to lose the Top Rated badge you can always block them via Inbox.

On the other hand please keep in mind that this will lower the number of potential clients that work and order from you which might potentially lower your earnings in the future as you'll have a lower number of new orders being placed." 

So the 4/5 review is affecting negatively my account. Yes indeed, following Fiverr's instructions, I can block the client, but the client himself thinks that this is a good review. So there is an issue here as the current system is misleading for buyers. 

[donnovan86]

2 hours ago, alexiscottray said:

I've seen your profile and luckly for you,

It's not luck. It's years of work. 

Regardless, this new system was meant specifically to ward off perfection-chasers, to differentiate people that actually provide an exceptional value to their clients every single time. Most people don't, some even harassed buyers to leave them 5 stars or they wouldn't send the entire order, etc. What matters is the stuff people say, and what private reviews they leave. I am sure most buyers don't care if you have 4.3 or 4.7 star reviews, they see that as positive anyway.

[alexiscottray]

Just now, donnovan86 said:

It's not luck. It's years of work. 

Regardless, this new system was meant specifically to ward off perfection-chasers, to differentiate people that actually provide an exceptional value to their clients every single time. Most people don't, some even harassed buyers to leave them 5 stars or they wouldn't send the entire order, etc. What matters is the stuff people say, and what private reviews they leave. I am sure most buyers don't care if you have 4.3 or 4.7 star reviews, they see that as positive anyway.

Sorry but it's a bit of luck.

Luckly for you that this system was not in place when you first started on Fiverr and that you could reach 1k+ reviews before it was actually in place. I wish I had more years of experience on the platform and could have a stronger profile that can accept 4/5 reviews and not affect my global public rating.

Now try to create a new gig from scratch, and let me know how it goes and how you will react to the first 4 out of 5 review that will make that the new gig will go at the end of the search results. 

[alexiscottray]

8 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

I am sure most buyers don't care if you have 4.3 or 4.7 star reviews, they see that as positive anyway.

It's ok to have some low reviews inside the gig. BUT when you don't have a lot of reviews on the gig, based on a new gig, this is what happens

Now ask buyers if they prefer a GIG that has a 5.0 score VS 4.8 gig score or lower. In any case, a 4.8 score on the gig is not placed in top of search and users have less probabilities to see it versus a 5.0 gig. That's the way it is. 

[alexiscottray]

Quote from Fiverr Support:
 

Quote

What matters more than ratings is how appealing your Gig is to potential clients and how sought-after the service you offer is.
 
While the 5-star rating might be desirable in some instances as you can see maintaining it is difficult which is why at the end of the day the new rating system was introduced a while ago.

So the new system was as a matter of fact introduced to lower the 5-star services. The issue is that it works perfectly on new gigs, or on the gigs that don't have a lot of reviews. But it doesn't lower the score on the old gigs on the platform that will keep the 5-star service, just like you donnovan86

So users will still see some 5-star services appear and will choose to go for these ones. 

It's obvious. If I am looking for a great dentist on Google Maps, I see three options, one with 5 star, one with 4.8 star and one with 4.5 star review, which one am I going to choose? 

[donnovan86]

54 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

Sorry but it's a bit of luck.

It's not. It's still very hard work and skills. Because Fiverr offers newcomers specifically a boost where they appear on the first few search pages. If anything, that was not the case when I joined, so it was a clear disadvantage. Now people have an advantage to receive that boost. Obviously, there is the downside of dealing with a lot of competitors, but that was true back in the day as well. The problem now is that a LOT of people use AI to offer meaningless, and also useless services that any customer can access for free or with a very inexpensive tool on their own.

49 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

Now ask buyers if they prefer a GIG that has a 5.0 score VS 4.8 gig score or lower. In any case, a 4.8 score on the gig is not placed in top of search and users have less probabilities to see it versus a 5.0 gig. That's the way it is. 

 

Public reviews don't matter that much if at all, private reviews will matter here. So.. if the person rated you well privately, that's what will matter. I am sure people won't care if they see 4.8 star gigs or even lower. The key is, you want to craft a niche for yourself and not compete with tons of other people. Most people that complain about not having orders tend to offer the same thing as someone else, and they compete with thousands of other sellers. 

I think you underestimate the brain that buyers have these days. They know very well that 5 stars are very hard to achieve on any platform as a seller. So if anything, many of them doubt that. 

20 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

It's obvious. If I am looking for a great dentist on Google Maps, I see three options, one with 5 star, one with 4.8 star and one with 4.5 star review, which one am I going to choose? 

It's not. It depends on how many reviews that dentist has. I much prefer a dentist with a single 4.5 star review when compared to a dentist that has 2000 5 star reviews, out of which 10-20 or more are 1 star reviews. And a lot of people have that mentality. 

The idea is, this system is ok, the only problem I see is that the averages you need to keep are on the high side, I mean 4.5 or 4.7 stars depending on the level you have. That being said... the reason why they implemented this is because people cheated the system, they were refunding orders left and right, just to keep those 5 stars. And we ended up with a market where people were not sure what to buy because everyone and their mother had 5 stars. 

You can't force people to rate you a specific way. I have return clients that specifically rate me 4.7 stars even if they write a long review and show they enjoyed my work. Others leave 4 stars and they were very happy. You can't control anything else other than your work, your communication skills and how you interact with your client.. You're offering a service, and you can't force people to see it the way you want. I totally get where you are coming from, I am frustrated sometimes to see stars randomly removed without any explanation. But it is what it is, it's the nature of doing business. That's why I only focus on those things I can control. 

[alexiscottray]

1 minute ago, donnovan86 said:

It's not. It's still very hard work and skills. Because Fiverr offers newcomers specifically a boost where they appear on the first few search pages. If anything, that was not the case when I joined, so it was a clear disadvantage. Now people have an advantage to receive that boost. Obviously, there is the downside of dealing with a lot of competitors, but that was true back in the day as well. The problem now is that a LOT of people use AI to offer meaningless, and also useless services that any customer can access for free or with a very inexpensive tool on their own.

Public reviews don't matter that much if at all, private reviews will matter here. So.. if the person rated you well privately, that's what will matter. I am sure people won't care if they see 4.8 star gigs or even lower. The key is, you want to craft a niche for yourself and not compete with tons of other people. Most people that complain about not having orders tend to offer the same thing as someone else, and they compete with thousands of other sellers. 

I think you underestimate the brain that buyers have these days. They know very well that 5 stars are very hard to achieve on any platform as a seller. So if anything, many of them doubt that. 

It's not. It depends on how many reviews that dentist has. I much prefer a dentist with a single 4.5 star review when compared to a dentist that has 2000 5 star reviews, out of which 10-20 or more are 1 star reviews. And a lot of people have that mentality. 

The idea is, this system is ok, the only problem I see is that the averages you need to keep are on the high side, I mean 4.5 or 4.7 stars depending on the level you have. That being said... the reason why they implemented this is because people cheated the system, they were refunding orders left and right, just to keep those 5 stars. And we ended up with a market where people were not sure what to buy because everyone and their mother had 5 stars. 

You can't force people to rate you a specific way. I have return clients that specifically rate me 4.7 stars even if they write a long review and show they enjoyed my work. Others leave 4 stars and they were very happy. You can't control anything else other than your work, your communication skills and how you interact with your client.. You're offering a service, and you can't force people to see it the way you want. I totally get where you are coming from, I am frustrated sometimes to see stars randomly removed without any explanation. But it is what it is, it's the nature of doing business. That's why I only focus on those things I can control. 

Thxs Alex. But as you said you have 18k reviews, and only two gigs, so mostly 9k per gig. Your comments are not relevant for me as you won't be affected by this system, or you might need to receive 100+ reviews at 1 out of 5 in a row to see your gig score affected - which I doubt as you seem like a high professional. Still appreciate the feedback though but not helping at this point. Thank you. 

[alexiscottray]

Final comment from Fiverr Support

Quote

Hey, again Alexis,
 
Thank you for providing me with the detailed explanation and the screenshots from the Forum conversation!
 
We are always thrilled to receive recommendations and improvement suggestions from our community since you are the ones who use Fiverr on a daily basis.
 
Making the rating system more transparent and easier for clients to understand is a great suggestion and I will immediately forward it to our Product Developers.
Hopefully, some changes could be implemented soon enough to ensure all freelancers and their Gigs benefit from the system and the received ratings.
 
In the meantime stay updated on everything new on Fiverr by following us on social media.
 
Thanks again, and have a great day!

The screenshots that have been sent are the ones from vhskid - special mention to him for the wireframes that have been done and that could possibily help a lot of freelancers like me in the future. 

Thank you Criss from client support to make this happen and maybe (or not...) but still, considering the issue and for the willingness to help. Let's keep fingers crossed now. 

[alexiscottray]

Summary:

The issue I’m experiencing arises from a misunderstanding of Fiverr’s rating system among clients. Many clients perceive a 4 out of 5 as a great review, even leaving comments such as “Excellent work, I want to continue collaborating.” However, Fiverr’s standards consider ratings above 4.7 as the benchmark for excellence.

For freelancers like me with fewer total reviews (20-50 reviews per gig), even a single 4/5 review can significantly lower my gig’s overall score and visibility. This directly impacts my impressions, clicks, and ultimately my ability to maintain my Top Rated Seller status.

By contrast, larger profiles with 1k+ reviews are far less affected. It would take an unlikely 100 consecutive 1/5 ratings to lower their scores. This creates a disparity where smaller profiles and new gigs are disproportionately affected by clients’ lack of awareness about the rating system.

Key Observations:

1. Many clients are unaware of how the rating system impacts freelancers.
2. Clients leave 4/5 ratings despite being very satisfied with the service, unintentionally affecting the freelancer’s profile and gig perception.
3. Smaller profiles and new gigs are significantly more vulnerable to these rating impacts compared to those with a high volume of reviews and longer history with Fiverr.

Fiverr's Support Feedback: 

Fiverr acknowledged the concern and expressed appreciation for the detailed explanation and screenshots provided. They stated:

“Making the rating system more transparent and easier for clients to understand is a great suggestion, and I will immediately forward it to our Product Developers. Hopefully, some changes could be implemented soon enough to ensure all freelancers and their Gigs benefit from the system and the received ratings.”

While there’s no immediate change to the system, Fiverr encouraged me to stay updated on potential improvements. Any support from the community towards this action is obviously welcomed. Thanks again to all for reading me and sharing your thoughts, and I wish you the most pleasant journey on the platform. 

[alexiscottray]

5 hours ago, mrubaid820 said:

Well, I can understand your situation, but when it comes to ratings, you really can't make the buyer aware of it. It's against Fiverr's rules, and if an AI model detects it, you might receive a warning for it.

By the way, 4.3 or 4.7 is considered a good rating, but too many ratings like these can affect the overall rating of our profile. Some buyers have a habit of not giving more than a 4-star rating. In this regard, you can join the Seller Plus program, which will allow you to know in advance the average rating a buyer typically gives. This way, if someone has an average given rating of 4 or 4.3, you can avoid working with them.

Additionally, one benefit of this is that your buyer won’t be able to place a direct order. Before placing an order, they will have to message you first in the Fiverr inbox. This way, you can protect your profile more effectively.

By the way @mrubaid820 I see on your profile that you actually have the same issue. In your answer to your client, you admit to be honestly disappointed by the 4 out of 5 star review, so I don't understand why I don't get more support from you on this specific topic, especially when the actual review from the client is highly positive saying thank you so much. 

I guess it's normal to receive a 4 out of 5 review except when it comes on your profile...

[mrubaid820]

48 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

I see on your profile that you actually have the same issue.

To be honest, I felt disappointed because the buyer was new and didn’t know anything about Fiverr. I had to educate them from A to Z about order box, delivery, and ratings. They had some lack of understanding and didn’t even know how to use their product. I guided them about that as well. When I was communicating with them, I had a sense that they might do something wrong. Yet, despite that, I decided to work with them.

I understand that a 4-star rating feels upsetting, especially on Fiverr compared to other platforms, but we can't do anything about it except practice patience. Over the last two weeks, I’ve received two 4-star ratings, even from people I didn’t expect them from. But the reality is that the system won’t change for us. It’s better to forget the past and focus on moving forward.

Well, I’m new to this myself and am still trying to understand these things, especially the psychology of clients. Right now, my sole focus is on communication—observing the client’s tone and then responding accordingly.

As for what you mentioned, you tell me—what can we do in this regard? Can this system change for us? We can’t really do anything about the system except adapt to it and keep trying to improve ourselves alongside it.

[alexiscottray]

3 hours ago, mrubaid820 said:

To be honest, I felt disappointed because the buyer was new and didn’t know anything about Fiverr. I had to educate them from A to Z about order box, delivery, and ratings. They had some lack of understanding and didn’t even know how to use their product. I guided them about that as well. When I was communicating with them, I had a sense that they might do something wrong. Yet, despite that, I decided to work with them.

I understand that a 4-star rating feels upsetting, especially on Fiverr compared to other platforms, but we can't do anything about it except practice patience. Over the last two weeks, I’ve received two 4-star ratings, even from people I didn’t expect them from. But the reality is that the system won’t change for us. It’s better to forget the past and focus on moving forward.

Well, I’m new to this myself and am still trying to understand these things, especially the psychology of clients. Right now, my sole focus is on communication—observing the client’s tone and then responding accordingly.

As for what you mentioned, you tell me—what can we do in this regard? Can this system change for us? We can’t really do anything about the system except adapt to it and keep trying to improve ourselves alongside it.

The forum and client support is here to get feedbacks from us and find ways to get better. The marketplace works with the perfect balance between sellers and buyers satisfaction, so obviously the business model of Fiverr is based on sellers sales, the more you sell the more Fiverr gains, so it's in their interest that everyone willing to provide an excellent service on the platform should have the possibility to do so. 

I've tried to have the best communication with some clients, that don't provide any feedback after the delivery, don't answer my messages, and 30 days later I receive 4/5 on communication rating... after several times asking if everything was clear and if they need anything else. So yes, the new system is more frustrating for me than the previous one, maybe Fiverr did not consider the impact on smaller profiles and smaller gigs, willing to do better but not considering all the situations, so that's our duty to report this kind of issue to make the platform better, and a happier place for everyone.

If you simply accept the way things are and you don't make anything about it, at least try to send a feedback and try to see if things can be improved, it's obvious that nothing is going to change if you just accept everything and do nothing about it.

This is the last message from client support: 

Quote

Hi,
 
Thanks for providing the synopsis for the team Alexis!
 
I'll forward it right away as I'm sure the team will find it very useful when reviewing your suggestion.
 
I'll be here if you need anything else so do not hesitate to let me know.
 
Wishing you a great day ahead!

I don't see here a platform that is unwilling to reconsider processes, on the contrary I see a platform that is willing to accept suggestions, feedbacks and willing to improve. 

Also, a lot of users here on the Forum are just happing with seeing you fail, this means less competition for them. This is supposed to be a community but the true help I got today was from the Fiverr support itself. 

I think the mission of Fiverr is to create a FAIR place, so if some recent updates look unfair to you as a key player for this company, why should you just accept and move on? 

Fiverr is a startup based on the lean model as all the rest of startup companies: test, analyze, implement, test, modify, test again... based on clients feedback. If you don't provide the feedbacks to Fiverr, you are running the model and leaving the platform to generate more frustration from sellers, without them to even know that something is wrong or can be improved to (at the end of the day) make more sales. 

Leaving the system as it is, is a way to kill some gigs and profiles on Fiverr and I am 100% sure that this is the complete opposite goal that they want to achieve. 

[skydesigner]

I feel like Fiverr encourages clients to leave reviews that aren’t 5 stars, especially when comparing my recent experiences to those from 10 years ago or even just a few months back.

[alexiscottray]

On 11/27/2024 at 11:03 PM, skydesigner said:

I feel like Fiverr encourages clients to leave reviews that aren’t 5 stars, especially when comparing my recent experiences to those from 10 years ago or even just a few months back.

I have a new one from today. 

 

The client is happy and want to order a new form... 



So the client want to come back, but I don't want to repeat an order with him if I can possibly receive the same score review. 

[katakatica]

15 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

I have a new one from today. 

 

The client is happy and want to order a new form... 



So the client want to come back, but I don't want to repeat an order with him if I can possibly receive the same score review. 

I once again totally understand your point (I've gotten a lot of 4.3s and 4.7s this year, even some 4s I think.)

But wouldn't you think this could cause issues for you?

You're basically saying "if you don't care me perfectly my score will get even worse = rate me 5 stars or I want work with you."

As a buyer I probably would flag your message to see what CS thinks - and I'm not sure they'd agree with you that this is appropriate. 

But!

I want to say that again, as a seller I get it. I work my butt off, give discounts and still some people call me expensive (and rate me what I consider poorly.) Many of my gigs are very specific and only have a few reviews so I am always at risk as well. 

I just think it's important to keep what staff here said about what we can and can't say in mind. Everyone is getting worse reviews (and people who sell 50+ orders a month likely have the same percentage of buyers as we do. It just takes a while for that to show but it still happens.)

It's an issue and it's quite unfair when looking at it in the big picture (buyers don't know the system changed. They easily might think our work is declining...) but threading super carefully is the only way. 

(That being said I'm super curious to what staff on here (not just CS) would say exactly about your approach. Is this still OK? I would say no but I've been wrong many times and I'd like to be wrong now but...)

[alexiscottray]

2 minutes ago, katakatica said:

As a buyer I probably would flag your message to see what CS thinks - and I'm not sure they'd agree with you that this is appropriate. 

If you read the post and the answers from CS, they are actually saying that OR you block the user OR you explain that you don't want to follow the collaboration. 

[alexiscottray]

On 11/25/2024 at 5:39 PM, alexiscottray said:

Received the following feedback from Fiverr support: 

"First of all regarding your client taryells.
As you might assume different clients have different views and understandings of what excellent means which is why their rating might be lower than 5 stars.
 
Unfortunatealy, this is not something that can be affected directly on your end without negatively affecting your account.

However, if you beleive such clients will leave more lower ratings in the future which will eventually affect your overall rating and cause you to lose the Top Rated badge you can always block them via Inbox.

On the other hand please keep in mind that this will lower the number of potential clients that work and order from you which might potentially lower your earnings in the future as you'll have a lower number of new orders being placed." 

So the 4/5 review is affecting negatively my account. Yes indeed, following Fiverr's instructions, I can block the client, but the client himself thinks that this is a good review. So there is an issue here as the current system is misleading for buyers. 

Here.

[alexiscottray]

Also, the buyer is actually not aware that this review is impacting him as a buyer. This is now the seller plus stats, so as a seller I would probably avoid this profile. 

[katakatica]

2 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

Here.

CS doesn't say tell them in great detail why though. 

CS says there is no way for you not to get into trouble if you explain that the rating isn't good. . You can block the client or say "sorry, but I don't believe we are the right fit" or "sorry but I don't have time at the moment" / etc. 

Saying "sorry, we can't work together because of the way you rated me" is very honest - and understandable - but I'd wager it's unprofessional and could lead to the client feeling like they are being blackmailed. 

BUT! I can see this working if you genuinely don't work with the client again- so you're just explaining why you won't work with them further. If you were to take more orders from them, I'd see it as sketchy. But if not, I think it - could maybe - be fine?

CS is a good resource but different agents often say different things. A few months back I got into trouble with a client because they told them X and they told me Y. X was what the client wanted to hear but not the right answer. 

 

 

[alexiscottray]

5 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

Also, the buyer is actually not aware that this review is impacting him as a buyer. This is now the seller plus stats, so as a seller I would probably avoid this profile. 

So this is a new buyer, not aware of the system. If I simply don't say nothing and keep the collaboration with this client, 

I think it's easy to understand my point here, if I continue the collaboration with the client and don't say nothing about the previous reviews, then in only 3 orders, my gig goes from 5.0 to 4.8 

[alexiscottray]

5 minutes ago, katakatica said:

CS doesn't say tell them in great detail why though. 

CS says there is no way for you not to get into trouble if you explain that the rating isn't good. . You can block the client or say "sorry, but I don't believe we are the right fit" or "sorry but I don't have time at the moment" / etc. 

Saying "sorry, we can't work together because of the way you rated me" is very honest - and understandable - but I'd wager it's unprofessional and could lead to the client feeling like they are being blackmailed. 

BUT! I can see this working if you genuinely don't work with the client again- so you're just explaining why you won't work with them further. If you were to take more orders from them, I'd see it as sketchy. But if not, I think it - could maybe - be fine?

CS is a good resource but different agents often say different things. A few months back I got into trouble with a client because they told them X and they told me Y. X was what the client wanted to hear but not the right answer. 

 

 

The client after reviewing the order is asking me to send a new offer for another form. This is the issue. 

[alexiscottray]

47 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

I have a new one from today. 

 

The client is happy and want to order a new form... 



So the client want to come back, but I don't want to repeat an order with him if I can possibly receive the same score review. 

Also, as you can read from the review the client is happy, nothing is selected for "WHERE YOU CAN IMPROVE" and the client is asking for a new order today. 

So there is clearly an issue that Fiverr needs to fix ASAP. 

[filipdevaere]

1 minute ago, alexiscottray said:

nothing is selected for "WHERE YOU CAN IMPROVE"

I have many reviews where my clients leave this blank. This is often because they don't want to waste their time on it.

[alexiscottray]

2 minutes ago, filipdevaere said:

I have many reviews where my clients leave this blank. This is often because they don't want to waste their time on it.

The point here Filip is that the client is fully happy, first time ever on Fiverr, doesn't understand the rating system and how a 4.3 star rating is actually not a good rate for a new gig like mine. He wants to continue the collaboration on Fiverr, but as shown on the Google Sheet, if I continue working with him, within a couple of weeks my gig will keep decreasing the global rating, which obviously is an issue for me. 

[filipdevaere]

@alexiscottray I understand you.

I also got 2 this week. Extremely satisfied customers and yet they don't give 5 stars.
The buyer with the 4.7 review is strange.
His first order with me was a 4.7 star review.
His second and third order were a 5 star review.
His fourth order (in the screenshot) is again a 4.7 review.
I still have 3 active orders from that buyer that I have to deliver this year. I don't know what this will bring. He is very happy with what I deliver. But why he doesn't always give the 5 stars is a mystery.

Edited November 30, 2024 by filipdevaere