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

[alexiscottray]

6 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Delete gigs that have just a few reviews and which you think won't have good performance. Most successful sellers had dozens of gigs over the years, we experiment, we see what happens and go from there.

I have 12 gigs and I need all of them to provide full design & redesign services to my clients on all the platforms and tools that I offer. I don't want to delete any gig, it was hard to get up to 10 reviews on some gigs, why should I restart from scratch? Because one client did not understand the rating system? is that a valid reason to delete one of my gigs? 

[alexiscottray]

9 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

It's not like this is a new issue or anything, it's been the same for a decade since I've been here.

Yes but I've been on the platform before too, if you delivered a great service in the past, you were most likely to get a 5 star review (even before the emoji system which was obviously even worst than what we currently have) so it was easier to build new services VS now. 

[alexiscottray]

10 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Do you really think Fiverr will delete those reviews and replace them with 5.0? They won't. And they won't offer a different review average calculation for other gigs, either. It would be unfair to anyone else. 

I am just wasting my time trying to help you and explain. I'll just use my time better elsewhere. 

I never said they should delete reviews. I am saying that they should make the system CLEARER for buyers. 

I am also trying to explain and explain again, I've already told you that you should focus your energy on another topic. 

[filipdevaere]

Time out

[lenasemenkova]

Last time I mentioned publicly that I wrestled myself into acceptance with 4.7*s, I received three of them in a row right after. One of those was from a regular who tips a lot (while suddenly developing an issue with the Value of Delivery). I asked him about it, he told me he misclicked and he’ll fix it real quick. 

There is no way to fix it real quick, of course. His review just disappeared altogether at some point. Who knows what happened there. 

I contacted CS and they told me my reviews looked fantastic (uh). They also suggested to inform my buyers that tips were not mandatory (Fiverr’s wording on leaving tips is pretty aggressive, I believe, which is not my fault) AND to ask any of my regular buyers to screenrecord their review process so they can see if there are any issues with it. Which is totally something a regular person would do.

The point I was trying to make to them was that if those were legitimate reviews, it’d be fine. But it appears that it is also very easy to misclick the * which is not a sign of a well-designed and transparent review system. But we ended up agreeing that I was amazing in the end and I dropped the matter until the next batch of 4*s arrived. 🙂

Edited December 2, 2024 by lenasemenkova

[alexiscottray]

11 minutes ago, lenasemenkova said:

Last time I mentioned publicly that I wrestled myself into acceptance with 4.7*s, I received three of them in a row right after. One of those was from a regular who tips a lot (while suddenly developing an issue with the Value of Delivery). I asked him about it, he told me he misclicked and he’ll fix it real quick. 

There is no way to fix it real quick, of course. His review just disappeared altogether at some point. Who knows what happened there. 

I contacted CS and they told me my reviews looked fantastic (uh). They also suggested to inform my buyers that tips were not mandatory (Fiverr’s wording on leaving tips is pretty aggressive, I believe, which is not my fault) AND to ask any of my regular buyers to screenrecord their review process so they can see if there are any issues with it. Which is totally something a regular person would do.

The point I was trying to make to them was that if those were legitimate reviews, it’d be fine. But it appears that it is also very easy to misclick the * which is not a sign of a well-designed and transparent review system. But we ended up agreeing that I was amazing in the end and I dropped the matter until the next batch of 4*s arrived. 🙂

Yes indeed there is a (reported?) issue with the star selection. Recording the review process can be a great idea indeed, I am thinking to add a sentence inside the delivery "if you are not FULLY satisfied by the delivery, just hit the "ask a revision" button". Maybe that can also help. 

I also have series of 4*s but the issue is that I can absorb them on some gigs, and for some other gigs, it directly changes the gig avg score, as it happened to me in the past where after receiving a 4/5 review with one order, the gig went from 5.0 to 4.8 and drastically dropped in both stats/clicks until I then removed the gig. 

You try to build a great new gig for months, in that case I have had around 10 total orders (avg value 500$ for a marketing presentation service so a couple of orders per months only) reached 7 total reviews, then with only one review I had to remove the service after a few weeks as it was not enough for the algorithm to stand out on the search page. 

If you only do a couple of sales per month for one gig, as it is the case for me for some of my gigs, then good luck to absorb a 4/5 star. 

[lenasemenkova]

24 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

I also have series of 4*s but the issue is that I can absorb them on some gigs, and for some other gigs, it directly changes the gig avg score, as it happened to me in the past where after receiving a 4/5 review with one order, the gig went from 5.0 to 4.8 and drastically dropped in both stats/clicks until I then removed the gig. 

Putting new gigs up, especially when you don’t expect them to sell often, has become quite an adventure. I have a new-ish one that I expect no more than five sales a year from and while I’m very passionate about the topic and it’s the work that I'd love to do, if the rating is anything lower than 4.9*-5.0*, I’m deleting it. It’s just unsellable at that point (and very annoying to look at). 

25 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

Recording the review process can be a great idea indeed

I mentioned it twice to different buyers and was rightfully ignored. A normal person will not be sending recordings of their phone to a freelancer on the internet, I don’t think. And my asking for screen recordings a lot sounds like something that will eventually get me banned. 

[alexiscottray]

2 minutes ago, lenasemenkova said:

Putting new gigs up, especially when you don’t expect them to sell often, has become quite an adventure. I have a new-ish one that I expect no more than five sales a year from and while I’m very passionate about the topic and it’s the work that I'd love to do, if the rating is anything lower than 4.9*-5.0*, I’m deleting it. It’s just unsellable at that point (and very annoying to look at). 

I am living in the same exact world as yours, thank you for your comment, this is the issue that I am raising here on the Forum. But sadly, as you can see, a lot of freelancers are actually not getting the point (or prefer to pretend they don't understand it as it looks more convenient for them to keep the system as it is) and the feedback from Fiverr is that at the moment, they don't find a solution and a better way to do it, so this is the final system. It's a shame.

[alexiscottray]

22 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

or prefer to pretend they don't understand it as it looks more convenient for them to keep the system as it is

I am saying that here because I think that a new system would be beneficial for ALL types of freelancers.

But the current system, is a way to increase the gap between old sellers with gigs at 1k+ reviews (that will remain with a global score of 5.0) AND sellers that have a few reviews only per gig (and will easily drop to the 4.0-4.5 group that will not appear in the first page of results, independently from the level score of each gig and overall stats) 

I've explained this with a simple example on one of my gig.

In this example, I just need to receive 3 reviews at 4.3 / 5 to get to a service scored 4.8. 



Now, compared to a gig like the one from @donnovan86, he needs to receive 1900 reviews at 4.0/5 to only get to 4.9 



So Donnovan, don't tell me it's more difficult for the oldest gigs. It's simple maths at this point. When you need 1900 bad reviews to affect your gig score, I only need 3 reviews. 

Edited December 2, 2024 by alexiscottray

[alexiscottray]

15 minutes ago, lenasemenkova said:

if the rating is anything lower than 4.9*-5.0*, I’m deleting it. It’s just unsellable at that point

You are 100% right, because as explained to @donnovan86 with a mainstream service like SEO, on the first page, you have 45% of 5.0 services / 45% of 4.9 services / 5% of 4.8 services / 5% of 4.7 services / 0% of 4.6 services or lower.

From my experience, when you go from 5.0 to 4.9 it's actually still ok. BUT when you go to 4.8 or below, indeed you can forget about the gig and simply remove it. Even before the emoji system, it was easier to build new gigs IF NOT then I would not be here after 4 years on the platform... 

[lenasemenkova]

32 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

I am living in the same exact world as yours, thank you for your comment, this is the issue that I am raising here on the Forum. But sadly, as you can see, a lot of freelancers are actually not getting the point (or prefer to pretend they don't understand it as it looks more convenient for them to keep the system as it is) and the feedback from Fiverr is that at the moment, they don't find a solution and a better way to do it, so this is the final system. It's a shame.

Yeah. The question of low-selling gigs, in particular, has been raised because on the one hand we are advised to branch out and create more gigs to maximize profits. On the other, the success score is the new king and these gigs will not have a high success score. The response was, as far as I remember, ‘they don’t affect the overall success score too much, so don’t worry about it’. 

Buuuut, you can’t really build a gig like this up as easily as you used to by simply doing good work and offering discounts because, in my experience, at least half of these new 4*s are accidental. That is based on the fact that they come from regulars who tip and I directly ask them about it. Maybe some are uncomfortable with the price and would like a discount given the years we worked together but then stop throwing money at me, geez. I’m getting mixed signals here.

[katakatica]

So as far as we know right now, only the two past years of reviews (on any gig) count into their score. 

I tested this theory: if I'm counting all of my reviews from the past 7 years, I should NOT have an average of 5.0. It should be 4.9( I think it's 4.93 or something?) The same goes for an older gig I have as well - it should have a rating of 4.9 because of old reviews that now don't seem to count. 

This does mean that sellers ARE viewed more equally. Of course it doesn't erase old reviews fully (buyers can see them still) and people who deliver more orders than others might still be at an advantage (though their chances of getting bad reviews is perhaps higher in a way) but Fiverr is trying for equality. 

This in itself would be lovely. 

However... 

And this is a big however: the rating system should NEVER have bugs like what it seems to have right now. It seems to happen far too often for it to be user error (or customers lying to save face, which was something I've considered as an option.) 

I think customers can change their reviews until we rare them back now for this exact reason. However, I'm not sure that's enough.

In general I feel that Fiverr has been very buggy for about a year or so now? I'm not entirely sure why but there's been so many small to big issues (all of which we've flagged to staff on here) which makes me quite concerned. 

That being said:

I do agree with you that buyers should be educated more about the site in general. However, that shouldn't fall on sellers for many of the reasons mentioned by several of us already. 

This does cause an awkward situation though. 

I believe that many have no idea what to do, which in turn impacts their experience (and potentially our rating.) But this doesn't seem to be something Fiverr wants to do in great detail right now.

(Then again it's been nearly a year since new sellers started being scammed on a daily basis and the issue still persists. It might just mean that these take a long time from the implementation side. 

[katakatica]

11 minutes ago, lenasemenkova said:

Yeah. The question of low-selling gigs, in particular, has been raised because on the one hand we are advised to branch out and create more gigs to maximize profits. On the other, the success score is the new king and these gigs will not have a high success score. The response was, as far as I remember, ‘they don’t affect the overall success score too much, so don’t worry about it’. 

Buuuut, you can’t really build a gig like this up as easily as you used to by simply doing good work and offering discounts because, in my experience, at least half of these new 4*s are accidental. That is based on the fact that they come from regulars who tip and I directly ask them about it. Maybe some are uncomfortable with the price and would like a discount given the years we worked together but then stop throwing money at me, geez. I’m getting mixed signals here.

I've noticed many of the 4s to be likely accidental as well.

I'm constantly running experimental gigs to see what sticks which is definitely a bit tricky - but for now the majority of them hasn't been impacted much (I saw this but I deleted one gig after it had a success score of 3! the day after it's first (very positive) review was published. 

That's a whole other thing as well, to be fair. 

What I'm a bit worried about is that these accidentally bad ratings seem to be persisting. 

If they'd happened only in the beginning when the new system was rolled out I'd get it - but how come it wasn't fixed it? There's no way every single buyer that people reach out to is lying about misclicking so it HAS to exist but it's odd that it's gone on for so long. 

[alexiscottray]

On 11/30/2024 at 9:48 PM, alexiscottray said:

I wanted to raise this concern on the forum since my recent experience on a new service. 

Everything went fine as long as I had 7 review - gig rating score 5.0 

One day, I've delivered an urgent order and the client rated 4.0 on the review "Thank you so much, this is great!" 

My gig went from 5.0 to 4.8 instantly and all the stats dropped down during weeks.

I was using Fiverr Ads, still, lower impressions and clicks and I finally paused the gig. For one experience and one rating only, the gig simply became outdated. 

To this client review, I wish I could have answered: 

"You're very welcome! Thanks to you, I can now remove this gig and don't offer this service to other clients as it went from 5.0 to 4.8 for no reason and the stats are simply dropping since this day. Let's continue to ruin my profile with other services, let's keep the collaboration together, I am excited to receive more reviews from you and kill other services." 

[lenasemenkova]

15 minutes ago, katakatica said:

it should have a rating of 4.9 because of old reviews that now don't seem to count. 

I had a three-year-old 1* review on one of my lower-selling gigs and have since been cleansed from that sin with the gig going from 4.9* to 5.0* without any new sales or reviews. 

16 minutes ago, katakatica said:

the rating system should NEVER have bugs like what it seems to have right now. It seems to happen far too often for it to be user error (or customers lying to save face, which was something I've considered as an option.) 

I considered it as well. Maybe for some, it’s a bit like when you go to a restaurant and get harassed by the waiter because you didn’t finish your plate and the chief would really like to know what was wrong with it while you just want them to go away. But again, I am very gentle with my inquiries and 4* Value of Delivery doesn’t sit well with regular 20% tips on top of it. 

17 minutes ago, katakatica said:

I think customers can change their reviews until we rare them back now for this exact reason. However, I'm not sure that's enough.

I rate back within minutes most of the time. Just an automatic reaction I developed. I suspect most sellers don't sit around for hours to give the buyer time to reconsider their review. The buyers don't stick around either after the order is done. 

[alexiscottray]

45 minutes ago, katakatica said:

I tested this theory: if I'm counting all of my reviews from the past 7 years, I should NOT have an average of 5.0. It should be 4.9( I think it's 4.93 or something?) The same goes for an older gig I have as well - it should have a rating of 4.9 because of old reviews that now don't seem to count. 

This does mean that sellers ARE viewed more equally. Of course it doesn't erase old reviews fully (buyers can see them still) and people who deliver more orders than others might still be at an advantage (though their chances of getting bad reviews is perhaps higher in a way) but Fiverr is trying for equality. 

Great news then, but the issue is still affecting low-selling gigs VS gigs with a high rotation. So at the end of the day, also affecting more long-term orders VS short-terms (for instance orders taken through the milestone feature).

The solution might be to have more rotation on the services, with gigs at 10$ for instance (50 orders at 10$ VS one order at 500$) but it depends on your business or industry. In my case, I cannot offer these kind of services, and I've also received mixed signals from CS saying that having gigs starting at "5$ or 10$ on my profile DID NOT look professional". 

Edited December 2, 2024 by alexiscottray

[jaidi478]

Hello,

Seller communication level = 5.0

Quality of delivery = 4.9

Value of delivery = 4.9

This is my profile overall score, I got this in the last week, Even my reviews are good so why is it showing 4.9 in the above two fields, Can anyone please explain or let me know how much 5.0 I require to maintain 5.0 in all fields now?

[alexiscottray]

Hello @Kesha and @Lena any interesting insights from this conversation to be followed to the CS Fiverr team? Thank you

Edited December 5, 2024 by alexiscottray