Confused About "Positive" Reviews

[enlightenedpen]

I noticed that my percentage of “Positive Reviews” in my Analytics dropped from 100% to 99%. Of the 10 buyers who rated me, 9 of them rated me 5 stars and 1 rated me 4.5 stars. It seems to be the 4.5 star rating that brought down my percentage of Positive Reviews.



Is a 4.5 rating really considered a negative review? If so, I find that very strange. The buyer who rated me 4.5 stars was obviously happy with my work since she hired me for 5 more gigs (and tipped me) after she rated the first order.

[mgjohn78]

4.5 is a positive rating. Im guessing one of your buyers gave you a negative by accident then changed it quickly (analytics stats don’t update to often so might be stuck at 99 for a while)

[emasonwrites]

This is just my guess:



With the old thumbs system, you could get one of two percentages: 0% (thumbs down) or 100% (thumbs up).



With the five star system, I don’t think all ratings that are considered “positive” count as 100% and all that are considered “negative” count as 0%. I think:



5 stars is 100%

4.5 stars is 90%

4 stars is 80%

3.5 stars is 70%

3 stars is 60%

2.5 is 50%

2 is 40%

1.5 is 30%

and 1 star is 20%



If ratings of 3.5 stars and above (the ratings that are considered positive) equaled 100% and ratings of 3 stars and below equaled 0%, what would have been the point of switching to the star system, really?



Anyway, that’s just my guess, this isn’t coming from an official source, and it may very well be wrong, but it would explain why even a “positive” star rating can drop your overall percentage.

[fastcopywriter]

Reply to @emasonwrites: Your guess is very accurate. I had 17 negative reviews, and then one day my rating dropped to 97%. Why? Probably someone gave me 3 stars or 4.5 stars or 4 stars. The same goes with the “faux positives,” when someone gives you 3-4 stars and writes nasty things.

[Guest alexcreativity]

That’s why i hate the new rating system. I like the thumb up and thumb down system . If you get 4.5 review it means it is a positive review & contact buyer to change review into 5 star rating.

[david388]

Hi @enlightenedpen, let’s just take a moment to focus on the fact that you’re doing great! You’ve been a Fiverr member less than a month, and from your profile I can see that you’ve already made enough sales that you’ll be promoted to Level 1 by the end of 30 days. So congrats!



I agree with @alexcreativity. But also realize that as you get more and more 5 star ratings, your score will go back to 100% overall. I once had a 4-star rating from someone (very similar situation to you), but within a few days and a bunch of additional reviews, my percentage blip had recovered.



Hope this helps! Congrats again.

[fonthaunt]

This is exactly why the 5 star system is ridiculous. Buyers may rate you 4.5 while loving your work and they have reason to believe that’s a great rating. I had one who loved a holiday piece I did but lowered her rating on “would buy again.” I didn’t have many sales yet then and my rating dropped to 99%. I asked her why and she said she did not anticipate needing a Christmas-specific work again. She took “buy again” literally. I explained how hard percentages hit sellers, especially new ones. She argued that she had rated me accurately and that if Fiverr had a flawed system they should fix it instead of wasting buyer time. She was right.



Luckily she did say that she would still recommend me even if she didn’t hire me again and changed it to 5. I still wrote to CS to point out the issue and they said 3 stars or more is positive and worked as intended. They suggested overdelivery if I wanted to stay above 95% and retain my seller level.

[timelyservices]

I believe it would change and it is important to tell buyers to give us five star rating if they are happy with our jobs.

[mgjohn78]

Reply to @fonthaunt: Same with me, all ratings less than 5 are due to buy again or recommend.

Though i haven’t ever asked a buyer to change a rating unless its an obvious mistake such as a 1 star rating followed by an amazing positive review.

[gingerwriter]

The “star system” is incredibly flawed. As has already been pointed out, the ratings drop significantly for every half star or full star that is removed. If Fiverr CS really believes that a 3 star or more rating is a “positive” rating, then why not eliminate the percentage ratio? Or at the very least only drop percentages if a negative review (2.5 star or less) is given? I think that would eliminate a lot of confusion for buyers. Or, take out the “would buy again” rating. Like the OP said, buyers take that literally and some wouldn’t buy again simply because they don’t have a need for that particular service on a continual basis. Flawed from head to toe, and CS doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about it.

[emasonwrites]

Reply to @gingerwriter: Exactly! The rating criteria are still so subjective and buyers have no way of knowing how important ratings are to sellers. Buyers still expect sellers to have extremely high percentage ratings, but they give three and four star reviews for work that would have gotten a “thumbs up” in the old system. I know its not really worth complaining about it–they’re not going to change it back–but still…

[abidagfx]

Reply to @gingerwriter: really agree with you. yes should took it down "would buy again"

how can some one will click on would buy again if he really want his job finish only one time and he dont have any thing more to be done?

[Guest willedridge]

Maybe the star rating system should have context…



5 - perfect work, that exceeded expectations.



3 - As expected.



1 - Terrible.



As a buyer and a seller the star-rating system on fiverr is worthless.



I gave a 4 star review for a service I bought because that’s what I thought of the service. The seller contacted me offering a full refund for the work done or a bunch of extras for a 5 star review so they could protect their 5 star rating.



That just goes to show the system is redundant.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @emasonwrites: Maybe I’m foolish but I always have some hope that they actually will change it back or at least to a similar binary system. I don’t just see complaints from sellers about the 5 star system.



Buyers often don’t like it either. It takes them longer to think about and utilize for one. It skews ratings for potential buyers since the pressure to maintain high ratings is so heavy, some sellers will resort to obtaining multiple reviews from lesser sources to help prop up their early ratings and get the first levels. I’ve even seen level 2 sellers encourage new sellers to offer money to family and friends in return for ratings. Besides all that, buyers getting annoyed when they are pressured for ratings but many sellers feel they have no choice.



Sure, there are some buyers who probably enjoy leaving lesser ratings everywhere from Yelp to Amazon to Fiverr and they like the system except for their complaints that they can’t cancel and still leave a bad review. I think that group is smaller, though.



If it was only sellers who find the ARS flawed I don’t think Fiverr would ever consider changing it, but it is buyers too. In fact, even though it’s been done before I may summarize this post and drop it in the Suggestion Box. I have some strange optimism today. 😉

[retrodesign]

Exactly the same has happened to me. My buyer said he loved with my work, wrote an amazing review, but gave me 4,5 stars in “buy again”. I was thinking about asking him about it, but I didn’t – I just thought I would get my 100% back soon. But I guess I was wrong, because most buyers do not bother to place a review at all, even when they say they are satisfied. Maybe it is a good idea to politely ask them in the delivery message to give us a (5 star) review when they are happy with the service…

[mystic_insight]

Reply to @alexcreativity: This is basically it

[tsweezey]

Yep, no longer is the percentage reflected have anything to do with the percentage of positive reviews (although it still says this in our analytics). Very very odd.



Not to mention, I’m sure buyers would be a little disappointed if they knew that their 4.5 star review would jeopardize an otherwise perfect ranking for their valued seller. Otherwise, you’d have to communicate to the buyers that you’d actually be better off if they didn’t leave you any rating, vs. leaving a 4.5 star review. Go figure.

[mrproofreading]

Reply to @willedridge: Context already exists in the star ratings:



1: Unsatisfactory

2: Poor

3: Satisfactory

4: Good

5: Outstanding



However, as a new seller, if you were to receive 2/3 “satisfactory” ratings, then your overall percentage would drop, and you would lose a lot of sales.



Should an “as expected” service do this to your account?

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @willedridge: Unfortunately, this would probably make things worse. As @mrproofreading mentions below, the context exists but is already a problem. If buyers thought it was fine to put a 3 or 4 (thinking 3 is fine and 4 is actually pretty good) buyer ratings would tank even further and many levels 1 and 2 sellers would lose their badges. The way the system is set up now, that means sellers would find it mandatory to be over the top with every single $5 order. I know for many that would mean working for about $4 an hour at best.



As @tsweezey says below, this would also mean, like now, that sellers would be better off in many case to ask buyers not to rate them at all. If the seller overdelivered enough to exceed a 3 but not quite enough to make a 5 (in the buyer’s eyes.) Sellers would be punished for overdelivery because they made less money due to time spent but also didn’t get the shiny 5 that keeps their rating from going below 99-100%.

[kylesilver]

just a month and you have made up to 10 sales, then you are really making it big.



Thums Up

[Guest alexcreativity]

Reply to @david388:



but why this is not happening to me. I keep my rating from last 4 to 5 month but still i am struggling to be top rated seller.

[sincere18]

no, of course 4.5 is not considered a negative review…but then when did people start thinking that 99% rating is a bad review? It’s not.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @sincere18: Every point you go toward 95% is a potential loss of Fiverr level, for one thing. Fiverr has made it clear that while it is an individual decision, they have removed levels many time for profiles that dropped to or below 95%. On any other site I use, even 95% positive would still be quite a nice rating. You can be penalized here without ever getting even close to an actual negative, although actual negatives make it go faster. I’m adding one thing in after I had posted this. People who have a high number of positives already can worry quite a bit less about this since it would take them a lot of 4 star reviews to bring it down. It is the newer people with less 5 star reviews that have more to be concerned about.



Also, some buyers that were here for a long time during the binary rating system were accustomed to the idea that a seller was either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. When you are a seller and you get a 4.9 from a buyer (it has happened to me) it appears on your own screen as a thumbs down although no one else sees it. It feels really crappy. Some buyers still don’t know what to make of the percentages, and sellers are made to feel that 4.9 or below is a thumbs down.

[sincere18]

Reply to @fonthaunt: but that is part of it, there is an expectation that the buyers are even thinking about this or aware of how it works for a seller, many, especiallly new buyers know nothing about the rating system or what it means to sellers.

[tgreen7163]

Reply to @fonthaunt: You’re spot on. It’s been the biggest headache having very happy customers leave 4.5’s. I wanted to welcome the new system but at least they should break down the stars so customers can see how out overall rating is comprised.