How to Protect the Integrity and Value of the Fiverr Seller Community

[thewriteones]

I recently spent some time reading online reviews of the Fiverr platform, and it’s not difficult to find a bunch of negativity. Buyers across a multitude of review sites constantly blast different aspects of their experience here on Fiverr, and while there are some issues that aren’t directed towards us sellers, there are a lot of things that it seems that we, as sellers, could be doing a lot better.

So in the spirit of creating one of those posts with tips that everyone seems to love, I felt I would write one of my own. But instead of focusing on how to improve the number of sales we get, let’s take a look at how we can improve the quality of the experience our customers receive.

1. Deliver what you promise, when you promise to! A huge complaint that I see time and again is a buyer will place an order and then right before the deadline, the seller will cancel or request an extension of the deadline. If you are unable to deliver your order by the deadline, it’s your responsibility to let the client know beforehand. Perhaps they’re willing to give you a bit more time, or maybe the service they ordered is time-sensitive and they need to cancel and find someone else that can do it. Don’t you hate it when your doctor makes you wait for your appointment, or something you ordered online is late getting to you? Clients hate it too.

2. Don’t withhold a client’s order in hope of getting feedback! At last count, I’ve had 118 clients leave feedback, and 41 have not. The clients that were so kind as to leave reviews did so under their own volition. I certainly don’t sweat the one’s that didn’t. I’ve read comments where buyers stated that their seller didn’t/won’t deliver the order until the buyer left a 5 star review. This is not the way to build a brand. If a client isn’t happy with your work, they have every right in the world to say so; their hard-earned money entitles them to that. The easiest way to ensure that a client will leave a good review is to deliver work worthy of a good review!

3. Don’t ask for more money after an order has already been placed! Listen, it happens to us all. You and a client agree upon a price for a job, and once you start to dig into the work, you realize that your quote wasn’t high enough. You can try to haggle the customer for more money, but more than likely it’s going to leave a sour taste in their mouth. If you find you undervalued your service and time, chalk it up as a learning experience. Next time, you’ll have a better understanding of what your services are worth, and you can charge appropriately then.

4. Don’t steal someone else’s work! I’m a writer, and every piece of content I create is unique and original. I’ve read complaints where clients have said that the content they received (be it written, recorded, or drawn) was taken from somewhere else, right up to blog posts being copied word for word! Don’t do this. Ever. It’s unethical and probably illegal (I’m a writer, not a lawyer!) If you can’t create an original work for your clients and have to resort to stealing it from somewhere else, you’re not a free lancer. You’re a thief.

As sellers who choose to hang our shingle on Fiverr, there’s a lot of pros and cons we have to deal with every day. We may hate how long it takes to receive our payments, or the amount of work that clients expect for a measly $5, but we’re also part of a huge platform that gets seen by millions of potential customers every day. Fiverr provides a full-time income for some, a part-time check for others, and a creative outlet for thousands more, but if we don’t police ourselves as sellers, deliver work that we’d be proud to put our name on, and hold ourselves to high moral, ethical, and professional standards, we’ll chase away those customers. And in today’s online marketplace, a few customers with bad experiences will make their voice heard much more easily than in the past, and so begins the domino effect.

There’s a line from a famous film that goes “Build it, and they will come.” But if we fill its hallways with junk …

They won’t come back.

[aaly_raj]

great post

[shilpityagi_eco]

This is a really good post. Thanks.

[akram2020]

excellent post

[mncassociatesol]

Very thoughtful and most useful. Thank you for sharing.

[mae_creativity]

1. Thanks
2. Surprised
3. A thought
4. Cheers

Thanks for taking the time to write and share your tips.

#2 - this is the first time I’ve heard of sellers doing this, and it never would have occurred to me as something that happens. How would a seller expect feedback on a product his/her buyer hasn’t seen?? Maybe I didn’t understand what you meant? - otherwise that’s the most illogical thing I can think of doing as a seller: the client will never be a repeat buyer + will not refer you to anyone… what’s the point in this crazy tactic? Hmm… also stealing another’s work - I had no idea there were sellers who do all these stupid things. … So yes I def agree with you @thewriteone

But you know what? A thought -

Everyone on fiv (buyers and sellers) are, just like in the real world,either fair/honest/reliable etc, and others who are…the opposite (Been writing all night and am all adjectived out). Nothing is going to persuade either group to behave differently (unless they happen to still be under the age of 5 - after that you can’t change people). So, I guess… here’s hoping that members of the unwanted group will, oh I don’t know… get tired here and go someplace else, or get stuck in traffic for a few years straight, or get so drunk that they spill vodka on their computers (cuz they thought it was a glass) and then can’t get online anymore? While they’re stuck in traffic/have no computer/go away, the rest of us then have more opportunities to achieve our online freelancing goals.

A girl can dream, can’t she? 🙂 Yes she can, so here’s hoping all that…cheers! (clink clink)

Hugs fellow fiverrmates (who know exactly what I mean),

May 🙂

[annieanimation]

Great post… you are spot on with all your points!
Now if only there were an etiquette list for buyers to follow… 🙂
Oh…Can but dream…