At what point should I start ignoring messages?

[catwriter]

Sometimes I tell them something like “I’m sorry, but I don’t offer consultations or advice. Can you please tell me exactly what you need from me? If you can’t, I’m afraid that there’s nothing I can do for you. I’m truly sorry.”

It’s not that I never advise clients, but I avoid it as much as possible. Usually those who wand advice are not sure what they want, think that my advice is great, and then change their minds and decide they want something else. For free.

[lynnehuysamen]

I’m pretty quick to cut off conversation that isn’t going to be valuable I have to admit. Probably comes from the fact I used to be in a job where I got around 300 new emails a day and had over a hundred staff working for me.

I have several quick responses, they don’t always fit every message but if you want them, here they are:

If someone just sends a “Hi”, or “Are you there?” type message:

"Sorry, but I will need some details before I can respond to any request."

I just keep resending that if they don’t send me any information.

If they’re other sellers asking for advice on their own gigs:

“Thanks for your message, but I can’t provide individual assistance. I suggest you post your request on the Fiverr forum under ‘Improve my Gig’ or ‘Conversations’. If you haven’t already, read the academy pages and review existing posts on the forum. You’ll find some interesting information there that might cover your question.”

If they’re asking about what I do in general, not specific:

“Thanks for your message. Here is the link to my gigs on my profile. Please don’t hesitate to come back to me if you have any specific questions on any of the gigs.”

I have a general, covers a lot of other circumstances, one that I’ve labelled ‘Brush Off’:

“Sorry, but I won’t be able to help you with this.”

Thank you so much @capitalquality this is really helpful. Does this mean I can set up my own custom responses and then just choose those to reply to people that message me?

Happily learning “brush off” techniques. I am going to be adding these ideas to my Facebook inbox too. OMG I get ticked off there!

[lynnehuysamen]

I had a conversation with a ‘hi’ person once when I was bored. And by conversation, I don’t mean conversation in the way that you or I might mean conversation. I matched every message by them with an appropriate one word or one phrase reply. They eventually went away after 14 exchanges. 🙂

@capitalquality Yes I have been implementing the one word replies in some conversations and it works well actually. It takes so little effort and I reply in the same arb manner in which they send messages, this is obviously not what they are looking for and leave after a while.

[capitalquality]

Thank you so much @capitalquality this is really helpful. Does this mean I can set up my own custom responses and then just choose those to reply to people that message me?

Happily learning “brush off” techniques. I am going to be adding these ideas to my Facebook inbox too. OMG I get ticked off there!

Yes, there’s a reply option in messaging called Quick Response. you can set up your own and/or edit the ones Fiverr gives you. Then you can select the one you need when responding to a message

[psychicbunny]

I never really respond to messages anymore. 200 messages full of spam.

[leahemme]

Yes I’m at a loss about what to say in them.

Maybe actually saying that you don’t offer free information will entice them to order, since your information has value, and it would be worth their time to pay for it.

Something in the realm of:

“I appreciate your questions, but cannot offer free information or advice due to the high volume of requests I receive (or due to more detailed information being available to you should you become a client of mine). There is plenty of great information online about (x) and I’d encourage you to do your own research about the nature of spells or (x), and know that my dedicated services will be here in the event you want to move forward.”

Anyways, just a suggestion… I wish we could fill in a ‘Before you message so-and-so, please keep in mind’ type requirement thing. So when people message us they don’t ask questions that have obvious answers.

[misscrystal]

Maybe actually saying that you don’t offer free information will entice them to order, since your information has value, and it would be worth their time to pay for it.

Something in the realm of:

“I appreciate your questions, but cannot offer free information or advice due to the high volume of requests I receive (or due to more detailed information being available to you should you become a client of mine). There is plenty of great information online about (x) and I’d encourage you to do your own research about the nature of spells or (x), and know that my dedicated services will be here in the event you want to move forward.”

Anyways, just a suggestion… I wish we could fill in a ‘Before you message so-and-so, please keep in mind’ type requirement thing. So when people message us they don’t ask questions that have obvious answers.

That’s a good message. It will cover at least 50% of the messages that come in.

[brejay]

I tend to be more direct and blunt (and get no response, or ANGER back), but I think I shall C&P your responses and check them out. I’m too much of a smartass to be truly professional, which leads to bad “shut up, Emma” auto-responses which I post anyway, as it makes them a) go away or b) flip their shit, which is entertaining.

Also, sometimes I get dragged into conversation with the “hi” people who don’t understand the word “no” or sarcasm.

Ha, I sometimes wish I could be more snarky like that, but it’s just not my personality. I accidentally pissed someone off once when I poorly worded a refusal to a ridiculous sales pitch, and it still haunts me…

The random greeting from men creep me out. I wish it didn’t hurt my rankings to ignore them.

[Guest editordh]

As a new Fiverr member, I’m getting inane messages that just say "Hi’ or “How are you?” When I ask them how I can help, they don’t answer and I get a notification that I can no longer contact that sender. If this is a kind of spam, I don’t get the point of it. I appreciate the good ideas on how to respond to messages that are wasting my time. Fiverr is for business. I intend to respond to all inquiries promptly and politely.