I hear it so many times from freelancers: you’re working as hard as you can to try and improve your success score, yet no matter what you do, you still can’t seem to get ahead. It can be extremely frustrating and discouraging, I know.
When discussing this with the CSMs, they highlighted an important aspect of the Success Score that many people seem to overlook. That is, the Success Score is more than just a general measure of performance; It’s also a reflection of how you stack up against other freelancers in the same subcategory. In other words, it’s not just about being good, it’s also about being just as good (or better) than your competitors.
Even if you believe you’re doing a great job, negative impacts in your key metrics could suggest that a lot of other freelancers are outperforming you in that specific area. It may be a hard truth to swallow, but it’s not meant to discourage you. Instead, see this as a chance to identify opportunities for improvement, understanding that if others are succeeding in a certain area, you can achieve success there as well!
Raising your Success Score against your competitors
Rethink your approach
If you want to improve how you measure up against other freelancers in your niche, consider making some strategic changes to your workflow. Reflect on what your top-performing competitors are doing that you could also start implementing. Additionally, look for opportunities to go above and beyond what others in your subcategory may be doing. For example, as explained here, having detailed Order Requirement questions is a huge area of opportunity that a lot of freelancers fail to capitalize on. While other freelancers may stick to asking just the two default questions, taking the time to ask clients all the important details from the start can really set you apart from the competition and positively impact your Success Score. Another example is ensuring your delivery time is comparable to other freelancers in your category. If your delivery time is 30 days while most competitors deliver in just 7 days, your Success Score could be indirectly impacted negatively—yes, even if you deliver “on time.” Long delivery times can impact buyer satisfaction, as clients may grow frustrated waiting for an order that they could’ve received much faster from another seller. Sim
Pick another lane
Another great hack to boost how you fare against competitors is to open up a gig in a new subcategory. This is especially beneficial if you're working in a highly saturated subcategory like logo design, where competition is intense. In this case, pursuing another gig in a less saturated field, like business cards, might help you improve your performance across all Success Score metrics since there is less competition.
All in all, it’s important to stay open-minded if you really want to see your Success Score change for the better. Though you may be thoroughly convinced that you’re doing everything right, if you don’t have the score you desire, consider it a sign that there are opportunities for improvement. From there, be willing to pivot and make changes as necessary because, as the old saying goes: growth doesn’t occur without change.
