[Red Exclamation Point Next To Rating.]

When I logged into my account and checked out my dashboard this afternoon, I saw a red exclamation point next to a rating that worried me. I tried to find out what it meant by hovering over it and searching, but I couldn't find any information. I'm really concerned about this and wondering if anyone else has seen it before and knows what it means.

 

 

[Fiverr 4.0 - Some thoughts on the current state of things]

On 3/20/2023 at 12:50 PM, frank_d said:

Hey gang!

It's that time of year again when I stuff my face with cake and write down my personal thoughts on what's happening on Fiverr.

(me right before I started writing the post)

Before I get this show on the road, a much needed disclaimer:

Anything I share on this article, represents my own personal view. Any findings about how the platform works are my own, and I hold no insider/privileged information. 

I am not a Fiverr official, nor am I representing Fiverr in any capacity.

I am just a seller, like you. I just like to find out how things work and what makes a seller successful on the platform.

I do have a proven track record, but take everything I say with a grain of salt.

This topic is just to fire up a discussion amongst sellers and exchange opinions.

This is NOT an attempt to game the system or find any shortcuts.

Hint: There aren't any.

 

With all that out of the way, let's jump right in.

 

Fiverr 4.0: A necessary evolution

OK so this article is a continuation of my Fiverr 3.1 thesis.

Which in turn is a sequel of my original post called Fiverr 3.0.

It seems to me that Fiverr changed how things work back then, so it was a much more apparent shift, felt throughout the marketplace. So this new article will cover how Fiverr implemented a few more things and completed the shift started back then.

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, I will once again say that Fiverr is about matchmaking. 

If you need more proof, check out the new briefs feature, your new dashboard metrics and your shiny new profiles. (especially on Fiverr Business)

Why do I think it's a necessary evolution? Well because it makes A LOT of sense when you take into account Fiverr's KPIs.

So what is Fiverr all about? 

Well, user retention is important, so keeping buyers in the ecosystem. 

And how do you do that?

By keeping people happy.

 

I can't get no.... SATISFACTION!

Yes, this is something that will come up quite a bit in this article.

The Buyer Satisfaction Rate. So we'll call it BSR from here on out.

This metric was kept under wraps for about 2-3 years, when Fiverr started talking about it. Either through webinars or via our trusted Success Managers.

It's a secret formula that Fiverr uses to calculate how happy buyers are after an order is completed and therefore, how sellers perform in that regard. 

(Fiverr's secret BSR formula, apparently)

So Fiverr now takes into account the actual facilitation of the service and how good the experience was, and not just the end product. This was the biggest shift in how sellers perceived their performance on the platform, because Fiverr apparently increased the weight of this variable when calculating who is a good performer and who is a good match for buyers.

And since none of us knows how it works, and for good reason, things were weird for us sellers.

The forum was flooded with people asking why they get 0 sales after a streak of good months, while their dashboard had perfect metrics and their public reviews were close to perfect.

But the hidden BSR outweighs public reviews. By a lot.

 

The "get out of jail" card

So if the BSR is hidden, how can we learn from it, or at the very least avoid the search results limbo, when our gigs are underperforming?

Well this is complicated.

First of all: it's fairly simple to avoid any issues altogether.

Offer a great and seamless customer experience. The secret is to take lead and manage client expectations early on.

Offer solutions instead of questions when issues arise, and finally make sure you are acting in a professional yet friendly manner.

However, not everything is peachy. Things happen and even the most seasoned freelancer gets the cold shoulder from the algorithm that serves search results.

But it's now easier to bounce back if something happens to your account, all you have to do is wait it out, whilst trying to offer an amazing service to any orders you may get.

You see, Fiverr has a complicated but sensible way of calculating things.

So our Dashboard metrics get updated every 60 days. That's been well-known. 

But BSR seems to follow a different pattern. It is calculated every 90 AND every 30 days.

So while things seem to move abruptly from "I get new orders daily/weekly" to "I hear crickets and feel worthless", the true secret is time. You need to wait it out, there's nothing else you can do about it.

Use the downtime to edit gigs, freshen up that portfolio of yours and make sure that anyone who messages you when things are quiet, get 110% from you in terms of responsiveness and help they may need.

You see, your BSR score, much like any other metric, averages out. Which means that while a dip in your score may hurt your profile's standing, it averages out every time the clock resets. And on any given day, depending on when was the last time you got a bad private review, your overall score changes.

So it is fairly simple: ride it out, and improve performance. 

But wait, why are there two cycles? 

Well my working theory is that there are two separate BSR metrics. One is for new buyers and one is for existing buyers.

There is some kind of threshold where Fiverr stops treating buyers as new accounts, and right before that cut off, their private exit surveys may weigh considerably more than those of existing accounts.

You can see it in Fiverr's indicators. (remember how I am always talking about indicators and no-one listens?)

Fiverr is not saying things out in the open, but it does try to clue us in.

You get a special message when a buyer purchases your gig and it's their first time buying anything on the platform.

You also get the buyer insights feature, if you are a member of Seller Plus, so you can see if they are new members of the platform or not.

And lately, you get an email when your BSR for new buyers, drops. So at least there's no more guessing when things get a little too quiet for us sellers.

 So First Time Buyers are important to Fiverr. Because that first experience is what will make them stay on Fiverr and maybe even start spending more. Makes sense right?

However, that means that it is upon us sellers to educate buyers on most things Fiverr. It is required from us that we not only guide them through our process, but also through Fiverr's UI/UX and myriad of buttons.

Which leads me to a tasty new theory:

What if the new algorithm, the one who does all this merry matchmaking, is specifically designed to favor senior seller accounts with a proven track record, with First Time Buyers.

Makes sense doesn't it?

Now I am not saying it cancels out every other aspect of the matchmaking process, like relevancy, performance etc.

But what if that's the case? It definitely makes sense if Fiverr is trying to make people go from total noobs to loyal customers from a single order.

So whenever I see a new buyer talking to me, or placing an order with me, I consider this a great opportunity to offer the best possible experience to them. 

OK so what gets you a spot in search results?

That's hard to say. I don't think anyone has an answer.

However I know a few factors that come into play:

Relevance is key. You need to offer something relevant to what buyers are looking for, for sure.

Performance is heavily favored. Key metrics and BSR maintenance are imperative.

But then we have more complicated attributes, like Buyer Behavior models, and Average Selling Price.

Buyer behaviors are -and this is me guessing on a cool Monday night- equally important when the platform is trying to get a successful match going on. 

Some attributes are: account age, average spend, number and frequency of orders, type of account (business, select, buyer/seller).

I also think that Fiverr uses buyer behavior to weed out and punish sellers who use like farms or "friends and family" to buy their gigs. So sellers who do that, you have been warned.

If you also take into account Promoted Gigs and some -almost- definite A.I. involvement for the platform to figure out relevancy, then you can see it gets overtly complicated.

I am not going to pretend I know everything, as I am getting older I realize I do not. 

That's why I will end this segment here, and not share any of my crazier theories on what makes Fiverr tick. 🙂

Things to come...

If we take my assumption that Fiverr is now fighting for customer retention to be true, then I could definitely see more features geared towards personal connection and relationships.

For instance we have different profiles on Fiverr Business, focused on us vs our gigs.

We just now got to write our real names even on the Regular Fiverr Profiles.

We now have the ability to record a video of us, so that buyers can watch and get a sense of who we are.

So I can definitely see more tools like that coming along, where sellers can create more meaningful interactions with buyers and even create a following of loyal customers.

OK that's all I had for now. I need to attend my Bday dinner and have some more cake, not necessarily in that order.

This year's post was made shorter and maybe seemingly not as juicy as past years.

But this was by design. I don't want to be mistaken for someone who is in the inside track.

I want people to understand that I am trying to figure this out, just like everyone else, and I am merely looking to recognize indicators and patterns on the platform that will help sellers succeed.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Off to have some cake.

I'd love to answer any questions or hear your thoughts about what I shared! 

 

 

The only thing I don't like is that sellers are forced to have their faces shown in the intro videos, or you're video will be rejected. I know I'm not alone in wanting to provide quality service and keep my anonymity as well.

I'm hoping Fiverr will reconsider its stance on this.

[Buyer's Request]

I'm seeing a lot of replies stating "Buyers Requests were removed" which is true and false at the same time. Fiverr rebranded Buyer Requests as Fiverr briefs, with the only difference being with Fiverr Briefs' you can't see how many other people submitted a brief. Also, Fiverr Briefs are sent to you rather you having to scroll through a list compared to Buyers Request. What remains the same is some Buyers still want everything for $5 or less even when the stated budget says "Flexible" and still have to compete with buyers who will sell their work for $5.

But yay...Fiverr Briefs 🙂