[Why Is Fiverr Losing Buyers?]

15 hours ago, visualstudios said:

There is one, and only one solution for a fair freelance marketplace - to have a team of impartial, qualified, serious conflict resolution team to judge and decide disputes. Sometimes the buyer is right, and wants a refund. Sometimes the seller is right, and wants to get paid even if the client is unhappy and doesn't want to pay. Mediation is a MUST.

Fiverr doesn't have this.

And we can go back to having cancelled orders not count for reviews, this can play into this idea here. I still have no idea why 1) a buyer can keep the delivered work, 2) they get a full refund, and 3) they still get to leave feedback if the service was delivered as described. I understand it's to maintain honesty and integrity, but it's still totally unfair, especially for honest sellers. We're not a factory, we spent time doing the work, and now they have it. Do a return on Amazon and they won't give you your money back until you send the item back, plain and simple.

Add that on top of the current way Fiverr works, where most if not all buyer mistakes still affect our accounts for absolutely no reason at all. Whether they didn't read our guidelines, or simply wish not to listen to our revision policies, we're always negatively impacted if they decide to direct their anger towards us, with no way to even leave honest reviews for difficult buyers due to private reviews still being a thing, completely eroding transparency for other sellers.

It's just a constant loop where every new order is a gamble. I'm hoping some change can be made.

[Fix the outdated revisions feature.]

3 hours ago, maitasun said:

Fiverr is saying revisions now count against us

Ive read so many conflicting things about this, I can’t seem to get a straight answer. Is there official documentation of this somewhere?

[Fix the outdated revisions feature.]

Just now, newsmike said:

I don't see Fiverr making it easier to cancel, costing them and you money. It is in your and their best interest to sell additional revisions. 

Sorry, should’ve explained my post better. Will edit, but what I meant was it wouldn’t give buyers a cancellation button, it’d still be the same process as it is currently. 

[Fix the outdated revisions feature.]

11 minutes ago, newsmike said:

This would be a problem in that you would perform work, then a buyer requests revisions that are not included. If they decline, why give them a cancellation?  Then they will use your original delivery, they get a refund, and you are working for free? Even TOS protects you from this when it states:

It’s okay to include it as an option, as CS will follow the terms on cancellations anyways as you mentioned. Regardless, buyers can just do this currently anyway.

[Fix the outdated revisions feature.]

Enforce a gig's revision limit from a system-level:

When a buyer requests a revision when they've either ran out of free revisions, or for gigs that don't offer free revisions, have a text box appear that lets us input the cost of the revision immediately under the request to send to the client. Once the fee is sent and accepted, the order will actually go into revision mode. If it's declined, the order goes back to the "delivered" status.

As it stands, if a gig offers no revisions or the buyer has already used all their free revisions, it still lets them request more. This means we have to manually send revision fees via custom offers or the resolution center which takes up a lot of time. It also lets abusive buyers continue to request revisions if they don't accept the extra fees, leaving the order in an "in revision" limbo, leaving us with no option but to contact CS and hopefully get a manual cancellation.

Additional QOL:

1. When a client requests a revision, let us manually enter warning text that appears displaying our revision policies. They would have to manually confirm this before continuing. This frees up FAQ/gig description space.
2. For empty revision notes, have a popup which says: "If you've requested a revision without providing notes on what needs to be revised, the seller can deny your request".
3. Allow timestamped revision comments to be viewed on mobile. Currently it's very tedious to hop on a desktop, it should be fluent with the app.
4. Show a counter of remaining free revision requests on the revision button.

How these changes help everyone:

This solution would free up ours, and also customer support's time, while also making it clear to buyers about how many revisions they're actually granted when purchasing a gig, because as it stands there's way too much leeway and not all buyers read gig FAQ's/descriptions.

I'd like to hear everyone else's thoughts on this as it's been a big issue for a long time. Some of the other major freelancing platforms already function this way too, and I think it's time for Fiverr to follow suit.

[Get ready for our next webinar - Top Rated Quality Standards]

Does being top rated take into account your average selling price?

We all sell different services priced at different price points that are reflective of the market we’re in. Some sellers are doing fantastic volume-wise where those lower starting prices ($5-$10) are made up by having 10-20 orders per day. They still sell like hot cakes. If their buyer satisfaction is high and they do quality work, their average order prices shouldn’t matter at this point.

Can we receive a notification when we’ve been reviewed, but denied, and on what basis we can improve before a re-evaluation?

The transparency from the new system is great, but it still has the Level 2 purgatory problem as of writing. As soon as the new system went live, I remained at a score of 10 with all metrics maxed out (as they’ve been for almost 3 years now), but am still left with the manual evaluation notification saying I need to wait.

 

Other than that, thanks Yoav! 😃

[New level system is live!]

The level system is here (yes there’s a visual glitch on the app currently, have no fear)

Aside from that, Fiverr should be showing total review counts rather than 1k+ beside each gig. Buyers are missing out on a lot of key info here. 20,000 reviews at 4.9 stars speaks volumes compared to 300 at 5 stars.

[Listen to your sellers...you're missing the mark]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:02 PM, newsmike said:

Think about it. The $39 product has 137 5 star reviews, while the $29 product has 14,393 5 star reviews.

Who's the winner?

A big issue Fiverr still has is not displaying our actual total review count on search pages, it caps at 1k+ and won't show anymore. Someone with a long history and over 20,000 reviews gives buyers a lot more insight into their experience, and why their review star average may be lower than the person next to them with only 1001 reviews.

I can see how it'd be more fair to keep things this way as everyone would just go with the person who has the higher review count, but these insights would speak volumes to buyers.

[[ UX audit + redesign ] New Rating & Review System]

This thread deserves a  ⭐ 5+ EXCEPTIONAL.

This should absolutely be considered by the Fiverr team. The color scale is a brilliant, universal understanding compared to emojis, and the wording is MUCH more clear. Also, now buyer's know how their answers affect the score (finally)!

[Update: Changes to the Value For Money question]

On 2/28/2024 at 9:43 AM, Kesha said:

The question has been refined to "How would you rate the value of this delivery," reflecting our commitment to a more nuanced assessment of your delivery’s value.

Our concern was having this question here at all. Rewording it and making it even more detailed is not a good call. "Let's remind the buyer how much money they spent and how long it took after the order is complete" ... why? They've already agreed to purchase our service in the first place.

 

Edit: I'm also hearing it doesn't disclose Fiverr's service fees and instead adds it to the total order cost. A fee that's completely out of our control, affecting our customer's perception of our value. ??

[Freelancer Product Release]

On 2/3/2024 at 1:55 PM, donnovan86 said:

Wait until the leveling system in 2 weeks, where even bad reviews from 10 years ago will have an impact. It's the entire account history. 

Crazy if that's the route they're taking with this. Going to mention to my SM, as you said I'm sure I shouldn't expect exact answers but if we all bring this up, it could warrant some more clarifications on this.

[Freelancer Product Release]

The new rating requirements for levels seems a bit cut-throat for newer sellers with smaller order averages and high-price, low-quantity sellers where 1 bad review can make an extreme impact VS a seller who does hundreds of orders in the span 60 days.

Also, if the whole point is to show that less than 5 stars is still a good review, why are we being majorly penalized for having less than 4.4 on the levels scale? According to the current system, that only leaves wiggle room for 2 stars lost on any of the metrics in total, after that it’s a 4.3 review, which is under the threshold to even get the first level.

Would appreciate a reply to these issues.
@Kesha

[New review system is live?!]

2 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

Since this is on Fiverr's own help page, one would think it's final, right? 

I find it hilarious how they’re showing what looks like a 3 star review showing up as a 5 stars overall, I know it’s just an example but it definitely doesn’t make this whole roll out any less confusing.

["extend review time" - Test]

I’ve had a buyer keep an order open by constantly extending the review period each time I make a revision. It’s been open for over a month now, and I haven’t been compensated for any work yet.

There needs to be a limit to the amount of times they can do this, it’s very frustrating and it’s already being abused.

[When does the Response Time metric stop counting?]

What local time does the response time metric stop counting? I get a ton of messages late in the evening, I can't be expected to be online 24/7 to answer these, I have a set 8 hours a day where I'm online (typically 9am - 5pm EST) and to get penalized for not answering at 9pm EST and later is ridiculous. 

[Increased efficiency and trust: new tools and ratings update]

@Shiran.M 

Would the buyer be eligible to leave a review if the order was:

1. Manually cancelled by customer support because the buyer ordered incorrectly (incorrect price for example)
2. The client refused a mutual cancellation at the last minute which caused the order to get marked late
3. No deliveries were made (since they ordered incorrectly)
4. This isn't a first-time seller.

[The Inbox Response Time system is outdated.]

The inbox response time system needs to be changed. Currently, this metric creates a negative work/life balance.

Not all sellers appreciate having to be online 12 hours a day to answer questions, especially when most of my inbox messages come through from 7-9pm local time or while I'm sleeping. I'd appreciate if after 5pm local time (or a custom time set by the user) the inbox response rate stops counting. For example, users should be able to set an allotted 8 working hours per day where the response time metric will count.

Expecting sellers to be available almost 12 hours a day is unrealistic and unhealthy, and being penalized for not being active and responding during the evening hours when I'm spending time with my family is discouraging.

[I saw something new today. What does it mean by " Current overdraft " ?]

Contact support, they should be able to help you.

[Dead beat sellers.]

Highly-rated and best-selling sellers are your go-to, same with top rated and pro-verified sellers. Don't seek out cheap options or sellers with little/bad reviews, this is often sometimes reflective of their work and demeanor.

[Why my impressions decreases gradually ?]

A lot of people say "stay online" and "be active in the forum" but the honest truth is none of this matters with gig ranking. Every user on Fiverr sees different search results, and Fiverr values buyer's hidden reviews which happen after an order is complete, so always be sure to deliver your best work, answer people timely, have good SEO on your gig (only keywords that relate to the service you sell) and be professional and polite. Consistency is key, that's all! 

[Any good tips for using Promoted Gigs?]

It depends on your budget, definitely increase it to as much as you're willing to spend maximum per-day, obviously don't set it above what you earn per-day.

[Gig inactive problem.]

Being active 24/7 won't help, if anything it will irritate buyers as they won't get a reply when you're sleeping even when it states you're active, so I'd advise against doing this. If I'm not mistaken it's also against the site's rules. The best you can do is be honest and only go online when you're actually online.

[Need help regarding adding clients in Fiverr profile]

You can only add clients that are on Fiverr's verified list, if they're not there then you can't add them.

[How to bring Fiverr gig to the first page]

The first page of Fiverr will look different for everyone based on Fiverr's current search algorithms, so the best advice would be to just focus on selling and keeping your buyers happy. The more you do this, the higher you'll rank.

[Gig Rangking]

FAQs should be used only to answer any common questions you get about your services, in this way it can make it easier for buyers to go ahead and place an order.