Hello there!
I'm delighted to see the platform evolving and your efforts to enhance it. A special thanks for creating this topic where you clarify all the aspects and address questions.
I just wanted to share my feedback regarding this system. I see there are numerous comments here, and I'm confident that there has already been a response to my, so to speak, Gig. However, I want to reiterate that this is simply my opinion and feedback. I don't anticipate any explanations or further responses. I simply hope it will contribute positively to future updates
So...
The system is too complicated. Honestly, I didn't understand much from the main message of this topic, how ratings are formulated, and how I can influence them. I don't think the system has become more transparent. It just means everyone will get lower ratings than they do now.
If we're implementing such a system, it would be great to specify more clearly how I can influence the metric. Articles with advice like 'Be polite, meet deadlines' don't work. I'm polite and meet deadlines, yet I have poor metrics. My clients are satisfied, and most of them place regular orders, but all my gigs are poorly rated.
Here I'd like to delve deeper into the strange rating system, specifically using my own example:
I had to delete one of my gigs because a random order placed in the past completely ruined its performance. It had a popular niche and great presentation, but it always had terrible statistics, and only now I could see that Fiverr's algorithms rated it at 4 points. But shouldn't such orders not affect statistics according to the rules? I'm not at fault that someone placed an order accidentally and decided to cancel it immediately. But my earnings suffered. Yes, you mentioned this in the main message. But as long as the problem exists, I believe it's fair to mention it in my feedback.
As for the gigs that currently exist for me and are rated, I'd like to add some comments to each one. (The numbering corresponds to the numbers on the screenshot).
№ 1: What does 'Conflict-free orders - Room for growth' mean? How can I specifically influence this? This gig had no conflicts. It had two successful orders that were executed absolutely clearly. The rating is unreasonably low for no reason.
№ 2: Here I can assume that in the non-public review, the client rated me less than 5. But again: Why does the 'Order cancellations' category not have the highest rating if there were no cancellations? As for the 'Value for money' rating, it's a huge question mark: Why? This encourages sellers to lower their prices to match the highest scores, and, in turn, sellers will seek alternative ways to earn instead of working for pennies on Fiverr. With this aspect, you're promoting a race to the bottom and, consequently, diminishing your own earnings. It's strange that the product team of one of the most popular freelance platforms didn't take this into account.
№ 3: Again, it's unclear why 'Effective communication' has such a low score. For example, the client gave a rating of 2-3 in a private review...? But I highly doubt it. We had a great collaboration, and they placed repeat orders. And once again, the strange 'Order cancellations' category.
№ 4: Overall, it's magic. Two categories with the highest scores and yet an overall rating of 8. So how can I achieve Top Rated status?
Conclusion:
Before implementing such a complex system, it would have been ideal to fine-tune the rating algorithms and consider every detail. Because now it seems like these ratings are assigned randomly. No logic. And obviously, these metrics have always affected our statistics and only now have become visible to us. As your user, I state clearly: this system doesn't add transparency and doesn't enhance my user experience. I don't understand how I can influence these metrics. Your article with basic communication rules provides little practical benefit. A practical response to the question 'How to improve the metric?' is 'Respond to the client every two hours', 'Avoid using such-and-such words in dialogue'... not 'be polite'. At the moment, I absolutely don't understand how to improve the metrics mentioned in my examples.
I really hope that this month and our feedback can improve the organization of the system. For now, it's interesting but very poor. Let's hope that after the final launch, the number of our projects will increase, and it will have a positive impact on us as freelancers. Honestly, though, Fiverr is turning into a center of dumping, and even now, very few clients are willing to order more than $5 per hour. Considering my usual rate of $30 currently, I don't see the point in staying here if the situation doesn't improve. Thank you for reading this.
Best wishes,
Lika