Endless talk with buyers

[loesje]

Do you guys have this too?

Some people send at least 15-20 messages before they buy, and some others do not ever make an order after!

I understand some people might have some doubts about how to order or what exactly they are getting with a gig, but OMG that is something you can just clarify in 1 - max 2 messages, cant you?



When you see a gig saying: “For 5 usd I will write an up to 500 words article for you” you do not need to be Sherlock Holmes to find out what the answer would be to the typical standard first question: “What would be your rate for an article of 450 words?”

---

er, ok, maybe you are not familiar with this gigs stuff but you are at a 5 USD marketplace, what do you think the answer would be???.............. and then after a couple of messages comes the second one: "And if the article is about 850 words?". Ok then we are 5 posts further (or more) and then comes third question: "Can you also write posts in German?".... :(( ........ my patience is getting shorter but ok go on........ next question: "It is a pity you cant write in German, because your flag says you are in Holland. Are you sure you cant write in German?" ....... NO I CANT!! :-S ................ "Ok then, lets start when you want... in Spanish, yes, because you say you cant write in German"..... yes sorry Sir then you have to make an order :D ....."Oh an order, what is that, I am new to Fiverr, lets see"......... (a couple of hours later)......... "Hey you know, I am about to order this gig but I have a question........ WHAT WOULD BE YOUR RATE FOR A 450 WORD ARTICLE??

>:) >:)

Now we are like 5 days and 20 messages further and I decide to concentrate in real orders, then I get a message from this Mr or Mrs Ihaveaquestion saying "Hey whats up? it seems we have a miscommunication problem because I am not getting any feedback from you..." =)) (<--- me having an hystercal laugh attack)
You can change the "what is the rate" or German question into any kind of nonsense questions: if an ebook of 10 pages costs 2 gigs, how much would one of 20 pages, I have 6000 words for proofreading, if 1 gig = 1000 words, how much would you charge for this....etc etc.... And also a classical, they send whole books of 100 pages or more as attachment (no order at all) for me "to take a look at it" ... ???...

What can I say? somethimes I think I would have to ask a gig for those who have doubts which cant be solved in max. 2 messages (and I guess then everybody would suddenly understand all about Fiverr and my gigs in only 2 sentences :D )

[landongrace]

I do get some with lengthy messages. Along with 4 pages of notes for a $25.00 video. A video that will take 30 minutes to do has 45 minutes of notes to figure out.



I would decrease my response time with each response like you did.



I have a photographer friend that purposefully doesn’t respond to a new prospect’s answering machine message for 4 days. He said this weeds out potential customers before they become a problem. I don’t think we can quite do that, but it was entertaining to see how it worked for him.

[misscrystal]

There seem to be a few people who will ask dozens of questions a day, non stop.

[fawhash]

I don’t think sellers should complain about that.I mean,after all,its buyers who are facing risk of losing their money.I doubt that one person who asked a lot of questions,would act the same second time.So,to turn them into repeat buyers,seller should provide top notch communication the first time,no matter how much time it takes.

[hammad328]

Yes this happens often 😦

[loesje]

I dont agree with you fawhash, there is no point to waste 5 hours of yourtime on someone who is going to buy a $5 gig… or nothing… and that all even before you have started working at all!

[sincere18]

I think this has to do with being in business for yourself in general. Even outside of a Fiverr forum, people who do freelance work get a ton of questions and much time is always spent on marketing themselves and having to weed through all the questions in order to get to the ones that are going to actually be sales. There is always unbillable time when running your own biz.



That being said, there are some tips to improve things. For every question you get, update your info and ensure those questions are clearly answered within your Fiverr gig and profile. For example, someone questions why you can’t write German because it says you are in Holland, well, perhaps your profile might include for example, that you are a native of America but doing a study-abroad program in Holland and you spent 3 years living in South America so you can speak/write Spanish. If you offer a gig that is only for 500 words, at the end maybe it should say for longer articles please order 2 gigs or please order the extra gig for extra words. Things like that. If someone wants to know how something would be billed if 1 gig = 1,000 words, and they have 6,000, maybe say if you word count is higher please increase the gig quantity.



Just some thoughts. I can understand how it’s annoying and some things may even be funny now and then, but it’s just part of biz, and part of the target market of people surfing the FIverrs gigs which is targeted to the general masses.



(side note here, to be honest, I have bought several gigs from Fiverr, but until a few days ago I never realized that there was a drop down for the gig that allows to choose more than one quantity. I never thought you could buy more than the $5, I jsut saw the $5 and various extras, so other buyers new to Fiverr may not be aware of that either.)

[landongrace]

Reply to @fawhash: Theoretically, I agree with you, but the buyer doesn’t have risk. At any point they can cancel. Even after you have delivered. The only thing they risk is getting behind with their project if they have to move to another provider.



For me, the strategy before the first 100 completed gigs and after the first 100 gigs is different. I am very aggressive during the first 100 deliveries. After I get the gig off the ground and it is established, I am more concerned with having the right jobs, not the quantity. This can be done in a way that is respectful to the buyer. It just takes some work.



In my experience the buyers act the same way well into the 5th or 6th order. I also try to work the gig in a way that I can charge for that extra service in the fee. Many of these jobs are more than the $5.00 basic gig and can be custom quoted. These fees are custom because of larger word counts, number of graphics, and other details that are beyond the basic gig. We would all love to provide extra services for an extra cost. That’s the repeat business you want.



No Complaints Here!

18 months

1200 completed gigs, $30.00 Average, No Negative Feedback.

[fawhash]

Reply to @landongrace: I think its probably because i am new here,and have yet to establish my gig that my opinion is like this.I spend a lot of time interacting with my buyers and don’t mind buyer question,because there isn’t anything better for me to do.Maybe once i start receiving more order,my opinion would change as well.

[fawhash]

Reply to @loesje: I think our perception of the worth of 5$ is different,probably because of the low cost of living and huge exchange rate difference.I think i should have considered that before commenting here.

[landongrace]

Reply to @fawhash: You’re on the right track. I wanted mainly to encourage you. I think just being a great person and treating everyone with respect makes it work. When it seems overwhelming, there is potential for it to get easier as it grows. Early on, knowing that it could grow to $25-$50 an hour gave me the motivation to take steps toward that.

[fawhash]

Reply to @landongrace: Thanks for encouraging and you are absolutely right.

[landongrace]

No complaints about the traffic here! But there are times I get 4-8 lengthy emails every hour while trying to get projects that are currently due completed. You have to create a strategy to deal with it. Sometimes, if they are simple 1 sentence questions, they get answered immediately. If they are lengthy, I put a star on it and it gets looked at later, sometime 24 hours later.



There is nothing more difficult that getting a 30 minute job that take me a hour to look through all of the email correspondence to make sure that there is not details for the job buried in all the conversation. Scattered between the job conversation and the general mail conversation. You then add the dynamics of having several open jobs from the same client and you really have a mess.

[waysofstyle]

I am Dutch and I don’t speak German:-) Yes it sucks, the questions not the German:-) but I think it’s a good idea to add that to the description. I will do that once that is needed. Thanks for the info!!

[zeus777]

I once had a buyer who asked a lot of questions before ordering which was OK, but the problem I had with this guy was he will send a one-sentence message each time. Even after he placed the order this continued, and at point it was getting very difficult for me to scroll up and down, going back to his previous messages to check what he had said to me. I asked him if it was possible to stop sending one-sentence message, and just combine them, and his reply was “Oh sorry about that, it’s because I’m an elementary school teacher.” …not sure how that’s related… For the first order, I got 94 messages, all in one sentences. It was quite painful. When I got another order from the guy, the same thing happened, so at one point I asked him again if it was possible to combine those short messages and send me a longer one. His reply was “Oh sorry, I work from 7am to 11 pm, so…” Again, I’m not sure how that’s related…I’m glad that I have finished the gig, if he places another order, I’m not sure how I will react… 😛

[anacristina89]

Ive been there! Its terrible!

[Guest aakarsh1997]

I have even received recorded videos of people telling me what particular thing they want. And those particulars are never really particular. In the end all of what they say sums up to nothing, and we are back at the start. Truly disgusting. I ignore such people.

[itsyourthing]

zeus777 said: For the first order, I got 94 messages, all in one sentences. It was quite painful.

That's how one of my sisters sends texts. It makes me crazy! :)

 

 

[itsyourthing]

zeus777 said: Again, I'm not sure how that's related.......I'm glad that I have finished the gig, if he places another order, I'm not sure how I will react...

Unless the actual gigs take 1 minute to complete, I'd say politely pass.

 

 

[marketman]

I like that some buyers (potential and otherwise) ask questions prior to purchasing. It helps to clear up info before the gig is ordered.



What I don’t dig are the people looking for free information or free work - you can sniff them out a mile away. Again, would be ideal to have a personal “Ban Hammer” button as a seller … and as a buyer 🙂 Cheers!



“I’m MarketMan, I make people click things” https://www.fiverr.com/marketman

[itsyourthing]

Reply to @marketman: Fair comment, but dude, you need to stop with your slogan and link. Your username is a link to your profile, so extra links look, and are, spammy.

[fastcopywriter]

Reply to @fawhash: Yes, but sellers are wasting valuable time. I should make a list of all the stupid questions I get. My favorite? “What do you do?” Seriously.

[fastcopywriter]

One thing I do is tell them to place an order and provide instructions. You have to nudge your buyers. Other times I tell them to read the gig, if they had done that, they wouldn’t be asking questions.

[misscrystal]

I’ve answered over 50 questions from a $5 buyer within two days and then told them it was enough. I’m a patient person but it crosses a line at some point.

[ice_tea]

hi… may I join?

I kind of have same situation.

Is it possible that some one having problems when uploading photo?

I have gigs about cartoonize photo, but my first customer haven’t send me the picture yet.

I’ve ask him about it, but he didn’t reply my message.

On the other hand, the countdown timer keeps running out.

do you have any suggestion for that?