Fiverr Community Forum

Feature for Seller: On/Off Contact Required button

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#1

Hello Fiverr fellows
Firstly I’d love to say thank you, the Fiverr team, as I see that you really turned a lot of items on our “wish list” come true on Fiverr site, like Colloration tool app, the Message manager app, etc. Those really help our experience a lot.

I’m writing this to suggest a new feature for sellers’ gigs: The (conditional) button that can toggle on/off to require/not require buyer to contact first before they proceed ordering. I’ve been here many years working, and with my friends too, and we see that by ordering a service without any communication at first could potentially cause many problems for both buyers and sellers.

Why this button:

  1. Both parties should be on the same page before staring the job in order to achieve the best outcome for buyer.
  2. Sometimes the job requires a custom quotation. The price could be higher or lower than the basic 3 packages. If it’s higher we can proceed to have additional budget, but what if it’s lower price - it’s not fair for this buyer, or both parties have to cancel and place another order.
  3. Theoratically, buyer would read all things on a gig before proceed ordering. But in reality, a few buyer wouldn’t do that. Some buyers even order a wrong category gig and cancel. The result: mutual cancellation, then hurt seller completion rate stat. It’s not fair for such stats affection

Why there is the OFF mode for this button: Because of the nature of each service. While custom work service sellers may prefer the ON mode, other sellers who sell digital products prioritize seamlessly service for their buyer and will prefer OFF.

Additional suggestion supporting the button - Condition: If all sellers can use the ON feature, it can affect our marketplace negatively, because some people who are doing this as part-time job may have a very slow response time. So I suggest that if this button ever come true, it’s only available for sellers with good service and good quick response time.

4 Likes
#2

There are definitely pros and cons.

I love that on fiverr people can place an order whenever they want. (In fact I receive a lot of orders during the night when I’m sleeping) and I guess in this situation I will have to keep “off” all the time. But at the same time I hate when people placing an order without reading the description and don’t have budget to upgrade to correct package (even though descriptions can’t be clearer and even my gig packages called with what people would get but still I’m getting orders like this or people who’s trying to get work done cheaper on purpose ).

But If I keep “on” button I wouldn’t be able to chat with every single one of them. Even right now my messages reaching 50-100 per day and I will just go nuts trying to respond every potential client.

But something definitely should be done about this. At least we should be able to cancel “mistake” orders without affecting our ratio.

3 Likes
#3

HI
its a good idea.
I think once the order is cancelled with mutual agreement it should be count as cancelled order or it should not affect the order completion rate. This can just simply solve the problem that most of us have.

4 Likes
#4

Excellent post. It helps both buyers and sellers to Proceeding Order, Cancellation & Finishing.

1 Like
#5

This idea is intriguing and would certainly be effective in weeding out a percentage of buyers who manipulate the system and prey on new/desperate sellers.

Were this feature implemented (which I would love), I’d also want to be able to whitelist buyers who could bypass the “Contact Required” button after earning the trust of sellers.

I’d also be in favor of an icon in the thumbnail image of search results that indicates whether a seller requires contact before ordering. This feature would prevent mass waves of sellers in a category turning the “Contact Required” button on. Why?
Competition. Moreover, this feature could circumvent Fiverr requiring a certain level or metric stats for participation.

The benefit to Fiverr? A significant reduction in the number of problematic transactions for BOTH buyers and sellers, which lead to Fiverr CS inquiries ( a direct cost). It would also signal to sellers that Fiverr is interested in developing a healthier seller ecosystem.

1 Like
#6

Wow! Really admire your professional service when you have 50-100 messages per day, that must be a very hard work.
Yeah I believe together we can do something to solve this. I’ve seen Fiverr staffs worked restlessly to implement new features on our site over the years. And just like you, I’ve dealt with lots of these people doing those kind of things on purpose, so only Fiverr staff can help us sellers on this.
I believe that cancelling those orders (not correct to package) should not affect our ratio and impression stat.

#7

Thank you!
Yeah, I even hear my friend said that there is somewhere underground teaching them to do such behavior. But I believe we can get this solved.
I love your idea of whitelisting clients! That must be a happy and enjoyful moment to do that with our beloved returning clients!
You got a valuable point on saving CS resource, I’m totally agree with you. Reducing those problematic transaction can save all of us lots of time and we can focus on other good things.

#8

Great suggestion to fiverr…

1 Like