Fiverr Likely Has Good Reasons to Automate the Level System

[paulmaplesden]

St. Level’s Day has wreaked its havoc upon us, and if you’ve been demoted, it must feel harsh.

Remember though, that Fiverr doesn’t have anything personal against you - the levels system, analytics, and the metrics we have to meet is a numbers game - so just why did Fiverr decide to make this update to their platform? If I were to zoom out and look at the big picture and Fiverr’s strategy, this would be my guess.

Fiverr wants to be the platform of choice for small businesses and others to purchase freelance services. They have already done a lot to achieve that - powerful marketing, an easy to use system, productized services, and lots more.

So, they can clearly get buyers and sellers to the marketplace, now they need to focus on the quality of the experience when they are here. I am guessing that the success of Fiverr is a combination of reputation, repeat business, word of mouth, and marketing.

Reputation, repeat business, and word of mouth all come from having a positive experience on the platform. What impacts that positive experience? Cancelled orders, failed delivery, poor sellers, and bad communication.

When they measure and address those points, demote sellers failing to meet them, and reduce their visibility in search results (since I am fairly certain levels play into the search algorithm) they improve the quality of the marketplace as a whole.

Again, it’s a numbers game: Reduce the number of spam sellers, promote quality sellers and services, provide greater satisfaction, and the overall reputation of the marketplace should improve. That means more people use the service, meaning more business for Fiverr, and for sellers who meet their standards.

If you’ve been demoted, you probably do not want to hear that the levels system update is likely for “The Greater Good” but remember that Fiverr has made this as a business decision to enhance the reputation of the marketplace, not to screw individual sellers (although that is an unavoidable side-effect.)

I believe they made this decision to improve Fiverr’s long-term reputation and viability, which will reward sellers who can meet their strict criteria. Is it perfect? No - But I expect the longer-term benefits will outweigh the short-term costs.

I am interested in a discussion about this, but I really do not want this to become a complaints thread about how you individually have been impacted. There are plenty of other places to vent your frustration. Instead, I am interested in your thoughts on what the medium- to long-term impact of this is likely to be (naturally assuming you are an awesome seller who has the level they deserve. 😉 )

Thoughts?

[eoinfinnegan]

I feel this may be “too soon” for a lot of people 😕

Given that it appears that half of the level 2 sellers have been demoted and approx 25% of TRSs, I can’t help but feel that this whole purge thing was actually necessary. Yes, there are some who don’t deserve it because of various reasons but it can’t be the case for everyone.

7,000 writers went from level 2 to level 1
Logo sellers: from 22,000 level 2 sellers down to under 10,000. (160 less TRS too)

When the update was announced, I was failing the stats on the late delivery count and made changes to ensure I made up the difference. This probably made for a better experience for buyers. Now consider the fact that approx half of all level 2 sellers were not doing that! That is a crazy amount of potentially bad experiences for buyers - some of whom will doubtless not return to the site.

Just like when the “Can’t cancel to remove a bad review” rule came in, I think it is simply that many sellers were abusing the system and getting away with it and if so, those are the ones deserving of the anger/ire, rather than Fiverr.

[sydneymorgan]

I agree entirely. Too many people worked just hard enough to earn a badge and then exploited it with the previous system (since, once you got one, it was very rarely taken back).

That also flooded the system with too many Level 2 sellers. The new system restores the value of having a Level/badge.

When they originally implemented the Response Rate, I felt the same. It is a positive for sellers to have measurable metrics and transparent requirements to meet. Before the Response Rate existed, there were messages I wouldn’t respond to. That feature quickly broke that habit for me, but I am amazed to see sellers just today saying things like: “Do we really have to respond to every message we get?”

This was a smart move on Fiverr’s part.

[misscrystal]

I feel this may be “too soon” for a lot of people 😕

Given that it appears that half of the level 2 sellers have been demoted and approx 25% of TRSs, I can’t help but feel that this whole purge thing was actually necessary. Yes, there are some who don’t deserve it because of various reasons but it can’t be the case for everyone.

7,000 writers went from level 2 to level 1

Logo sellers: from 22,000 level 2 sellers down to under 10,000. (160 less TRS too)

When the update was announced, I was failing the stats on the late delivery count and made changes to ensure I made up the difference. This probably made for a better experience for buyers. Now consider the fact that approx half of all level 2 sellers were not doing that! That is a crazy amount of potentially bad experiences for buyers - some of whom will doubtless not return to the site.

Just like when the “Can’t cancel to remove a bad review” rule came in, I think it is simply that many sellers were abusing the system and getting away with it and if so, those are the ones deserving of the anger/ire, rather than Fiverr.

it appears that half of the level 2 sellers have been demoted and approx 25% of TRSs,

Apparently there was no system in place before to make sure sellers remained qualified for their level. Good job fiverr! 👍

[matevzs1]

I feel this may be “too soon” for a lot of people 😕

Given that it appears that half of the level 2 sellers have been demoted and approx 25% of TRSs, I can’t help but feel that this whole purge thing was actually necessary. Yes, there are some who don’t deserve it because of various reasons but it can’t be the case for everyone.

7,000 writers went from level 2 to level 1

Logo sellers: from 22,000 level 2 sellers down to under 10,000. (160 less TRS too)

When the update was announced, I was failing the stats on the late delivery count and made changes to ensure I made up the difference. This probably made for a better experience for buyers. Now consider the fact that approx half of all level 2 sellers were not doing that! That is a crazy amount of potentially bad experiences for buyers - some of whom will doubtless not return to the site.

Just like when the “Can’t cancel to remove a bad review” rule came in, I think it is simply that many sellers were abusing the system and getting away with it and if so, those are the ones deserving of the anger/ire, rather than Fiverr.

These are very interesting stats, is it possible to see somewhere all these numbers (number of each level in each category for yesterday and today) or you just wrote them down yourself for writers and logo designers? I forgot to make some notes, but I’m very interested in it. 🙂

Well, I think new update will benefit a lot in long-term, but I think changes are implemented slightly too fast and too dramatic. A basic automatic test for even becoming the seller in the first place would be a good idea, so someone who can’t spell 10 correct sentences in English, couldn’t become English writer or proofreader (like me 😛 ). Same for all other categories, there should be a really simple task and if someone can’t complete it, then he’s not the right person for that category.

As it concerns new evaluation system, I think it’s good as it is, but I also think there should be a simple solution for all spam messages, mutual cancelations when buyers claim that he ordered the wrong service, occasional bugs, etc., so circumstances that are really not a sellers fault.

[eoinfinnegan]

These are very interesting stats, is it possible to see somewhere all these numbers (number of each level in each category for yesterday and today) or you just wrote them down yourself for writers and logo designers? I forgot to make some notes, but I’m very interested in it. 🙂

Well, I think new update will benefit a lot in long-term, but I think changes are implemented slightly too fast and too dramatic. A basic automatic test for even becoming the seller in the first place would be a good idea, so someone who can’t spell 10 correct sentences in English, couldn’t become English writer or proofreader (like me 😛 ). Same for all other categories, there should be a really simple task and if someone can’t complete it, then he’s not the right person for that category.

As it concerns new evaluation system, I think it’s good as it is, but I also think there should be a simple solution for all spam messages, mutual cancelations when buyers claim that he ordered the wrong service, occasional bugs, etc., so circumstances that are really not a sellers fault.

These are very interesting stats, is it possible to see somewhere all these numbers (number of each level in each category for yesterday and today) or you just wrote them down yourself for writers and logo designers? I forgot to make some notes, but I’m very interested in it. 🙂

I got the “befores” from here:

Last year, I made a thread to measure how many gigs disappeared following Fiverr’s site cleanup. Over the course of a few weeks, they removed around 4,000 editing gigs alone and other sellers watched hundreds of gigs disappear in their categories as well. So (out of intrigue), I’m going to do something similar to see how the levels get swapped around come the first evaluation period on the 14th. "Proofreading" January 8 vs. January 15 [proofreading][55 AM] (899 gigs bumped from Level 2 to L…

and then checked myself.

[paintings]

Of course, there will always be people who abuse situation, but if Fiverr don’t have an automatic system to separate those from the rest of us who worked hard within rules and are being punished for not replying to spam fast enough, then Fiverr needs to assign the task to living humans who can check our stats and analytics. Still, I think the person who came up with this whole demoting idea will cost Fiverr a lot of money in a long run, and the right move would be to eliminate the newly imposed rules, to bring people where they should be (because majority of authors are honest people) and of course, firing person who came up with the stupid idea in the first place. I’ve worked for large Corporation and I’ve seen people getting fired for much less. There are already level2 sellers leaving Fiverr and instead of trying to make sellers happy by making their lives easier, they are scaring us away. Is that a good policy to enforce because some morons are abusing system? Just make a damn system harder to abuse!

[matevzs1]

These are very interesting stats, is it possible to see somewhere all these numbers (number of each level in each category for yesterday and today) or you just wrote them down yourself for writers and logo designers? I forgot to make some notes, but I’m very interested in it. 🙂

I got the “befores” from here:

Last year, I made a thread to measure how many gigs disappeared following Fiverr’s site cleanup. Over the course of a few weeks, they removed around 4,000 editing gigs alone and other sellers watched hundreds of gigs disappear in their categories as well. So (out of intrigue), I’m going to do something similar to see how the levels get swapped around come the first evaluation period on the 14th. "Proofreading" January 8 vs. January 15 [proofreading][55 AM] (899 gigs bumped from Level 2 to L…

and then checked myself.

Thank you! I missed that conversation somehow… 🙂

[newsmike]

it appears that half of the level 2 sellers have been demoted and approx 25% of TRSs,

Apparently there was no system in place before to make sure sellers remained qualified for their level. Good job fiverr! 👍

Apparently there was no system in place before to make sure sellers remained qualified for their level. Good job fiverr!

Agreed. What is the point of keeping metrics if they have no actual meaning? Some TRS sellers got the badge back when fiverr launched. Does it not make sense to track how they are performing now with thousands more competing?

[misscrystal]

I’m happy to see two more TRS in my category. We have some great sellers in the FUN category who bring in a lot of new business and have a lot of very happy clients.

[danno1950]

I agree Paul. While it is a painful adjustment, I think overall this Level improvement is a solid business move, for reasons you mentioned. I think one of the biggest benefits is the reputation that Fiverr maintains for the quality of the experience on the platform. I provide writing for a lot of small business owners, and they really appreciate the solid business communication and work ethic I provide them.

However, a man told me he had to look through HUNDREDS (his all caps) to find my profile. That will shift because of the new changes, and I suspect my views will increase because of it.

I’m very happy to have I retained my Level 2 status - which now has more value - because my hard work and keeping good stats have been rewarded.

I will be eligible to be nominated for TRS in the next month or two, and I really appreciate knowing exactly where the bar is.

Thanks,
Dan