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How often do you discourage buyers from ordering your gig?

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#1

Now I’m starting to get some regular customers, and sometimes so many orders come in at once that I struggle to keep up.

Besides adjusting my prices, I’ve noticed I’m getting more particular about the kind of gigs that I want to do.

At least 3 times in the past week I’ve turned people away because of one or more of the following factors:

  • I didn’t want to do it
  • I didn’t feel confident I could do it well
  • Too busy

I’m curious to hear your experiences. Are you turning people away left and right? what are your main reasons to discourage a buyer from ordering with you?

14 Likes
#2

I discourage people pretty much every day - normally because I don’t have the specific expertise they need, I can’t complete the work quickly enough, or they don’t have the budget. In all those cases I try and point them to other Fiverr sellers who may be able to help them.

15 Likes
#3

I’m glad I’m not the only one who declines orders just because “I don’t want to do it” of course Its not really that… but I usually explain that I am already booked or not as familiar with their topic as others might be. If I don’t feel 100% certain that I can’t do their project perfectly, the I usually turn them away.

I’m lucky enough to have clients to pick and choose from, but there are also times when I decline but the buyer nicely explains they’d still like to work with me, I usually try to go out of my way to fit them in.

I actually have a Quick response saved that I use. Haha. It saves sooo much time.

12 Likes
#4

“not wanting to do it” for me involves when someone wants me to write an article that’s basically advertising. I’ve had plenty of people tell me I’m a great writer, but I don’t put a lot of personality into my writing which I feel is pretty important for promotional material. My articles are concise and to the point. I love learning about and explaining super complex topics, so I’m really happy when people contact me looking for that kind of stuff. Writing for online courses is right up my alley… as long as I don’t have to talk too much math lol.

and of course, we know you turn down orders, @paulmaplesden :sunny: :smiley:

2 Likes
#5

Haha, it’s normally down to I don’t have the specific expertise to do a good enough job for that particular buyer, so someone else would be better-suited. One thing I have learned as a freelancer is that if I go too far outside my comfort zone, the quality of my work can suffer. As a result, I have pretty strict self-imposed rules on the type of work I am competent enough to do. The few times I have strayed away from that, the results have not been… great…

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#6

I can spot a potentially problematic buyer, just by the “tone” of their font :no_mouth::rofl:
Although not often, if I get a sense someone is going to be more hard to please than what I am going to get paid for, I’ll encourage them to really make sure I’m their gal, before ordering… simply to avoid a potential issue/headache on both ends.

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#7

Every day, several times a day.

I basically have the majority of people who message me say:

“Hi.”

“I need your help.”

“I need an article.”

“I need video.”

As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in working with any of these people. Send me a message detailing exactly what you want and I’ll tell you if I can help. Be Mr, or Mrs. Vague as Humanly Possible, and you get exiled with a quick “Sorry, I can’t help.”

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#8

The “hi” ones are the worst! Especially because we HAVE to respond expeditiously or get penalized … :expressionless: I feel the same way. Buyers need to approach sellers, almost in the same way they would leave a phone message – to a potential contractor, they may be interested in hiring – detailing what they are looking for, their budget etc…

A mere “hi” immediately puts their communication skills in question, and the :triangular_flag_on_post: comes out.

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#9

All of the reasons can be.

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#10

I do it quite often.
There are a few reasons,

  1. I didn’t feel confident enough to work on the gig
  2. I was too busy
  3. I sensed the buyer would only be trouble (in many cases I get the spider senses
    when the buyer messages me many times and is trying to lower the price, guilt me into giving me a discount, or I simply have a hard time clearly understanding what he/she wants due to their lack of communication or language skills)
  4. I thought the gig was a boring one to work on. (I know, I sound unprofessional)
  5. I simply wanted to enjoy my day off (doesn’t happen that often though)

I guess that’s about it…??

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#11

I noticed that the ones who are usually bargaining and asking to considerably lower your Gig prices to be trouble afterwards. I’d say that it is true in 90% of cases. That is why I usually try to politely recommend another seller with lower prices.

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#12

There’s nothing unprofessional about that! Isn’t that why we’re many of us work for ourselves rather than getting a traditional job? Freedom to do what we’d enjoy doing for money.

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#13

The second “we want your creativity” comes up, I turn people away. It’s such a huge pet peeve of mine. Unless you’re one of three or four indie bands I work with regularly, you don’t want my creativity. You want me to guess the vision you have inside your head while investing zero time in describing that vision. More importantly, you want a full refund if I don’t guess it. I’m not a mindreader and I’m not under an hourly contract to do that.

Also, buyers who say:
– “You remind me of my ex-girlfriend” (or anything else of that variety)
– “If this one works out fine we have a loooooot more for you to work on”
– “You’re too expensive but fine, we will work with you. But seriously, you are terribly expensive. But fine.”
– “I could do this myself but I’m too busy right now.”
– “We need unlimited revisions.”
– “We need it by tomorrow.”

But this happens once-twice a week. Since I raised my prices people actually started to read what I offer and the communication became so much more effective.

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#14

Ok, the ex-girlfriend thing is sad and hilarious.

What bothers you about the type of buyer described below?

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#15

I’m not exaggerating here, but it never leads to anything productive in my experience, at least not on fiverr. Not once.

It’s like there is a certain kind of buyers with a certain kind of projects who feel the need to add that and we just never click professionally. They are unsure in their product themselves and try to oversell it, to make it bigger and more interesting than it is, perhaps.

It usually tends to lead to demanding refunds and being rude because how dare I, they had so many other potential orders planned for me. People who have a lot of work either order everything at once or order a smaller test job and don’t mention the rest until that job is done.

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#16

Everyday, multiple times a day and it usually has to do with a) lack of knowledge b) unrealistic expectations c) available resources.

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#17

Every time I get this message…run fast, run far.

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#18

The three reasons you mentioned are all reasons I turn people away. You have to take projects you can handle and do well. You can limit how many orders come in your que.

#19

We don’t queue things because 95% of our orders are custom quoted, if you aren’t visible you have the chance of losing out on quality leads.

1 Like
#20

Haha I have many of this type of buyers who asked for reduce the price. When i’m starting with fiver I got fooled and reduce the price. Now I say that “This is our first order and let’s do this at regular price. When you come back to be again I will consider for discount”
Most of them never place the order.
Other than that I discourage buyers

  1. I have no clear understanding about the requirement
  2. I’m busy with the orders/personal stuffs.
  3. Known buyers who are hard to work.
  4. Buyers who are not wanted to answer my questions about the requirement. (Most of this kind of buyers ask my price before I get an idea about the requirement.)
2 Likes