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New 5 Star Rating System: How to Use it to your Advantage


modelas

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I have to say, I was skeptical (Like most of you) at the new rating system, but after close examination I see it as an opportunity to shine. You see, as Fiverr grows, it’s harder and harder for new talent to get seen - the little guy (or gal in my case) is lost in a congested market with no opportunity to get noticed outside of a bunch of thumbs up or thumbs down. Here’s how to use the system to stand out:


  1. Know the Rating System:

    Obviously to get good ratings you need to understand how you will be graded.



    A) Communication with Seller - You need to respond as quickly as possible, even if just to let them know you’ve received their order and plan to get to it - or what place they are in the queue. You’ll want to make sure that you ask any questions for information needed and alert if there are any problems with the order.



    B) Service as Described - You will need to make sure you set clear expectations in your description and in your seller instructions to make sure that the customer knows what he or she is going to get, and the value of the service you provide. You will want to stand out and provide a quality of service that is unmatched.



    C) Buy Again or Recommend - Closing communication is key & the overall user experience is essential. You cannot stop driving expectations, this is Project Management 101. You are moving away from a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” which does not really give an accurate depiction of your service or proper expectations.



    A lot of top sellers are over-loaded with orders and consumed - they get bad reviews or low stars because they can’t deliver orders on time. They could resolve this by changing the delivery time expectations, but they are worried they will lose valuable orders to others who can do it sooner. They also worry about the reviews they will get for their constant method of delivering deliverable late to customers. ** Attention ** that’s your opportunity.



    Fiverr has already created a “corporate” vs “Mom and Pa” type atmosphere, it’s how capitalism works. The only way to outshine the big-dogs is to truly over-deliver on the service you provide. You see an outcry of Top Sellers because of this, they know they can’t deliver the way we can on a smaller scale to have intimate relationships with our clients.



    I hope this helps, and the key take away is the word repeated here a lot: Expectations.



    Have a Beautiful Day - Magandang Gabi here from the Philippines!

    Modelas

    Virtual Assistant, Social Entrepreneur & Fiverr Seller



    PHOTO REMOVED

    Sheriff’s Note: Please do not identify others, even in images.
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First thank you for taking the time to defend ARS,Just please

Allow me to clear few points you have missed.

1.You assume all buyers are nice and to the point,it only means you haven’t gotten in touch with the “bad punch” just yet,those who will ask for more and more for the price of one,and if you dont they will give you a low rating,while since day one here i fought these buyers by simply reporting their thumbs down to support.



Now lets imagine this,You gave that buyer a lot more than what your gig states and yet he asked for more,so you just said NO you need to pay again,He can simply give you 2.5 stars and it will still be “positive”,how will you get this removed? would you go to support saying i want more stars?? yet your reputation will be ruined.



2.Why does buyers have the ability to rate our delivery time when we already deliver in time? heck why do they even have all this power over us? No offence but we do 5$ projects and there are MANY MANY scammers in here,while buyers can reject order,our money get in hold for 2 full weeks so they can get a refund etc,we have no power what so ever,we are simply WEAK.



I would understand a system like this on websites i can’t mention but i’m sure you know of where you work on 1000$ project and with a delivery time of a month or something,yeah then you can criticize me based on all these categories.



3.One low rating (which seemingly you didnt get yet) will lower you so low in their indexing service that you wont be on the first search results anymore its extremely aggressive not like before.



You still haven’t gotten a low rating yet,or met a bully,we will see how you will change your mind when that happens.

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For the first two I simply state that since the service was delivered within the time they agreed to by placing the order, and the fact that it was delivered as stated in the gig description those should no matter what the case be rated a 5 stars. In regards to the third one, I usually tell them now to take into consideration on the $5 orders that they did in fact, spend $5. Would they recommend it at a $5 price? 99% of the time, yes. Now for those bigger orders, convincing them to rate it at a higher price is actually even easier as you tend to offer more and the client feels they got a lot more for their money. Then that’s a win-win situation. Still more of a pain, and an unnecessary one at that but the best you can do is work with it and try to make it work to your advantage. I am actually considering putting a clause in all my gigs(As far as I can tell, I see nothing in Fiverr’s TOS against this.) making them agree to rate 5 stars if the gig is delivered within the time-frame and what is delivered is exactly what is stated in the gig description which especially for content writing would be really easy to prove.

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Reply to @anubisven: Thank you for writing that! That is on point and exactly how it is! Once you come across a buyer that wants more and more for less and less and it clearly says in the description what you will get or they order without ordering a gig extra and they want the gig extra for free and you tell them to order the gig extra and they finally do then they leave low star review because they didn’t get something for free! I haven’t gotten anyone like that in the ARS system yet but I have worked with many people that are like that and it is easier to maintain a high rating when you have thumbs up or down then when you have this ARS thing! Its even more unfair that they have a “communication with seller” criteria it should say “response time” but its completely unfair because if you want to get a five star rating you have to be at your computer all the time waiting for messages so you don’t take over the 5 minutes that some buyers will expect you to respond in. Now don’t get me wrong I have worked with some really cool and great people but I just think this whole new deal of the “ARS” is a complete joke and it is very unfair to the sellers!

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Reply to @anubisven: The star rating system actually balances out quite nicely. I had a pretty low rating, then two 100% 5 star ratings and I was back up to almost near perfect ratings again. So even if you get 1 bad review every once in a while, the ARS does seem to balance the ratings out better if most of your other sales are perfect ratings. Unfortunately, it can work just the same the other way around if you get more than a few bad ratings. However. Anything beyond about 2 to 3 bad ratings on a Gig means you’re doing something wrong or had a really bad string of luck with buyers. I have been here beyond 3 years and only had about 6 or so what I would refer to as “greedy” buyers.

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The Rating system is NOT perfect, and you’re right, it DOES open the door to bad buyers with absolutely no repercussions. This could lead to higher cancellation rates if you cannot come to an agreement for a product. That’s another gripe all in itself, but the star rating system does add value to the community than a simple thumbs up or thumbs down because it gives us all an opportunity to see our weaknesses and improve.



Accountability is the real factor here, and we need to set clear expectations - that’s more important than ever!



<3 Modelas

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I think this ARS works more negative then positive soooooooo…Also I think Fiverr should take into consideration of where would they be without us? So they should take that into consideration and listen to this on the ARS system because all the other powers that buyers have over sellers that some not all but some will take advantage of them and adding the ARS system to that is just taking it to far. Thats what I think of this whole deal!

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Reply to @wilhagen: I saw your gigs - You look like you’re very client focused and you could be positively effected by this change. A small percentage of the sellers account for 90% of the gigs bought on this site… That’s a problem, the top rated sellers and big stand outs far outweigh the little guy.



This is a chance to stand out from the crowd and people who really do deliver quality work to be recognized, and we all know there’s lots of scams on here buying their own gigs with multiple accounts. This will have more accountability in the long run and as long as you offer a good product and great commitment to your clients you will see the reward in the long run as the dust settles and people are ranked correctly.



Now if you’re someone who under-delivers, then you’ll feel the pain, that’s just the truth. Expect more quality gigs here, more accountability, and better communication from sellers now that this change is in!

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Reply to @modelas: Yes I am very client focused and do my best to create the best things for them and what they want! I still think that this ARS system is to much! The thing about it that Im most against is the response time deal I feel like that is just COMPLETELY unfair to have that because you will get people that think if you don’t respond within 5 minutes you have horrible response time so they will rate it low then there go’s your whole rating! I am against the other stuff but I think that the response time is just rediculously unfair! I feel like they just need to keep it the simple thumbs up or down because a thumbs up and a nice review from a customer goes a long way! I think theres better things to fix then tool around with the rating system!

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Reply to @modelas: You’ve had around 100 orders? I’ve had probably 1,300 or so. During that time, I’ve met and experienced buyers who are BEYOND reasoning with.



I promise you, as soon as you receive a negative review that cannot be removed by the buyer, and will not be removed by Customer Support, you WILL be heartbroken, and it will demotivate you substantially.



When it eventually happens, don’t come to the forum complaining; as you have your chance to take a stand now.



Other sellers have also praised the ARS system, until it negatively damaged their rating. You will see for yourself soon enough.

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I’m sure not everyone is angry with the new system, but here’s the thing.

The reason why so many of the sellers are angry with the star system is


  1. They deliver on time.
  2. The description is very clear
  3. They respond right away ( within minutes, in many cases)
  4. The buyers are happy, and the leave a positive MESSAGE

    …but they don’t give 5 stars.

    That’s enough to make a lot of people angry.

    The one story that really bugged me is about this seller who did everything

    the right way, but the buyer gave her a 4.5 star just because the buyer

    wanted the gig to be delivered faster without paying for the rush delivery.

    The gig was delivered within the given delivery date, she did not go

    over the deadline, and the buyer said NOTHING about wanting it earlier

    than the given delivery time.



    There was another case where a buyer did not leave a 5 star since what

    he/she received was EXACTLY what was described in the gig description.

    The buyer was hoping to get something “more,” whatever that means.



    I think this is enough for a lot of sellers to get angry.

    Modelas, if you are getting 5 stars only so far, that’s great and I hope

    it stays that way. But the moment you get a “Great gig! Perfect!Thank you!” ]

    with a less than a 5 star, you might have second thoughts.
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I don’t begrudge this seller at all.



She’s talking about how she plans to take a lemon and make lemonade and it may work for her.



I’m going to resist the and bring about change for the good of us all rather than for the beginning seller at the expense of their future success.



No need to be harsh toward her.



I would point out, nothing she said here is an actual advantage of the system …nothing here is an actual improvement.



Even if we accept that it helps new sellers over long term sellers, that just means a bias shift…not an improvement and interestingly, I would argue a shift that contains many more negative unintended consequences including, but not limited to, hurting the good new sellers in the long run.

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I’ve had negative reviews, two actually, both of them I was able to resolve with the client. Understandably, if someone was complaining after I delivered a task as required, and per expectations I would be upset if they left anything less than a 5 star review - especially if Fiverr wouldn’t do anything about it.



All I’m saying here is that it will lower everyone’s rating, that’s a fact, so the days of everyone having 100% feedback and 5 stars is gone, this will be more accurate. Everyone gets bad buyers, we can’t pick them, but we can try the best to set expectations and deliver to them.



That’s the advantage to the system, it will ultimately provide more opportunity for new and beginner sellers, which is bad for top sellers and super sellers since they have a monopoly on the majority of the profitable gigs on here by giving more opportunity to get honest feedback on deliverables.

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Also, i did make an earlier post complaining about the Star Rating, and then realized on the other hand it was a blessing and a curse. So I guess I do have two opposing opinions, only because we see what “amazon” ratings have done, it’s created a giant community of scam reviews. I don’t want that to happen here, but it already has - along with the thousands of “United States” Virtual Assistants who are really in India and Pakistan, speak horrible English but a blonde haired, blue eyed picture on the profile sells it along with fake reviews from their colleagues in Sri Lanka.



I have changed my opinion of the system to positive until further notice, because I’m ready to stand out for a change and be recognized for who I am, and the quality of service I give my customers.

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Reply to @modelas: And that’s why buyers have the ability to REJECT orders,and that’s why they can ask for a REFUND and that’s why our money get held in for 2 WEEKS!



You assume buyers are weak and helpless and will get scammed by greedy and evil sellers,How is that possible when they can simply keep rejecting your order? and if you refuse they will go to CS and get FULL REFUND,Fiverr since day one have been really keen on making buyers stronger and stronger,Let me ask you this have you even ever bought something on fiverr? did you EVER had a bad experience and CS didn’t refund you? i dont think so.



If you think giving buyers all these powers and now give them the ability to give ratings that wont be removed even if it breaks the TOS,and to rate us in such a way will help the minority who gets scammed,then its the same as suggesting disarming a whole army because 3 soldiers fled service.



We were always on the weak spot,now it only gotten worse.

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You got it backwards…"Your title should be “how BUYERS can take advantage of ARS (abusive rating system)”. However buyers don’t need a article, nor do sellers need the same stale sales pitch. Words don’t mean anything unless they are backed by action and Fiverr has proven by their action, not words, who they favor when setting policies for buyers and sellers.

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Reply to @steveeyes: and this goes back to my point about how fiverr should take note on what were saying! Because if you think about it there would not be buyers if there weren’t sellers so they should start fixing some stuff on there website because some of the stuff should be way better than it is then do stupid stuff like change the rating system so the buyers can take advantage of sellers even more! Some people act like asking $5 for a service is a TON and act like its the end of the world when you won’t give them free work! By the way I like how you said abusive rating system I think that thats the truth about this system thats supposedly “advanced”

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modelas said: I have changed my opinion of the system to positive
until further notice
, because I'm ready to stand out for a change and be recognized for who I am, and the quality of service I give my customers.

 

I will (and I can) hold my breath because with the ARS, you will soon eat your words.

 

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Reply to @pearlsant: It means that buyers choose us, not the other way around, so it’s very important to set expectations. You’re already a level 2 seller, you know how it works, for the little guy, they will get CRUSHED if they deliver a bad product or service since the initial ratings will prove to be key for their success!

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