Fiverr Community Forum

Response rate needs to go

Your Fiverr Experience The Ranting Pot
#1

Just wanted to take a moment to express my opinion of the response rate metric on fiverr. I’m a level one seller and trying to shoot for level 2 in the next months or so, I’ve been an active seller for more than 7 months now; specializing in technical support and Linux system administration gigs.

I think the response rate metric has got to go! Anyone who has spent more than a week on fiverr knows that you don’t always get quality leads and like any business not everyone is even worth the time to talk to.

It should be the buyers discretion whether or not, we respond to an inquiry. Some people are just not worth the time. For example I offer an email server setup for small business and personal use – I make mention that the services I offer is no good for bulk email, email marketing, or spamming as this kind of use is either going to get the sender IP blocked rending the setup useless, or is just straight up illegal since no one wants to bother reading into spam laws (such as making sure people are opt-in before emailing them, a physical address is located at the bottom of the email, so on) since I don’t offer legal services and the gig description clearly states this type of thing is not within my scope of support, I feel that these inquires should just be ignored and a seller should not be penalized for choosing who they speak with.

Another example are these buyers that message you asking for 100 things for $5, if on the first message from a prospect it’s crystal clear that their expectations are so unrealistic for a $5 budget, why even waste time explaining? Doing so normally results in these poor quality leads just becoming rude or asking for even more. Sellers are here to make money and should not have to be forced to waste time with complete nonsense like this.

Anybody that offers professional services as a freelancer starts to gain the ability to scope out a good lead and can normally detect a bad one from a mile away just by reading that first message from a prospect, so with that insight it really needs to be the sellers decision who they engage with on the platform and if they don’t feel like dealing with an obvious poor quality prospects, that want to enlist them for illegal services, are just to lazy to read your gig offerings, or have the audacity to ask for a full day of work for $5 they deserve to be ignored and I really don’t feel the seller should be subjected to a negative score.

9 Likes
#2

Pet-peeve~ It truly sucks when messages arrive when I’m :sleeping:. Especially a spam message urgh! This is what makes me go grrr thus ruining my response rate. I mean… I’m not a walking :zombie:, sometimes I feel like it tho. However, I’m human… I need time to rest, eat, shop, workout, and rejuvenate. My :iphone: is not glued to my :peach:.

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#3

That wouldn’t make a very welcoming marketplace for buyers.

1 Like
#4

I think it should stay. You can’t just be ignoring messages if you are a professional businessperson. No matter who or what circumstances, communication is important for good customer service. By way, what is the real way Fiverr measures this? If any one knows for sure let us know.

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#5

When I was selling Mercedes, we called that “plateglassing.” It means deciding whether someone could afford a MB without even walking outside to meet them. Bad method. Most people who buy new Benzes don’t look like they can. Gotta pitch 'em all.

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#6

I’m more concerned about a better market place for the freelancer.

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#7

its not judging a book by its cover it judging by how they conduct themselves during first contact. But yes you are right you can’t always judge a book by its cover

#8

Yes! that’s another thing too, if they are going to force us to talk to everyone they should at least take time zones into consideration, since it is an international marketplace, I do get those 2-3am messages a few times a month. I know the profiles show each users location and time but unfortunately some buyers don’t notice. Since you can’t turn on vacation mode with active jobs, they could at least implement some kind of time restrictions so the sellers can set specific times they don’t want to be disturbed.

5 Likes
#9

I really don’t see the harm in fiverr tracking the response time so prospects can see them but not have it effect the buyers overall scoring. In the short time I’ve been on this site, it seems about 1 out of 7 buyers are great to work for and will give repeat business, they also don’t mind paying hourly rates. These are the ones that keep me coming back to fiverr. They are easy to communicate with, provide clear directives, tip well, and don’t re-open a gig after its closed due to a matter completely unrelated to the original offering (which is a huge Pet-peeve of mine) I was hoping after another year or two I would build up a list of these all-star buyers and work with them only taking on new buyers as I see necessary; this strategy seems like a win-win, I’d remain profitable and fiverr would have reoccurring profits from me. One of the best things of being a freelancer is having the freedom to pick and choose the project and clients you work with.

1 Like
#10

This I can agree and relate to 100% - couldn’t have put it better myself. :slight_smile:

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#11

I agree, kind of. It would simply be rude not to send anything, though.

I just wish we could block people who waste time. I had someone message me a few days ago who could not say anything other that ‘I need content for my website.’ They were dumbfounded by the fact that I couldn’t agree to work on a project without knowing what kind of content they needed. In this case, I actually decided to be nice and listed all the basic information they would need to give a seller in a message to start the order process. Then I told them (politely) to go ride an emu into the sunset and never look back.

Now they are back and going full blown crazy listing pages of fragmented copy and pasted garbage as their brief and arguing with me because I won’t agree to take on the project.

I’ll pay you $10!

No - That doesn’t even cover the cost of the amount of my life you have already wasted. Be gone with you…

7 Likes
#12

Yea when the buyer can’t even provide a simple directive or adequately answer basic questions, I just shoot them an offer asking for an astronomical amount of money and they normally go away. Unless its a basic offering I rarely take on any special orders for $5-$10 - unless its a gig I offer for that amount, but once they start asking for things outside the scope of my gig, I explain that I consider it a project and advise I charge $25 an hour for such things. When they want to wine about that, I explain that I live in the states and recommend they find a seller in a third world country. A serious buyer that wants a long term working partnership with a professional will always go for hourly rates; its really the only way you can make any money on this platform.

#13

https://sellers.fiverr.com/en/article/everything-you-need-to-know-about-response-time-rate

1 Like
#14

I agree.

After missing one message, my response rate went down from 100 to 94%. I accept this as it was my mistake. But then it started to drop to 90, 89 then 86% almost overnight. I did not like this as it brought me to below the Level 1 Seller status (which I was proud to achieve). The reason it started to fall was that I had less orders (I was away for 2 weeks) and this measurement is for missed messages over the total for the prior 60 days. So as inquires go down, your response rate also drops. I complained to Fiverr and simply got “We’re sorry you feel that way” as an end response.

Sometimes things happen also where one can’t respond in 24 hours - like family or health issues. I was told the RR was automatic and can’t be changed manually.

I think this is a ridiculous metric and it does not indicate my abilities nor my clients’ satisfaction. I think it should be removed. Other platforms don’t measure this.

3 Likes
#15

It why this still shouldn’t be taken into account?
Of course we al have emergencies and you can simply put your account on out of the office mode with one click.
No matter what was the reason not responding is still part of the service and your performance.

2 Likes
#16

Here is the problem with the metric…
If I have 20 inquiries this month and answer them all, then great, my response rate is 100%. Then next month I have 5 and don’t answer 1. Now my response rate is 96% (1 in 25 not answered). The next month I have no inquiries. So then my response rate goes down to 1 in 5 or 80%. Why should I be penalized because I didn’t get inquiries? I agree you must answer your inquiries, but it doesn’t make sense to use this metric in grading your Fiverr status. It can be shown without affecting you. Let people who inquire be the judge, it should not reduce your level - this should reflect your ability and customer satisfaction.

And if you have an emergency, you should not be thinking of putting your Fiverr account on hold. This was just an example.

#17

So what is your proposal? Do you have better solution?
Yes it’s inconvenient that you might not receive new inquiries but what else can you propose?

Of course YOU SHOULD.
Even if you have an office job you should call your employer/manager/HR to notify them that you have an emergency and you wouldn’t be able to come in and in most European countries you will have a follow up meeting with your manager and will need to fill out absence form upon your arrival back.
Fiverr makes it even easier all you need to do is to click one button. So if that’s not good enough for you I don’t know what else you expect.
Nowhere in the world you can just disappear from your duties and expect not to be punished or at least face some consequences.

Well first of all buyers don’t see your response statistics, it’s only for you and for fiverr.
Secondly buyer showing his satisfaction with their review where they also have to already evaluate “communication with seller” as one of factors. And on top of that they are also receiving hidden feedback form from fiverr. So I don’t think it will be fair to ask your buyers to evaluate your first message response time.

#18

It’s not difficult to reply to every message within 24 hours - even if you just say ‘no thank you’.

#19

What they could do is keep a response rate figure but if the number of messages in the last 60 days are very low, maybe either have a lower % requirement for that month’s evaluation or maybe take messages from >60 days into account for that month. Lowering the percentage requirement might be a better idea eg. if missing just 1 message could lead to a demotion/not getting promoted.

#20

Or maybe just be polite and reply to every message in 24 hours.

It’s not hard.

2 Likes