Seller's rating under 100% is actually good

[pixelprince]

…in terms to quickly know how many orders they have actually completed.



Doing the math, a 100% rating of course can mean 10,000/10,000 positive reviews—but it can also mean as little as 1/1, which in turn is not overly impressive.



In the other hand, a seller has to complete at least 67 orders with 66 positives to get a 99%. You can’t hit that number with anything less. That is to assume the system rounds the number up. If it rounds the number down, a seller must get at least 99/100.



So, also a note for sellers, it’s actually okay if you don’t hit a perfect score. It can actually tell that you’re doing good. When you go big, it’s eventually impossible to please everyone anyway.

[landongrace]

I agree that you can still be great with lower ratings. But it is about the buyer’s perception. With my experience selling on Fiverr, the buyer’s will be sluggish at ordering from you when it is less than 100%. It is more difficult in the beginning, but it is so important to put forth the extra effort to try to prevent less than perfect ratings. The more creative your gig, the harder it is. But it is possible. Great Communication, Great Service, and Great Products.



I wouldn’t recommend new buys to be relaxed about it.

[ardicus]

I agree with landofgrace here. As someone who strives for 100% ratings are affected by that one person who may give a 4.5 rating.



I noticed personally it dropped me to 99% and put me into overdrive mode as it takes about 8-10 5star to raise that back up to 100%.



I do agree with the OP that 98-99% is also great for buyers to see with sellers who do a lot of sales. It is more realistic and makes the seller seem to be legit in means of not being perfect but real and honest ratings from the many people they serve.



So its a decent observation here to take note to.



Now in my opinion 5stars is over the top and ratings should be more appealing… such as an average acceptable job would be 3 star 4 star the seller went aboe the norm but not perfect for say… 5 star everything is perfect and on mark to exactly what the buyer envisioned or above their expectations.

[topaz_muse]

Oh… that explains a lot. I have only one order on file and was rated 100%. Haven’t had many orders; but my abilities fall into saturated niches. Awesome post by the way.

[writerlisaz]

I get a lot of sales and have been at 99% for the entire time. In my first week here I had two 2-star reviews because the buyer and I couldn’t agree on what I actually do (he wanted me to rewrite something that was plagiarized, basically, and I wouldn’t do it. I learned to change my gig wording quick!). I was too dumb to know I should just cancel that, but honestly I haven’t worried about it because I’ve been plenty busy. I, too, tend to see 98-99% ratings as more honest. How DO people keep 100%? There are always a couple of people who will give 4.5 stars, with no explanation, and I don’t get it. But I think that in most of the online world, 4 stars is still really good. When I review books online, for example, I only give 5 stars to the ones that were “out of this world, top ten in my list” books. Maybe I’m just picky! But then, since I know how important 5 stars are to fiverr sellers, I know to always give them. It’s a strange system.

[topaz_muse]

Reply to @writerlisaz: Reminds me of a buyer on another site that would only rate between 3 and 4 stars because nothing is perfect in their book. Didn’t matter if the work was satisfactory or not.

[pixelprince]

Thanks for all your responses, guys. Obviously we all strive for perfection because the one reason landongrace pointed out: buyers’ perception. This post is an attempt to educate buyers that 100% does not always look like what they think they do.



How many of us visited a sales page, see that 100% rating, then after looking deeper we say, “Oh, no wonders. It’s only from 4 reviews”. I know I have. But when you talk about volume, it’s another story; and only from a less than 100% rating can we say that this person booked so many sales the numbers actually starts to count. Like many of you guys said, it’s not even realistic.



We end up cancelling (lots of) bad orders/buyers in fear that our stars would fall, instead of standing up to what we know is right, report the buyer, and also rate them back accordingly. I think Fiverr made a huge mistake when they made ratings for buyers private, but then again they seem to value buyers more as it has been stated numerous times in this forum.

[sincere18]

Reply to @writerlisaz: but if you review books online for example and usually give 4 stars unless it’s an over the top 10 list, then you give it a five, why is getting a 4.5 here any different? What don’t you get about that? As a buyer we are giving honest feedback. It may be a good product and I received a good result, but it wasn’t over the top. A buyers perspective on this is very different.



So I was just curious about what part you don’t get about a 4.5? Do you mean how it’s calculated to 4.5? Well, as a buyer we are asked 3 questions. I did this recently, gave two 5 stars and 1 4 star, the result was a 4.5 stars. I thought it was a very positive rating. How can 4.5 out of 5 not be? I can understand if someone gets 3 stars out of 5 that might signal some issues, but I am just curious from a seller, while I understand everyon strives for 100%, how a 4.5 is negative rating?

[writerlisaz]

Reply to @sincere18: You read my words wrong. I was saying why I understand a lower than 5-star rating, because of the fact that I don’t often give 5-star ratings on other websites unless the product is truly over-the-top wonderful. And I also know why there are 4.5 star ratings…exactly because of what you said. My whole point is to say that 4 and 4.5 stars ARE indeed positive ratings, BUT that in fiverr world, only 5 stars is considered “good enough” for many. That’s why the OP’s thread here is arguing that 100% should not be the only goal–largely because it’s unrealistic.

[sincere18]

Reply to @writerlisaz: ah, got it. We are on the same page. I was just wondering as I recently gave someone a 4.5 and they are trying to get me to remove my feedback. I feel as though I gave a really good review.



And yes, I agree, sellers need to understand and be realistic about not always getting 100% and that if you get nearly 100% most of the time, then you will still be a great seller.

[sincere18]

Reply to @writerlisaz: in fact just to share, I don’t even look at the number of stars at first. When I am searching for something, I will see if they have reviews period. Then if they do I will open it up, sometimes I do open newbies as well, but most of the time I look for reviews (the yellow dots) in general as I know that means they have made sales.



I will briefly at some point look at the numbers and usually anything above 90% is good, but I actually go down and read the comments/reviews. That is what I look at more. If I only see one word comments, that usually turns me off a bit, and I try to find sellers where people have at least written something a bit more. Not a whole long thing, but to me there is a difference if I just see a much of “great seller” vs. "I got great insights/product, the seller was easy to work with and great communication, love my gig!"



It might depend on what kind of gig one is buying, but just sharing my two cents here.

[fastcopywriter]

One of my favorite sellers has a 95% rating, due to a few cancellations over lateness, and he’s a TRS. So before you reject, see the reason for the negative reviews, and then make up your own mind.