Some bad habits of Buyers and how to avoid them as a professional Designer

[divyagoel]

1: Expecting great design for a very low price

We encounter many buyers here at Fiverr who expect great work for less cost. You should take a stand for the work you offer and design for what is worth your time and then set a reasonable price.

2: Buyers asking for the sample work before the order.

I have experienced many such buyers who want their work as a sample before the order is placed. Every seller must avoid that and let the buyer choose you based on your portfolio, not on the sample work.

3: The buyers don’t actually know what they want.

As I designer, I encounter many buyers who don’t actually know what they are looking for. They just give us basic information and ask us to design the best for them. When we do highly creative designs for them, they’re never satisfied and ask for some other designs.
To avoid this, it’s important to discuss the details of the project well in advance and ask the buyer for references. Estimate your required price and be clear with the buyer about all the terms that the order includes.

4: High resolution images for a print-ready project

This happens many times when the buyer needs a project in print- ready format but provides us images with low-resolution that are not usable for the project. I can only suggest that you try to keep those images as small as possible in the print-ready format. You can also specify in your description that buyers must provide high-resolution images or stock images.

5: Force you to design using the previous poorly design elements

Many buyers ask you to design based on their previously designed element which are not worthy of your own design expectations or ability. Don’t argue with the buyer about the designs they want. Just negotiate with them about the design you believe that best suits the existing design.

6: Asking for unlimited revisions
Designing is something where neither the buyer nor the seller can be exactly sure of what the buyer is looking for. Providing revisions is part of the job in order to please the buyer, but sometimes buyers ask for so many revisions, which are not worthy for that particular order. So often we do research for the buyers in order to meet their design expectations, but buyers must also research themselves for what they are looking for and be specific about the design they want. Try to avoid a continuous “back and forth” by establishing a limited number of revisions that you will provide for that particular project.

These tips are all based on my experience as a designer. If you have any challenging experiences with buyers, let me know in my comments section!

Apologies for my bad English and grammatical mistakes!!

[roaakh]

These are some great tips.

I personally experienced number 2 and 3. I refused to give a sample work for free but when the buyer insisted, I made him an offer for a paid simplified sample so he gets convinced of the quality of my work. And he ended up ordering again. The most important thing is never doing work for free even for a sample.
And it’s the worst when a buyer doesn’t exactly know what he wants, it can be a nightmare of endless revisions, the point here is to communicate well and ask questions before starting the work.

By the way, I just started my graphic design journey here, do you have any quick advice for me?

Thank you for the helpful post.

[divyagoel]

Yes…i have seen many such possessive sellers here who agreed to do the task for free and waste their time…
You design logos and it can be the most difficult task to do if the communication is not up to the mark…Have patience and you are doing great…so keep up the good work and best of luck…

[nimsanoor]

when buyer said to me that send me some design of your work even i sent but than buyer did not do any contact it is totally ridiculous

[roaakh]

Thank you!

[divyagoel]

Yes… that is why here at forum many times experienced sellers make new sellers aware of do not provide any sample work to buyers…if you want to send them a sample then do send them by putting a watermark of it in the smaller or some other dimensions than what they want…

Be active at forum for more tips and tricks as here you will learn a lot of how things work at fiverr…

[bhaskaprasetya]

What a nice article divyagoel!
as a new comer on fiverr, what should we do if our buyer ask for sample design?
Thanks,
Bhaska

[divyagoel]

Thankyou…what I do when some buyer ask for sample work is that…ask the buyer to go for your previous work done at your portfolio and then if they like your creative designs previously done then only go for the order…

Moreover if you want to see that the buyer is fake or real then tell them that you agree to provide the sample work but will provide them with the watermark on it…if you like the sample work then go for the order and have the original file but this also doesn’t guaranteed you to the order and may result to the waste of time…

So I only suggest better avoid providing sample work prior to the order…
Good luck 🙂

[momin111]

Yes you are right.
You post is helpful.

[divyagoel]

Thankyou @momin111…🙂

[rubo72]

As a buyer and specifically regarding design jobs:
My experience here @fiverr and @designcrowd is brutally bad.
Most of the sellers are no designers at all. The results they deliver are at a level from PowerPoint beginners.
I can only advise:
Describe your gigs you offer in an exact description. What will the seller get, at which time frame, how many revisions, which format and file type. Send examples, better put images of YOUR work in the gig description.
Most of the sellers have images of work which are not their own. How shall they meet the expectations from buyers which they raise with such. Quality has a price tag, so do not underestimate just for the sake to win a gig.

So do not point your fingers only on buyers, reflect yourself and offer professionalism and you’ll find your way.
It’s really hard for us to choose from hundreds of so called “master designer” and at the end we could do it better on our own but waste money and time on fake gigs.

Nevertheless - all the best for all the good sellers (still hunting for you) 😉

[idostuff4u]

Still looking for bad English and grammatical mistakes 😃

This is an example of a good seller giving really good tips. Thank you @divyagoel

I shall now add your Gigs to my favorites.

[jrstanton]

This is really helpful and relatable!

Currently dealing with a buyer that requested a sample (I provided a watermarked one), and then wanted endless revisions of it. We’ve been revising for days now and it’s never enough. I’m afraid to push him to complete the order, for fear of a bad review since he is so picky. Yikes!

[divyagoel]

Seems like you had some very bad experiences with fake sellers here …I understand what you were trying to say and you are absolutely right…Sellers must describe there gig exactly of what they provide and should not showcase fake portfolio images.

It can be a very difficult task for a buyer also to choose the genuine designer but i think the only way to identify that is the communication skill. Whenever you communicate with the seller for a particular project, you must go with the details of it…and then you would come to know that the designer is a fake or the genuine one…this is my opinion on this but as you face them you must know better then me.

I hope you will meet some of the best master designers here based on your criteria and i am very much sure that there are many such great designers exist at Fiverr. Good luck 🙂

[divyagoel]

Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure 🙂

There were many mistakes at my post when i posted it but a great seller here liked my post and provide me free correction of my grammatical errors…

So now keep on looking for them at my comments 😛

[divyagoel]

This happens when you offer unlimited revisions…i will not suggest you to cancel the order as you may face many such here and cancelling the order from your side first is not an option…you can offer extra for more revisions …try to communicate with the buyer to provide the final revisions…
If nothing helps then We always have customer support with us and go for it…all your problem will get resolved by them.

[fastcopywriter]

For $5, I expect work that reflects your portfolio samples. If you can’t deliver what you’re showing, I will be asking for a refund. If you’re showing work that takes you 8-hours to create, your asking for trouble. Show work you can do in 15 minutes, or whatever time it takes you to do a $5 order. If you can’t do great work for $5, then choose packages and select a higher starting price.

Furthermore, plenty of people do great work for $5, some do lousy work for $50. Whether something is great or not is subjective, but if you’re going to give me garbage because I’m only paying you $5, I’ll be a very angry buyer.

Your other points are valid. With that said, part of being a designer is fixing other people’s problems. If the image they gave you is low res, you might have to fix that image, trace it, or find a similar image. If their instructions are bad, you’ll have to ask questions or refund the order.

Remember the average person knows nothing of design. They might not even know what colors they want it, what colors work together, they might have no clue.

P.S. Sometimes designers deliver things we didn’t ask for. If I need a t-shirt design, I don’t need to see a guy wearing that t-shirt, that doesn’t help me, that could be a gig extra for people that need it, but sometimes designers make their job harder than it has to be.

[jeffdesignz]

Thank you for this post

[superdizajn]

I would agree with everything you wrote. For me, i ended doing mostly social media becouse it is easiest to handle. And paradox is that my primary and best skill is Designe related work. Most challening cilent whanted me to do a brochure without sending any written content . Mission imposible…

[cybercube]

And some buyers are saying that they don’t like 1st concept at all and they need another totally different one. But soon after designer send a 2nd design they are going to ask 1st design for FREE! If they like 1st design, why ask for 2nd one anyway. Some buyers just trying to get 2 concepts for one order…

[divyagoel]

So true.In Designing this happens most of the time that the work a designer provide is sometimes best for $5 but if the designer have to do a project of $50 then the work sometimes seems not worthy of that. Its all part of the creativity the designer have…
Also as you said designer must do the things which the buyer ask for and if they provide extra then make sure your extra service is useful to the buyer…Don’t provide the services which are not helpful to them.

You come up with such a great points and i am glad you point out all these things about the designing from buyers point of view here. Thank you so much 🙂

[divyagoel]

pleasure …Have a good day 🙂

[divyagoel]

Yes…providing broucher without content is something impossible…but then this is some opportunity also to earn extra by telling the buyer that you can prepare a content for the broucher based on there company profile and offer extra for that…If you can prepare the content for them then it would be great…if not then you can hire some content developer to do the task and provide them the work…
Working this way may not result to the loss of project and also this all possible if the buyer budget is high and also what’s your way of doing things.

Don’t work safe side…Designing is not limited to just social media…just expand your expertise and things will be much better then. That is what i think and sorry if i am wrong in any way. Rest is up to you. Good luck 🙂

[divyagoel]

I also provide second design to the buyer but i never faced such a situation when they asked me for the previous design again…They always go for the second one…Don’t provide the original file whenever you deliver any design and just show them the design of what you have created and ask them that you will provide the original file once the design will get finalized…This way Buyer will have only one design which will be useful to them…The other one we can use for some other design.
IF they ask for previous design then don’t bother about it…some buyers want the options for a design to be sure about it…I can understand that we can’t provide them options in just $5 but then it is something we have to take it by looking at the buyers point of view.

[fastcopywriter]

Thank you, I love your attitude. Sometimes people go ballistic when I disagree with them.