What do buyers see when they leave a review on Fiverr? More than you might think! Fiverr has very detailed feedback forms that help it to rank sellers – and these forms can help you to improve your Fiverr success score.
This isn’t the normal “improve your Fiverr gig” article. This is an article that shows you screenshots of the Fiverr review process as buyers see it and then shows you how you can use these screenshots to pinpoint where your success score is failing.
Why?
Because the level of detail that Fiverr buyers are encouraged to leave is huge. Fiverr won’t give you this data, but if you know what buyers saw when they left their review, you’ll be able to identify areas where you can improve your service.
Buyers Are Encouraged to Leave Detailed Reviews
A Fiverr buyer took extensive screenshots of the review process, showing exactly how the new Fiverr rating system looks in May 2024. They also described their feelings about Fiverr’s changes to the feedback system:
“There are 17 different screens that buyers can see when they leave a review for an order. Depending on which stars a buyer picks, the checkboxes are different. I think the questions and checkboxes for the 3- or 4-star options are a bit confusing and the last question (value for delivery) is different in that if you click on any star, it immediately leaves that page and takes you to the [written] review screen with your order price, the overall review score, and a space for you to write your review.
“If you type, you’ll be told to type 10 characters. If you surpass that, you are “compelling,” “making a difference,” then a superstar as you write more. If you leave a really lengthy review (over 700 characters), you’ll be commended for “going above and beyond”.
Fiverr Buyer (anonymity requested)
The screenshots are published below – some have been omitted for repetitiveness.
Metrics for the 1-Star Review on Fiverr
The worst rating a seller can get on Fiverr prompts people to check boxes that detail where a seller has failed.
- Lack of politeness
- Lack of understanding
- Long response time
- Lack of proactiveness
- Long delivery time
- Lack of cooperation
- Low level of effort
- Language barriers
- Didn’t follow brief
- Lack of eloquence
- Lack of persuasiveness
- Professionalism of work
- Lack of attention to details
- Didn’t meet my expectations
It’s safe to say that 1 star reviews are damning in the eyes of Fiverr. Many of these checks also investigate a seller’s ability to communicate. Communication is a vital freelance skill, but it does feel like this may penalize non-native speakers. Personally, I think this may push more sellers to use ChatGPT to communicate. However, AI and machine translators often make mistakes.
It isn’t just non-native speakers of English who may be affected. Fiverr may be an English-speaking marketplace, but it also has localized websites for the French, German, and Spanish languages. Buyers are not always fluent in English, which means that communication is an (invisible) metric everyone should be watching.
Metrics for the 2-Star Review on Fiverr
The 2-star review is a continuation of the 1-star review; make no mistake about it, Fiverr will interpret this as a negative review. The criteria that can be checked are the same as a 1-star review.
Metrics for the 3-Star Review on Fiverr
A 3-star review should be a neutral one. After all, it’s “good” in the eyes of Fiverr. However, it’s the same story. On Fiverr, a 3-star review uses the same benchmarks as a 1- or 2-star review.
Metrics for the 4-Star Review on Fiverr
It isn’t until the 4-star review that Fiverr finally switches up its checkboxes, this time asking what the freelancer could have done to improve their service to get a better rating:
- Response time
- Proactiveness
- Delivery time
- Level of effort
- Level of cooperation
- Better understanding
- Politeness
- Language fluency
- Persuasiveness
- Professionalism of work
- Closer to brief
- Attention to detail
- Eloquence
- Closer to my expectations
It’s clear that these metrics are useful to Fiverr and helping the platform to rank sellers – but this detailed review breakdown simply isn’t passed onto sellers.
Metrics for the 5-Star Review on Fiverr
The 5-star review is the one that all Fiverr sellers look for, and the language changes once again. The question no longer asks about improvements, but instead what stood out about the service:
- Politeness
- Proactive communication
- Quick responsiveness
- Deep understanding
- Level of cooperation
- Language fluency
- Went above and beyond
- Delivery time
- Attention to details
- Professionalism of work
- Exceeded expectations
- Persuasiveness
- Adaptability to brief
- Eloquence
Final Review Screen
The final review screen is the most interesting one. Here, buyers are reminded of the price range of the completed gig and asked to write a detailed review. It seems that Fiverr has a minimum character limit in place before a review can be submitted – the longer, the better.
Here is a review screenshot from another Fiverr buyer, demonstrating how the character bar at the bottom of the review box works:
Fiverr is clearly seeking high-quality written reviews that help other buyers to understand a seller and their services better. However, this review process is very long and intricate. Will buyers have the time or the energy to give sellers detailed reviews for their work?
That’s a problem, because seller ranking is determined by these metrics – and Fiverr’s success score measures your performance against other sellers. No reviews means the Fiverr alogrithm doesn’t have enough data. It’s a good idea to include a message in your delivery requesting buyers to leave a review, but be careful, because Fiverr is strict about asking for positive reviews!
The Value For Money/Value for Delivery Switcheroo Continues
Of course, the value for money metric is back on Fiverr – even though the freelance platform announced that it had been replaced with value of delivery after widespread outcry. It’s a small detail; aside from the emojis being removed, the current rating system has not changed much for buyers.
The pricing that buyers see on this page includes Fiverr’s service fee and any applicable sales taxes on top of the order value.
Tipping On Fiverr Hasn’t Changed
Tipping remains the same, although the suggestion that tipping is customary for freelancers is questionable.
How to Improve Your Gig with These Review Screenshots
It’s disappointing to see that a 3-star review is essentially a negative one. Sure, it’s not the best anywhere, but it’s average, and average doesn’t mean bad. Fiverr might say that they want sellers to feel less pressure to get all 5-star reviews, but the only truly positive language in this review system is reserved for sellers who manage to get a 5-star rating.
This might be granular, but it doesn’t feel balanced. Still, these screenshots are useful as sellers can use them to improve their success score metrics with a little bit of self-reflection educated guesswork. If you’re really not sure what the problem could be, then check out this guide on improving your Fiverr success score.
Fiverr keeps a tight lid on the data it shares with users, but you can’t stop information from leaking out. Thanks to the buyer who contacted me, you can now start to work on your success score with stronger clues about where even your happiest buyers might be marking you down.
Fiverr Is Complicated, But Work Doesn’t Need to Be
The majority of buyers on Fiverr are great people who will be happy with your work if you deliver what you promise and give them a good service. If you don’t have time – or aren’t getting paid enough – to do this, then you need to change how you work on Fiverr (and consider putting your prices up!).
If your success score on Fiverr is tumbling and you can’t figure out why, then use the screenshots on this page to figure out where you’re going wrong and work on improving that aspect of your profile.
Unfortunately there’s no way to remove the guesswork, at least not until Fiverr releases these specific metrics to sellers. Not even Seller Plus can help you. Seller Plus Premium does give you access to a success manager, but they may not be able to share with you the exact information you want due to the limitations of their own role.
For now, Fiverr’s levels and ratings system is an unnecessarily complex beast. If you’re a new seller, it can feel intimidating, but try to remember that these metrics will help you to perform better if you can identify where you are falling short. It’s extra effort, but it can put you far ahead of the game when most sellers don’t do this.
In the meantime, I, along with the rest of Fiverr’s selling population, can only hope the platform will come to its senses soon and build a less demanding review system on seller and buyer alike.
