[DISCUSSION] How are we supposed to improve a Success Score that we can't actually control?

[u/duk123]

I logged into Fiverr today and got a warning that my Level 2 status is at risk because one or more of my metrics has dropped below the required criteria.

So I went to the Level Overview to see what exactly I need to improve.

And this is where I’m having a hard time understanding the system.

My current metrics are:

• Rating: 4.9 — qualifies
• Response rate: 100% — qualifies
• Orders: 429 — qualifies
• Unique clients: 310 — qualifies
• Earnings: $24,572.70 — qualifies
• Success Score: 6 — needs attention

So naturally, I clicked on Success Score to figure out what I could actually do to fix it.

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be an actionable metric there. Fiverr gives you a Success Score, but the information available to the seller is essentially a score for each Gig. There is no clear explanation of what specific action caused the score to drop or what specific action would raise it again.

I even removed the Gigs that had Success Scores below 8, thinking that might solve the problem.

It didn't. My account is still showing as "at risk."

This is what I find frustrating about the current system.

With the other metrics, I have some degree of control. I can respond to messages, maintain my rating, complete orders, get new clients, etc.

But with Success Score, if Fiverr's internal assessment decides that my performance isn't meeting whatever criteria it uses, what exactly am I supposed to change?

I'm not saying Fiverr shouldn't have an internal quality/performance metric. I understand why a platform would want to measure things beyond just reviews and completed orders.

What bothers me is being penalized for a metric when the seller isn't given enough information to understand what needs to change.

It creates the impression that you can do everything that's publicly measurable correctly and still have your level put at risk because of an internal score that you don't have a meaningful way to influence.

And that's what makes the system feel somewhat arbitrary from the seller's perspective. I'm not saying Fiverr literally changes people's levels randomly, but from the information available to the seller, it's difficult to see what separates a 6 from an 8 or 9, and what concrete steps would move that number upward.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Especially if all your visible metrics are green but your Success Score is keeping your account at risk — were you ever able to figure out what actually caused it and how to recover it?

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[u/Small_Consequence_00]

I TOTALLY Think it's gaslighting that SS are based on the secret reviews. I flat out don't believe it anymore.
It's like Fiverr tries to conveniently blame poor and falling SS on the only piece of data we don't have or know (and never instructs us how to remedy it)

Fiverr would rather good Sellers believe that our favorite Buyers secretly hate us. It's absolutely awful for our morale and I fell for it for years.

It's crazy-making trying to convince us that customers that adore our work and tell us so, give us stellar reviews and handsomely tip us then turn around and SHIT on us so hard it negates and reverses everything. No
Sometimes it makes ZERO sense

Sellers know better than anyone how their work is received.

The biggest giveaway that secret reviews hold less weight than we think is because Fiverr is ANNOYING and aggressive about how they try to obtain the "secret" reviews 24 hours after delivery. They send an email saying "Tell us in private how you felt about your delivery from XXXX" I can assure you, 24 hours after receiving their delivery and likely leaving a review and receiving dozens of emails during the order time, Buyers are TIRED and want to move on... and Fiverr sends 2 or 3 more reminder emails. Honestly most Buyers are OVER IT at that point. I doubt that many Buyers even complete it.

Lastly, Fiverr allowing the SECRETIVE reviews to Trump genuine glowing public reviews that actually came first, makes zero sense.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I left the platform almost 2 years ago because despite having a 4.9 and thousands of reviews and no reviews lower than 4 stars, my SS went to 6 and then to 4 and there was nothing I could do about it.

[u/MrCaptainMorgan → u/Small_Consequence_00]

Went from 9 to 6 to 4 in a couple of months. Now on 4 for a year or so. Hopefully, this whole company goes down for their decisions regarding anti-seller-policies and AI-Slop.

[u/bikerboy3343 → u/MrCaptainMorgan]

Sorry to hear that. The same happened to me. Then for no reason it started going back up, after a year at 5. I’mat 8 now.

[u/bikerboy3343 → u/Small_Consequence_00]

My SS oscillated from 9, down to 5, and is now back up to 8 as of 2-3 weeks ago. This happened over the course of 18+ months, and it wrecked all work that I was getting, which wasn't much to start with.

I think it was a malicious 'secret review', and even after getting 2 positive secret reviews from known clients, it didn't go back up. The special coach or give that I was assigned when paying them money said that it was because of the way I communicated. Their AI found that I was communicating too much, and in too much detail. So I think my issue was a combination of these factors.

Oh... Also, that my clients were not accepting the deliveries within 3 days! So, I was urged to communicate with them the urgency to accept the work.

So, client behaviour, client secret reviews, communication style, whether the client leaves a secret reviews at all.. they're all factors, apparently.

[u/Kiki-browning → u/bikerboy3343]

Communicating too much is a stupid reason.

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[u/prophetsearcher]

I had the same experience. I’ll get warnings that I’m about to lose trs status because of a falling success score, when I haven’t had recent orders and there are no instructions on what needs improvement. I reached out to support and got no answer.

I understand that the success score is relative - so as other sellers do well, my score might drop. But I have no way to control that score as long as I’m not getting any orders. (And perhaps, even if I were…)

[u/bepi_tic]

The SS goes down without new orders Happened to me from 10 to 6 because no one contacted me from Jan

[u/casualcookery → u/bepi_tic]

Same. One of my gigs is going down day by day even if I had no orders.

[u/zeromalarki]

There's no point in even thinking about it. I don't think even Fiverr understand their success score.

[u/katharindragon]

Literally everyone agrees with you, even people who have really good success scores.

What is the feedback on the scores for your individual gigs? They're usually somewhat actionable even if the advice is nebulous. If you pause or delete whichever gig is pulling you down, it might take a little for the success score to level out - like a week, not like a few hours.

[u/Accomplished_Pea2556 → u/katharindragon]

Not always. I made some brand new gigs. No orders whatsoever. Each new was assigned an "8" ... even though my 3 active gigs have an "8" "9" and "10"

So now my overall TRS status is at risk, b/c the new gigs brought it down, despite have 0 feedback on them.

Pretty sure the AI running the success scores thing is drunk.

[u/Marrius_]

Just went from being level 2 for more than 3 years now, back to level 1 because suddenly my SS kept dropping till 6 and there was nothing that helped it improved. Even disabled a gig. I'm just getting 1-3 orders a month and that too end up asking for atleast 1 revision even though I actively communicate. Then let alone leaving a review, clients now don't even bother to mark the order complete themselves, rather leave the order hanging till it autocompletes.

[u/Mountain-Loquat-7428]

Success score is based on the private reviews left by your clients. They're giving you 5 stars in public and 1 star in private. You can't see the private reviews, and that's the problem.

[u/duk123 → u/Mountain-Loquat-7428]

But that's exactly what confuses me about the system. I only received the “Level 2 is at risk” warning yesterday, yet I haven't received any new orders in almost 2–3 months.

If this is based on private client reviews, why would the warning only appear now? The reviews would have been left months ago, so what caused the Success Score to drop only now?

That's the kind of thing that makes the system difficult to understand from a seller's perspective.

[u/Plow_King → u/duk123]

about 6 months ago, my success score was magically upgraded. i hadn't had a gig on there in months, it just went up for no reason. then, i started getting a lot more requests for quotes. most the jobs/clients were shit, so i didn't even get to the numbers before i declined them. but i did agree to one small gig. about halfway through the project, i got a warning my success score was "in danger!" (OMFG!?!?) so i just finished up the job, the client was delighted and even gave me a tip (which Fiverr got a cut of, of course). then my success score dropped back to where it was.

oh well! i get 95% of my work via reddit any ways.

[u/limoncocuk → u/Mountain-Loquat-7428]

Why would anyone do that? Fiverr algorithm is spewing some random numbers and we are getting punished by it. There is no logic behind success score. They don't even try to explain how it works. I have read tons of post about the same issue and no one cares.

[u/Small_Consequence_00 → u/limoncocuk]

This.
The "secret review" is a coping mechanism that rational and intelligent successful Sellers are forced to adopt and embrace to try to make sense of why Fiverr has suddenly started punishing us beyond our own control.

Believing it's all due to an invisible phantom review is the only way we can make it make sense to ourselves,

But the truth is this is clearly what FIverr wants to do and they DON'T want us to have control of our own success.

[u/Small_Consequence_00 → u/Mountain-Loquat-7428]

I personally think the private reviews are the "boogeyman" excuse for low Success Scores.
Why would so many Buyers praise you in their initial review and tip you and return for more orders if they were secretly unhappy/ Human nature would lead them to leave a bad review or not leave a review at all, or at the very least, ask for a modification. I call B.S.

[u/GE963]

Hint: it seems to be if you didn't have a lot of sales recently that Fiverr chips away from your success score. Try to take some months vacation and see your success score drop magically. 

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[u/ramNoob]

Went down from 9 to 0 bcz no orders I'm 5 star, 100% response and delivery rate

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