A new technical problem -- 10 minutes to fix

[Richard J C]

Good afternoon Upwork,

I think you have a great concept for a site and hope you have your technical problems sorted soon.

I understand why my Job Success score dropped from high 90's% to 85% because of a paused contract due to three months of inactivity. What I don't understand is why my JS score is still 85% after the same contract was changed to 'completed successfully' on 6th September and received the following five-star review.

"Richard was exceptional. I couldn't of asked for anyone better to work on this project. His attention to detail was like I've never seen before. I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again -- 5 stars"

To be complete, I should say this is the only job that was completed during the 2 week+ period during which JS score has been updated (attached). Therefore, could you please update my profile so that 5-star review + paused contract = big positive outcome. JS should be about 98%, please. Besides, I earned you $47 on this contract, so it deserves 10 minutes to update the spreadsheet in anticipation of my future earning potential for you. In the meantime, while I am no longer top-rated and feeling like an underdog, I am researching alternative websites, but still hoping your website can be my final home.

Thank you so much, in advance.

Richard

[Preston H · Accepted solution]

Richard, nobody at Upwork took ten minutes of their time to make special alterations to your work records so that your Job Score would show up incorrectly. Your Job Success Score as calculated using the same algorithms as everybody else's Job Success Score, algorithms which neither you nor I nor anybody else fully understands. It is understandable that you are disappointed by the current change to your score, but nobody is going to take ten minutes to change anything on the back-end in order to move your score to where you would prefer it to be. These numbers aren't stored in a "spreadsheet," either. Given the complexity of the Job Success Score, if somebody at Upwork actually tried to make adjustments like you are requesting, you could well end up unable to use Upwork at all.

[Ronald T]

Hi Richard! I see the original post on this thread is your first post to the Community. Great bunch of people here...well most are....

I noticed in the image you supplied that the metric for "Clients who would recommend you" is only 88 percent. I beleive that metric might be driven from the "private" feedback and ratings clients provide when jobs are ended. Supposedly, "private" feedback and ratings cannot be changed; unlike "public" feedback and ratings.

I also believe that the "private" feedback and ratings are used in the calcuation of the overall JS score, which could explain why your JS score is still at 85 perent.

[Stephen B]

"Clients who would recommend you" means "clients who gave you a private score of either 9 or 10. Anything below this is taken as not recommending. So a client may think he's giving you a high score of 8, but unbeknownst to him, he's marking you down as not recommending you.

Upwork has never confirmed this to be the case, but there's plenty of evidence that it's true.

[Richard J C]

Hi Stephen, I recognise your face from your job proposals and from your profile "I AM NOT A WRITER". I should put that in my profile too, especially as I never again want to write a PhD thesis.

I see. Then I wonder if the way to play the system is to work many small jobs? That would increase the number of clients providing feedback and buffer against those clients who provided a (unbeknowingly poor) private feedback score of 8 out of 10.

[Suzanne N]

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@Stephen B wrote:

"Clients who would recommend you" means "clients who gave you a private score of either 9 or 10. Anything below this is taken as not recommending. So a client may think he's giving you a high score of 8, but unbeknownst to him, he's marking you down as not recommending you.

Upwork has never confirmed this to be the case, but there's plenty of evidence that it's true.

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Stephen,

They have never denied it either. There was an interesting thread elsewhere that Ela had brought up about it being based on the Net Promoter Score:

http://www.medallia.com/net-promoter-score/

Which if you do enough reading on the Net Promoter Score it isn't to far off from what the JSS is based on.

Unfortunately clients don't realize anything under that score of 9 hurts the freelancer no matter how great they thought they were.

I had a client specifically state he would never give a 9 or 10 unless someone had worked long term for them and had been impecible in their work. In other words he thought unless you were perfect a score of 7-8 was a good score. He had not realized it would lower my job sucess score.

[Richard J C]

Hi Suzanne, so Upwork could be registering a 7 or 8 score as a passive response, i.e. "not enthusiastic enough about your products or services to actually promote them". I know for sure if clients are using the 'would you recommend?' scale as showing confidence in their recommendation then NO freelancers should ever get a 9 or 10 from a small single job; only from long-term jobs or from repeated custom. I know personaly, though I have taken my car to the garage down the street for four years now, I would never have recommended them as a 10 until after about four years of knowing the mechanics there and after they can quote me every single detail about my car every time I visit them. Not only that, but not until after there had been problems with their work (such as not securing the bodywork properly after servicing) AND they had given me absolute confidence that whatever problems did occur they would fix it for free.

This would bias the whole Upwork JS score for long-term contractors.

[Richard J C]

Hi Ronald, yep first post. Thanks for making me feel welcome .

I see, so in essence you are saying that a paused contract is not counted negatively, and that it is my private feedback letting me down. I hope I can be top-rated again soon, and always guarantee my work with after-sales for my clients who wish to return.

On time, I did make one mistake accepting a $10 contract before a client sent me a corrupted file. I asked whether she wanted to find another freelancer as we spent 60 minutes just for her to add my contact to Skype. We agreed a mutual end, but this affected my JS quite badly.

As a result of your advice, I will surely negotiate a 10-point private feedback score with clients and ensure all my jobs are, without doubt, completed perfectly, hehehe.

Take care,

Richard

[Jean S]

Don't forget that for every "new" two week period added in to the Job Success score, a similar two week period falls off on the other end. If you had a contract(s) 1 year ago that is now not counted in the new score it can also affect you negatively. 

[Ronald T]

Richard, be careful how you "negotiate" any feedback public or private. Done incorrectly can lead to worse problems.

I often include a statement in my cover letters describing 'my position' regarding public and private feedback and ratings. That statement is not meant to be part of the terms of a contract or demanding in any way. Just a suggestion as to the importance...for both clients and freelancers....

ADDED: Paused contracts, inactive contracts, contracts ended by freelancers, etc., are entirely different issues. Valeria, Community Mod, is probably the best person to ask about those issues. The answers might vary from freelancer to freelancer based on their account status and history.