Improving the Client/Freelancer Rating System

[chadmadeit]

After a few years of being on Upwork, I have a lot of great ongoing clients who I've enjoyed working with long term. The problem is, they have never been able to give me a positive rating or have been able to receive a positive rating from me. This is because clients and freelancers can only rate each other when a contract fully comes to an end (to my knowledge).

For example, I have one client who has worked with me on an hourly contract for 2 years with multiple projects completed successfully and we haven't able to rate each other once. I feel this might lead to a decrease in ratings on both sides because long term clients/freelancers can't give each other props for doing a good job, and the only ratings you're really receiving might just be for short-term client/freelancer relationships.

I think you should allow for ratings to take place or be adjusted after every milestone for fixed price contracts, and maybe after every 1-3 months of ongoing work for hourly contracts.

Just some food for thought for the Upwork team and other members.

[joynul33]

Long term contract got automatically positive in Upwork! 

[petra_r]

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Chad L wrote:

For example, I have one client who has worked with me on an hourly contract for 2 years with multiple projects completed successfully and we haven't able to rate each other once. I feel this might lead to a decrease in ratings on both sides

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No, it doesn't, in fact the opposite is true.

Long term contracts with regular payments count positively into your rating so you need not worry about that. Think about it... if it had a negative effect, you'd not be at 100% 😉

[chadmadeit]

That makes sense, thank you for clarifying. Does the inverse work for the client's rating as well? I want to be able to give positive feedback to my long-term clients who deserve it.

[petra_r]

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Chad L wrote:

That makes sense, thank you for clarifying. Does the inverse work for the client's rating as well? I want to be able to give positive feedback to my long-term clients who deserve it.

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client ratings are pretty much irrelevant, so I really wouldn't worry about it.

There is also always the chance to end long term contracts once every (whatever - 6 months?) and start a new contract.

Under the old system, where the star system was fully Dollar weighed, I made sure that contracts didn't get to the point where one contract could potentially kill your average star rating - so I asked for contracts to be closed afetr $ 5k or so. The idea that a $ 50 k contract going wrong and ending in poor feedback (never happened of course) and then counting more than 49 5 star contracts made me twitchy.

The JSS is currently not Dollar weighed, but will soon be, however only up to $ 1000 (for the reason above I suppose) 

The positive impact of long term client relationships remains, whether it is across one contract or twenty-

[wlyonsatl]

Chad,

There is no Upwork rating system for clients in any way comparable to the Job Success Score system covering freelancers. It would be nice to have, but Upwork has never indicated such a client-focused system will ever be available.

[58967181]

I have seen many articles that say rude freelancer will be removed from the platform. I encountered one that wasn't just rude but even tried to blackmail me. They were even rude to another startup that was the one that discovered upwork and this agency and recommended them to me. I added her as coworker so she can observe if she wants to use this agency too. A 3rd party that sense something was missed jumped in to speak with them and they attacked her too. It was blatant and obvious in the messages that upwork can view for themselves easily. but yet upwork didn't do anything. Perhaps it was just my luck the customer service didn't bother to really investigate. All I gotten was lip service that they will investigate but without action taken or sharing their outcome it was pointless. Or perhaps because it was an agency that had earned hundreds of thousands and was thus valuable to upwork it didn't matter that things could have changes. What is appalling is despite my rating and that fact the job didn't end, their rating is still 100%. So I would take it with a pinch of salt. A better measurement is to take the last 3 months