Job success score declining due to inactive contracts

[rahulserver]

I just realized that my job success score has been falling down due to unknown reasons.

Of late and during last 2 years, I have never had a job where the client gave me a bad review. Infact in my whole upwork history, I never had a review that is less than 5*.

My JSS suddenly went to 99% then today I see it to 95%.

What could have caused it?

Perhaps a recent bug in how this metric is calculated(As I understand that the algorithm could be dynamic) ?

[voskerchian]

Hi Rahul,

I see you really have a strong profile with great feedbacks and could hardly spot any closed job without feedback. But feedback is like a magic bag, it looks amazing from outside but you never know what's inside. So maybe private feedback is the case here.

[petra_r]

Read this carefully.

If none of the factors mentioned there apply, private feedback did it, or good factors moved out of your calculation window.

[ivana_cp]

My  JSS score changed to 88% two weeks ago and since then, I have maintained my quality of work and ended three contracts with 5* ratings and 10 on the private feedback. However, my JSS hasn't gone up and I'm sad to no longer be eligible to get my Top Rated badge back. I always deliver excellent work and ALL my contracts ended with 5* - can my JSS be reassessed today?

[rahulserver]

@Hasmik V This did come to my mind. But given my strong profile with 100% JSS consecutively for past couple of years, I don't think a single bad private feedback could cause the fall by 5% in just 2 weeks.

And some of my recent reviews are by clients for whom I have worked many times(and then most of them hired me again!). So I would suspect this would be the case.

[holymell]

Private feedback. Your clients don't only rate you publicly with stars, they're also asked privately whether they would recommend you. Someone could have said no.

If you had a canceled contract with no money on it.

If you fully refunded a client. Or if any of your contracts have been inactive for a long time. Those are some of the known reasons for your score to drop, anyway.

[rahulserver]

I haven't canceled a contract. Neither have I refunded any.

But yeah there are a couple of contracts with no activity on them. 

Unfortunately the client has become unreachable. I have tried to message him many times, but no response.

I am not sure what do I do then. Shall I end those contracts or keep them open.

So Ideally if I close a contract myself due to unreachable client, it must not penalize my JSS.

[jmlaidlaw]

@ Rahul --

You write: "So Ideally if I close a contract myself due to unreachable client, it must not penalize my JSS."

Yeah, you might think so. But that's not the case. It doesn't work like that.

[rahulserver]

@Janean L

If so then its not fair and upwork must modify the algorithm to atleast have a metric to find out unresponsive clients and not penalize the freelancer accordingly.

Like in my case, client did not respond for over 2 weeks. Then he comes back and leaves a message "I am talking to my client and I will tell you shortly what are his comments"

Then again goes missing for days.

IMO taking inactive contracts to penalize freelancer is not a good idea. And I offer the concerned upwork guys(Who do have an eye on each thread of the messages on this forum) to take my case as example and modify the algorithms.

[jmlaidlaw]

@ Rahul --

I don't love the way that JSS is calculated. I would like to see changes.

However, you have offered two "musts" and one "it's not fair." I can assure you that all such demands/exhortations and sentiments will leave UpWork entirely un-moved. And it's no use arguing with me -- I am only the messenger, not the policy-maker.

[rahulserver]

@Jenean L

I am in no way trying to argue with you. As I understand that you are just a contributor to this discussion(and not an upwork official who have the upwork badge).

But I do believe that upwork has of late been quiet open to things and if this thread gets good activity, the certainly it might bring some change. 

And yeah I too did not like (infact was shocked) when this JSS was introduced. Reviews are indeed a thing of mutual understanding but your upwork profile is not. Its built with effort of years.

We undertake various contracts based on assumption that we will perform our best and client will rate us 5*. But there are people who are very difficult to deal with. They might backstab you by bad private reviews. So I personally don't agree to private feedbacks either.

But anyways I don't want this thread to be about private feedbacks. I just want to bring this issue of inactive contracts for penalizing the freelancer. That's why edited title.

[holymell]

Rahul,

I personally had a single contract I ended myself. I chose the reason as 'job completed successfully" and gave honest feedback to my client. My client left me no feedback at all.

That set of circumstances had no impact on my JSS. However, had my client decided to leave negative feedback, it may have. So while closing a contract yourself once in a while in and of itself won't have a negative affect on your score, the possibility of the client returning to give you negative feedback may.

If your client has been inactive on Upwork for a few months, you might want to try ending the contract yourself. My score didn't change at all, but yours may. It probably wouldn't have a negative impact unless your client leaves you horrible feedback, which--if you have done great work for him--would be unlikely. I would suggest you take the chance and just close it yourself, especially if it's the only one you've had to do that with. You'll be fine. Might even make your score higher, but I wouldn't hope for that

[cupidmedia]

Upwork's position is that a *pattern* of jobs with no feedback indicates poor client and contract management, and as a client I tend to agree. This is why JSS is negatively impacted if a freelancer has a *pattern* of jobs with no feedback.

There is more to being a successful freelancer on Upwork than just winning a job and delivering the finished product. Client and contract management is an important skill for all freelancers. It starts before you even bid on a job (does the client have a great history of feedback, both given and received) and doesn't end after you have delivered the finished product.

[melaniekhenson]

My JSS took a giantic, kind of "whaaaaaaaaaat?"-style hit two weeks ago. I had to figure it was based on private feedback as the feedback I'd received during that time was publicly glowing. The client seemed a bit odd, though. There were issues that were just kind of "off" while I was doing the project but I mean once you've committed, you've committed, so...yeah.

Anyway, all you can do is:

1. Keep trying to vet your clients REALLY well (make sure they've given and received FB and see whether they have *a pattern* of no or negative feedback, which, again, if a pattern, may be a reflection on them and/or at least on their selection skills). I have found most of my clients to be great so far but when I have run into issues, it has been as much on me for not doing my due dliligence first and seeing *for sure* what I was getting into (or as close to "for sure" as possible).

2. Do KICK-A work. Really really really kick it if you can. If your goal is to boost your JSS (this may be less of a concern than we think it is, at least from the client's POV, but I get it), underpromise; overdeliver.

3. Get more jobs in. The only way to change your score is either to have bad scores fall off over time, or get more FB...or both.

BTW, after my major fall, this week I was back up 2 points with just one job, and that was with having to close a contract that the client never actually gave me work for, which I was certain would tank me but good. But, no, I am climbing. It wasn't due to dropoff as I haven't even been here 6 months yet. I did do another job in that time, and asked my client who was inactive to give me feedback (HATED tod do that but I was trying to do damage control), so apparently between those two things, I have begun to repair the damage.

Look, this can be a learning curve for anybody. Usually that pertains to new freelancers, but it can also apply to people who have been here for a long time but simply never encountered something like a strangely dropping JSS, and therefore never had to question it before. You will be fine and BTW, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that JSS...I am in fact right now working an ongoing project that isn't expected to end for months, with good pay, where the client required only an 80% JSS.

🙂 Keep working!

[voskerchian]

As we are on the subject of inactive contracts, I have one on my end. He is a great client and I love the project, but the contract was suspended, cuz of some issue with their account, now the issue is solved, the client contacted me and said we'll start working soon, but it's been a long time with no response since then. How does this affect my JSS? Well, I know a big reason of my low JSS, but I guess this inactive contract can be a problem too?

[eduardotraviezo]

Hi everyone, I have doubt here

I've been around Upwork for a couple of months and have successfully completed every single contract I have participated in (with a 5/5 rate in all of them); however I noticed a few days ago that my "job success" is in 96%. Why is that?

I am assuming that my average dropped 4 points because in one of my recent contracts (which was an hourly paid one) I had to cancel the contract after nor receiving any response whatsoever from my client (I would send him messages on a daily basis and he didn't reply) hence I decided to finish the contract months after not receiving any replies, with no earnings at all (since I didn't even start to work on the project).

So, if cancelling a contract in which the client didn't reply at any given time affects your job success (which I certainly hope is not the case), how is this fair? Are there any other relevant factors that have affected my job success that I'm not aware of?

Thank you in advance

[nkocendova]

Hi Eduardo,

I know it can be disconcerting to see that your JSS dropped. JSS can change due to a few different reasons including private feedback from a client as well as public feedback, a job falling out of the calculation window, inactive contracts....You can find some more information regarding changes in JSS by having a look at this article.

[petra_r]

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@Eduardo T wrote:

1) So, if cancelling a contract in which the client didn't reply at any given time affects your job success (which I certainly hope is not the case), how is this fair?

2) Are there any other relevant factors that have affected my job success that I'm not aware of?

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1) Yes, contracts that end with NEITHER payment NOR feedback affect your JSS.

Never accept a contract unless you can at least get started on it.

2) Probably. Read this