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humberto-ventura
Community Member

Public feedback with no text

Hello. Recently I had finished contract. It went ok, the client gave me 5 starts public but there was no text in the feedback. Does that affects by JSS? Thanks

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Can you propose a better solution? I can't think of one. Short of developing some sort of mind reading band that records a client's emotional frequency brainwaves while dealing with a freelancer and then factoring that into the freelancer's JSS.

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22 REPLIES 22
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "Does that affects by JSS?"

 

No.

ksandr-vip
Community Member

Absolutely no

robin_hyman
Community Member

The 5 stars is your feedback.  You don't need written feedback. 

varungs
Community Member

Written feedback has no material impact on your JSS since Upwork's algorithm is unable to parse it meaningfully. 

Until, of course, our God-Emperor Upwork generates the ultimate artificial intelligence neural network-based JSS algorithm robot that uses keywords in your feedback to determine how good of a freelancer you are. Wouldn't be surprised.

petra_r
Community Member

Public feedback / stars etc are largely (possibly entirely) irrelevant for the JSS anyway. nice feedback is eye-candy on the profile and makes us feel good.

 

The private feedback is what affects the JSS.

So this means that the public feedback is basically for show? What it counts mostly is private feedback? That´s unfair! A client may give you 5 stars publicaly but only 8 (1-10) privately, or worst, shows that you had made a good job/impression but in the end stabs you in that back. They should at least weight the very same thing as JSS goes.

Clients have an incentive to lie in their public feedback (to keep freelancers happy, to keep potential for future contracts intact, and to maintain cordial relations) but they have no incentive to lie in their private feedback. This is why private feedback will be significantly more accurate in gauging a freelancer's abilities. I do agree that public feedback should have some weightage, though.  

re: "They should at least weight the very same thing as JSS goes."

 

Upwork's JSS does not currently work that way.

 

But you are allowed to create your own websites with rating systems that work this way.


Humberto V wrote:

So this means that the public feedback is basically for show? What it counts mostly is private feedback? That´s unfair! 


"Fair" is relative.

As we all work with the same system, that means the JSS calculation is the same for everyone, and in that way it's perfectly fair.

Its unfair because its creates a situation of obscurity in which the acency or freelancer could be deceived, no wonder every Monday  freelancers come to this Community complain about JSS results, this is because the expectations they have according to the communication/experience and thus overall result impacts with the JSS expectation and that is unfair because does not show what´s the evalutation criteria. 

 

Yes, I supose its the system same for everyone.

Can you propose a better solution? I can't think of one. Short of developing some sort of mind reading band that records a client's emotional frequency brainwaves while dealing with a freelancer and then factoring that into the freelancer's JSS.

A more fair solution is to make public and private feedback bare the same weight as JSS goes. They dont, that´s why so many descrepencies are showned in several cases after a JSS update.


Humberto V wrote:

A more fair solution is to make public and private feedback bare the same weight as JSS goes. They dont, that´s why so many descrepencies are showned in several cases after a JSS update.


Frankly I think it is because too many freelancers don't choose their clients carefully enough, don't manage their contracts and their clients well enough and are unrealistic about the way their contracts have gone.

 

People who are sensitive to client communication and reaction tend to know perfectly well which contract went a litlle less than perfectly, they don't have to see the private feedback to know what happened.

 

But they prefer to bury their heads in the sand and fill the forum with "MY JSS FELL FOR NOOOOOO REASON" because it's easier than to admit that it could have gone better.

 

I've done 260+ contracts and have not yet been surprised by fluctuations of my JSS. Whenever it took a dip I knew perfectly well why it did.

 

You can see your private feedback percentage on your "My Stas" page. It's the "Clients who would recommend me" percentage and shows you how your clients really felt.

 

That again it is not a clear method and I am agaisnt that. Ofcourse we all know which clients went better but still there could be surprises. The client recommendation shows which percentage of clients would recommmed you, but still, its from 1-10 score, so lets say the client chooses 5 or 6 instead of 10. Is that a yes or a no?  What weight does it have?

 

Flunctuality is also related to the number of contracts so less contracts with a few poor private feedbacks is more harmfull than a few poor with many contracts. 

 

So we have a system in which the Freelancer does not know exactly how he is evaluated but worse of all is that allows opaque situations to appear. That is what it means to be fair, to be transparent at all times to everybody. A system that allows opacity to install is not fair.

 

And not everybody has the same sensibilty towards clients,we are all but different. A person that show satisfaction and critizes from the back has an advective. Its called hipocrite. 


Humberto V wrote:

That again it is not a clear method and I am agaisnt that. Ofcourse we all know which clients went better but still there could be surprises. The client recommendation shows which percentage of clients would recommmed you, but still, its from 1-10 score, so lets say the client chooses 5 or 6 instead of 10. Is that a yes or a no?  What weight does it have?

 

 


As you said, it's a percentage. So if a client gives you 5 out of 10, that would factor as 50% into your total clients that would recommend you percentage. If another client gives you 6, and you only had these 2 clients, that would result in a total number of 55%. 

The number updates not at the same time as JSS to make it less obvious who contributed at what time. 

 "because too many freelancers don't choose their clients carefully enough"

 

 Many Freelancers dont have the luxury of choosing the clients they want, specially if they are starting. So in order to achieve a better profile or even for the sake of making some money they accept clients in which its not the best option but it is the available option.

 

So Freelancers that already have a solid reputation and most likely receive proposals/invitations without spending a single dime or second are undoubtebly in advantage and can choose the best clients or at least those with a better reputation.

 

Many of us are not really able to choose, we take what we can get. 

 

Thanks for the advice.


Humberto wrote:

 "because too many freelancers don't choose their clients carefully enough"

 

 Many Freelancers dont have the luxury of choosing the clients they want,


it is not luxury. It is a necessity.

 

I am absolutely convinced that success and failure on Upwork is determined less by the clients you work with than the clients you decide not to (for various reasons, not just because you might think they are troublesome clients.)

 

I don't take contracts unless and until I know for certain that I can make the client really happy.

 


So Freelancers that already have a solid reputation and most likely receive proposals/invitations without spending a single dime or second are undoubtebly in advantage and can choose the best clients or at least those with a better reputation.

 

Sure, but please don't forget we all started in the same place. With 0 jobs, 0 feedback, 0 clients.

 

No offence, but you might do well taking a very long, very hard, very cold and very honest look at all your contracts and identify what went great and what didn't. 

 

That is the only way to improve and when you do improve, so will your ratings /public and private.

 

Your core skills are only part of being a freelancer. The other skills (project management, client management, customer service, negotiation skills, sales skills, troubleshooting skills, conflict resolution skills and so on and so on) are *AS* important, if not more so.

Well thanks for the suggestion / advice.

 

I actually already did that, I even got to read some of the contratc conversations I had.  And to be honest I dont have a clue. Sure, one or 2 where less then good, those are obvious. But others are still a mistery, I have clients praising my work in conversations and my score does not reflect it, and yes, I did reflect about it.

 

Anyway I guess I will look at costumers profles more often. Everything was simpler if people where more honest. I know I am.

Thank you, you have been very kind and above all, honest.

I will surely look into your advices and apply them as best as I can.

 

Hope we could talk again and I have better news about my JSS and my Upwork results.

 

Thank you and we are not so far away, I am Portuguese and you are Italian.

To answer this in short: clients use private feedback and public feedback very differently, therefore the JSS calculation should treat them as such. Treating them the same would negate how insightful private feedback is.

Thank you very much. That was very much insightfull. No pun intended.

I supose thats funny. Let us all laugh a bit. Please do propose it to Upwork team.

 

Thanks

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