Using perk for a 4.6?

raina5 · ‎07-09-2020

Hi fellow freelancers, I recently received a 4.6 on a job and it's kind of shook me a little. I thought the job had gone well, but I guess she was not as happy with my work as she had led on throughout our communications. I am wondering if I should use my perk to remove her feedback, or continue to save it for a disaster? Is there any way to know how this will effect my JSS, or maybe I should wait to see the effect it has. Thoughts, if any?

petra_r · ‎07-09-2020

Kate R wrote:
I am wondering if I should use my perk to remove her feedback, or continue to save it for a disaster?

Wait to see if there is any effect on your JSS first, and what it is, and then decide.

prestonhunter · ‎07-09-2020

4.6 is a good score.

You most certainly should not use a perk to remove a 4.6.

This probably won't diminish your JSS at all.

And it makes your profile look like you are a real person, who was judged by a client who was actually taking the process seriously.

Nobody is perfect.

Most of the pure-5 ratings you see? Those freelancers did not ACTUALLY perform perfectly in all 6 categories of performance that the client was asked to grade them in.

If I went through every one of the 5-start feedback scores that you or I received, if I knew all the details of the project, I could find things to mark down in order to provide a more accurate score.

petra_r · ‎07-09-2020

Preston H wrote:
4.6 is a good score.

Except, in reality, it is not.

Preston H wrote:
This probably won't diminish your JSS at all.

that is nonsense. It almost certainly will.

Preston H wrote:
Most of the pure-5 ratings you see? Those freelancers did not ACTUALLY perform perfectly in all 6 categories of performance that the client was asked to grade them in.

Nonsense again.

wescowley · ‎07-09-2020

The review itself isn't bad at all, so I'd leave it be unless your JSS takes a large hit from the private feedback.

florydev · ‎07-09-2020

I wouldn't unless it was going to knock me out of TR...or TR+...or TR++...or TR-super-secret++.

In this case my guess is they rated you 10/10 out of the score that matters and this client is likely trying to avoid giving too good a score because it looks fake. What I think you are doing is worrying about perfection and I say don't worry, perfect is impossible.

But it is the enemy of the good.

a_lipsey · ‎07-09-2020

Mark F wrote:
I wouldn't unless it was going to knock me out of TR...or TR+...or TR++...or TR-super-secret++.

In this case my guess is they rated you 10/10 out of the score that matters and this client is likely trying to avoid giving too good a score because it looks fake. What I think you are doing is worrying about perfection and I say don't worry, perfect is impossible.

But it is the enemy of the good.

Agree with this. And also, at this point in my career, I expect to get 4 out of 5 stars for availability because I'm super busy and I can't drop everything every time a client texts me. I do tell them how to get a hold of me, but the days of me dropping everything every time they send a message are over. But the 10/10 score is what matters.

wlyonsatl · ‎07-09-2020

Kate R.,

It's unfortunate that freelancers are led to believe that a perfect feedback rating is the only acceptable rating under the opaque JSS scoring system.

Don't let the tyrrany of the JSS get you down. The client, who may have no idea that the JSS is such an unrealistic measure of "success," might think you did a great, but not perfect, job.

In reality, I don't feel I've ever done any important job or project perfectly. I agree with Preston - realistic, mature potential clients don't demand a perfect past from the freelancers they hire.

Be strategic in using your feedback removal perk. Unfortunately, you can't know how this client's feedback has affected your JSS until after your bi-weekly calculation, so there is some risk in a wait-and-see approach. But it is probably the right approach if you have already had a number of completed projects and your JSS is in the mid- to high 90s.

And if this is a relatively small project, Upwork's new weighting approach for the JSS reflecting the relative billed value of projects might also mean this feedback has litte to no effect on the next calculation of your JSS.

Good luck!

resultsassoc · ‎07-09-2020

I'm a real client with a history of spending real money with real freelancers. You can listen to your customers. By all means listen to other freelancers, just recognize that some of them make a lot of money at doing the same thing over and over. They may as well take a job on an assembly line.

First, I rarely consider JSS. I still don't really understand it, and even then it doesn't seem to mean much. A 4.6 to me, even a 4.0, with a good narrative, is worth an infinite number of zero-narrative 5.0 ratings. The client was sufficiently impressed to take the take to invest in you. Congratulations.

When I hire, it's often a first-timer. I read profiles, try for invitation-only, and ignore bright shiny objects like featured proposals, badges and "Not Dead Yet" medals. I can tell a canned response from a mile away and reply, Thanks, no. I give extra points to people who express interest in me and my work before writing Me Me Me. I automatically turn down responses with laundry lists of links. I don't do laundry.

Most of my hiring is done on a less ... control-issue ... board, and most of it is now default. I have default data entry, default editing, default graphics, default accountants, default engineers. One of my best hires was an Indian-based freelancer whose response included a dummy solution. I was looking for analysis of my client's competitors' web presence. His dummy solution showed complete understanding and inventiveness.

I try to respond to every submission and keep people informed about progress in down-selection. I'll read a freelancer's poor rating of a client before a client's poor rating of a freelancer. I never accept nor reward work without first exploring a fit.

Mark's answer is a winner, and Preston's a close second. Then again, I'm just a client who spent thousands on UW, so don't take my advice. I'm just the guy bringing money to the table.