What is my Delivery Rating and how do customer reviews affect this?
Ultimately, we allow buyer reviews for the delivery experience to promote quality service.
This is our way of being transparent with you as an artist and allowing you to receive feedback directly from your buyer. The benefit of this information is to know what the buyers value and to help buyers and artists align their interests.
Actions that will lead to a high Delivery Rating from Buyers:
Fast Delivery. Buyers value fast shipping, which leads to a likely positive review and repeat buying
Actions that will lead to low Delivery Rating from Buyers:
Poorly packaged artwork. Artwork that arrives damaged may result in a return and/or a negative review.
The review you receive from a buyer contributes directly to your overall Delivery Rating. As you accumulate reviews, your overall Delivery Rating will reflect this average. We’ve made this into a cohesive visualisation on your Dashboard.
You can view each review in your Delivery section on the “My Orders” page of your profile.
Your Delivery Rating is only visible to you. It is not for public view and will not be displayed on your profile. Only you and the Bluethumb team can see it.
What happens if I receive a negative review when I’ve done all the right things?
Expect a mix of feedback from buyers. Understand that not all feedback will be positive or even relevant. People can respond in ways that are unhelpful, irrational and sometimes outright mean.
Please don’t take these to heart, and focus on the elements within your control and responsibility to improve on. Try to find any constructive criticism within the review. Sometimes, amidst what feels like an irrelevant or harsh critique, there might be a kernel of useful feedback that could help you improve the delivery process.
Unfortunately, damage does occur in transit from time to time, and we understand that this is out of both parties' control. As long as you packaged correctly (per the guidelines) and followed the correct process as guided by us, you have done everything correctly. But you may still receive a negative review on this. We will use the review and pass on the feedback to the couriers in these situations, so they are fully aware of the impacts and frustrations caused, and of cause use this internally to monitor the couriers we use
Remember this can only be seen by you and us and it is not public. It is designed for you to receive feedback about your deliveries. However if you feel like the person is aggressive or you feel unsafe, please let us know.
Why do reviews matter?
What’s in it for you?
Reviews mean that we can reinforce positive experiences based on a measurable quality. When a buyer says, “I had a great experience”, or “I had a terrible experience”, you know immediately if your shipping is good or needs work. Reviews are a simple yet effective way of measuring buyer satisfaction, which in turn provides you, as an artist, the right information to make your art practice a success.
Feedback from the buyer to you as an artist gives you real expectations of buyers.
Reviews simply show if you’re meeting those expectations, whether that is continuing to do what you’re doing or adjusting your practice to align with buyers and their expectations.
Besides buyer satisfaction and repeat buying, better shipping time ultimately leads to positive reviews increases and the likelihood of being featured on site and in curations. It’s a sign of professionalism that deserves attention and recognition. We’re also exploring algorithmic ranking for listing and displaying search results favouring higher Delivery Rating artists.
What’s in it for the buyer?
Reviews give buyers an emotional outlet to express their feelings towards us and our artists.
Feedback from the buyer to the artist gives artists real expectations of buyers. Buyers want their expectations met and their voices heard.
What’s in it for us?
We want Bluethumb to be the number one place for buyers to find and purchase art. We are the biggest art marketplace in Australia, and our buyers deserve incredible service. We love our artists and we want to support them to make the relationship they have with their buyers the best one possible. If a buyer has a great experience with an artist, they will tell their friends, and they are more likely to purchase again, which means more artists quitting their day jobs.
Tips and Tricks
To help give you a head start please see some key points highlighted below, these will help you create the best out of box experience for buyers and ensure the work is as safe as it can be for shipping:
Ensure you follow our packaging guidelines - These guidelines clearly map out the minimum packaging requirements for sending work with us. Ensure you read through these prior to shipping any work.
Remember to take photos of the package - again see the packaging guidelines for full requirements
Ship quickly - recommend shipping within 2-3 days of receiving the order for the best experience. If you know your going to take longer than 5 days please let us know ASAP so we can pop you in touch with the buyer to let them know about the delay
Would you be happy receiving the package? - think of the way you would like to receive a purchase from a company, would you be happy to receive the work as you have packaged it? Does it look professional, safe and secure?
Is the Artwork clean, dust and mark free? - if it's been in storage for a while you may need to give it a clean and freshen up before sending.
Include a note to say Thank You - buyers love receiving communication from the artist so popping a quick note in thanking them for their purchase is a great out of box experience.
Ensure the Certificate of Authenticity is included - this is the provenance for the work and strongly recommend including one with all work you sell weather on Bluethumb or not
Can I add in a gift? - Some artists go the extra mile and include freebies like dust covers for the work, free prints, gift cards etc. Feel free to do so if you wish (it's not a requirement from us), just ensure the gifts are relevant to the work you are sending and that none of the items included advertise other websites or galleries.