We know that our providers are dedicated to completing great quality work for their buyers and in the interest of transparency and fairness to all parties we have put together the following Service Provider Conduct Guidelines.
Outlined below is a set of expectations for service providers on the Envato Studio platform. These conduct guidelines apply in conjunction with the existing Envato Studio User Terms, Service Provider Additional Terms, as well as our Envato Studio Community Guidelines, and sets out relevant expectations:
- When communicating with buyers
- When working on a job/service
- When dealing with a dispute
- When dealing with Studio Support
To avoid any doubt, these Service Provider Conduct Guidelines are a policy for the purposes of clause 39 of our Envato Studio User Terms.
When communicating with buyers:
- Treat your buyers with respect and professionalism.
- Use clear, accurate and polite language. Remember that you may be dealing with a variety of buyers from all over the world (with varying skill levels, technical understanding, who may also speak different languages and come from different cultural backgrounds).
- Please refrain from taking communication Offsite (please also see ‘LINK’)
When working on a job/service:
- Accurately represent your services. Please be as upfront as possible on the scope and turnaround time of the job. Remember that most buyers have not used Envato Studio before and may not fully understand the nature or scope of what they are ordering from you.
- Make your proposal briefs as clear as possible.
- For installation work: Make planning for those “installation hiccups” part of your working best practices. Our expectations when it comes to best practices include the following:
- You must take back-ups of work.
- Ask what demo the buyer would like installed.
- Check for pre-existing content and confirm whether the buyer is okay with it being removed.
- Confirm where the buyer wants installation - URL, staging site, hosting, etc. If you ever have any doubts or questions ask the buyer before you make any changes. Please do not move forward with an installation if the buyer has indicated that they do not wish to move forward for any reason. Please take the time to clarify what is needed.
- If your buyer’s brief includes requests not covered in the scope make sure you discuss what can be done under the scope of the service and confirm if they want to proceed before completing the installation. You can always recommend a custom job as a better fit for their brief.
- Tone matters! Don’t forget to be mindful about how you present ideas and resolutions to buyers. As mentioned above, buyers will have different skill levels, and come from different cultures and may speak different languages.
- Don’t leave them waiting! Sometimes buyers have expectations about what is covered by the scope - those expectations may not necessarily match the service. If any gap in expectations becomes clear to you, let the buyer know politely that the work is outside of scope, and that it is possible to add to the existing job via a custom job.
- Please make sure you don’t allow jobs to finalize if the work hasn’t been completed. Remember to submit final files before asking for an approval. Do not ask for approval without completing a job. This is against our terms and may result in further action being taken on your account..
- Reviews: We all love hearing how we did on a job - it helps us understand the buyer’s experience and better our approach. Sometimes the feedback that a buyer leaves may not be what you expect. We have a process for resolving disputes when you disagree with a review left by a buyer. Please do not engage with the buyer to try to get them to change the review. You may not harass or force a buyer for a positive review. . We value and preserve the right to be critical of the work being done for your project, but that criticism must:
- be directed at ideas, never people or groups;
- be delivered in a way that endeavours to be respectful and constructive; and
- be professional - use clear, accurate and polite language. Remember that you may be dealing with someone from a different culture, or who speaks a different language to you.
When dealing with a dispute:
- Sometimes jobs just don’t go the way anyone expected. Don’t be afraid to raise a dispute.
- Provide us with as much information as possible (screenshots,etc) to support your side of the dispute.
- If you have partially completed the work (or the job concludes prematurely), there may be circumstances where asking for partial payment as a resolution is okay! You do not have to raise a dispute to do this.
- Remember that if your buyer has raised a dispute, they may be frustrated with how a project has progressed. They want a positive resolution as much as you do.
Quality Expectations
As a Studio service provider you are given the responsibility and freedom to manage your own portfolio and work with buyers to deliver high quality work.
When a buyer purchases a Studio service they have a right to expect that:
- The quality will be acceptable: Your buyers are expecting the quality of your work to match the level of your portfolio examples.
- The service is described accurately and honestly: Please ensure that you describe your service and skill level as honestly and accurately as you can.
- Any promises or commitments made by the service provider will be kept and honoured.
At Envato Studio, we work hard to ensure that all communication is clear, accurate and easy to understand. We trust our service providers and buyers to be open, straightforward, trustworthy and expect them to play by the same rules.
Envato Studio buyers will base their buying decision, in part, on the information provided. If the information is not accurate or is misleading, a buyer may potentially be misinformed ahead of any purchase. In such circumstances, a buyer may be entitled to a refund, which Envato Studio will fairly assess (and may opt to refund the buyer in the event of a dispute).
When a buyer asks a pre-sales question, it’s important the information provided is clear, accurate and easy to understand. A buyer can then more easily determine if the service is suitable for their project. This is why it is so important that you set the scope of your job and have a clear and detailed brief to act as a framework for your job.
There are various consumer laws in many countries giving buyers certain protections, including in relation to service quality (among other things). These may include non-excludable warranties, guarantees or other rights ('non-excludable consumer guarantees'). You must not exclude, restrict or modify any such non-excludable consumer guarantees.
When dealing with Studio Support:
Studio Support is here to help you. We want nothing more than for your services to be successful and smooth. If you come across a difficult buyer (we know they exist), please get in touch with us! We would be more than happy to help you navigate jobs that have gone off course.
We understand that sometimes you may not agree with our decisions with regards to dispute. We will always mediate disputes with the mindframe of the best possible outcome for everyone.
We are committed to fair and transparent resolutions - but please understand that not all resolutions will be favourable towards providers.
We do love feedback - however we request that you refrain from abusive, threatening or offensive communication.