Our Aim is Restore Trust and Dignity to the Service Industry – Blessing Adedoyin, Cofounder of Thribe App

If you’re a Nigerian, you’ll most likely have patronized service providers who ended up disappointing you. The tailor who failed to sew the clothes you had planned to wear for a wedding, or the mechanic who fixed old parts in your car, even though you gave him money for a new one. There’s even the plumber who bought the kitchen sink, but collected triple the amount it’s sold.

These are just examples of what Nigerians go through in the hands of some service providers, and these few bad eggs have made a lot of people to lose trust in the industry. All service providers are now seen as dishonest.

Blessing Adedoyin and her cofounder, Samson Oguntayo are set to change this!

Having noticed the state of the industry, they came up with Thribe App to connect Nigerians with skilled service providers and restore trust to the industry.

In this interview with Blessing Adedoyin, she revealed more about the platform, and how they plan to achieve their aim.

What’s Thribe App all about?

Thribe App is an online platform for connecting buyers and sellers of everyday services quickly and safely

What inspired the idea for it?

There are many people across Nigeria and Africa at large who are in desperate situations and are just trying to survive. Let me paint you a picture; imagine a man who has a young family and he recently lost his job (which was probably not paying so much in the first place).  In the course of self-preservation, he picks up a trade and starts working to sell his service.

He is most likely not adequately trained and not in possession of right tools and equipment to carry out the work properly. A member of the public who goes on to use this man’s service will likely be very disappointed and attribute it to his incompetence and wickedness, but the truth is, he is just a victim and product of an environment with many setbacks for the average person.

Now there are service providers out there who do know what they are doing, so Thribe wants to connect buyers with such sellers and help others increase their standard of delivery through suitable training. Our chief aim is to make everyday transactions simpler as well as restore trust and dignity to the service industry.

How does the platform work?

You can search for your desired service and the closest available service provider to you will be notified of the job, all sellers are skill vetted and background checked. Once you book, you can communicate with your service provider.

You pay for the service before work begins (though payment is not released to seller until completion) and once your job is done, you are able to review your experience. Both buyers and sellers are protected on the platform

What does it take for service providers to get signed up on the platform?

Service providers would download the app, complete basic registration and begin their verification and vetting process which can take up to a week, once verified, they will be active to take jobs through the platform

How do you ensure only skilled service providers are signed up?

We designed a rigorous vetting process which every single seller must undergo before they can proceed to taking jobs on Thribe. As well as being experienced in their chosen fields, we also take customer service and professionalism very seriously; this is also reflected in our key induction stage for all sellers.

The public can be rest assured that when they come on Thribe, they will be dealing with workers who know what they are doing.

Are there features in place to monitor service provided, and ensure users are getting quality?

Yes! Our QA team will be on hand to deal with any issues that may arise between a buyer and a seller. Buyers will have the option of insuring individual transactions on the App and we encourage all communications to take place on the platform for ease of transparency in each situation.

Does Thribe App get a commission when service providers get jobs through the platform?

Yes, Thribe App will reserve a nominal commission from transactions.

There are a large number of service providers who are not tech-savvy. Are there plans in place to bring that population on board?

It is important for our service providers to be good communicators and have a basic understanding of navigating a smart phone. Training will be given to all sellers during induction on how to use the App.

With a number of startups in Nigeria offering same service, what makes Thribe App different?

We’re about the people! Thribe aims to restore dignity to the entire service industry and all individuals within it. We concern our efforts with how best to embolden individuals; create jobs, self-employment and make an impact on this generation through innovation. 

Since kick-off, how has the response been from Nigerians?

The response has been great; young people have been inspired and are really looking forward to our launch in 2018. We are currently taking sign-ups via our website ahead of launch so people can visit us online to be notified of our official release and all exclusive updates in the run up to launch.

What are the challenges you’ve faced getting the startup running, and how did you overcome them?

Data was a big one. We didn’t want to assume anything so it was important to us to work with facts and raw information. This can be difficult to come by in Nigeria because a lot of information is not easily accessible and often hard to verify so we had to a lot more legwork during our research phase.

Tell a little about yourself and the story behind your foray into entrepreneurship.

My academic background is Law which was my first love but I’ve always wanted to work for myself. Growing up, I don’t remember my parents having a 9-5, they directed their own affairs through their businesses at the time, so I assume it stemmed from there.

I’ve had the opportunity of getting my hands dirty and learning everyday through the experiences of different business ventures including a digital marketing agency, a luxury accessory brand and a youth charity, all in the UK. I am part of an amazing team of anti-jargon thinkers and doers and we have ‘people’ at the core of everything we do. I enjoy solving problems; growth problems, design problems, implementation problems, mismatched sock problems. 😉

Thribe is the brainchild of Mr. Samson Oguntayo; he is a firm believer in finding solutions to anything if the will exists. Working with him on this Thribe journey has taught me that truly anything is possible and we hope to share this same consciousness with millions of young people across Africa through Thribe App.