Ebohon: Digital Service Offering Will Create Job Opportunities  

Wrkman’s CEO, Tunde Ebohon, discusses the pivotal role of digital platforms in building trust within Nigeria’s home services industry, creating employment opportunities, and enhancing convenience for customers connecting with skilled artisans. Emma Okonji presents the excerpts:

What is the role of Wrkman in today’s world of digital transformation and what does the company stand for?

Wrkman is a revolutionary platform, where users can find skilled and professional artisans that can fix faulty home appliances and other things that needed to be fixed both in homes and offices. It operates with an app that connects users to verified and reliable service providers/artisans around them and the connection is done within minutes.

The role of Wrkman is to connect users with artisans on a single digital platform, where the user/customer can interact with artisans on specific jobs.

Wrkman stands for integrity and transparency, bringing satisfaction to customers who need the services of artisans.

How do you onboard artisans on your platform and what are the criteria for onboarding?

We onboard artisans through our app, and we have two apps designed for users and artisans. The users app is called the Wrkman app and the artisan app is called the Wrkman Pro app. All that the artisans need do is to get registered on the platform, fill in their necessary details and update them before we onboard them. It comes with series of documentation, including submission of National Identification Number (NIN) and other means of identification.

First of all, the artisan who is interested in joining the platform, goes online to Google Playstore, and download the Wrkman Pro app.  The apps are available on Android and iOS operating system. After downloading the Wrkman app, the next step is to search for artisan that is closest to your location and make a request. But before the request is made, the user needs to register on the platform, and provide the necessary information like email address, phone number, and house address. Once that is done, the app will identify the location of the user, so that once the user makes a request, the app will be able to find artisans that are closer to the location of the user, in order to connect the user to the artisans. The user will then have the opportunity to see different artisans close to the user location, and the user will be able to review their rates and see the duration for completing a particular job. Once the transaction is concluded, someone from customer care will interface with the user through a direct call or via text message to finalise the transaction.     

What inspired you to establish the Wrkman business and how has it been since its inception three years ago?

Several things actually inspired me to set up the Wrkman revolutionary platform. Firstly, the need to get things fixed at the right time, actually inspired me. So I decided to create an online platform, where customers could interact with artisans and get their stuff fixed at the right time. Again, I was inspired by what I see abroad, where I live. In most countries of the world, digital platforms for users and artisans exist and it makes life a lot easier for people. So I felt if we have such platforms abroad, why not in Nigeria my country, with huge population. I was also inspired by the need to create employment for artisans who are skilled, but do not have the right connections to get jobs. So the platform can create opportunities for artisans to get jobs from people who do not even know them. Such customers can engage them just because they are registered on the platform.

The issue of trust is key in engaging artisans online. What are your criteria for onboarding artisans in relation to trust?

The issue of trust is actually key in the kind of services that we offer on the platform. To maintain a certain level of trust, we make it a point of duty to vet all artisans before onboarding them on the platform. With that we are confident about the character of artisans on the platform. Again, we give up to 30 days guarantee for every job transacted and completed on the platform. That of course will boost customers’ confidence on the platform. Another area of trust is that the Wrkman team handles all transactions on the platform and takes responsibility for every transaction between the artisan and the user/customer.

Technology has simplified what appears to be difficult task for customers. How easy is it for customers to interface with the app in terms of interoperability?

At the design stage of the app, we had the artisans in mind, and therefore we designed the app to be simple and user friendly. We understand the educational level of those artisans that will use the app and we designed it in simple terms that they could easily understand and use perfectly. The user must not be a tech savvy person to use the app. Anyone who can read and write can operate the app and it is that easy and simple.  

The app is self explanatory and the artisans we have already onboarded have never complained of any difficulty about the features of the app. Again our app is interoperable and could accept new features that are layered on it,

We also have a good customer support team that always assist anyone that is about to join the platform, by taking them through the process of onboarding.

Recently, Nigerians across the country embarked on a national protest against bad governance that has led to massive unemployment and hunger in the country. How will the Wrkman platform help in job creation in today’s era of digital transformation?

Like I said earlier that the ability to create jobs for artisans, was one of the priorities of Wrkman, and we are fulfilling that desire to create jobs, based on the number of artisans that we have onboarded on the Wrkman platform.

So the Wrkman platform is paramount to creating jobs for Nigerian artisans. Artisans formed a large percentage of the number of unemployed people in the country, but because they have a skill, the Wrkman platform can link them up with people who need their services and connect them to getting jobs. The Wrkman platform will allow them to showcase their skills to the world and get connected to those who need their services. A user for instance, may need a plumber to fix some broken water pipes in the apartment, and such user can find a plumber on the platform that is close to the apartment and transact a business deal with the plumber on the platform. By so doing, the user engages the plumber and the plumber is paid for the job done.

It could be a painter or electrician and that creates job opportunities for them.

Having ran the Wrkman revolutionary platform for the past three years, what are your future expansion plans?

We first launched in Lagos three years ago and today we have 90 per cent coverage in Lagos, and we have expanded since then to Abuja and Port Harcourt, with plans to cover Ibadan in Oyo State very soon. Our future plan is to cover the entire cities in Nigeria and that is been worked out by the Wrkman team. We also plan to go beyond Nigeria, to countries like Ghana, Kenya and more African countries.    

Time is of essence in online engagement. What is the duration for a user of the app to search and get artisan close to one’s location?

Because it is an online business, all transactions are done on real time basis. So it can take less than an hour to search, transact and get artisan within one’s location. Once the transaction is completed, the artisan nearest to the user’s location is prompted and the details of the user are shared with the artisan and the artisan gets to work by first locating the address of the user that requested for the service.

How are payments handled on the Wrkman platform?

All payments go to Wrkman’s dedicated account. The user makes payment after transacting with the artisan on the platform. When payments are received, a member of the team will communicate with the user and share the details of the artisans with the user, including the time it would take the artisan to get to the location of the user. After the work is done and the user is satisfied with the job done, Wrkman then pays the artisan. So the artisan is not paid if the user is dissatisfied with the work done. In such situation, Wrkman will ask the artisan to return to the location to complete the job to the satisfaction of the customer who is the user, but if the artisan refuses to return to the location, Wrkman can reassign the job to another artisan. So ones a job is completed by the artisan, Wrkman reaches out to the customer to find out if the customer is satisfied. Once the customer fills the form and expresses satisfaction with the job, then Wrkman closes the deal and pays the artisan. The bottom line for Wrkman is customer satisfaction.

Do you see the present need for the kind of service that Wrkman is offering in Nigeria or is it a business for the future?

The services that we offer are already here with us in Nigeria. It is not a service for the future. People have started offering the services in other countries of the world and Wrkman brought the services to Nigeria three years ago and Nigerians have embraced it. Again the platform through which we offer the services is safe and secure, thanks to emerging technologies that have made it so.  

So how do you handle dispute resolutions on your platform?

Since we are dealing with humans, we expect that there could be disputes arising from the job transaction or from job dissatisfaction, and to address that concern, we decided to set up a dispute resolution department where every case is amicably addressed to the satisfaction of both parties.   

What are the categories of artisans that are currently on the Wrkman platform and what is the number? 

Some of the service providers/artisans that we have currently on the app include Electricians, Plumbers, AC and Fridge repairs, Carpenters, Painters, Auto-mechanics, Makeup artists, Photographers, Aluminum workers, Barbers, Hairdressers, Tillers, Brick Layers, POP designers and installers, among several others. We have artisans that can fix things in every segment of the home and we also offer beauty services.

Currently we have over 40,000 users with about 12,000 registered artisans on the platform and in the next few years, we desire to grow the number of users’ base to about 500,000 and about 50,000 artisans to service them,  

As technology evolves, new skills emerge and people are trained to acquire new skills. How do you address the issue of re-training of artisans on your platform to acquire new skills?

Currently we do not provide training for the artisans on our platform, but training is part of our future plans, because we need to keep artisans abreast with new technology skills that will help them perform better. The future plan is to set up Wrkman academy, where we will be offering training in different fields.  

Every year you assemble several registered artisans and users to a physical meeting. What is the focus of the annual meeting?

The annual meeting is key for us because that is the time we interact with users and artisans physically to share ideas on how to improve on our service delivery. We also use the medium to share our future plans with them and explain new features that we have introduced to the Wrkman app.

What will you say is your greatest challenge in the kind of business that Wrkman operates?

Our greatest challenge is about communication. Often times we put up information on the platform for artisans and they hardly respond to the information, even after reading it. Both the users and the artisans do not communicate as quickly as we want them to communicate, especially when we put up informative messages on the platform. So what we have done is to increase the channels of communication, cutting across emails, WhatsApp, Instagram, X and other channels to ensure that we have robust communication links. Again, the harsh business environment is also affecting businesses and government needs to address that quickly.