Since its entrance into the Nigerian market in 2016, Bolt has managed to earn a top spot in the ride-hailing market in Nigeria. This feat was no walk in the park as it took the combined efforts of a dedicated team of young people working together to ensure satisfactory rides for commuters in Lagos and Abuja.
As Bolt became popular among Nigerians, so did Uche from Bolt, the "face" of the brand in Nigeria. Uche's constant emails to Bolt customers has become a subject of discourse on social media. At some point, many people were convinced that Uche from Bolt was not a real person. Well, he is.
Uche Okafor is an agricultural engineering graduate from the Federal University of Technology, Akure. He worked as an information security professional for four years, before joining Bolt as the City Manager, a little over a year ago.
Even though the popularity of Uche from Bolt has had a positive impact on the Bolt brand in Nigeria, Uche believes that he should not be getting all of the attention.
"I tend to feel that I’m getting too much attention directed at me alone. I cannot say that I am responsible for all the amazing work we do here. There are amazing guys who are working behind the scenes; support, demand, operations and they also need to be credited," he told Techpoint recently.
This explains why you may have stopped receiving personalised emails from Uche. Under his leadership, the Bolt team in Lagos is responsible for ensuring that riders and driver-partners on the platform are as satisfied as possible.
The team
The Bolt team in Lagos consists of young and dynamic individuals with an average age of 26 years. The team's roles are ultimately streamlined into customer support and operations.
The Customer Support Team
"What we’re trying to do is to offer quality and comfortable rides. It’s not just taking people from point A to B, we want to ensure that their experience is seamless, easy and comfortable generally. But of course, there’d be one or two issues during the rides which is why we have customer service. So we are here trying to understand what the problem is in the beginning and try to give like holistic resolutions" says Justin Mbaike, the team lead.
Asides having members of the team dedicated to responding to messages and complaints via multiple channels, -- emails, social media, in-app and phone calls -- the team's walk-in support office offers riders and driver-partners the option of laying their complaints in person.
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The Operations Team
The operations team manages all the activities on Bolt from marketing, vetting and training driver-partners to ensuring that all rides are as hitchless as possible.
Our goal is service consistency so that every time you request a ride on Bolt, you get a great experience. If people don't get a great experience, they won't use the app, and if they don't use the app, we'll have nothing to operate," says Femi Akinlaguda, Operations Manager, Bolt Nigeria.
The driver-partners are a huge part of Bolt's operations and so the company ensures that they are vetted and trained before they are onboarded on the platform.
According to Terver Bendega, Brand Manager at Bolt Nigeria, the company's marketing campaigns revolve more around giving back, connecting to Nigerians' lifestyles and interests than competing with other players in the market.
"For us, our biggest competition is not the same people in the market, it's actually people who take their cars out on a regular basis. Even the idea that you'd rather drive, is our competition so those are the things we're up against" she says.
The office space
We took a pictorial tour of the Bolt office located in the Lekki area of Lagos. Here's what we found.
The reception
The reception at the Bolt office is always busy, as both new and existing driver-partners walk in at every point in time to either lay complaints, resolve issues or for training.
Walk-in Support
The training room where the weekly driver-partners trainings take place
This hallway leads to the inner offices.
Here, members of the team hold one-on-one meetings with driver-partners.
The boardroom
The team holds in-house meetings as well as weekly meetings with other Bolt city teams worldwide here.
Operations Team office space
Customer Support office space
This hallway leads to the lounge area of the office
Here, we have the bag shelf and on the side, call booths where members of the customer support team occasionally make calls.
The lounge
The lounge is a relaxation area for the team. They watch television, play video games and there's sleeping area to catch a snooze before getting back to work.
Outside the lounge is the wall of old school music records
And a foosball table
The kitchen
Our Bolt tour shows a company culture of efficiency and teamwork. Now, when you think of Bolt, you know that Uche from Bolt is just one of many pieces that make the company work.
Do you think your office is cooler? Invite us to take a tour through our lens.