Voice

Tola is the voice agent. She picks up when a Job Seeker dials. She places outbound calls when our matching model surfaces someone we think you should know about. She speaks Nigerian English and code-switches into Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa depending on the caller. This page is the voice channel from the user’s side.

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Who can use voice

Job Seekers, primarily. Voice is the rail for people whose phones don’t make WhatsApp practical — a Tecno Spark with a low-data plan in Modakeke, an older Nokia that does calls and SMS but not much else. Traders and employers usually don’t dial. They live on smartphones with WhatsApp. If a trader or employer calls the Guild number, Tola politely deflects: “This line is for Job Seekers. Please message us on WhatsApp for your setup.”

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How to reach Tola

Two paths:

1. Dial the Guild number from any Nigerian phone. Standard PSTN call. Standard call charges from your carrier.
2. Tap the call button inside the Guild WhatsApp chat. WhatsApp Calling. Routed through our SIP bridge to Tola. Free over Wi-Fi or counted against your WhatsApp call allowance.

Either way, you reach the same Tola.

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What Tola can do

Six tools live on every call.

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Sign up

If you’re new, Tola asks three questions: your name, your location, what you do. “You be Musa Bello, bricklayer for Modakeke. I go set am up?” You say yes. Account created. Welcome SMS lands in your phone within seconds.

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List open jobs

“Tola, wetin work dey for Bodija?” Tola runs the matching model for you, reads back up to five jobs in ranked order: “You get five jobs. One: bricklayer for Bodija, three days, ₦4,000 daily. Two: labourer for Mokola, two days, ₦3,000 daily. Three…”

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Get job details

“That first one. Tell me more.” Tola pulls the full description, dates, location, employer, requirements. Reads it back at a pace you can follow.

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Apply to a job

“I want to apply for that bricklayer one.” Tola confirms — “You want make I apply for the bricklayer job for Bodija, ₦4,000 daily?” — and only proceeds after explicit verbal confirmation. Application submitted. “You go hear from the employer today.”

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Update your profile

“Tola, I no live for Modakeke again. I dey Ibadan now.” Tola confirms the change, updates the profile. Useful when you move, when you pick up a new skill, when your phone preferences change.

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Set your skills

“Add tiler to my skills.” Tola updates your skill list. Future matching factors in the new skill.

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What Tola sounds like

Conversational Nigerian English. Not a stiff IVR voice. Code-switching is natural — if you speak Pidgin, she responds in Pidgin. If you switch to Yoruba mid-call, she follows. “Welcome back, Musa. You get one job wey go fit you well-well. You wan hear am?” The voice is calibrated for clarity over a typical Nigerian phone connection. Audio compression artefacts don’t render her unintelligible.

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Outbound calls

Tola can place outbound calls too. The most common scenario: our matching model surfaces a Trusted-tier Job Seeker who’s a strong fit for a job that just posted, and we want to nudge them faster than a WhatsApp message might. Your phone rings. Caller ID shows the Guild number. You pick up. Tola opens: “Hello Musa, na Tola from Guild. You get one job for Bodija — bricklayer, three days, ₦4,000 daily. You wan apply?” You can apply on the call, decline, or ask for more details. Same six tools available; the call is just initiated by us. We rate-limit outbound calls so we’re not pestering you. A Job Seeker with the highest standing tier gets at most one outbound nudge per active job period.

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What happens on the call, technically

You don’t need to know this to use the platform. Here in case you’re curious. The end-to-end latency for a Tola response is typically 1-2 seconds. The lookups and tool calls happen during her natural speaking pauses; the user doesn’t perceive a delay.

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When Tola doesn’t pick up

A few cases:

• Outside service hours. Tola is available 24/7 at v1, but we may add quiet hours for outbound calls in the future.
• Voice runtime is temporarily unavailable. Rare. The call rolls to a fallback IVR that asks you to send a WhatsApp message instead.
• Network issues. Common in some areas. Hang up, try again. Or call from a different network.

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Privacy on the call

Calls are recorded for transcription. The recording lives in our object store with a 30-day retention; after 30 days, it’s deleted automatically. Transcripts may be retained longer for service-improvement purposes. The recording and transcript are linked to your Guild user record. They’re not shared with employers, lenders, or third parties. If you don’t want to be recorded, say so at the start of the call. Tola will continue but the recording stops.

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What Tola will not do

A few intentional limits:

• She won’t sign you up for an employer or trader account. Voice signup is JOB_SEEKER-only.
• She won’t approve job applications on an employer’s behalf. That action requires the dashboard.
• She won’t move money. Wallet operations require text or web confirmation.
• She won’t share another user’s data with you. Only your own.

These are intentional product guardrails — voice is high-bandwidth and easy to use, which makes it the rail you’d want to abuse if you were going to. The guardrails keep it focused on what voice is best for: discovery and application.

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Where to read more