In Africa, trust is the most valuable currency of commerce, but it’s also the biggest problem.
From fake Instagram vendors to disappointing restaurants, over-hyped movies, and unreliable service providers, millions of customers have learned to second-guess every purchase.
On the flip side, thousands of honest businesses struggle to make sales because potential buyers simply don’t trust them. Wale Adeyemo, founder of Parrot, saw this problem up close.
“I saw firsthand how customers waste money on unreliable products and services — and tolerate poor customer service. Businesses also struggle to make sales because customers didn’t trust them. That’s why we built Parrot,” he said.
The Biggest Platform for Authentic Customer Reviews
Parrot is an AI-driven, two-sided customer reviews and intelligence platform that aims to do one thing: build trust between customers and businesses.
Parrot helps customers avoid bad buys through honest reviews, while helping businesses grow by building trust with their customers.
For customers, Parrot is the go-to platform where people can check trustworthy reviews about products, services, places, and brands written by actual customers. It’s not just a static review site; Parrot lets users ask other customers for real-time recommendations before making buying decisions. It’s a peer-to-peer customer reviews platform, giving people the confidence to spend smarter.
For businesses, Parrot provides visibility and credibility. Businesses can showcase real customer reviews, know what their customers think and like about them, and extract customer intelligence to drive business growth. It’s an all-in-one AI-powered system that automates reputation management, review collection, analytics, and customer intelligence.
“If you’re a business, your customers are probably already talking about you on Parrot,” Wale said. “The earlier you join the conversation, the better.”
What makes Parrot truly unique is its multimedia review support. Users can share their experiences through text, voice notes, or video reviews, capturing emotions and nuances that text alone often can’t. This feature allows customers, creators, and professional reviewers to express themselves authentically — and makes the entire experience more engaging, human, and relatable.
Parrot is totally free for customers, UGC Creators, and Pro Reviewers, in fact they can earn from Parrot. Businesses can enjoy the free plan forever or upgrade to a paid plan for advance features; analytics, AI-automations, APIs, and visibility.
Why trust is Africa’s biggest barrier to commerce
According to Zacrac, a market research company, 7 out of 10 customer experiences in Nigeria are negative or unsatisfactory, leading to low trust between customers and businesses. This creates a vicious cycle: low trust leads to fewer sales, and fewer sales mean businesses struggle to grow.
Wale believes trust is the missing infrastructure affecting the growth of commerce in Africa.
“The Fintech guys have built the payment infrastructure to power commerce. Logistics and last-mile delivery is being built. But trust — the most critical pillar of commerce — is missing,” he explains. “We want Parrot to become the go-to platform for trust in commerce across Africa and, eventually, the world.”
For customers, Parrot offers a place where they can read authentic reviews from real people — not paid influencers. For businesses, it’s a new kind of growth engine, powered by customer intelligence; which many businesses often ignore.
Fixing the broken feedback loop
In many African businesses, collecting customer reviews and feedback is still a manual process — from outdated suggestion boxes to QR cards nobody scans. Worse is that customers rarely believe their opinions matter, and businesses rarely extract insight from the few reviews they do get.
Wale believes that “the most valuable data for any business isn’t employee records, or even marketing and sales data — it’s customer intelligence, which comes from customer reviews and feedback. This data influences everything else — from product development to business processes, marketing, and ultimately, sales and revenue.
Sadly, many businesses struggle to collect reviews and feedback from their customers. And the few that manage to do so rarely derive any actionable insights from it.
“I’ve seen many restaurants and hotels place QR cards on their tables that customers barely notice. Some send long, boring survey links that no one clicks. Others like banks, still use the old-fashioned feedback boxes — those usually blue, unattractive boxes where customers are expected to find a pen and paper, write their feedback, and drop it in. There’s a major restaurant chain that invested millions installing computers across all their venues to collect customer feedback. They expect customers to finish their meals, and head over to the computer to type their feedback. Sadly, in my 50+ times of eating there, I’ve never seen a single customer use it.”
These methods are not customer-friendly, and customers don’t trust that their voices will be heard; they don’t believe anyone will check those boxes, let alone act on their feedback.
Parrot bridges that gap. It automates review and feedback collection, provides analytics to unlock customer sentiment, and gives businesses the insight they can actually use to improve.
“Positive or negative, every review is an asset ,” Wale says. “If it’s positive, you use it to build credibility and attract more customers. If it’s negative, you fix it, respond, and improve. Either way, it fuels growth.”
The hidden power of customer reviews: why most businesses still don’t get it
Marketing professionals know that no form of advertising is as powerful as customer reviews yet many still fail to collect and use them effectively. My experience in consumer insight analytics has taught me “Customers don’t really trust what brands or their influencers say; they trust what other customers say about your brand, product, or service”- Wale Adeyemo.
Unfortunately, some business owners and managers have little idea what’s truly happening within their businesses. They track revenue, expenses, and headcount, but know very little about what their customers are actually saying. They don’t know how their staff interacts with customers, what needs improvement, or what their customers really want next. They lack customer intelligence.
“This gap explains why many businesses, especially in sectors like hospitality, fast food, and other consumer-facing industries, rise quickly only to fade within a few years. The root cause, and the solution, often lies hidden in customer reviews and feedback. Unfortunately, too few business owners bother to collect it.”
On the other hand there are businesses that truly deliver great products, services, and exceptional customer experiences but still struggle to grow. The problem isn’t quality, it’s visibility. No one knows about them. Without customer reviews to serve as social proof, their excellence remains invisible.
Imagine if those satisfied customers shared their experiences publicly on Parrot, where thousands of potential buyers go to check reviews and find trustworthy businesses. Those honest reviews could become their most powerful marketing tool.
Building the trust ecosystem together with UGC content creators and pro reviewers
Parrot’s ecosystem goes beyond businesses and customers. It also brings UGC Creators and Professional Reviewers — two groups reshaping digital commerce in Africa.
UGC Creators produce authentic video contents that help people discover trustworthy products, services, and businesses. Professional Reviewers share detailed reviews about businesses they’ve actually patronized — not sponsored posts, but real stories.
Now, Parrot is also become the new platform for creators and reviewers who want to build loyal communities and grow their following. Customers on Parrot can follow trustworthy UGC creators and Pro Reviewers across different niches, engage with their reviews, and discover products and services through voices they trust.
“These aren’t influencers chasing clout, they’re voices that help people buy smarter. And as they share their honest experiences and reviews, they’re building influence the right way — through trust. Together, they make Parrot the home of reviews, commerce, and customer intelligence in Africa.”- Wale Adeyemo
“Our goal is simple,” Wale said. “We want Parrot to be the first place people check before buying from any business — online or offline.”
About Parrot
Parrot is Africa’s first customer reviews and intelligence platform that helps customers make smarter buying decisions while helping businesses grow through visibility, trust, and customer insight. It’s available on web (www.parrot.cx) and mobile (iOS and Android) – search for “Parrot customer reviews app”.
