Features
BEESIWA —Part 3
‘Okay. I’ve heard you’, Beesiwa said. ‘Give me some time to think about it, and let’s talk later.’ Jeff drove her home, confident that he had virtually won her over. Yaw would not like it one bit, but Beesiwa was now his. He had taken Beesiwa away, just when Yaw appeared to be making some moves. This was such a sweet victory.
Beesiwa called her mother, and after thirty minutes they decided on Jeff. ‘Jeff is much older and wiser, and we now know he is much wealthier. Go with him. There is no guarantee that Yaw will choose you. In fact, he is already in a relationship with the doctor, so why should you hang around when he doesn’t even recognise you? And now we know that he is not as successful in business as we thought. So don’t waste time. This is your life.
Take the opportunity. Let Jeff come out clearly and do what needs to be done. Yaw has treated you well, but you have also been faithful to him’.
Within a couple of weeks Jeff and Beesiwa had sealed their relationship, and one evening Beesiwa asked Yaw if she could have a word with him. ‘Yaw, I have decided to go out and work on my own. I will stay for two weeks, that is, to the end of the month, so that we can find a replacement. I would like to thank you for all that you have done for me. I am very grateful’.
Well, that’s very surprising. But it’s fine. I have been encouraging you to go out on your own, so I guess I shouldn’t be really surprised. Okay. I will think about the replacement issue. I might ask my cousin Jenny to come and stay here for a while.
I’ve discouraged her from travelling to London, because she’s quite capable of doing something on her own. So I’d rather bring her to look after my stuff while I find something for her to do. So, I am also very grateful. You’ve done quite a lot for me, and I’m happy you are going out on a high note’.
Although Yaw tried to hide his disappointment, Beesiwa noticed it clearly. Was Yaw interested in her after all? Unfortunately she had already committed herself to Jeff, so she could not even think about changing her mind. Moreover, Yaw had already started talking about her replacement. She wished she had not heard those negative things about him.
They had had quite a good relationship, but she now knows that he was not quite the successful businessman she thought he was. What other secrets, she wondered, was he hiding? She told herself that she had made a good choice.
A few days after Beesiwa stopped working with Yaw, his driver, Paa Willie, called him, sounding excited. ‘Hello sir. You won’t believe what I am seeing with my own eyes, right now!’‘Okay, Paa Willie. Tell me what you are seeing, but please calm down a little. I can still hear you’.
‘Sir, I just paid for the take-away lunch for the guests at the office, and as I sat down to wait for it I looked across the other side, and saw Mr Manu, Beesiwa and her mother, Auntie Mensima, eating. They seemed to be celebrating something, because there were bottles of wine on the table, and they were dressed as if they were celebrating something’.
‘Wow. That’s very surprising. Maybe Jeff and Beesiwa have started doing some business together, or they have signed an agreement. That will still surprise me’. ‘Sir, I think there is something going on between Mr Jeff and Beesiwa. My worry is why Beesiwa will get into any relationship, business or personal, without informing you. I’m worried for her.’ ‘Well, Paa Willie.
Maybe we will hear something later. For now, let’s keep it to ourselves. I hope Beesiwa is not getting involved in something she will regret sooner than later’. Yaw reflected on the news for a while. Beesiwa had certainly made a bad choice. Perhaps, he would understand her if he knew the context in which she made the decision.
Maybe Jeff told her a pack of lies, and promised her the moon. But being the educated, well brought up young woman that she was, why didn’t she ask for time to think about the proposal? Did her mother have anything to do with the decision? Jeff was a big mouth, but no substance. His father’s haulage business was doing very well until the old man died.
Jeff had run down the company and sold most of its vehicles. He then made a lot of noise about going into estate development, but had started five houses and sold them before they were completed. For the last several years, he had sold off the bulk of the fifty acres left by his father, and was desperately trying to find something profitable to do before the lands run out.
Unfortunately, his lifestyle and his mouth were not allowing him. He and Yaw belonged to a group of university contemporaries in business who met at various homes and clubs regularly, but Yaw limited their friendship, if one would call it that, only to socialise over beer and food.
Jeff didn’t like that. Initially he thought that Yaw was protective of Beesiwa, but he later realised he was developing feelings for her. He decided to deploy what they called ‘Takashi’ at the university to grab Beesiwa before one could say Jack. It was past ten.
Some thirty guys and their partners were gathered for the bimonthly dinner of the Business Friends group. Most people had finished their food and were topping up their drinks, and the DJ was about to invite them to the dance floor. Then the MC said ‘ladies and gentlemen, our brother, Jeff Manu, wishes to share some information with us. Over to you, Jeff’.
My dear brothers, and your partners, I would like to make a brief announcement. I have recently asked my girlfriend, my sweetheart, Beesiwa Arthur, to marry me, and she has kindly accepted my proposal. So I am announcing that Beesiwa and I will be having our wedding in two weeks. Of course, you will be receiving invitations in the next couple of days’.
There was a respectful clap of some hands and some expressions of joy, but others stayed silence. The DJ took the microphone, and invited friends to react to the announcement. Billy Ocran expressed his delight that his buddy Jeff was getting married, and wished him and his partner a very successful life together. Yaw took the microphone next, and said, ‘I am really excited to learn that Jeff and Beesiwa have found each other and are planning to get married.
They are two great individuals, and I know this is going to be a successful marriage. Let’s give them a round of applause.’Jeff stopped in front of the house, and Beesiwa managed to share his embrace and what appeared to be a very warm goodnight kiss, then she rushed into her mother’s room and collapsed tearfully. ‘What’s the problem, Beesiwa?’‘
Mama, Jeff announced at the dinner that we are going to get married, and that they will all receive invitations in the next couple of days. A few people reacted nicely, but most of them were shocked. Mama, there’s obviously something wrong. And what makes it more confusing is that Yaw was one of the two people who congratulated us. Something is definitely wrong’. Get some rest, my daughter. We have a long day ahead. I will speak with Jeff tomorrow morning. There may be something that needs to be thrashed out. Maybe you are overreacting
By Ekow de Heer
Features
Fix It Fast or Lose Them Forever: The Ever-Rising Importance of Service Recovery in Competitive Industries
Yes, in literature and in practice, differences exist regarding customer service, service failures, and service recovery.
But have you ever considered the latter (service recovery) and its potential impact on service experience, brand building, and sustainable growth?
Well, in today’s fiercely competitive service economy, customer experience has become one of the most powerful determinants of business survival and long-term success.
Across industries, from aviation and banking to telecommunications, hospitality, healthcare, retail, and digital platforms, customers now expect fast, seamless, and reliable service delivery at every touchpoint.
Yet despite technological advancements and operational improvements, service failures remain inevitable.
Systems experience downtime, deliveries are delayed, reservations are misplaced, payments fail, customer inquiries go unanswered, employees mishandle interactions, and digital platforms experience disruptions.
In the midst of these, what increasingly separates successful organisations from struggling ones is not whether failures occur, but how quickly and effectively they recover when they do.
Service Recovery
Simply put, it is the process of fixing a service problem and restoring customer confidence after a failure has occurred.
Examples of service recoveries are; an airline offering compensation after a flight delay, a telecom company restoring interrupted service and providing bonus data, a restaurant replacing a wrongly prepared meal at no extra cost, a hotel upgrading a guest’s room after a booking problem, and finally a bank reversing an erroneous transaction and apologising promptly.
As competition intensifies and customer expectations continue to rise, service recovery is rapidly evolving from a routine customer service function into a critical strategic capability.
Businesses are discovering a hard truth of the modern marketplace: fix customer problems quickly, or risk losing them permanently.
Customers are More Powerful Now Than Ever
Customers now possess more power than at any other time in business history. Digital technology, social media, online reviews, and mobile connectivity have fundamentally changed customer behaviour.
Consumers now easily compare competitors instantly, publicly share negative experiences, switch providers with ease, and influence the purchasing decisions of thousands of others online.
This evolution has made customer loyalty increasingly fragile. A single poor experience can quickly damage years of brand-building effort.
In highly competitive sectors where products and pricing are often similar, customer experience has emerged as one of the few sustainable competitive advantages.
Modern customers no longer evaluate organisations solely by product quality or pricing. Increasingly, they judge businesses by their responsiveness, reliability, transparency, empathy, and effectiveness in resolving problems.
Why Service Recovery Matters More Than Ever
Failures are no longer viewed as isolated operational incidents, especially in competitive service sectors. They are moments that directly influence customer trust, brand perception, and future purchasing behaviour.
Research across service industries consistently demonstrates that customers are often willing to forgive mistakes when organisations respond quickly, communicate honestly, show empathy, and resolve issues effectively.
Conversely, poor recovery experiences frequently create stronger dissatisfaction than the original service failure itself.
For many businesses, the greatest reputational damage does not arise from operational errors, but from delayed responses, poor communication, lack of accountability, and unresolved customer frustrations.
This has elevated service recovery into a central component of customer relationship management and competitive strategy.
Speed, a Competitive Weapon
In the modern service economy, speed is no longer merely operational efficiency; it is a basic customer expectation.
Consumers increasingly expect: immediate responses, real-time updates, fast complaint resolution, and proactive communication. Delays are often interpreted as incompetence, indifference, or organisational inefficiency.
Consequently, organisations are redesigning their service recovery frameworks to prioritize rapid intervention and customer reassurance.
A cursory assessment revealed that some businesses now operate dedicated customer experience teams, 24/7 support systems, AI-powered service platforms, automated escalation systems, and real-time issue monitoring dashboards.
The ability to resolve customer problems quickly is now a major source of competitive differentiation.
Technology Is Transforming Recovery Strategies
Technology is fundamentally reshaping how organisations manage service recovery. Across industries, companies are leveraging artificial intelligence, customer analytics, chatbots, predictive monitoring systems, and integrated digital support platforms.
These tools allow organisations to identify service failures earlier, monitor customer dissatisfaction, automate responses, personalize engagement, and accelerate resolution timelines.
Some organisations now proactively contact customers before complaints are formally lodged, using analytics to identify service disruptions in real time.
This means that the future of service recovery is increasingly preventive rather than purely reactive.
Service Recovery as a Brand Strategy
Forward-looking organisations are now treating service recovery as part of brand management strategy rather than operational damage control.
The logic is straightforward because, acquiring new customers is expensive, dissatisfied customers influence others, and loyalty is increasingly experience-driven.
Businesses are therefore measuring customer satisfaction, response times, complaint resolution rates, customer retention, and net promoter scores more aggressively than before.
In many industries, service recovery performance is now discussed at executive and board levels because of its direct relationship with profitability, reputation, and long-term growth.
A call to action
As industries become more digital, interconnected and customer-driven, service recovery will likely become even more important.
Therefore, organisations that succeed in the future will likely be those that respond rapidly, communicate transparently, empower employees, leverage technology intelligently, treat customers fairly, and place their (customers’) trust at the centre of recovery strategies.
Remember, customers now have more choices, less patience, and greater influence than ever before, a clear message to forward-looking organisations that when service breaks down, recovery is everything. Fix it fast or risk losing customers forever.
Writer: Mohammed Ali
Conflict at work is more common than you might think. According to 2022 research by The Myers-Briggs Company, more than a third of the workforce reports dealing with conflict often, very often, or all the time in the workplace.
Addressing a dispute might feel tense or awkward, but resolving the conflict is typically well worth it in the long run. Whether you are trying to mediate conflict between colleagues or are directly involved. Last week we looked at three and this week is the remaining four steps you can take to manage workplace conflict.
4. Find common ground
The best way to handle workplace conflict is to start with what you can agree on. Find common ground between the people engaging in conflict. If you are directly involved in the conflict, slow down and focus on results instead of who’s right.
If you are the mediator for conflict resolution between coworkers, observe the discussion and help point out the common ground others may not see.
5. Collectively brainstorm solutions
When deciding how to handle workplace conflict, it can be tempting to problem-solve on your own. Sometimes, it feels easier to work independently rather than collaboratively. However, if you want to achieve a lasting resolution, you will need to motivate your team to get involved.
Brainstorm possible solutions together, and solicit input from everyone involved on the pros and cons of each option until you settle on a solution that feels comfortable to everyone. This will help all team members feel a sense of ownership that can help prevent future conflicts.
6. Create an action plan
Once you have created an open dialogue around workplace conflicts, it is time to resolve them. Just like any other work goal, this requires creating a concrete plan and following through.
Create an action plan and then act on it. It does not matter what the plan is, as long as you commit to it and resolve the conflict as a result.
7. Reflect on what you learned
All conflicts offer an opportunity to grow and become a better communicator. Identify what went well and what did not.
Work with your whole team to gather learnings from the conflict so you can avoid similar situations in the future.
