Features
Kids do and say the darnedest things
I went to see a friend off at one of the lorry stations or parks in the capital. A young woman was carrying a toddler; definitely her own child. A young man, probably a student in one of the senior high schools was munching what looked like a candy. This toddler stretched her hand in demand of the candy and the mother slapped her arm so hard that the little tot screamed in agony.
It took a lot of coaxing for the girl to stop crying, and the student went to buy another candy for her. This mother’s action drew a lot of condemnation from those around. When she was questioned, all she could say was that she didn’t want to encourage her child asking things from strangers. How would a toddler, barely two years old, understand this?
Whatever catches a child’s fancy, they want to possess. Some are likely to throw tantrums if they don’t get it. In children’s estimation, they own everything around them. Some kids will naturally run away from strangers, even if that stranger has what looks like their favourite toy. But others accept strangers with open arms.
You might have noticed parents beating their little children in order to stop them from crying unnecessarily. My question is: which child keeps quiet just for being whipped? It never happens, because children are not immune to pain from beatings.
There are many children in my neighbourhood; very interesting children. Their ages range between 18 months and six or seven. It is difficult to determine their ages these days unless they live in your house. A few months ago, while some adults looked on as these children were playing, one four-year-old told her playmates that she had been seeing her parents wrestling in their bed with no clothes on. What do my readers make of this?
The child, in her innocence, was only reporting what she saw; nothing more. Whatever wrestling match she saw meant nothing to her, but parents must be mindful of the fact that children, no matter how young, have a very keen sense of observation even if they cannot and do not process what they see as adults are wont to do.
Another one told her mates that her mother grew beard on her genitals. I guess every mother has a particular name for the genitalia the children know. What the little tot was referring to was the mother’s tuft of pubic hair. And because the father had a beard on his chin, her mother’s was elsewhere and she wanted her mates to know that. That’s how simple and uncomplicated a child’s world is. Children have very little or no appreciation of anything that goes on around them.
My two-year-old grandson spills a malt drink on the cushion and his mother screams at him. He gets frightened alright and rushes to me to be cuddled. After a few moments he is back demanding to be given the rest of the malt drink from the mother. It is difficult for some parents to come to terms with the fact that children are just who they are; children.
A couple of years ago, my daughter called me one morning for our usual chat. During the conversation, she told me her eldest daughter wanted to talk to me. She gave her the phone and all my granddaughter asked was, “Grandpa, when will you die?” I heard my daughter shout at her not to ask just a silly question. She took the phone from the little girl and tried to apologise to me for her daughter’s effrontery.
Honestly, if I had asked my parents that question at that age back in the day I would have been accused of being a witch (or wizard) incarnate. Adzevi would have been the right description. Even majority of parents in our parts in this day and age will not take kindly to this question from an impetuous child. Who born dog? All hell would have broken loose. Born-again parents would have taken this child to their pastors for deliverance.Deliverance because of a simple, innocent and inquisitive child’s question?
I asked my daughter to give the phone back to her child. I asked her if she was present at her own birth. She said no. Did she know when she was born? She mentioned the date. How did she know? Her mother told her was her response. She gave very honest answers to my questions. I knew I got her attention, so I went on, “You see, you just said you were told those things by your Mom. What it means is that we never know when we are born until our parents tell us.
“That is how God works. We do not know when we are born, so we do not know when we will die. The decision is God’s as to when He calls us back to where we came from. Do you understand now?” She said she understood and I asked if she had any other question relating to dying. She had none, so I asked her to give the phone back to her mother. I reported our conversation to her and asked her not to dismiss questions children ask outright.
When my grandchildren came visiting on my birthday in January, I raised the issue but my granddaughter did not remember she had ever asked me that question. Children are naturally very inquisitive. Just after about five years, she had forgotten a question she had asked while younger.
Another child who referred to a cripple as an animal because he saw that the person was walking on all fours was so severely beaten that he fell asleep while still crying. How does a child understand these things, one may ask? And the little tot would not understand why he was beaten. Children must be allowed to express themselves freely. What parents must understand is that children say things they see. Therefore, it behoves parents to determine what is right or wrong for their children to be exposed to. Just do not do what your own child will report to her playmates that turns to embarrass you. What children say or do mirrors the way we live in our homes and the immediate environment.
More often than not, adults think children should understand what we understand. They must see what we see. we easily forget that we were once like them; perhaps behaved worse. A mother beats up a child for demanding food she doesn’t have money to afford. Children do not care whether we have the resources to take care of them. They should not, actually. All they want is to play and eat and sleep. Deprive a child of these and your ceiling will come down.
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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.
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Fix It Fast or Lose Them Forever: The Ever-Rising Importance of Service Recovery in Competitive Industries
