Features
Monsieur’s daughter- (Part 8)
The children started bombarding Gladys with questions from the moment she got home around seven.
“Mama, where is Sarah? We haven’t seen her the whole day.”
“She went to spend a few days with one of your uncles in Accra. She will be back in a few days.”
“One of our uncles? Which uncle? I never knew any uncles in Accra who would invite us to spend time with them.”
“You don’t know all your relatives, my dear. I think we should do something about that.”
“But how can Sarah leave just like that? Mama, this is not fair. Is she not our sister?”
“I’m very sorry, my dear. As I said, she will be back in a few days.”
“As for me, I don’t understand at all. You are living in your house with your sister, then one morning you wake up and she’s not there. And when you ask, they tell you stories. Maybe we won’t even see her again.”
Simon got home around ten. Gladys was preparing for bed. He noticed her swollen eyes.
“What’s the problem, Gladys?”
“David Asante called this afternoon. He said that Sarah was with him. And the kids are demanding to know where she is.”
“Ei! But how did she locate him?”
“I think she found his number in my handbag after I told her his name, and called him.”
“I see. This is certainly troubling. But Gladys, there is also a bright side to it, isn’t there? The guy is her father. He was bound to come for her sooner or later. I’m sure he was just waiting for the right time. And now that he has found her, he will assume full financial responsibility for her.”
“I knew you would say that. You are now able to avoid any responsibility. But don’t forget that I told him that he was not the father, and he seems to have accepted the situation till now.”
“That’s a ridiculous statement. He certainly didn’t accept it. He must have assessed the cost of fighting you for custody, and decided to wait. He may have even been advised by a lawyer. And let’s face it, Gladys, what we did was wrong. Very wrong. You must accept the fact that your main motivation for taking Sarah away from him was revenge. Revenge on him for ending the marriage. And such behaviour always goes with punishment. I don’t want to blame anyone for my problems, but you don’t steal somebody’s child and expect life to deal leniently with you. Let’s accept the situation. Let’s eat humble pie. In fact, I would even go as far as saying that we should go and apologise to him. Immediately.”
“You must be crazy, Simon. All that beer has gone to your head. Don’t you have any pride, as a normal human being? You can go up there, crawl on your knees and beg for forgiveness, but don’t expect to find food waiting for you when you get back.”
“Shut up! You proud, selfish woman. It’s always about you. You are so proud and selfish. Let this be the last time you insult me, okay? I do not bring enough money to help with the family upkeep, but have you counted the cost of your insults on the children? Do you know what you do to your children’s emotions when you insult their father before them constantly? Listen well. Tomorrow morning, we are going to David Asante’s house to apologise for our behaviour. Our stupidity. We leave at five. Call him, or get someone to give you the directions to his house. And pray that God will forgive us for what we did to the innocent girl and her father, and change our difficult circumstances here.”
Betty knocked gently on the bedroom door. Adoma asked her to come in.
“Madam, Steven says there are two people at the gate who want to see you. They are Simon and Gladys.”
“Whaat!” David said.
“Let them in,” Adoma said. “Offer them seats, and water. We will be with them in a few minutes.”
Some fifteen minutes later, David greeted and welcomed them.
“I will go straight to the point,” Simon started. “My wife Gladys and I are here for one main reason. We are here to apologise, without any reservations, for our behaviour that resulted in depriving you of custody of your daughter Sarah, for over seventeen years. We also apologise, unreservedly, for all the associated hardship that you suffered. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to make amends for our behaviour, so please find it in your hearts to forgive us. Now Gladys, do you have anything to say?”
“I agree with every word Simon has spoken. I am very sorry for my behaviour. I am begging you to forgive me, and Simon, for what we did. We are prepared to do anything in our power to make amends.”
“Okay,” David said after quite a pause. “I, we accept your apologies. All is completely forgiven. The only thing we will request from you is to provide us with all Sarah’s school and other records. That is all we need. But I appreciate your boldness for coming, and your frankness.”
“We are so grateful. We will not take much of your time. We will beg to leave.” Adoma whispered a few words into Simon’s ear, and he nodded.
“Sister Gladys, may I have a word with you?” They moved to another side of the hall. “I was wondering if there’s any issue we could help you with.”
“Well, the problem is that Simon brings virtually nothing home. All is not well at his job, and my salary is simply inadequate. If I could get some capital, I would revive the bakery. It was doing well, but we were using our working capital for feeding. If I could start running it, that would give me another steady source of income.”
“So how much will you need to revive it?”
“Ten thousand cedis, to service the machines, and to buy flour, sugar and other ingredients.”
“Okay. We will give you twelve thousand cedis to fully revive the business and sort out any outstanding issues. And we will give your husband five thousand cedis to help him with what they call one-two-one-two. Let’s go back to our seats.” Adoma whispered back into David’s ear. David went to the bedroom, came back and handed an envelope each to Simon and Gladys.
“Thank you very much, David. We are truly grateful. Well then, we will be on our way.”
“Steven will drop you at the bus station. But before you go, let’s tell Sarah you are here. Or, Adoma, why don’t you call all of them?”
The girls came and stood before them.
“Abrefi and Adaawa, this is Sarah’s mother Auntie Gladys, and her stepfather Uncle Simon. Sarah, they came in to apologise for any mistakes they made in the past, and have promised to do anything they can to put everything in its place. Now, you fully belong here, but we will later find a way for you to interact with your two other siblings. Is that okay?” Sarah nodded, and the couple rose, hugged her and walked to the door.
“Now, Frenchman,” Adoma said as she hugged her husband, “Sarah is fully and truly yours.”
“I noticed,” Simon said as they sat on the bus to Koforidua, “that your envelope was much bigger than mine. Why is that?”
“You should count yourself lucky that I did not snatch it before he handed it to you. Listen, they asked me what they could do to help us, and they gave me the money after I specifically told them that I need help to revive the bakery. I’m going to make sure that it brings in good profit. And they gave you the money to help you fix anything that is outstanding. I don’t think anything is more important than your car. If you can do some repairs on it, you can take the kids to school and back, you can help me with bakery purchases and deliveries, and you can get some respect back by driving to work and back instead of taking tro-tro.”
“I will certainly do that, I assure you. I’m taking this as an opportunity to put our life back in order. I will not disappoint.”
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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.
