"Then why do you look worried?"
Amara pointed toward the dashboard.
"Because the complaint count is lower, but I want to know whether customers are more comfortable speaking up. A decline in complaints can mean people are happier. It can also mean they've stopped expecting anyone to listen."
Malik sat across from her.
"How do you plan to measure that?"
"Follow-up interviews. Independent customer surveys. Random reviews of closed cases. And I want the complaint system separated from the sales-performance reporting."
"Why?"
"Because managers should not have an incentive to make complaints disappear just to improve a performance score."
Malik nodded.
"That makes sense."
Amara opened the report.
"Rachel has also proposed a customer recovery program."
"What's included?"
"Direct apologies, product repairs, refunds where appropriate, and independent review for disputed cases."
"That sounds expensive."
"It will be."
Malik raised an eyebrow.
"You're not even going to pretend to consider the cost?"
"I considered it months ago."
"And?"
"And the cost of doing nothing is higher."
Malik smiled faintly.
"Your grandmother would have liked that answer."
Amara looked at the framed photograph on her desk.
"I hope so."
The customer recovery program was launched the following week.
It was not advertised as a promotion.
There were no bright banners in the store, no discounts announced on social media, and no campaign promising that Ebony Elegance had become a completely different company.
Amara did not want customers to be persuaded by another marketing message.
She wanted them to see evidence.
The first stage involved reviewing every complaint that had been improperly closed.
The second involved contacting customers who had been affected.
The third involved offering practical remedies where the evidence justified them.
The company established a dedicated telephone line and email address for customer concerns. Every complaint received a unique reference number. Customers could request a written record of the issue and the steps taken to address it.
Most importantly, employees could no longer close complaints simply because they had sent a message or left a voicemail.
The customer had to be given a reasonable opportunity to respond.
If the customer did not respond, the case could be marked as awaiting customer contact, not resolved.
That distinction mattered.
It prevented management from confusing an attempt at communication with a successful resolution.
Rachel oversaw the new process, while David's compliance team conducted random audits.
Samuel remained responsible for the Manhattan store.
The new system was not perfect, but it was visible, measurable, and open to review.
During the first month, several employees complained that the process took too long.
Samuel listened.
Then he asked them a question.
"Would you rather spend five minutes documenting a complaint properly, or spend six months trying to explain why we ignored it?"
Nobody had a convincing answer.
The next major challenge came from the product department.
It began with Daniel Brooks.
He had been asked to review the photograph he had taken of the damaged handbag strap. The item had been identified as part of a limited production batch of the Celeste Signature handbag.
The bag was one of Ebony Elegance's most popular designs.
Its leather was produced by a family-owned tannery in Italy. The hardware was custom-made, and each bag was supposed to pass several inspections before distribution.
Daniel's photograph showed a stitching failure near the strap attachment.
At first, the quality-control team believed it was an isolated issue.
Then another customer complaint appeared.
And another.
The same stitching failure.
The same area of the strap.
The same production batch.
Amara called an emergency meeting.
The room contained representatives from product development, quality assurance, operations, compliance, and customer experience.
A large image of the defective strap appeared on the screen.
"How many units were produced?" Amara asked.
"Two hundred and forty-six," replied Helen Price, the head of product quality.
"How many were distributed?"
"All 246 entered the distribution system. Some remain in inventory."
"How many were sold?"
"One hundred and eighty-three."
"And how many confirmed complaints?"
"Twenty-seven."
Amara looked at the image.
"Twenty-seven is not an isolated problem."
"No," Helen admitted.
"What caused it?"
"We believe the adhesive used in the reinforcement process was inconsistent. The stitching itself may also have been affected by a change in the assembly procedure."
"Was the supplier change approved?"
"Yes, but the quality-control documentation is incomplete."
"Why?"
Helen glanced at her notes.
"The supplier submitted a revised technical specification. It was approved at the regional level, but the supporting test records were not attached to the final file."
"Who approved it?"
"Two product managers and a regional procurement supervisor."
"Did they inspect the finished product?"
"Not personally."
Amara sat back.
She had spent months investigating a store that had allowed employees to misrepresent defective products as customer misuse.
Now she was facing a different kind of failure.
The defect was not simply a problem with one handbag.
It was evidence that the company's internal controls had allowed a product-quality issue to reach customers without adequate verification.
"Can we determine whether the defect is limited to this batch?"
"We believe so," Helen said. "But we need independent testing."