Fed up of management articles that advise you to be practically perfect in every way? If so, you might enjoy a Harvard Business Review blog by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss (http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2012/02/win-on-service-in-a-tough-econ.html) which urges companies to win on service in a tough economy.
Frei and Francis point out that actually great customer service companies aren’t perfect: “They’re bad at some things. Very bad. But the pattern isn’t random. It’s tightly mapped to their customers’ priorities. Service-leaders tend to over-deliver on services their customers value and under-deliver in areas their customers value least”. If you’re sure you know what your customers, invest in that first – or revamp the business to free the cash to make sure you over-deliver when it really matters to your customers.