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No margin, no mission.  No mission, no magic.  How do you take magic to the next level?  That's service mastery.

Raving Fan Communities - Brands leveraged to their full potential (think Apple's iPhone) build raving fan communities. Feeling a part of something larger than themselves helps customers  forgive occasional service hiccups.  Building a community won't let you get away with repeated transgressions, but it does mean you'll have more flexibility, assuming you use it wisely.

Walk Your Talk - The internet means no more hiding behind carefully crafted memos and press releases.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and sites like www.GetSatisfaction.com take instant service to the masses.  Every employee take notice of that raving fan community.  They're counting on you to deliver and so is your brand!  Watch out for inhuman phone menus and other technological wonders of customer alienation.

Sweat The Details - You've got your community of raving fans and you're concerned about how they feel every moment.  Good!  Now you need systems and processes that back up that concern.  How do you know when there's been a customer service breakdown?  Does your team  debrief the good and the bad experiences?  To learn from slip ups you've got to know about them.  Measure, analyse, respond, plan and document (publicly if possible) what you'll do next time. 

Raving fans love this stuff and most of the time they'll pay a premium for it.  That's a level of success we can all appreciate.

• See this article in the Nashville Chamber of Commerce "Small Business Wire " newsletter.