I won't be reading the entire article, but what I read on the first page was consistent with a lot of other materials I've read on customer satisfaction (e.g., don't address areas in surveys if you're not willing to tackle them internally...) I also recommend the Jan-Feb '97 HBR, which had an article on achieving high growth through innovation. It pointed out that it was a huge mistake to waste time comparing yourself to the competition, because in doing so you could be wasting money on what your competitors have defined as the cost of entry, rather than what your customers define it as... Freeing up wasted resources can alow you to tackle the value-adds which help to retain a customer longer.