My wife had her front brakes done on her fiat punto the other week. She told me that on driving home she felt the brake pedal had a long travel before they took effect. What I did was with the car on the drive, I turned on the ignition (don't start the engine) and after a couple of seconds I pressed the brake pedal to the floor and held it there for a few seconds. After releasing it I then applied normal brake pressure and the pedal travel was back to normal. My missus now says she only needs a slight pressure on the brake pedal while driving to halt.
It's probably something to do with resetting the calipers or something - anyhow, maybe worth a try.