- Focus on Word of Mouth
- Focus on Word of Mouth (cont)
- Focus on RackSpace
- Focus on RackSpace (cont)
- The Word-of-Mouth Agenda at Rackspace
- The Word-of-Mouth Agenda at Rackspace (cont)
- The Word-of-Mouth Agenda at Rackspace (cont)
- The Word-of-Mouth Agenda at Rackspace (cont)
- The Word-of-Mouth Agenda at Rackspace (cont)
- The Word-of-Mouth Agenda at Rackspace (cont)
- Rackspace Lessons Learned
- Rackspace Lessons Learned (cont)
- Rackspace Lessons Learned (cont)
- Conclusion
love if someone they trust recommends another brand! Why? Again, it is because people trust others who are like them.
Focus on RackSpace
For this case study, I talked directly with Lanham Napier, the president and CEO of Rackspace, Klee Kleber, vice president of Product and Marketing, and Halli Holloman, a member of the RackSpace marketing team. This is an entrepreneurial firm that leverages honesty, word of mouth, and relationships to grow its business.
What Is Rackspace?
Rackspace is a Texas-based company that is a recognized leader in the global managed hosting market and delivers enterprise-level managed services to businesses around the world. Rackspace is one of the fastest growing privately held companies and has won a number of awards, including one of “the best places to work.” In addition, it is recognized by the Forbes Fast 50 technology companies as one of the fastest 50 growing technology companies. Ernst & Young also recognized the leadership team with the Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Rackspace was founded in 1998 and since then, it has grown more than 50 percent a year.
The Customers
Rackspace’s customers come from small and medium businesses across the globe. They have around 13,000 customers to date.
The Product
The main business for Rackspace is IT hosting. It offers its customers a hosting infrastructure that runs Web sites and provides a platform for customer solutions. From Wikipedia, Rackspace has two main service level segments: managed and intensive. Both service levels receive support via the usual means—e-mail, telephone, and ticket systems—but they are designed to fit the needs of different businesses.
The managed support level consists of on-demand support where proactive services are provided, but the customer is welcome to contact Rackspace when he needs additional assistance. The intensive support level consists of