- 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
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Become a Fanatic!
Fanatical Support is an emotional strong value proposition in the market, and becoming a “Racker”—a term used to describe its employees—is something Rackspace wants every customer to feel. What does being a Racker mean? It is joining the family, and as I would interpret it, it is joining Rackspace’s cause and revolution.
Napier explains this concept, and it is a critical one to grasp because it is what drives honest and heartfelt relationship marketing. “We seized on the right point of difference, the right positioning that within our industry it had been seen as a technical business, and we see it as a service business. So we seized upon this notion of Fanatical Support as a way to express what we’re about as a group of people. We call everybody who works at Rackspace a Racker, and so Fanatical Support expresses what we want to serve for customers and what kind of culture we want to have internally to draw the best out of Rackers everyday. I mean we have a belief that Rackers are these special breed, and if you get them aligned properly and give them the right tools, they will volunteer a great effort that delivers Fanatical Support. And so we want to express all that to our customers. And we have found that Fanatical Support is just a perfect moniker for what we’re trying to describe to our customers. You know, it sets a high expectation in the prospect’s mind.”
Kleber told me that customers want to be Rackers! Because of that, customers are willing to talk about us to their peers. That’s one of the key tactics that Kleber and Holloman leverage—field events that enable customers, or Rackers, to have a forum where they can share their passion with others and where Rackspace can take that customer relationship to the next level.
One of the cool things that they do at the event is a “confession booth.” Kleber explains, “We give customers the truth serum, you know, the beer and wine, and then we get them in the confession booth and they talk about why they love Rackspace and why they would recommend our company and what Rackspace has done for them. We videotape those and then we put those testimonial videos up on our Web site.” (See Figure o1.3.) I know a lot of companies do this; in fact, you may be sitting there thinking that you have customer videos online, too. However, what is different here is the relationship and the pull—not push—to have these shared. These customers are Rackers in the true sense of the word.
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