Customer Service: Rackspace Gets Personal
Get Elastic reader Philip Mikal sent me an email linking to a recent blog post where he posted a photo of a hand-written appreciation note he received from Rackspace hosting:
Says Mikal: “A handwritten note and cow bell to celebrate their recent IPO; Rackspace understands that customer service is the new marketing.”
The cowbell may be red, but it rings of the Purple Cow philosophy: be remarkable.
One way to be remarkable is to “hire for culture” and empower customer service reps to go above and beyond the “call” of duty. As Tony Hsieh shared with the crowd at Online Market World:
“A woman found the perfect pair of shoes for her husband and she was waiting for her husband to come home so she could surprise him with the shoes and he unfortunately died in a car accident on the way home. So she called the company for help with the return process, and the rep she talked to sent her flowers. She was so touched, she told the story to everyone at the funeral.
“This type of situation doesn’t happen very often–we don’t have a process or procedure for that. But because we hire for culture, the rep just took it upon herself to send the flowers. She didn’t have to ask for approval–she was empowered to do that. She wasn’t thinking about what is the impact on our profits. She just knew this was the right thing to do.”
Approaching the holidays in a downward economy, customer loyalty is more important than ever. How will you be remarkable this season?
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What a simple and powerful post. This is going to my CEO.
The web can be an awfully impersonal place. But that provides an opportunity to surprise and delight customers with simple, unexpected gestures. These are two great examples!
One nitpick: is there an overleaf to that note? Or is it really not signed?
Ooh, looks like it’s not signed… :)
This is a great idea! Many people are so bogged down by email, your email thank you note may be overlooked.
Thanks for the mention Linda!
Rackspace are outstanding. They host all our sites and they’ve always do an oustanding job for us.
“customer service is the new marketing” … dig that, nice.
The treatment that Philip experienced from Rackspace is not surprising. They do a super job.
This should remind all of us that sometimes the small things can have a significant impact on a company’s perception. But more than that - it’s just the right thing to do.
As a former client of Rackspace I can attest, they do a phenomenal job. This note doesn’t surprise me, their techs always went above and beyond the call of duty to assist us. We always felt appreciated. Their customer service is top notch - companies could take a lesson from them.
Rackspace are probably the most established and reliable hosting companies to date.
They have also acquired http://www.mosso.com/ which offers enterprise level hosting.
I completey agree to what Michael said. This is going to my CEO too
A personal touch is always welcome especially when dealing with a large, established firm. However a ‘real’ (ie. photocopied) letter can have a hugely negative effect.