How Rackspace Generates Cloud Computing Customer Loyalty

By samdizzy

Rackspace VP of Enterprise Strategy Andrew Schroepfer says the cloud computing company has a 1 percent monthly churn rate. How did Rackspace achieve such a low customer churn and high customer retention? Schroepfer offered some insights during the CA Technologies MSP Symposium today in Miami, Fla.

Schroepfer pointed to four lessons:

Schroepfer also pointed to the classic “net promoter score” — which asks that core question: How likely are you to recommend our company or service to your best friend? It’s designed on a scale of 1 to 10. Rackspace’s CEO commits an hour each day to read every customer comment that involves “10” feedback as well as every customer comment that’s a “3” or below.

Schroepfer urged MSPs in the room not to chase every cloud opportunity. Instead, he stressed focus, focus  and more focused. As an example, Schroepfer mentioned that Rackspace only hosts Linux and Windows services. The cloud provider walks away from potential deals that involve IBM AIX and other Unix variants.

Impressive Rackspace Results

So far, Rackspace’s focus appears to be paying dividends. Rackspace is adding about 1,000 employees per year, and the company expects to have 100,000 physical servers under management by the end of 2012.

The killer takeaways:

So what’s next from Rackspace? How about this for a potential move: A managed services business, where Rackspace will apparently remotely monitor and manage customers’ on-premises servers. It’s a possibility.