Five Ways to Gauge Your Data Center Customer Experience

The customer experience can make or break a business. Across all industries, customers have options. If one business does not satisfy their needs, another is waiting with open arms to provide them with the products and services they want. Businesses like LL Bean and Apple have built their brands on delivering second-to-none customer experiences that integrate top-rated products and personalized service. This approach is an increasingly important part of success; 80% of consumers say they prefer doing business with companies that offer personalized experience.¹

80% of consumers say they prefer doing business with companies that offer personalized experiences.

Freshworks, The Future of CX: 2022

Delivering exceptional experiences is key for data centers as well. In an industry where space, power and cooling are perceived commodities, the customer experience can differentiate one provider from another. For example, while uptime is still the most critical industry factor, it really only represents a “ticket to the dance”…the base-level expectation for data center customers. 

Data centers need to offer a personal touch that makes customers feel like valued partners, in addition to customized infrastructure solutions that provide better access to and control over their hybrid IT environments.

Here are a few thoughts around what you should keep in mind when evaluating data center providers, and remarks from our customers that we think will move us to the top of your list.

A Customer-First Approach

The sales process provides an opportunity for enterprises to gauge the data center team’s expertise and commitment. During this initial phase, an enterprise should feel confident that the data center provider hears its needs and concerns and is dedicated to finding an infrastructure solution that meets business objectives, rather than simply selling a product. Receiving a consistent message from the various data center provider’s stakeholders – such as the account executive (AE), solution architects, integration specialists and even leadership – can be another indication of the data center provider’s culture.

Continued Touchpoints

A great customer experience will include frequent touchpoints to ensure evolving needs are met. The migration process offers a prime opportunity to see the provider’s team in action; every implementation is bound to have issues. Working through issues as partners with a common goal can be a great indicator of a positive customer experience over the long term.

An Extension of the Internal Team

To provide a world-class customer experience, data centers must operate as an extension of the enterprise’s internal IT team. With a broad bench of IT infrastructure experts, CoreSite goes beyond managing and maintaining the data center to offer ongoing guidance on deployments and services that can strengthen the organization’s IT strategy. 

CoreSite understands that its customers are not in the data center business – their core competencies lay elsewhere. With CoreSite’s support, customers can focus on their own business goals to deliver a better customer experience to their customers. In a way, the better the customer experience is with your data center provider, the better the customer experience you can deliver, whether that’s with your employees, business partners or market.

“Voxility is not one of CoreSite’s largest customers, but the attention and service we receive makes us feel equally valued."


Maria Sirbu, Vice President of Business Development, Voxility

Responsiveness

Customers want to know that someone is looking out for their needs, regardless of the size of the company or the contract. How a data center team responds can swing customer satisfaction in either direction. CoreSite’s open, transparent communications and rapid response times quickly address issues, making customers feel like valued partners.

Case in point is Voxility, which provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service to internet providers and large websites in the best-connected data centers in the U.S. and Europe. “Voxility is not one of CoreSite’s largest customers, but the attention and service we receive makes us feel equally valued,” said Maria Sirbu, Vice President of Business Development at Voxility.

CoreSite’s team, from AEs to onsite technicians, works hard to make themselves available to their customers, answering questions and addressing concerns so customers know someone is looking out for them every step of the way.

Creative Solutions

A flexible approach to problem solving is another critical component of a first-rate customer experience. CoreSite is dedicated to finding creative solutions to unique, sometimes difficult problems.

City of Hope, one of the nation’s top cancer treatment and research centers, is located in Duarte, California. They were looking to reinforce their BC/DR strategy by colocating in Los Angeles, in addition to their two small on-premises data centers and space in a Phoenix data center.

CoreSite suggested an alternative –our SV7 data center in Santa Clara. By choosing that facility, City of Hope was able to establish the geographic diversity they need, further balance workloads and take advantage of SV7’s Microsoft Azure native cloud onramp to cut data transfer costs. The money they save is being redirected to their core mission.

Mark Hernandez, Senior Manager, Data Voice Networking IT, City of Hope National Medical Center, sums up the experience: “We pride ourselves in offering exceptional care to our patients and ground-breaking research to the cancer community. CoreSite has helped City of Hope future-proof a hybrid IT strategy that decreases our egress fees, reduces latency and is mindful of our potential requirements.”

Deliver More Innovative, Value-Added Services 

Relationships will always be a critical element of the customer experience. However, in a fast-moving, digital world, innovative IT solutions are necessary to provide a competitive edge. Businesses need opportunities to improve their capabilities, control costs and pivot to address customer needs and market demands.

The OCX is an interconnection platform built to solve digital business challenges.

The CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange®

CoreSite helps its customers rapidly provision and automate hybrid cloud and data center interconnections with the Open Cloud Exchange® (OCX). The OCX allows enterprises to establish direct, secure and virtual connections to an IT service provider ecosystem and public cloud providers – including AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and Oracle – with a single cross-connect. 

Enterprises can improve their agility while reducing cloud data transfer and network services costs. Service delivery intervals are cut from weeks to days. Connections are established and managed in near real-time using a software-driven service delivery platform.

We’re Ready to Make a First Impression! 

CoreSite blends its world-class customer experience with a commitment to digital solutions that enhance the agility and performance of its customers’ IT environments while controlling costs. As enterprises assess data center services, the customer experience will continue to set providers apart from one another. Choosing a partner that can offer the right mix of support and innovation can help enterprises achieve the agility, performance and cost savings they need to focus on delivering differentiating customer experiences themselves.

We’re ready to make a first impression! Contact us to get the conversation started today.

¹ Freshworks, The Future of CX: 2022

Chris Otterson

Chris Otterson

Director of Client Services

Chris brings 20+ years of experience focused on supporting customers in various IT and business capacities including: customer service, process improvement, project/program management, analytics and guidance.

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