The award for outstanding customer service is an effort to promote customer service among all businesses today.

Rackspace, a managed hosting provider, today announced the inaugural FANATI award for outstanding customer service to honor the one customer that has best demonstrated excellence when it comes to customer service. The company announced websketching, a website design firm for small to medium-sized businesses, as the 2007 winner.

The company states that as an service company, they introduced the FANATI to recognize the customer service excellence of other companies in an effort to promote customer service among all businesses today. Company's award applications, were available only to their customers, which were accepted online through their MyRackspace customer portal.

In order to validate the finalists' applications, a customer satisfaction survey was sent to the nine finalists' customers. Based on both scores, Websketching proved their customer service excellence and came out on top due in large part to a near-perfect customer satisfaction score.

"By limiting the geographical area we serve, we can take the time to personally meet with our clients' at their place of business so that we can better determine the needs of their business," said Christine DeGraff, co-founder and partner, Websketching. "My clients trust that our goal is to help their business succeed, just like Rackspace. In just one year at Rackspace, I have seen Fanatical Support firsthand. It means that I do not have to wonder if my request has been received or when it will be done; but a peace of mind knowing that my request is always immediately acknowledged and that every request is treated as important and completed in as little time as possible. This is something I try to duplicate to my clients."