November 20, 2023 • 11 mins
Does your organization foster a culture of family? In this special episode of the People Heroes Rising podcast, host William Tincup interviews Paige La Fever, Sr Advocacy and Marketing Manager at isolved. Live at the isolved Connect roadshow in Palm Springs, Paige shares her role in building customer relationships and driving advocacy.
La Fever fosters this advocacy by obtaining case studies, testimonials, and running isolved's reference and reputation programs. isolved fosters a culture of family with its customers, viewing them as heroes and the company as their sidekick. Paige also talks about the challenges in getting customer testimonials, particularly in larger companies, and the measures isolved takes to offer value exchanges to its customers.
If you feel as if your company can put more work into building a family out of your customers, this is the podcast episode to listen to.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
William Tincup (00:06):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is William
Tincup, and you're listening tothe Recruiting Daily podcast.
We are broadcasting from isolvedConnect in Palm Desert, Palm
Springs, and it is beautiful.
So we got Paige with us today.
Paige, tell us a little bitabout yourself.
Paige La Fever (00:22):
I'm Paige Lefevre, as you just mentioned,
and I'm the senior advocacy andmarketing manager here at
isolved.
Tell us what that, what thatmeans.
So my job role consists of actsof advocacy.
So anytime we need case studies,testimonials, customers to talk
to you guys, analysts, or anyoneto talk on webinars, it's my job
(00:44):
to find our advocates and getthem to participate, but then
also give back to them.
When they're giving to us, wewant to give back to them, so
helping them to becomeinfluencers in their industry.
But I also run our referenceprogram, so anytime our
prospects want to talk tocustomers, we find customers
(01:05):
that will talk to them, and runour reputation program, so how
we compare against ourcompetitors, getting accolades,
testimonials, and all that.
William Tincup (01:13):
So at some software companies, this is a
real tough job.
Oh yeah, definitely.
Right, because they don't have agreat relationship with their
customers or they've oversoldthe software, which happens.
Yep.
Uh, they don't go out and doroadshows, they're not out there
meeting people, etc.
I would assume the job's easier,uh, for you because isolved does
all of that stuff.
Paige La Fever (01:34):
Yep, from our product providing so much to
them, helping them make theirday to day easier.
And free up some time so they'renot answering redundant
questions that their employeeswith their employees health
service can help them with.
It helps but also we create aculture of family with our
customers so we put them first.
(01:57):
They're our heroes and we're thesidekicks helping them.
So, as much as we give to them,they give back to us, and it's
not only a win win situation,but we're helping them grow as
they help us.
William Tincup (02:10):
It's a true partnership.
Yeah.
I mean, a lot of people, whenyou talk to software vendors,
they don't like being calledvendors because it, you know,
it's like that's an expense.
It's a...
Uh, it's something that'stransactional, et cetera.
A true partnership is what Ronand I learned yesterday when we
were doing customer interviewsis they think of y'all as their,
(02:30):
their extension of their HRdepartment, which is rare, I
would tell you.
And so, again, like you'resaying, they're the heroes,
they're the center of attention,you make them look great,
software does that as well, um,what have you, you've been on
stage a couple times here, so,uh, tell us a little bit
Paige La Fever (02:50):
about that stuff.
So our sessions that I've beenin is helping our customers make
the most out of theirinvestment, so everything that
we're providing them from ourPeopleHeroes community.
where they can interact witheach other, source advice.
But we're also on there from ourcustomer service managers to our
product managers, helping themget their answers, questions,
(03:12):
get their answers or theirquestions answered and just
anything else they need.
We're there for them, but wealso have opportunities for them
to grow.
Continue their learning, grow intheir career, help their
employees with learning coursesand everything.
And we recently integrated ouruniversity, our learning
(03:33):
management system, with ourcommunity.
So they can go from thecommunity, get points, and
learn.
And then another.
So you have to do
William Tincup (03:43):
certification in, in like at one point, get
into certification on theproducts and things like
Paige La Fever (03:47):
that?
Yep.
So help them get certified.
And then since IOL is a covetedcertification with, I wanna say
over 140,000 employers using Ohwow.
iol, it's very coveted.
So getting that certification isbig for them, but also if they
wanna get certified in otherareas of hr Right.
(04:08):
We offer that
William Tincup (04:08):
as well.
Oh, I love that.
What's the hardest part ofgetting kind of a customer
testimonial?
Paige La Fever (04:15):
I would say giving back to them.
So what incentive or what can wedo to give them to help them
want to do that act of advocacy?
Why is it worth their time?
What is the cost of it for us tomake that valuable for them?
William Tincup (04:35):
Sometimes, especially in larger companies,
because you'll go all the waydown, um, you span, let's say,
10, 000 employees to 5employees, so you got the whole
range there.
At the larger end of that, um,you have to get PR and, uh,
legal involved, so before theycan...
Say I solved is great, whichthey feel in their heart,
(04:56):
they've gotta run that throughPR and legal, which is very
difficult.
Um, um, a lot of enterprisefolks Mm-Hmm.
they find it extremelychallenging.
Uh, so, so I'm, first of all,I'm happy that y'all, you're not
having as much of thatchallenge.
Yeah.
You're just like, how do Icreate a value exchange?
Mm-Hmm.
to that, that would warrant.
You know, you being on a webinarMm-Hmm.
(05:18):
or something like that.
Paige La Fever (05:20):
Yeah.
So if we face those challenges,we help our advocates where
we're asking for these acts ofadvocacy, we come back, thank
you for doing this case study.
Is this approved?
And we'll help them to know whoto reach out to, to get it
approved, make sure we can putit out there.
But also when a customer's.
Signs on with us in our legalpaperwork, they'll know, like,
(05:44):
yes, you can use our marketingmaterials such as the case study
we just did.
You can use that.
Or they'll know, no, you can't.
So we'll have that first stepfirst and know, like, yes, we
can use them.
The
William Tincup (05:57):
guardrails will be set in place from the
contract and go.
And again, once you build agreat relationship, they love
the software.
Most of your customers, again,they're going to want to do
something.
They're going to want to dosomething with you.
So, uh, I love that.
Tell me, you, you know, we sawyou at Dallas, at the roadshow
in Dallas.
Do you go to many of theroadshows?
Paige La Fever (06:18):
Yes, I probably go to 80 percent of our
roadshows.
I go and help speak at them,promote our community, but
also...
Also, to see our customers,since they're so much like
family to me, it's easy to callthem up on the phone, let them
know I'll be there, and they'llcome out and see us.
Oh, I love
William Tincup (06:38):
that.
I love that.
Favorite part of Connect so far?
Ooh, I
Paige La Fever (06:42):
would...
One thing.
Ah, the customers.
It's one thing to talk to themonline, work with them to get
case studies, ask them, like,hey, can you do a testimonial?
But getting to see them inperson, you have such a
relationship with them that it'slike seeing your best friend and
reconnecting on a family trip.
(07:04):
It's been awesome to connectwith them.
I
William Tincup (07:05):
love that.
Now, did you have anything to dowith putting Connect together?
Paige La Fever (07:09):
So, our events team does a lot of the
logistics, getting that all setup, but working on getting the
customers here, the branding,anything you see like that,
definitely helps with that.
You had a hand in that?
William Tincup (07:23):
Yes.
Yeah, it's funny because I sawyou yesterday and the day
before, you're working 18 hourdays.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, this is, this is not, wellI've told people this for years,
that when they're CEO usuallyhas the idea, the bright idea,
of doing a user conference.
I'm like, the first time thatthe marketer hears that, say,
first of all, ask for a raise.
Second, ask for headcount.
(07:44):
Yep.
Because it's, these things toput on this, I, I mean, I can't
even imagine the amount of workthat went into all the
different, there's stuff on thefloor, there's signage, there's
people running around, there'sdonuts, like, it's, it's insane.
Paige La Fever (07:58):
Yeah, we definitely have an innovative
team, like...
with us that they help come upwith all kinds of ideas, but we
start, once we announce the nextlocation, we're already planning
for that location.
William Tincup (08:12):
I can't wait.
I can't wait, because again, inNashville, when we talked, it's
like, it was great.
It was actually reallyfantastic.
I did more of the ALS stuff, uh,than I did, uh, this trip.
And it was fun.
It was fun going and going tothe customer sessions and just
kind of being there.
Nashville was fantastic.
This, in Nashville, it's as ifthere were not even two events
(08:33):
that were the same people.
It's crazy.
The amount that, just the jumpthat y'all have made from just
in a year.
It's
Paige La Fever (08:40):
crazy.
Yeah, and we definitely have abigger team this year too, which
has been awesome.
That helps.
A lot more attendees.
Oh, yeah.
William Tincup (08:48):
Oh, oh, by a factor of, uh, you know,
probably 10.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Um, all right.
So, last, last question that,that I have.
What would you like to do if youweren't doing advocacy?
What would you like to do atisolved?
I know, I know, sales, presales, you want to be in ops,
(09:10):
your own product?
I want to know what you, becauseyou could do anything,
obviously.
So it's advocacy, that's, youcould do that for the rest of
your life.
That's a never ending, that's anever ending gig, and by the
way, because of the way y'alltreat your customers.
It's a great gig, because youput in the work in product, you
put in the work in talking toyour customers, so you don't
(09:33):
have to do something else, but,
Paige La Fever (09:36):
do you?
If I, if I had to do somethingelse and couldn't do what I was
doing right now, I would saysales.
I know that, I know it has a lotaround it.
But I love, like, helpingpeople, being connected with
people, but I very stronglybelieve that our product helps
people and it makes a differencein their lives, that I would
(09:59):
still be making a difference inthe world.
Helping our customers, givingthem the products they need.
William Tincup (10:05):
Right.
It's just doing it from adifferent platform.
Exactly.
So they're not customers,they're prospects, but then they
become customers.
As you, as you mentioned, theybecome a part of the family.
Yep, exactly.
I love that.
I love, again, I love the wayy'all treat your customers
because it's not, it's notshtick.
I was a, a recovering marketer,if you will.
And some of that is shtick.
It's, it's words we say, right?
(10:27):
This isn't words we say, this isactually how y'all, it's a part
of your fiber, it's part of yourbeing, you actually do care
about your customers, soprospect's no different, you
know, again, you're not gonnatry and sell them something they
don't need, shoehorn somesolution in that they're never
gonna use.
So, we want to create great,lasting relationships.
I can see you there.
(10:47):
Now, you know people are goingto listen to the show, and then
they're going to say, you'regoing to get a call.
No, I'm just kidding.
Uh, thank you so much for beingon the show with us.
Oh
Paige La Fever (10:57):
yeah, definitely.
William Tincup (10:58):
Thank you.
Absolutely.
And thanks for everyonelistening.
Until next time.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is William
Tincup, and you're listening tothe Recruiting Daily podcast.
We are broadcasting from isolvedConnect in Palm Desert, Palm
Springs, and it is beautiful.
So we got Paige with us today.
Paige, tell us a little bitabout yourself.
Paige La Fever (00:22):
I'm Paige Lefevre, as you just mentioned,
and I'm the senior advocacy andmarketing manager here at
isolved.
Tell us what that, what thatmeans.
So my job role consists of actsof advocacy.
So anytime we need case studies,testimonials, customers to talk
to you guys, analysts, or anyoneto talk on webinars, it's my job
(00:44):
to find our advocates and getthem to participate, but then
also give back to them.
When they're giving to us, wewant to give back to them, so
helping them to becomeinfluencers in their industry.
But I also run our referenceprogram, so anytime our
prospects want to talk tocustomers, we find customers
(01:05):
that will talk to them, and runour reputation program, so how
we compare against ourcompetitors, getting accolades,
testimonials, and all that.
William Tincup (01:13):
So at some software companies, this is a
real tough job.
Oh yeah, definitely.
Right, because they don't have agreat relationship with their
customers or they've oversoldthe software, which happens.
Yep.
Uh, they don't go out and doroadshows, they're not out there
meeting people, etc.
I would assume the job's easier,uh, for you because isolved does
all of that stuff.
Paige La Fever (01:34):
Yep, from our product providing so much to
them, helping them make theirday to day easier.
And free up some time so they'renot answering redundant
questions that their employeeswith their employees health
service can help them with.
It helps but also we create aculture of family with our
customers so we put them first.
(01:57):
They're our heroes and we're thesidekicks helping them.
So, as much as we give to them,they give back to us, and it's
not only a win win situation,but we're helping them grow as
they help us.
William Tincup (02:10):
It's a true partnership.
Yeah.
I mean, a lot of people, whenyou talk to software vendors,
they don't like being calledvendors because it, you know,
it's like that's an expense.
It's a...
Uh, it's something that'stransactional, et cetera.
A true partnership is what Ronand I learned yesterday when we
were doing customer interviewsis they think of y'all as their,
(02:30):
their extension of their HRdepartment, which is rare, I
would tell you.
And so, again, like you'resaying, they're the heroes,
they're the center of attention,you make them look great,
software does that as well, um,what have you, you've been on
stage a couple times here, so,uh, tell us a little bit
Paige La Fever (02:50):
about that stuff.
So our sessions that I've beenin is helping our customers make
the most out of theirinvestment, so everything that
we're providing them from ourPeopleHeroes community.
where they can interact witheach other, source advice.
But we're also on there from ourcustomer service managers to our
product managers, helping themget their answers, questions,
(03:12):
get their answers or theirquestions answered and just
anything else they need.
We're there for them, but wealso have opportunities for them
to grow.
Continue their learning, grow intheir career, help their
employees with learning coursesand everything.
And we recently integrated ouruniversity, our learning
(03:33):
management system, with ourcommunity.
So they can go from thecommunity, get points, and
learn.
And then another.
So you have to do
William Tincup (03:43):
certification in, in like at one point, get
into certification on theproducts and things like
Paige La Fever (03:47):
that?
Yep.
So help them get certified.
And then since IOL is a covetedcertification with, I wanna say
over 140,000 employers using Ohwow.
iol, it's very coveted.
So getting that certification isbig for them, but also if they
wanna get certified in otherareas of hr Right.
(04:08):
We offer that
William Tincup (04:08):
as well.
Oh, I love that.
What's the hardest part ofgetting kind of a customer
testimonial?
Paige La Fever (04:15):
I would say giving back to them.
So what incentive or what can wedo to give them to help them
want to do that act of advocacy?
Why is it worth their time?
What is the cost of it for us tomake that valuable for them?
William Tincup (04:35):
Sometimes, especially in larger companies,
because you'll go all the waydown, um, you span, let's say,
10, 000 employees to 5employees, so you got the whole
range there.
At the larger end of that, um,you have to get PR and, uh,
legal involved, so before theycan...
Say I solved is great, whichthey feel in their heart,
(04:56):
they've gotta run that throughPR and legal, which is very
difficult.
Um, um, a lot of enterprisefolks Mm-Hmm.
they find it extremelychallenging.
Uh, so, so I'm, first of all,I'm happy that y'all, you're not
having as much of thatchallenge.
Yeah.
You're just like, how do Icreate a value exchange?
Mm-Hmm.
to that, that would warrant.
You know, you being on a webinarMm-Hmm.
(05:18):
or something like that.
Paige La Fever (05:20):
Yeah.
So if we face those challenges,we help our advocates where
we're asking for these acts ofadvocacy, we come back, thank
you for doing this case study.
Is this approved?
And we'll help them to know whoto reach out to, to get it
approved, make sure we can putit out there.
But also when a customer's.
Signs on with us in our legalpaperwork, they'll know, like,
(05:44):
yes, you can use our marketingmaterials such as the case study
we just did.
You can use that.
Or they'll know, no, you can't.
So we'll have that first stepfirst and know, like, yes, we
can use them.
The
William Tincup (05:57):
guardrails will be set in place from the
contract and go.
And again, once you build agreat relationship, they love
the software.
Most of your customers, again,they're going to want to do
something.
They're going to want to dosomething with you.
So, uh, I love that.
Tell me, you, you know, we sawyou at Dallas, at the roadshow
in Dallas.
Do you go to many of theroadshows?
Paige La Fever (06:18):
Yes, I probably go to 80 percent of our
roadshows.
I go and help speak at them,promote our community, but
also...
Also, to see our customers,since they're so much like
family to me, it's easy to callthem up on the phone, let them
know I'll be there, and they'llcome out and see us.
Oh, I love
William Tincup (06:38):
that.
I love that.
Favorite part of Connect so far?
Ooh, I
Paige La Fever (06:42):
would...
One thing.
Ah, the customers.
It's one thing to talk to themonline, work with them to get
case studies, ask them, like,hey, can you do a testimonial?
But getting to see them inperson, you have such a
relationship with them that it'slike seeing your best friend and
reconnecting on a family trip.
(07:04):
It's been awesome to connectwith them.
I
William Tincup (07:05):
love that.
Now, did you have anything to dowith putting Connect together?
Paige La Fever (07:09):
So, our events team does a lot of the
logistics, getting that all setup, but working on getting the
customers here, the branding,anything you see like that,
definitely helps with that.
You had a hand in that?
William Tincup (07:23):
Yes.
Yeah, it's funny because I sawyou yesterday and the day
before, you're working 18 hourdays.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, this is, this is not, wellI've told people this for years,
that when they're CEO usuallyhas the idea, the bright idea,
of doing a user conference.
I'm like, the first time thatthe marketer hears that, say,
first of all, ask for a raise.
Second, ask for headcount.
(07:44):
Yep.
Because it's, these things toput on this, I, I mean, I can't
even imagine the amount of workthat went into all the
different, there's stuff on thefloor, there's signage, there's
people running around, there'sdonuts, like, it's, it's insane.
Paige La Fever (07:58):
Yeah, we definitely have an innovative
team, like...
with us that they help come upwith all kinds of ideas, but we
start, once we announce the nextlocation, we're already planning
for that location.
William Tincup (08:12):
I can't wait.
I can't wait, because again, inNashville, when we talked, it's
like, it was great.
It was actually reallyfantastic.
I did more of the ALS stuff, uh,than I did, uh, this trip.
And it was fun.
It was fun going and going tothe customer sessions and just
kind of being there.
Nashville was fantastic.
This, in Nashville, it's as ifthere were not even two events
(08:33):
that were the same people.
It's crazy.
The amount that, just the jumpthat y'all have made from just
in a year.
It's
Paige La Fever (08:40):
crazy.
Yeah, and we definitely have abigger team this year too, which
has been awesome.
That helps.
A lot more attendees.
Oh, yeah.
William Tincup (08:48):
Oh, oh, by a factor of, uh, you know,
probably 10.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Um, all right.
So, last, last question that,that I have.
What would you like to do if youweren't doing advocacy?
What would you like to do atisolved?
I know, I know, sales, presales, you want to be in ops,
(09:10):
your own product?
I want to know what you, becauseyou could do anything,
obviously.
So it's advocacy, that's, youcould do that for the rest of
your life.
That's a never ending, that's anever ending gig, and by the
way, because of the way y'alltreat your customers.
It's a great gig, because youput in the work in product, you
put in the work in talking toyour customers, so you don't
(09:33):
have to do something else, but,
Paige La Fever (09:36):
do you?
If I, if I had to do somethingelse and couldn't do what I was
doing right now, I would saysales.
I know that, I know it has a lotaround it.
But I love, like, helpingpeople, being connected with
people, but I very stronglybelieve that our product helps
people and it makes a differencein their lives, that I would
(09:59):
still be making a difference inthe world.
Helping our customers, givingthem the products they need.
William Tincup (10:05):
Right.
It's just doing it from adifferent platform.
Exactly.
So they're not customers,they're prospects, but then they
become customers.
As you, as you mentioned, theybecome a part of the family.
Yep, exactly.
I love that.
I love, again, I love the wayy'all treat your customers
because it's not, it's notshtick.
I was a, a recovering marketer,if you will.
And some of that is shtick.
It's, it's words we say, right?
(10:27):
This isn't words we say, this isactually how y'all, it's a part
of your fiber, it's part of yourbeing, you actually do care
about your customers, soprospect's no different, you
know, again, you're not gonnatry and sell them something they
don't need, shoehorn somesolution in that they're never
gonna use.
So, we want to create great,lasting relationships.
I can see you there.
(10:47):
Now, you know people are goingto listen to the show, and then
they're going to say, you'regoing to get a call.
No, I'm just kidding.
Uh, thank you so much for beingon the show with us.
Oh
Paige La Fever (10:57):
yeah, definitely.
William Tincup (10:58):
Thank you.
Absolutely.
And thanks for everyonelistening.
Until next time.
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