Paige Leffert: Customer Success & Nothing Less

Here at Sertifi, we love our customers. It’s no secret that we would not be where we are without them. In return, it’s our job to offer guidance and support to ensure they’re using our solutions to their fullest extent so they can work more efficiently and effectively. 

As a crucial part of the Sertifi family, our customer success team works day in and day out to proactively engage with our customers to ensure they succeed. Paige Leffert is one of those family members. I sat down with her to learn more about her current position at Sertifi, her journey through the hospitality industry, and her passion for people. 

Mimi McNulty: What is your current job function? 

Paige Leffert: As an enterprise customer success manager, I manage the company's relationships with our corporate enterprise accounts. So, rather than working with the thousands of accounts that are out there individually, I work with the core corporate teams to make sure that they have standards set in their portfolio and are functioning well. 

MM: What does your day-to-day look like? 

PL: My day-to-day is not cookie cutter. I never know exactly what I'm going to get into, which I love, because if I do the exact same thing every day, I would turn into a robot and go crazy!

MM: What are the types of tasks that could fill your plate? 

PL: Let’s see... when an account with multiple properties wants to set up a solution, I’ll manage that rollout, including making sure the settings match the corporate team’s requests and their properties’ needs. I also train staff at properties who need a little bit of extra support when working with our solutions. 

I'm a big data nerd, so I love pulling reports, and I get to draft a lot of them. I love studying them, comparing them, and seeing where changes have been made and where we can help customers improve their usability. If a property’s Sertifi usability stats or portfolio is not consistent across the board, I work with their corporate team to make them consistent. Consistency makes it easier for the people that are managing the portfolio to understand Sertifi’s impact on their property. 

MM: How did you end up working in the hospitality tech industry? 

PL: Well, I’ve always loved the idea of taking care of people. You know, welcoming them into your home, serving them, so, when I was in college, I applied for a six-month internship at Walt Disney World, and I got to go down there and learn all about the different parts of the hospitality world. By the end I had fallen in love with sales and catering.

MM: Wow! That sounds like quite an adventure! Did you stay after college? 

PL: Oh, it was! It’s still one of my favorite places in the world, but I didn’t stay. I graduated in 2009 and didn’t find a career path right away, so I was a bartender for a while and that was fun. I loved interacting with so many different people. I would chat with them, make them feel welcome, learn about their lives, learn their story, and formed friendships. I was offered a few jobs here and there but none of them would have brought me joy like bartending did because that level of interaction was missing. I guess that’s where I cemented my desire for the hospitality world. Soon enough, I found a sales and catering position at a hotel in Chicago, and it was the right fit.

MM: How did you end up at Sertifi? 

PL: When the pandemic happened, catering and hotels were not. Coincidentally, I was already thinking it was time to switch gears career-wise. I thought that I had gotten everything out of hotels that I could. At the same time, I didn’t want to give up hospitality because it’s what I really love. But hotels were shut down at the time, and I needed a job. So, when the opportunity to work at Sertifi came around, I jumped at the chance. Sertifi made sense, and it opened a whole new realm of hospitality for me to dive into. By working at Sertifi, I would get to keep not just a foot in the door with hotels, but I would get to keep my connection to the hospitality industry.

MM: You began as a customer success specialist at Sertifi. What about the role jumped out at you? Did it, as you say, “spark joy?” 

PL: Yes! It was the people, the customers. And that’s what I ultimately loved when I was in the hotel business. At hotels, there are usually the salespeople who sell contracts to customers and then the contract gets turned over to the service side, and it’s their job to see the contract through for an event, a catering job, conference services, etc. And I had done both. The moment you called me, I was with you until the very end. So, I got to make really good relationships with not only corporate clients, but also through social events as well. And Sertifi let me continue to do that. I want to work with customers to help make their lives easier. 

MM: What’s your favorite part about your position? 

PL: It's 100% the customers. I work with tons of different people, but the ones that I work with frequently, I get to know them beyond the product. You see, as the business partnership between their company and ours grows stronger, I think I grow better as a person, and I hope that they get something out of our relationship, too. Being able to have those connections with people is the best. If I had a job where I didn’t, I would be so bored.

MM: What’s your favorite part about working at Sertifi? 

PL: We have a really, really, really great team. Not just customer success but Sertifi as a whole. I’m not afraid to ask questions because if I don't know something, I can't fake it. And fortunately, we've got a really great team who I think understands that not everybody does speak the same language, if you will. We are willing to help each other understand. 

MM: You are a powerhouse with such a kind heart, and both have taken you far in your career. Do you have any advice for women in business? 

PL: Speak up – on everything! Even if you don’t have a question, let the world know that you have something to contribute. 

MM: “Well, thank you for meeting with me, Paige! It was a delight to speak to you.” 

PL: “Thank you for having me!”