Sturdy Leadership in Customer Success
As I reflect on the past six years as Director of Customer Success at StellarWP/Liquid Web, following my foundational work as a Customer Success Manager at GiveWP, one core philosophy defines my career: Sturdiness.
Sturdiness is the ability to stay grounded, clear, and connected in the face of someone else’s discomfort, disappointment, or intensity. It means holding your center—your values, your tone, your boundaries—even when the person in front of you is struggling to hold theirs. This philosophy has been instrumental in my growth, transforming my leadership style from reactive management to proactive, strategic guidance.
This post details my career trajectory and the strategic insights gained, demonstrating a commitment to building loyal, high-value customer relationships and scalable, high-performing teams
The Foundation – Customer Success Manager at GiveWP (CSM)
My journey began with a mission-driven focus at GiveWP, a leading WordPress plugin for online fundraising. This role was critical in establishing a comprehensive understanding of the customer lifecycle and the unique needs of the non-profit and open-source communities.
As a Customer Success Manager, my responsibilities were centered on establishing trust and driving initial product adoption.
Core Responsibilities and Achievements:
- Hands-on Relationship Management: I was the dedicated guide, building strong, trust-based relationships with clients at every stage of their journey. This included proactive engagement, regular check-ins, and being the main point of contact for complex issues.
- Onboarding and Time-to-Value: A primary focus was ensuring new customers achieved fast time-to-value through effective onboarding and providing educational resources specific to fundraising and the WordPress ecosystem. I leveraged my extensive WordPress expertise to help non-profits implement and utilize our add-ons effectively.
- Customer Advocacy: I acted as the voice of the customer within the organization, championing their feedback and requirements to the product and development teams to ensure our offerings met their evolving needs. This continuous loop of feedback and iteration was vital for long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Retention and Growth: I drove retention efforts by monitoring usage and engagement metrics, proactively identifying at-risk accounts, and intervening before issues escalated. My deep product knowledge positioned me to identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling features that would genuinely complement their existing setup, directly contributing to expansion revenue.
Section II: Scaling and Strategy – Director of Customer Success at StellarWP/Liquid Web (DCS)
My promotion to Director of Customer Success at StellarWP/Liquid Web marked a shift from individual account ownership to defining and executing a CS strategy across a portfolio of premium WordPress brands and enterprise hosting solutions. My focus moved to building the team, scaling processes, and aligning Customer Success with overall business goals.
Strategic Leadership and Impact:
- Vision and Team Building: I was responsible for the Customer Success team structure, building and leading an inclusive, high-performing team. This included creating and implementing internal processes, developing a data-led model of the customer journey, and ensuring alignment across departments.
- Driving Retention and Expansion Strategy: My core objective was to maximize customer retention and reduce churn across the entire customer base. I determined key metrics, health scores, and KPIs to track team and account performance. I collaborated closely with Sales and Marketing to create and optimize upsell and cross-sell strategies, ensuring Customer Success was a major contributor to ROI and growth.
- Cross-Functional Alignment and Business Acumen: In this role, I served as a strategic partner to senior leadership, setting the vision for product adoption and customer experience. I collaborated extensively with Product, Engineering, and Sales to ensure that customer insights were integrated into the product roadmap and that all stakeholder efforts aligned with the ultimate goal of business growth and customer value realization.
- Leadership Development: I introduced initiatives focused on protecting the emotional energy of the team and reducing burnout, recognizing that a stable team is necessary to deliver stable customer experiences. This directly led to the development of the “Sturdiness” philosophy within the department.
My Customer Success Philosophy – Supporting from a Place of Sturdiness
The concept of Sturdiness is the intellectual property I’ve developed and deployed to enhance customer interactions, team resilience, and ultimately, our Net Revenue Retention (NRR). It is the key to turning difficult moments into opportunities for connection and leadership.
The Sturdy Shift:
Sturdiness is the ability to offer support without over-functioning and to say “no” with clarity without disconnecting. I coach my teams on the mindset shift required to move from being reactive to being a grounded guide:
|
Old Way |
Sturdy Shift |
|---|---|
|
“I have to fix this.” |
“I’m here to guide and support, not rescue.” |
|
“The customer’s frustration is my fault.” |
“I can care about their frustration without absorbing it.” |
|
“I should bend rules to keep people happy.” |
“Clear boundaries are a form of respect.” |
|
“If I say no, I’m being unhelpful.” |
“Saying no with clarity can be the most helpful thing I do.” |
|
Customer Scenario |
Reactive Example (Old Way) |
Sturdy Response (New Way) |
|---|---|---|
|
Product Failure: “Your product broke my site. This is unacceptable. I need this fixed immediately or I’m canceling.” |
“I’m so sorry, we’ll do whatever we can to fix this. Please don’t cancel.” |
“I hear how frustrating this is—it’s a big deal when your site isn’t working the way you need it to. I’m here to help. We’ll need to do some careful troubleshooting together to get clarity on what’s going on. Here’s our first step…” |
|
Negative Experience: “I’ve been trying to set this up for two hours and NOTHING is working.” |
“I’m really sorry to hear you are not having a good experience with our product, This is not how we would like things to go.” |
“Thanks for reaching out and sharing your experience. That’s not the outcome we aim for, and I want to make sure you have clarity on what’s happening and how I can help move things forward.” |
|
Boundary Push: “Can you just go into my site and fix this for me?” |
Logs in or over-explains why they can’t. |
“We’re here to guide you every step of the way, but for security and scope reasons, we don’t log into customer sites directly. I’ll walk you through the fix so you feel confident taking care of it yourself—or I’m happy to connect you with a trusted partner who can assist hands-on.” |
This approach allows us to show our skills in hearing a customer’s pain while remaining empowering and confident that we know what we’re doing and how to lead them through a challenge. It protects the team’s emotional energy, reduces burnout, and builds long-term customer trust by modeling calm and clarity.
