I've spent more than 30 years in customer-facing roles: hospitality, language services, and everything in between. Across all of them, one thing has stayed constant: customers want the same things. They want what they asked for, delivered when they need it, in a way that feels smooth and pleasant. 

That's it. The industry changes. The product changes. That core truth doesn't.

Today, I'm the Chief Customer Officer at Language Services Associates. But I started there in an entry-level coordinator role and worked my way up over 26 years, managing teams for more than two decades before I ever sat on the executive team. I've answered the phones. I've resolved the complaints. I've heard the praise.

So, when I talk about customer success, I'm not speaking from a purely strategic vantage point. That ground-level experience shapes everything about how I lead now, and the lessons it's taught me apply well beyond any one industry.

Walk the path your customers walk

Here's a question worth sitting with: are you actually using the product or service your company provides? And beyond that, are you walking the same path your customers walk, calling into your own support lines, going through your own workflows, experiencing what they experience?

That's one of the most important things you can do in a customer success leadership role. It's easy to get pulled into strategy, metrics, and executive conversations. Those things matter, but if you lose touch with what your customers are actually going through day to day, you lose the ability to advocate for them effectively.

Starting in an entry-level role at LSA gave me something I couldn't have gotten any other way. I know what it feels like to be on the front line: what customers are asking for, what frustrates them, and what earns their loyalty. That knowledge has informed every decision I've made since moving into leadership.