Gretchen Livingstone can't help herself, after a lifetime in hospitality it's ingrained in her.
Our People witnessed this first-hand when, during her time with us, she spied a customer at the cafe's unattended counter.
Gretchen was up in a flash, had a reassuring word with the woman left waiting before popping behind the scenes to rustle up the service she sought.
It's this attention to people and their needs that saw Gretchen crowned Employee of the Year at the recent Rotorua business awards. It's an accolade that's left her bewildered.
She considers she's "only doing my job".
"In hospitality it's all about the guests 110 per cent," insists the woman who's spent 30+ years putting the ethos into practice in Rotorua's eateries.
For what's now almost 10 years, she's been at the upmarket Regent of Rotorua but we can't tell you her job title; she doesn't have one. The Regent's founders, Brent Webster and Darryn Whitehead, didn't believe in them.
"They carried the financial burden as the owner-operators but to them we [the staff] were the owners-operators too. Their philosophy, and it's a wonderful one, is if you became an owner-operator you'll put the whole nine yards into the place, it's only natural staff respond to an incentive like that."
The hotel's changed hands since Webster and Whitehead opened it but the no job titles school of thought remains. Gretchen's still without one.
"I'm simply regarded as the most senior on the floor."
It's that high-profile role that led to her business awards nomination, backed by that intimate knowledge of hers of how to keep customers the centre of her attention. Here we learn Gretchen's recipe for that vital asset of matching individual orders to those who give them.
"I memorise them by associating diners' clothing with their requirements, things like that you can't learn from a book."
Gretchen's done her share of book learning, going straight from school into Wellington Polytech's three-year hospitality course, graduating with a diploma in hotel business management.
By then she was already well versed in "hospo", working weekends in a couple of Wellington cafes.
"They were called coffee shops then, the owner encouraged me, thought I had potential for this industry."
She was working alongside boyfriend, Terry Livingstone, the man she was to marry.
"We'd been together since intermediate, my father sent me to weekly boarding school to keep me away from him."
He failed, in their early 20s the pair went to London on OE together, Gretchen working in a fine dining establishment.
"I learnt the art of silver service from this amazing Austrian man, so dedicated to his craft when he died he was in his restaurant kitchen with a glass in his hand."
We take a step back here to the pre-OE Gretchen, whose interest outside hospitality was contemporary jazz dance.
She wasn't just good at it she was very, very good, winning the national championships in Auckland, her trophy presented by the now Sir Cliff Richard.
"There I was shaking his hand but oblivious to the significance of it, when you are young you're arrogant."
Gretchen's dance floor abilities caught the eye of Limbs Dance Company founder, Mary-Jane O'Reilly. "She wanted me to join but our hearts were set on going overseas."
On her New Zealand return Gretchen became night auditor at Wellington's Town House hotel. "A bit of a laugh really as I count on my fingers."
Her introduction to Rotorua followed. By then she and Terry had married and produced son Zachary.
Terry, a specialist in antique furniture restoration, was offered a job with local furniture maker Martin Caughey.
Gretchen's first taste of Rotorua's dining out trend, then in its infancy, was as carvery restaurant manager at the Caravel Hotel (now the Distinction).
"They had a 50 per cent discount for locals, it was amazingly popular, and the place was pumping. I loved looking after the locals. Today most hotels are too busy worrying about tourists to take care of our locals who are hugely important."
Promotion saw her become guest relations manager, looking after VIPs.
"A lot of celebrities came through, my job was to cater to their every whim."
Gretchen's too professionally discrete to name names.
At 40 she and a friend teamed up to become relieving restaurant managers around the city.
"I have this philosophy that older ones who are in danger of becoming stagnant have to move on to make room for the younger ones coming through."
Among the litany of restaurants she's managed was the Austrian-based Lewishams, owned by Peter Russ and Fritz Durnberger.
By then Gretchen's marriage had ended; she and Fritz became partners, their son Maxamillian was born in 1999. "I was one of life's shocks, I was 41."
Lakes High student Max is already emulating his mum's career, working in a kitchen outside school hours.
Gretchen was at Alzacs (named after her son Zachary and now CBK) when she met Webster and Whitehead.
"They said they were opening this hotel, suggested I come for an interview. In the beginning a lot of locals said it was too glitzy, wouldn't work, I'm so glad they were proved wrong."
When the duo opened Kawaha Point's Black Swan Lodge Gretchen was their woman of choice to run it.
"Oh my God, I met some amazing guests, a lot of Russians and Indians. A prominent Auckland family booked it out for a week, one had only a few months to live, I hated that week because he was way younger than me."
When Black Swan sold it was back to the Regent. We suggest she's become a fixture.
Gretchen doesn't like that one bit.
"I never think of myself as a fixture anywhere, I love this town, move with it, I've seen it grow up especially in this industry. To work in it you have to have passion with a capital P, I believe passion's the key to hospitality, that it's all about the guests."
GRETCHEN LIVINGSTONE
Born: Waipukurau, 1956.
Education: Waipatu Primary, Lower Hutt Intermediate, Solway College, Masterton, Wellington Polytechnic.
Family: Two sons, one grandson. "He's almost 11, calls me Nana G."
Interests: Family, dance "but my body's not as good as it used to be." Running in the Redwoods "I have to stay fit for the sake of my guests."
On her award: "I did background checks on the others in my category. My God, they were amazing, I was so sure I wouldn't win I didn't prepare a speech, I'm still stunned."
On Rotorua: "We can offer what others can't, the geothermal. It's so small the outdoors is so close it's indoors."
Personal philosophy: "Live life to the full, you never know when it's frickin' going to end."