FACE BEHIND THE BUSINESS: Contact with regulars is special

Name: Lisa Burgi
Age: 40s
Location: Sober Camel Cafe, Grey St, central Tauranga
What is your job? I am one of the proprietors, my husband and I own the business. I serve as well, so I'm quite big with customer service.
How long have you been working here? We've owned
 the business for about seven years.
Why did you get into it? We've been working in the hospitality industry all our lives and we wanted to do something for ourselves. We moved here from Auckland and we absolutely love it here.
What's your favourite part of the job? I love serving people and seeing the customers come in. We get quite a few regulars and we get to know them - it really is a great job.
What were you doing before this? I had a few years out because I was a mum. But my husband and I have been working in the hospitality area for ever. He was a chef and we also had a restaurant in Auckland.
What was your most memorable or embarrassing day? (at work) It was winter and the shop was busy. There were people standing in line and and a lady walked through the door and tripped. At the same time, a person decided to shut the glass sliding door and the lady fell and her head got shut in the door. She wasn't hurt and it was hilarious. She was  okay about it and had a laugh as well. Another time I wrote "noddles" on the board, not noodles, and
a customer came and pointed it out - that was pretty embarrassing.
Number of employees? We have five in total - one fulltime, two part-time and my husband and I.
Tell us about your workmates: They're all very loyal and to be successful in this industry, they have to have good customer service. Obviously they have to bring their skills, for example a barista. They also bring creativity and experience to the job.
How do you go the extra mile for your customers? We get a lot of comments from people who have been coming here for years, about how we can remember faces and we can still remember their coffee and their food. Some like things warmed extra hot or some don't like butter on their scones, and we have a knack of remembering things like this. We also listen to the customers and change to meet their needs. For example, if people have requests then
we'll try and listen to the customers and introduce new things, for example gluten-free items.
What do you do after work (in your spare time) to unwind? For the last few years we've been involved with the children  ... we're very involved in snow skiing and we like to go up [to Turoa] every weekend, as often as we can. We go every Friday night and spend the whole weekend away.
What does the future hold for you? In the future we will probably move on to something else but at the moment we will stay here ... we absolutely love it and this is a great place. The lifestyle and way of living is really great and we're having a blast.