I’ve been doing some interviews with cafe and hotel owners’ just recently. I’m curious to know what their experience is and how they see customer service. Today I was blown away by the philosophy that Alan from Lonsdale St Roasters brings to the table.

His bustling little cafe is just down the road from where I work, and while it’s only been there eight months it is always packed out. How does he do this?

“It’s about creating a space where people feel comfortable” he tells me. Ok, now I’m sure that this is nothing new to any of our readers. But which people? For Alan this begins with staff feeling comfortable. His staff is just as important as his customers and they must feel relaxed and able to be themselves. This then just naturally gives permission for customers to be themselves.

The evidence shows. When you first see the cafe from the outside it looks hip and happening and you might suspect that from a distance its one of the places where only the hipsters with their iphones get their morning brew. But once inside, the range of people that love to soak up this atmosphere is truly a testament to Alan’s philosophy. There is a new mother with her sleeping baby, a gaggle of students with various iGagdets, a grandmother enjoying her brew, a cyclist in his training skins chatting with a girl in business clothes, the list goes on.

One thing that is always a challenge when lining up interviews like this is gatekeepers, you know, the people at the front counter who, if they are working in any kind of bureaucracy, feel that they should be protecting their supervisor from unwanted interruption. The type that will deal with you cooly if you ask to chat with the manager. But there was none of that, I am greeted as a friend and it was no trouble at all that my request to have a chat with Alan wasn’t the usual order for a soy flat white.

Its a strong part of Alan’s Philosophy that we have a wider responsibility to our community, that it’s our responsibility to support the happiness and health of those around us. “I make eye contact with 500 people everyday, you can tell if they are happy or sad” he says. “This reflects the heath of your community.” He tells me how a little while ago they were robbed - a grand sum of $48. The fact that there are people in the community that need to take such desperate measures tells Alan that the community is not as healthy as it could be, and he sees community as a key responsibility. And one that all of us share.

When you see other people’s happiness as your responsibility, not because they are your customers and staff, but because looking after them means looking after the health of your community, then powerful things happen. May the Lonsdale St Roaster community thrive-on.