Service with a smile, and a playlist
Jessica-rose Fastier might be the most famously upbeat barista in Taranaki, and it all started with a smiley face.
That was the first thing she decided to draw on a takeaway coffee cup at the Z service station on Courtenay St, New Plymouth, where she works.
“It got to a point where on days I wasn’t here, people would come back in and say: ‘I didn’t get a smiley face’,” the 27-year-old said.
“When I got the chance, I would write ‘Have a nice day’ and things like that too.”
The messages on the coffee cups have grown in popularity over the year she has been working at the service station, one of the city’s busiest, and now each message has an inspirational tone.
Her favourite message to date, “If you ain’t smiling, you ain’t living,” came from a customer.
“When he said that, I thought: ‘That is going on a cup.’”
The cups are a reminder of daily practices she wants to live by, too – things such as “laugh all the time”, “be kind”, and “try your best”.
Walking into the service station when Fastier is working is a unique and, for the uninitiated, surprising experience.
People tell her it’s like being in a nightclub, which is one of her favourite compliments.
Her playlist is blaring while she sings at the top of her lungs, always with a smile on her face.
“I like older music, so a lot of Eagles, Elton, Abba. People walk out being like, ‘What an earth was that?’
“I was pretty nervous about the job at the start, so I thought of it as pretending you’re in your kitchen and you’re making a coffee. So I would be dancing.”
Eilish Hurley, the operations manager for Z Taranaki, said the business was constantly receiving feedback about Fastier’s outstanding customer service.
“The description is, ‘The crazy blonde lady made my day,’ or, ‘I love the blonde lady’s playlist.’
“The team love working with Jess too. Everyone feeds off her [energy].”
Hurley said that at a meeting, Fastier told her fellow baristas: “I like to treat each person like they’re the only people in the store and like they’re a long-lost friend.”
Soon, Fastier will be attending the Z National Hero Awards on the strength of her customer service.
Fastier’s philosophy is that you never know what is going on in someone’s day, so she wants people to know they can be happy and to make sure everyone feels acknowledged.
She said it was her customers and their kindness that kept her going and her spirits high.
“You get one life and you have to enjoy it. You spend all your time at work – you have to fun.”