CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Kellie Kehaulani Harris served a dish at Compadre's Bar & Grill on Thursday. The 31-year-old Maryknoll graduate has been promoted to operations director of the Mexican restaurant at Ward Centre.

Harris knows
‘hospitality is No. 1’

The operations director of
Compadres at Ward Centre
smiles through the challenges

Question: What's your work experience?

Answer: I have been working since freshman year in high school. I was working at the swap meet as a sales rep for Reggae Works, selling reggae T-shirts, bags, beads. My girlfriend's mom actually owned the company. She got a bunch of her daughter's classmates to help sell at the swap meet. The swap meet used to be really big back them. High volume.

I worked at Waikiki snack shop at the front counter. I worked at the Ritz, a clothing store, and the Gap for a few years. I used to work at the Sears Beauty Salon at the reception desk, and I went to Bankoh then to International Savings and Loan, then City Bank took that over. I was a teller.

I started off as a teller and I moved to operations support to the back office in the processing center. I was actually working at the bank and Compadres at the same time, starting off as a hostess.

Q: What was banking like?

A: It was unique. It was very different coming from a customer point of view. When I first went in you think you just do your transaction there ... and there's a very big process that everything goes through. To get from point A to point Z is tiresome.

I liked it, though. It was always different. I had never seen the back of the bank and when I did, I was, like, what did I get myself into? But it also taught me to manage money.

Q: What has kept you at Compadres for six years?

A: The people. The owner (Rick Enos), of course. He's very understanding and compassionate and has a lot of knowledge behind him. So it was very convenient for me. They're very family oriented here. I got married and had a baby. I met my husband here, which was great. He was a customer. We had a mutual friend who brought him in. We've been together for five years and married for three. We have a little 2-year-old. My husband's a great guy with a successful job, so that's great.

Q: Why did you start working so young?

A: I figured all my other girlfriends were going to do it so I thought it would be fun. In school you want to hang out with your friends, so it was a good excuse to hang out with them and get experience at the same time.

Q: What is your job now?

A: There is a lot of paperwork and a lot of questions from customers. I don't even know where to begin. I didn't realize there was so much mail that Compadres received about helping the community and donations. I have a lot of donation requests. People wanting door prizes. A lot of bills that need to be paid. Catering requests. A lot of dealing with one-on-one personal contact. People try to market products. Sending out coupons. Executive catering plans. And also maintaining the four walls; cleanliness, hospitality. The role is basically being a general manager. There's me and there's the owner. We'll see where it takes me right now.

Q: What has the owner taught you?

Hospitality is No 1. Hospitality and cleanliness and always keep a smile on your face. No matter what. Always be talking to people and very courteous and listening to people. Once you start talking to people you never know who you're going to meet and where it's going to take you. He gave me a really big opportunity to enhance my people skills, my education with numbers, how to crunch numbers to have a successful business. He's been in business 22 years.