“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens opened his classic 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities with this wonderfully descriptive phrase. Fast forward to today, and the phrase could just as easily apply to the last 2 1/2 years. The pandemic was a global event that claimed millions of lives. Truly the worst of times.
Business suffered. Whole industries collapsed, most notably travel, restaurant, and hospitality. The employer / employee relationship changed; remote work evolved from a stopgap solution to the preferred solution for many employees. Companies still struggle with the great resignation, with many jobs going unfilled.
Okay, so where is the best of times in all of this? I want to tell you the story of a community bank, Commerce Bank of Arizona. I met with the then President John Lewis and then Chief Credit Officer Paul Tees to talk about Commerce Bank and what they did to separate themselves from competitors in the midst of the pandemic and economic crisis.
Both Lewis and Tees emphasized that relationships are at the core of Commerce success. In an era of bank mergers and acquisitions, and a large scale movement to online and digital banking, Commerce Bank of Arizona still operates as a person-to-person business.
Each one of Commerce’s clients has a relationship with their Commerce banker. The bankers know each local business, and they know the owners on a personal as well as business level.
This relationship-centric approach delivered results at the height of the pandemic when the federal government introduced the business relief fund known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). This was the rapid response initiative to help businesses negatively impacted by the lockdown. Lewis, Tees, and the entire Commerce Bank team extensively studied PPP so they could best take advantage of it for their clients.
They began with a “white-boarding” process to ensure they understood the program and how it worked. The team contacted each client directly. They discussed with each client the specifics of their situation, and how they might qualify for the program. This upfront effort (almost 24/7 over 3 weeks) paid tremendous dividends.
Every Commerce Bank client that applied to PPP was approved. Let me say that again - 100% approval. Word spread in the business community. Soon, clients of the larger banks were coming to Commerce Bank for help. When clients of larger banks called their bank for help, they got voice mail. When they called Commerce Bank for help, they spoke with a person.
The Commerce team stayed focused. They continually communicated with clients, old and new. They monitored the ever changing eligibility requirements of PPP, making sure each new application had the highest probability of being approved.
Through these efforts Commerce was able to bring in over 60 new clients. Their cost of acquisition for over 5 dozen new clients - just the time to develop and nurture relationships. No massive marketing campaign. No cold calling, or endless networking meetings.
Instead, the individuals at Commerce Bank cared. In the worst of times, each banker took the time to understand the client’s situation, and more importantly, to understand and connect with the client. They helped their clients get the desperately needed cash flow relief PPP provided.
As today’s economy continues to present challenges, Commerce Bank clients are able to depend on their banker to get them the help they need because the in-depth relationships are already in place. It’s the strength of relationships that makes the difference, in both good times and bad.
Thanks for sharing this insightful story, Ken. Not to simplify it in anyway but it speaks, to me, of going back to basics and then adding some steroids to muster up to match the times we all lived through and still are. Good reminders and lessons for us all.
This is wonderful and so true of my bank, The Bank of America who closed my branch during COVID and made it next to impossible to access my safe deposit box.
BOA execs should read this. Talk to a human being, BOA made it next to impossible!