answer the phone when it rings. You can get to the President, you can get to your CFO, you can talk to Sarah, and we normally try to return our phone calls or emails within a two hour period.” From daily banking to business loans and real estate, Little emphasizes that trust is at the core of every relationship the bank builds.“We’re impacting people’s livelihoods,” he acknowledges. “They’re bringing their cash to us, and they’re borrowing money from us, and if our customers trust us, we’re going to continue to have those relationships. It can last a lifetime, as long as you pay attention to it and you nurture it, and you don’t break that trust.” RELATIONSHIP BANKING IN ACTION If there’s one word that captures the spirit of Great American Bank, its relationships. “As a community bank, we know the people that are coming in each week,” portrays Schmitt.“We’re all local to our home branches here and have a lot of communication with our customers outside of just the banking realm. We know when they’re getting married and when their fathers pass and things like that. The relationship is caring about not just the face to face, but more of how we connect and communicate within the community.” That model carries through in every part of the business. “We stress service,” Dreiling says. “We do 97 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 11 GREAT AMERICAN BANK
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