Creating Remarkable Customer Experiences at Your Bank with Chris DiLorenzo

00:00:11 INTRO
Helping community bankers grow themselves, their team and their profits. This is the Community Bank Podcast.
00:00:25 CALEB:
Well, hey everybody, and welcome back to the Community Bank Podcast. Thanks for joining today’s conversation. I’m Caleb Stevens with SouthState Bank’s Capital Markets and Correspondent banking division. Today, we’re talking all about customer service and creating a remarkable customer experience for your clients at your community bank. What does it look like to be a community bank that really is relationship oriented? You know a lot of banks say their relationship oriented, but what does that really mean?
00:00:51 CALEB, continued:
And a lot of community banks tout their customer service, you know, but what does that really mean? What does it really mean to create a remarkable customer experience at your bank? My guest today is Chris DiLorenzo. He is with the James Paul Group, and he specializes in helping banks build a culture of just that. Of relationships, of customer service, of high performance. And we talk all about that on today’s episode. So, here’s my conversation with Chris de Lorenzo.
00:01:25 CALEB, continued:
Well, Chris DILorenzo, welcome to the Community Bank Podcast. How are you?
00:01:29 CHRIS:
I’m doing great. How are you today?
00:01:31 CALEB:
Doing just fine. It is great to have you on the show. You and I connected a number of weeks ago through my father, who is a community banker who sings your praises in terms of helping community bank executives Create a culture of higher performance, whether that’s with their sales team, on the lending side, or whether that’s from a customer service standpoint. So, you’re sort of known as a veteran of the industry. Give us an overview of what you do at the James Paul Group.
00:02:02 CHRIS:
Yeah. Thanks, Caleb. Yeah, it’s always a pleasure to work with your dad. You know my business partner and I started this company back in 2001, and really, our purpose was to help community banks improve the way their employees engage with their customers and with each other. You know, I’ve been working in some capacity with community banks since around 1981. And regardless of what we did with our, with our clients, we realized our most successful banks.
00:02:33 CHRIS, continued:
Had employees who were able to have genuine fact-finding conversations with customers that helped them build long term relationships, as well as gather important information that that helped them recommend the right products and services. And of course, these conversations were also effective with when managers were having conversations with their team members, maybe a coaching conversation as well.
Well, and we really found that that’s one of the most neglected areas of leadership and leadership development is that engagement, that conversation between a manager and their direct report. So, really we started this company to help community banks really thrive in their market.
00:03:23 CHRIS, continued:
And to do that, you’ve got to have really good, effective, consistent conversations, not only with your external customers, but with your internal customers as well. And we kind of developed our solutions set around 3 distinct areas, Caleb. One is around assessments. We realize that it’s hard to come in, and it’s hard for a community bank to, well, you know, what can we do to improve whether it’s around the customer experience, whether it’s around employee engagement, without first understanding what we’re currently doing. So, we do things like mystery shops in the branches. For leadership teams, we do disc personality assessments, 360° assessments.
00:04:10 CHRIS, continued:
We’ll do employee engagement surveys. All of that is to gather the information that’s necessary to know, “Okay, so here’s what you’re doing. Well, here’s where you’re falling short” so that if we have some solutions that could possibly help, we can provide those or we could just provide the kind of the consulting or suggestions on where they might be able to go to get some help with that.
00:04:34 CHRIS, continued:
Our second area is around training, and that’s our core business. We do a lot around leadership and coaching business development for outside calling officers. We do retail sales with cross selling. You know, on the branch side, product knowledge for everybody in the bank customer service, which we’ll talk a little bit about today. And then of course, sales performance management for those, your sales coaches and so forth. And then the final thing is sustainment.
00:05:04 CHRIS, continued:
You know, it’s what happens after the training that’s going to really determine the success of the training program. So, we really have invested heavily and what happens after the training and we’ve got a learner mobile system, which is a kind of an LMS that allows your, the bank employees to get on demand training, whether it’s any of those that I already mentioned or the bank training, maybe some compliance training, maybe something on one of their key products. Whenever they want it, at their fingertips, whether it’s on their laptop, their PC, their tablet or their phone and it’s in little bite sized pieces, which is the way the majority of the newer employees, the younger employees, like to be trained and like to learn. And then the last piece of sustainment is we also have some really short kind of like virtual type training programs that can be done either on demand or can be live with the you know, with the bank as well. So, that’s kind of in a nutshell what the James Paul Group is and how we help our community bank customer.
00:06:14 CALEB:
Very good. Well, that’s very holistic. I like how you sort of break it out into assessments, training, sustainability. It all kind of works together. And I agree with you, it’s you know: a one-hour keynote to a group of lenders is only going to take you so far in terms of changing behavior and attitudes and implementing accountability to create, you know, the culture of customer service or high performance or leadership or whatever the culture that you’re trying to build at your organization. I’d love to start with this question to you. And we’ve talked about this before offline.
00:06:50 CALEB, continued:
Every bank today says that they are relationship-oriented. Small banks say that, big banks say that, but I think many struggle to define what does a relationship, what does that really mean—you’re a relationship-oriented bank? Is that just meaning when somebody calls, you’ll answer the phone and you won’t stick them in a call queue? And I know many community banks tout that, and I think that’s wonderful. I think not getting stuck in the call queue is great. That’s what I expect, you know, from my banking relationships, I think that’s great. You know, going to lunch, playing golf, being relationship oriented are all good things, but my question is: is there something beyond that, you know? Should community banks be expanding the definition of relationship? How do you think about a true community bank that’s being relationship oriented?
00:07:43 CHRIS:
Yeah, Caleb, that that’s a really great point. And again, all we work with our community banks. So, you know, we certainly have a lot of input. We have a lot of intelligence just around our conversations with them. We also have a lot of conversations with community bank customers. So, we do a lot of interviews with community bank customers so that we can understand from their perspective, “Hey, what are you getting from your bank? What do you like? What don’t you like? What are you missing? If you’re doing business with more than one bank, why is that?
00:08:17 CHRIS, continued:
You know, do you have a true relationship with this bank?” So, we gather a lot of information and certainly that definition of relationship, for most community banks, it is all over the board. But typically they see it as just the basics. Hey, we’re forming a relationship. If I take him to lunch or I just, it’s the way I answer the phone. Those are great things. They do belong in how you build a relationship, but it’s certainly going to be much more than that, as we both know.
And you know, what we what we see for our, from our best banks and what we teach or what we communicate is to truly be relationship oriented you’ve got to take kind of a consultative approach with not only your customers, your external, but with your internal customers as well. You’ve got to get that you’ve got to get to know your external customers both on a personal and a financial basis. So typically ,what you had mentioned was, “Hey, we’re going to build a relationship by, you know, just answering the phone correctly or taking somebody to lunch or to go play golf.”
And again, there’s a big part to that, but let’s face it, banks weren’t formed decades ago just to be nice to people and to take them to lunch and to take them to play golf. They were formed to help people get better financially, and there is no true relationship with the customer. If all you focus on
00:09:53 CHRIS, continued:
Is the service aspect of it, and the feel good aspect of it. You’ve also got to be able to have that true conversation around their financial situation. So that you can help them improve their financial well-being. You know, we kind of take it, it’s two parts. Yes, I’ve got to treat them right. I’ve got to do all those things, right. And they will keep coming back. However, if they’re not getting better financially, if they don’t see me as someone that’s truly trying to help them improve their financial situations. If they only see me as somebody that I’m just gonna do what I’m asked to do. I’m not gonna really provide you any guidance. If I see that you could be doing something else, I’m not gonna really communicate something else that we could do because you really didn’t ask me about it. If that’s the only way I see my banker, well, then really they might be really nice people. But if my other bank also treats me well, and I know that they have gotten to know me both on the person on the financial side and they’re making recommendations to me.
00:10:58 CHRIS, continued:
On things that I would have never known about had they not bring it up, I’m gonna probably gravitate towards that second bank. So, it’s extremely important that when we talk about being relationship oriented, yes, it is how we treat them, what we do, but it’s also about, hey, can I have that consultative approach to get to know him, and so that I can not only help them and make them feel good on the personal side, but I can help them on the financial side when they leave my bank, they will feel like hey, I’m better off than I was when I came in to me. That’s the true definition of being relationship oriented.
00:11:40 CALEB:
And what you’re describing, I think takes some effort and intentionality and some business chops on behalf of you know, on the lenders part. You know, it’s not enough just to know your lending products or know your deposit account products. You’ve got to understand your clients’ business somewhat intimately, I would think, to be able to offer advice that is going to make sense to your client. I was talking with the bank CEO not too long ago and he said one of the things I wish my lenders could improve upon is offering sound advice just on a business basis to our commercial customers. Any thoughts on how lenders could improve in in that area?
00:12:26 CHRIS:
Caleb, you know when we started the James Paul Group back in 2001, we solely worked with community banks on the business development side. So, from an expertise standpoint and what we do and a knowledge standpoint that you know we have, this is what my business partner and I have done for years and years and years. And you know, it’s almost every community bank that I work with. It seems like the biggest reason why people don’t get business is because of rate, and they don’t really understand that. While you know rate might get you the business, it’s certainly not going to keep it. And that’s what you’re hanging your hat on, you’re going to lose more than you’re going to win because you’re not really building a relationship.
00:13:13 CHRIS, continued:
Well, you know, tag back to our, you know, previous conversation around relationships. If it’s only about rates, you’re gonna lose it. Almost certainly at some point another bank is gonna come in with a better rate, and you’re gonna lose it because they don’t see any reason to stay. If they’re, if they’re not getting any additional value out of my relationship with you, why would I stay if I can get the same paper, the same money somewhere else and pay less for it? So that’s, you know, that’s really where we start, and you know one of the first questions we ask is “Hey, other than rate, what’s the value that you bring to your customers?”
00:13:52 CHRIS, continued:
And sometimes we get some pretty good answers. Sometimes we hear crickets because they don’t really think about what’s the value, because they probably don’t provide any. And to us, to add value beyond rate or product, you’ve got to spend the majority of your time with that customer, understanding their business, how it works, their industry, what are some of the challenges that are going on right now in the industry, understanding their customers who do you sell to? Why do they buy? What’s important to them?
And really most importantly, a business development or a commercial relationship manager has to understand what that business is currently doing around any number of different areas, whether it’s you know, how you currently financing your inventory or how are you currently doing this, or how are you currently doing that. Because if you know that information you’re now able to say, “Ah, okay. I’ve had other customers like that who have done it that way, who were facing these challenges.
00:15:01 CHRIS, continued:
And we were able to do this for them. That improved either helped them make more money, save more money, save more time, get more business, whatever it might be.” And so, by knowing all of this, you’ve got to spend time with them. That’s the most important thing, you know. Typically, a lot of commercial lenders that I see, they lead with either their rate or their product without first understanding is this even what they want? Is this what they need? Will this help them?
And, quite frankly, if I’m the customer, and I don’t see any need upfront for whatever product or service you’re trying to talk to me about, any price or any rate is too high, doesn’t really matter. Any rate is too high because I don’t see any value in it. So, we’ve got to be able to gather that information, so that we can make suggestions to the customer on how we can improve in what they’re doing, which typically results in some type of benefit to them. And also here’s something else, Caleb, it’s really
00:16:07 CHRIS, continued:
Important. By understanding these things, it allows the relationship manager or the calling officer to see a need that the customer may not have known about. They may not have seen it. We call this “Creating the Need.” That’s truly, in my opinion, how you provide value above and beyond price and product, because if I don’t even know as the customer, there’s something else out there that can benefit me.
And you get me to see that just through a conversation, just through asking really good, effective, relevant questions. All of a sudden, I start seeing you with somebody different than the other banker that I’m working with. They just come in and say, “Hey, how you doing anything you need, anything we can do for you?”
00:16:55 CHRIS, continued:
And quite frankly, 75%, and these are studies that have been done, Caleb, 75% of the time, the customer does not know what they need even though they need it. They don’t see it yet until it becomes a problem. And sometimes it’s too late at that point.
So, if we can come in, understand the customer’s current situation, what they’re doing, who they’re with, how they’re doing it, and then kind of think about from our perspective, hey, we’ve helped others like this in the same situation do something that really improve their situation. I’m going to bring that up.
00:17:33 CHRIS, continued:
And that’s the value that I’m gonna see in you as a banker versus someone that, another banker that comes in and just does what I asked them to do. And Caleb, these are the things that we teach. And as you said earlier, it isn’t like we just instinctively do these things. We’ve gotta know what to do. That’s one of the key areas that we really help on the commercial side for these relationship managers to add value beyond product and rate.
00:18:02 CALEB:
Yeah, that, around here on our team at the Correspondent division, we call that “creating demand.” You know, 95% of our prospects are probably not thinking about us today. They’re probably not waking up thinking about, you know, the things that we do. So, what can we, even as a marketing team, be doing to create demand and educate our prospects on the problems that we solve for community banks. And the same thing applies, you know, to commercial banks and to lenders. Many folks are not waking up today thinking about your bank or your products or your solutions. But you can create demand by the questions you ask.
00:18:36 CALEB, continued:
By being more interested than interesting, as our friend Jack Hubert says, taking an interest in their business. And the more you ask questions, the more you may uncover needs and the more you might get their brain thinking about ways that they haven’t even thought of ways to approach their business from a financial, financing perspective. So, I think everything you’re saying is spot on, and I think it’s a good segue into the next topic I’d love to talk about, which is this term “high touch and high tech.” I hear that all the time today. We want to be a bank that’s both high tech and high touch. And I think what folks mean by that is we want to keep our relationship.
00:19:09 CALEB, continued:
You know, DNA as a community bank or relationship oriented. If you want to come into the branch or if you want to call us on the phone, we’re always here for an in-person interaction, but we also want to have great technology offerings because we understand that the world’s changing and consumers are demanding, both businesses and retail are demanding better and better technology.
Is that the term that you like to use as you’re helping your clients? Is there a better way to think about it in terms of technology and community banking? What are your thoughts on that?
00:19:41 CHRIS:
Yeah. And you know, there’s no question that, you know, by now, every community bank realizes that technology is here. It’s here to stay. The younger, you know, as our customer base, you know, gets younger and younger. They’re going to want this, this technology, to be able to do their banking. I don’t have a problem with the terminology, high tech and high touch.
00:20:09 CHRIS, continued:
But you know, I just like to use the term, “Hey, what’s the customer experience like?” And when you when you think of it that way, you’re encompassing both the technology side of it as well as the human touch side of it because that experience is not just what happens when they enter your branch or they pick up the phone and call you.
Or they go to the drive-thru and that conversation begins. That customer experience could also be, “Hey, how easy is it for me to do business with my bank on my phone? How easy is it for me to make a deposit? How easy is it for me to transfer money? How easy is it for me to get into my online banking on my computer? And so to me that’s the customer experience encompasses, in my opinion, both the technology side and the human touch side.
And what I do see in some banks is their focused so much now on the technology side that they’re not really understanding how that’s impacting the really the human touch side. And so, I think it’s a combination. But if you just think about how do we improve the
00:21:23 CHRIS, continued:
Customer experience. You’re going to look at it from both sides is our technology such that we’re not having issues, we’re not having problems, we’re not having complaints? Do we have what is needed? Are we keeping our finger on the pulse of our customers and knowing what they want from their bank from a technology side? And then are we, you know, are we, really eliminating our focus on the human touch side by focusing too much on the high-tech side? And so, I think it’s a nice balance that banks have to work with. Certainly our expertise is more on that high touch side.
But, there’s no question that high tech side has to be there as well. So, to me nothing wrong with that terminology, but you all but you have to tie them both into the customer experience and if I am going to be really focused on technology,
00:22:26 CHRIS, continued:
How is that impacting my ability to really serve my customers and keep that experience high so that you know those that, you know, like a little bit of a mixture, they like doing some things on their phone or their computer, but they also like coming in and having that one-on-one conversation and seeing somebody you know. Are we balancing that out? So, to me, it’s great to focus on high tech, high touch. Think about it as the customer experience. But you can’t eliminate one for, you know, for the other in what your strategy is.
00:23:04 CALEB:
Yeah, that’s helpful. I was at a bank conference about a year ago. And I heard a community bank talking about online account opening and they said pretty much just flat out, “We can’t afford that.” And I don’t know the community bank’s budget, I don’t know what service they were looking at, what vendor they were going to choose. I don’t know the cost. So that very well may be true. That that’s an offering that’s beyond the bank’s affordability. You know, at least where they sit today. But I started thinking you can’t afford it today. Maybe that’s true. In 10 years, I don’t know if you can afford not to offer that because of
00:23:48 CALEB, continued:
The way that consumer preferences are going. How would you respond to a bank that says some of these, maybe not essential services, but are becoming more and more essential from a technology standpoint, when they say they can’t afford it? How would you counsel than to think about, you know, Fintech partnerships? How to offer technology solutions when you are small bank and maybe there are some budgetary restrictions, but you know that we’ve got to improve upon our customer experience if we’re going to stay relevant over the next coming years.
00:24:23 CHRIS:
Yeah. And certainly, we hear that too, Caleb, in the banks that we’re in, and you know I loved your way of looking at this and thinking, “Okay, so let’s look at the pros and cons. If we don’t do it, how is that going to impact our ability to serve our communities?” And you know, if they can truly say it’s really not gonna impact it very much, you know, we’ve got it older customer base and older market and we don’t look like we’re gonna be going out into any other markets. You know if they can justify it well then you know certainly, they have to do what they feel like is best for the bank. But my suggestion is, do everything you can to try to determine: how can I make this work?
00:25:05 CHRIS, continued:
Because if it’s needed in your community, if you don’t have it and your competitor does, that’s where they’re going, and it’s going to cost you a whole lot more in the long run to bring new customers in than it is to serve the ones that you already have. So, you know a lot of banks that I talk with, they think the only company, Caleb, that they can go to is their core processor for all of these. All these technology pieces that they need. And that’s not the case. There are there are any number of independent companies and I’d like to call them best in class that really focus on some of these new technologies.
00:25:47 CHRIS, continued:
Yes, your core processor might have it, but maybe it might actually be better and more affordable if you look elsewhere. So those would be the two things that I would suggest. Is you know really taking a look at it from a from a deep level and, you know, can we really afford not to do it? Are we gonna be worse off if we don’t, or are we gonna lose customers by not doing it?
And if we feel like we have to do it, I’m just gonna say look outside of your core because there are some really best in class companies out there that are less expensive, that are niche companies that will work one-on-one with the bank, and really focus on you and helping you in that particular area.
00:26:36 CALEB:
Yeah, so all community banks today tout their customer service. But I’m very fascinated by those mystery shoppers that you send in to branches. I would love to know when those mystery shoppers go into the branch. Where do they see customer service most often go wrong and maybe in ways that are not expected by the banks? Tell us about that experience.
00:27:00 CHRIS:
Yeah. So, there are, you know, most banks community banks will think customer service is just really basic things like greeting somebody when they come in, using their name, you know smiling, those types of things, and those are part of it. Those are key areas of customer service.
But what they don’t really realize is, you know, not every first of all, not every customer considers a particular service behavior as something that’s really important. The problem is we don’t know from customer to customer what they think is most important. So, if I don’t stay and when you walk up to me is that a big deal with me as a customer?
00:27:45 CHRIS, continued:
Or is it not? If I don’t use your name? If I don’t smile? If I don’t walk you to another team member when that’s the best person to serve you versus just pointing and telling you to go into that direction, that’s who you need to talk to? Is that going to bother me?
Is that going to make my experience worse? So, when we when we look at that, we have to say, hey, look, we don’t know what’s most important to the customer. So, we have to do everything. And when I say everything, it’s not just that meet and greet that standing shaking hands, making eye contact, you know, using, you know, getting to know them on a personal level, but it’s other things from a service perspective.
And you mentioned it earlier. How are you answering the phone? How are you putting people on hold? You know, because most banks don’t know there are three non-negotiables when you’re putting somebody on hold. You have to tell them why, you have to tell them for how long you’re going to do that, and you’ve gotta ask their permission.
00:28:49 CHRIS, continued:
So, these are things that we don’t really think about. We just think you know “Hold please.” And that’s all we’ve got to do and it’s not.
00:28:55 CALEB:
What about the music that you hear when you’re on hold? Or, you know, that we took inspiration from the Savannah Bananas baseball team, where they’re on hold music is so good, people will literally call the ticket line and say “Can you please put me on hold?” just because being on hold is such an a remarkable experience for them. And I know my father’s bank, they like have all kinds of, you know, things that they’ve done to improve their on-hold music. But just think even little fun things like that make it can the difference.
00:29:30 CHRIS:
Yeah, you’re, snd again, that goes right back to the customer experience. That’s also technology. So that’s another way where technology comes in into play with that, you’re going to have to put people on hold. So, you’ve got to make that experience as good as possible. So, we’re going to ask permission, we’re going to tell them why, we’re going to tell them how long. So those things we at least are setting their expectations for that. So, but let’s just say that we’ve got the Savannah Bananas music going and I’m really into that and I’m really getting into it.
When the employee or the team member comes back, you have to realize that customer is probably not in the frame of mind or their mindset is not built, is not now around why they called. It’s around listening to the music. Or if your bank has marketing messages.
00:30:22 CHRIS, continued:
They’re listening to these marketing messages and if they’re effective, I’m thinking about, “Hey, maybe that’s something I need to do”. So, when you come back to the customer from, from putting them on hold, couple of things that have to happen. Number one, you have to thank them for holding. And because you’ve got to give them a few seconds to get back into the moment of the reason why they called, if you just come back on and give them the answer. They’re not ready for that. They didn’t know you were coming back at that time, and it doesn’t—and they’re still listening to the music or to the marketing piece, so you have to give them time to get back into the moment. All of those things are relevant when you’re talking about customer service.
00:31:11 CHRIS, continued:
The other thing I want to mention, Caleb—excuse me—is customer service from a communication standpoint. We like to use the term Charlie Brown’s teacher, and I’m sure everybody listening, growing up, you probably watched Charlie Brown and you saw the, the cartoons. When the kids were in school and the teachers talking and all you hear is:
“Wah Wah Wah Wah.” Well, what happens when we are engaged with the customer when they’re with us? If we don’t do the right things and say the right things, they’re gonna, we’re gonna turn into Charlie Brown’s teacher, and all they’re gonna hear is “Wah Wah Wah.” So, we have to say things that don’t upset them, that don’t irritate them. We have to use terminology that doesn’t confuse them, which is critical. And when we provide bad news to the customer, we have to know how to do that.
00:32:01 CHRIS, continued:
And I’m gonna give everybody a tip. If you’re gonna deliver bad news to a customer if you don’t want them to get defensive right off the bat, leave pronouns out of the sentence. Because pronouns personalize it. And if you put a lot of “you’s” and “we’s” and “our’s” and “your’s”, they’re going to think, A, you’re blaming them, and B, it’s the bank that’s doing it to them.
So, all of these things, Caleb, we found go into what really good customer service really is. So, it didn’t just the basics, it’s how do we handle it on the phone and when we’re communicating with them, do we say the right things to them that make that experience a great one for them?
00:32:46 CALEB:
Well, that’s good. I feel like we could go on and on about this conversation that’s so important today. When you talk about competition, I mean there’s so much competition, not even from fellow banks, but from there’s Fintechs and Neo banks and Apple and Amazon. I mean the competition is coming from all sides. And, so, what you’re talking about is a major opportunity that community banks have to differentiate themselves. I know we’re coming up on our time here. We’d like to end our podcast oftentimes by asking our guests this question.
00:33:19 CALEB, continued:
What do the community banks need to do to remain independent over the next 10 years? There’s a lot of community banks out there that don’t want to sell, that want to keep stay in the course, but they know they’ve got to keep improving what they do to remain relevant. So, in your mind, what are the best community banks do to stay independent long term?
00:33:38 CHRIS:
Great question, Caleb. So, you know, we think there’s several, but we think there’s five key kind of pillars of independence, if you will. First of all, in my opinion, most importantly, you have to stay customer focused. That’s a strategy that a bank takes. I know it’s a strategy our customer takes, but it’s definitely a strategy a bank has to take. They have to put the customer’s needs first, and if you do that and you communicate that to everybody in your organization, you’re going to foster a company culture that is dedicated to enhancing the customer experience and building strong customer relationships. Number two is, you’ve gotta focus on performance. I mean, let’s face it, that encompasses every element that impacts, you know, really your consistent and acceptable return. Safety and soundness.
00:34:35 CHRIS, continued:
Compliance, you know, compliance with consumer and banking regulations. You know things like that. You’ve got to really focus on that performance side of it as well. We think number three is around management. Are you retaining your best people and do you have a, kind of a, you know my background is, is baseball. I was a professional baseball player before getting and working with community banks, but do you have a bullpen that you can count on when you when somebody leaves or somebody retires? That you’ve got that leadership or that management bullpen ready and, do they have the skills and the behaviors to be able to take on that next level of responsibility? Number four is leadership and that. Starts with the board. Do you have good board members? Are they separate thinkers? Do you and are they all generational age groups in there? You need all of that because to us high performing boards have directors with a combination of talent.
00:35:46 CHRIS, continued:
Experience, and, first and foremost, they are committed to making the bank successful and they’re not scared to go out and talk to the community. And then finally it’s around vision. I think this is one of the most neglected pillar of independence, if you will. Every bank should have a vision that is published somewhere. Whether it’s on your website and it has to be in the bank, in break rooms, in your training room, that vision should be everywhere that employees see it every single day.
00:36:23 CHRIS, continued:
That you talk about. Managers every day should say something. Tie something back to the vision, keep articulating that, and as a team member, that’s what I’m gonna think about every day. And if we’re customer focused, everything’s gonna come together and we’re going to be the best community bank possible in our community.
00:36:46 CALEB:
Where there is no vision that people perish, as the proverb the proverb goes, that’s really good. Chris, if folks want to connect with you, if they want to learn more about what you do and if they’re listening to what you’re saying and they’re having light bulb moments going, “Man, we need to put more time into that.” How can our listeners get in touch with you?
00:37:07 CHRIS
Yeah, couple way, Caleb, my e-mail address is cdilorenzo@jamespaulgroup.com. You can also go to our website at www.jamespaulgroup.com, and it will provide some really good information on our company. What we do, how we help, and the ways that we’ve been able to benefit our customers or you want to just pick up the phone and call. My number is 678-907-4608.
00:37:47 CALEB:
Fantastic. Well, Chris, we appreciate your time. You’ve given us a lot to think about and we just appreciate all you do for the industry. So, thanks for being on.

00:37:57 CHRIS:
Caleb, thank you very much. It’s my pleasure and I hope everybody has a great rest of the day.