Heartland Business Bank

CUSTOMERS COME FIRST AT THESE FIRMS
By Martha H. Shad of The Press Staff

One of this year's Customer First Award winners cares so much about its clients that it grills food for them - and it's not a restaurant.

Another does all it can to make visitors feel they have been some place special.

The Customer First Award, created a year ago by Lakeland College and The Sheboygan Press, recognizes exceptional achievement in customer service.

This year's winners, Heartland Business Bank and Kohler Co.'s Hospitality and Real Estate Group, were honored Wednesday at a banquet.

For both companies, service is more than being polite and courteous, more than providing prompt assistance, more than deciding what is needed. For both companies, customer service is ministration.

For two-year-old Heartland Business Bank, headed by Russ Schuler, customer service is about forming partnerships.

"They are dedicated to their clients' success as well as their own," noted nominators and customers Nicholas and Margaret Kaiser, owners of Industrial Graphics Inc. "In today's banking environment, large banks typically have shifted their focus to policies and procedures rather than people and long-term relationships. The corporate influence ... conflicts with Heartland Business Bank's values and their desire to serve their clients."

The bank's statement of purposes focuses on providing clients with creative finance solutions, becoming long-term partners and functioning as a client-centered team. And, as a team, the bank takes that dedication, that service, to the client's place of business with a "customer appreciation fry."

"Their staff came to our company to grill brats and hamburgers for our entire organization," the Kaisers said. "They made sure to bring the food and beverages needed to feed all of us, and they took the time to visit each and every one of our employees."