Community banks focus on developing relationships, not products to keep customers.

Patrick Reilly, the president and corporate executive officer of Mauch Chunk Trust in Jim Thorpe, said there is an old rule of thumb that if the only product a customer chooses is a checking account, then there is a 50 percent chance he or she will leave in a year."The longer you can keep a customer, the more profitable it is," he said.Since people are more likely to stay if they have more products (such as checking or savings accounts, loans, etc.) with a bank, the banking industry came up with the concept of cross-selling."A bank like us, we have to get by on being nice," Reilly said.Reilly explained that the idea of cross-selling "is to capture as much of the customer's business as possible. It's easier to retain that business and maximize your revenue per household.""We have conversations with our customers," he said."We don't push a product. We suggest what will make their life better."Craig Zurn, the president and corporate executive officer of Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank, said his bank also focuses on the customer, not the product."We sit down with our clients and see what they're needs are," he said."Every customer we have is critical to our success. You'll never do wrong by doing what's right by the customer."Gino Degiosio, the vice president of commercial lending at JTNB, said he has worked for a big bank in the past and he knows there is a discriminatory practice toward business customers. It's called segmentation strategy.If a business has $1 million or less in annual sales and calls the bank with questions, then they get funneled to a call center. Businesses making more get more of a personal banker treatment."That was a source of frustration for me," Degiosio said.Zurn said that at JTNB practices like segmentation strategy don't happen there. Customers can talk to him or any of his officers."How many banks can you say, 'I'm going to call Craig, and he'll take care of it'," Zurn said.- Kristine Porter