Feature Story

Riverside Bank Finds Success Mixing Fun with Old-Fashioned Service
By Elizabeth W. Pearce

Money is serious business to John Moran, president and CEO of Cape Coral-based Riverside Bank. But that doesn’t mean he’s opposed to on-the-job fun.
In fact, Moran’s belief in having a good time in the banking business has earned Riverside a growing, respectable share of the local market. Further, the bank’s adherence to personal, friendly service has earned the respect of area customers, tired of shabby treatment at many larger financial institutions.
“Employees are what distinguish one bank from another,” said Moran. “They drive the programs, the products and the service. If you’ve got great people, and we do, then customers are naturally going to want to go where the great people are.”
According to Moran, customers also want a bank to “act like banks used to. They want to be recognized when they walk through the door. They want to feel appreciated.”
Moran should know, having grown up in the banking business. “My grandfather was chairman of the board of a bank in Melbourne (Florida),” he said. “I remember going to bank-sponsored picnics in the community with him. That’s what bankers used to do.”
But since the early 1990s, that’s not what most banks have been doing. Because of mergers and acquisitions by a handful of nationally-known megabanks, the majority of small, locally-owned banks has all but disappeared from the lending landscape, leaving customers with higher service charges and impersonal service.
In recent years, however, that landscape has been changing in Lee County, thanks to a small group of business leaders who set out to revive the concept of hometown banking several years ago. Led by Vernon Smith, a prominent banker from Florida’s east coast, local businesspeople Elmer Tabor, Dennis Duffala, Tom Giles, Donna Doyle and Samira Beckwith laid the foundation for Cape Coral’s premier hometown bank.
“They’d all been involved with big banks and they wanted to start a locally-minded, community-based institution,” said Moran. “They wanted to build a bank where a person didn’t feel like a number, where each account was special.” To date, they have succeeded.
Since opening for business in December of 1997, Riverside Bank has accumulated $124 million in assets and expanded to a total of four full-service branch locations. Besides its headquarters on Del Prado Boulevard, Riverside has a branch on Cape Coral Parkway, as well as one on Hancock Bridge Parkway in North Fort Myers. Its newest location opened in August on McGregor Boulevard at Iona Road in Fort Myers.
In addition to offering checking and savings accounts, Riverside writes commercial, consumer and residential loans for a rapidly-growing list of area businesses and individual customers. Recently, Riverside began offering investment services and products, including mutual funds and annuities.
While most banks offer similar products and services, it’s how they’re promoted and delivered that makes Riverside unique. For instance, the bank’s bumper-sticker promotion is perhaps its most popular advertising vehicle, so to speak. Anyone who puts a “Riverside Bank Loves Me” sticker or decal on their car is eligible to win cash prizes of $100 or more, which is split with the winner’s choice of local charities.
Whether they’re a Riverside customer or not, those whose stickers are spotted by bank employees have their license tag numbers entered in a weekly drawing. Winning numbers are posted in branch lobbies or drive-throughs, and winners have two weeks to claim their prize. So far, more than $22,000 has been given away.
“Fun is no accident, it’s a purposeful part of our mission statement,” said Moran. “When employees are having a good time and feel valued, they tend to take good care of their customers.”
Beyond knowing their customers, Riverside executives and employees do much to reach out to the community. For example, the bank’s two cast-iron commercial barbecue grills are available free of charge to any local non-profit group that wants them for a company picnic or fundraiser. While borrowers must transport and clean the grill, they are not required to be Riverside customers.
Bank employees also use the grills for the common good. “Recently, we found out the teachers at North Fort Myers High were having an in-service day, so we called and asked them if we could cook for them,” said Moran. The teachers gratefully accepted and were treated to fresh-grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, plus fruit salad and soft drinks, prepared and served by the bank’s top brass.
Another type of outreach, created over the summer, is Riverside’s Community Servant Account, designed for “hometown heroes.” The fee-free, interest-bearing checking account features numerous perks, and is available exclusively to area police officers, firefighters, school teachers and others who serve the community.
Moran said that by focusing on building relationships with individuals and small businesses, Riverside bucks the traditional image of banking. “We’re not stuffy,” he said. “We’re doing well because our employees enjoy what they’re doing, they entertain our customers and take care of (problems) with a smile.”
Cape resident Bill Doppler agrees that Riverside “walks the walk.” An established, creditworthy customer of a large bank, Doppler recently turned to Riverside when his bank was unresponsive to his mortgage needs. “I’d call and be put on hold, and listen to (hold music) for what seemed like hours, and then they’d either tell me to call someone else or put me through to someone’s voice mail,” he said. “I didn’t expect them to jump, but I couldn’t even get an answer from them.”
A friend from Doppler’s church suggested he try Riverside. “I went in to the main office one afternoon and immediately was asked if I’d been helped and if I wanted some coffee,” said Doppler. Within 15 minutes, he was meeting with loan officer Donna Carpenter, who told him what paperwork she needed to process his request for a no- to low-down payment mortgage. He returned with the information the next day and, because Riverside’s loan committee is local, was approved for the loan less than a week later.
Because Doppler was buying directly from the homeowner, Carpenter also walked him through the closing process. “The follow-up was incredible,” he said. “(Carpenter) was just so prompt, courteous and professional. She seemed to really care about me as a person.”
Despite the fast, hassle-free prelude to closing, there was a snag when the interest rate on Doppler’s loan papers was slightly higher than the rate he’d been quoted verbally. Although Carpenter “felt terrible” about the misunderstanding, there was nothing she could do to change Doppler’s rate that day. He closed anyway, later receiving word that Riverside would honor the original interest rate, even though he’d already agreed to pay more.
“I was just blown away,” said Doppler. “They’re what they say they are Ñ a true community bank. Their service was impeccable and Donna was unbelievable. I just can’t say enough good things about them.”
Mark Myers, president and CEO of Aluminations Services, Inc. in Cape Coral, had a similarly positive experience at Riverside when he needed money to expand his ornamental aluminum fabrication business. Like Doppler, Myers had applied for a commercial loan at his large bank, but was getting nowhere.
“When most (large) banks sit down (to make a loan presentation), they’ll tell you how great they are, when in fact I’ve found them to be the worst, in terms of servicing my account and helping my business grow,” he said.
And when it came to Myers’ loan, “they always seemed to need another piece of paper or something, and then nothing would materialize. The last time I called to talk to a live person, it took them three days to return the call. That was the last straw.”
By contrast, Myers got the loan he wanted at a “very competitive” rate within nine days of submitting his paperwork to Riverside. “Not only did Riverside make a great presentation, they always followed up and did what they said they were going to do. They didn’t just pursue me to get the loan, they actually came to my office.”
What further impressed Myers was the way Riverside evaluated his application. “They considered more than just the bottom line to see if I was qualified, such as my credit history and company stability. I was really satisfied with their expedient approval, how they operate and how well they treat their customers.”
Since then, Myers has moved both his personal and commercial checking accounts to Riverside, and frequently refers his friends and professional contacts.
To continue attracting and retaining happy customers like Myers, Riverside pays special attention to detail. For instance, it provides hot popcorn on Fridays and fresh-baked cookies on Mondays. “Since Monday tends to be the most stressful day of the week, the smell of cookies is very uplifting,” said Moran.
Employees also enjoy the bank’s periodic Funday Mondays, when they get to dress up according to their theme of choice. Past themes have included Pajama Day, where employees wore bathrobes, slippers and even curlers to work, Gilligan’s Island Day and Wizard of Oz Day, among others.
“The employees love it and so do the customers,” said Moran. “The purpose is to catch customers off guard and have them laughing by the time they leave, even if they were in a `Monday mood’ when they arrived.”
Other employee perks include quarterly awards dinners, which tend to be highly choreographed to incorporate elaborate themes and live entertainment. For Riverside’s Night at the Academy Awards, every bank employee was picked up by a limousine and upon arrival at the event, was greeted by paparazzi and autograph seekers (employee friends and family members).
“By the time the employees got inside, they really felt like stars,” said Moran. “It was a very powerful night.”
Ongoing area growth is prompting Riverside to consider taking its fun and games on the road. “We’d love to export our version of hometown banking to other Southwest Florida communities. We’ll still be the Cape’s hometown bank, but we’ll go wherever people would like us to be.”

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