Pub. 1 2021 Issue 1

MISSOURI BANKER MEET YOUR Name: Danielle Kincaid | Title: Electronic Banking Officer Bank Name: The Bank of Versailles 1. Where are your main bank and branches located? What is the market like? Our main bank is in Versailles, Missouri, just north of the Lake of the Ozarks. We have branches along the west side of the Lake, in Laurie, Sunrise Beach and Green- view. These locations allow us to serve a di- verse group of people. Versailles is a small, rural town surrounded by family farms and small businesses, but the Lake area is pop- ulated with young families, people who live full-time in Kansas City and St. Louis and throughout the Midwest who have a second home in the Lake area, and retirees starting the next chapter of their lives. 2. What is something unique about your bank? In the one 138-year history ofThe Bank of Versailles, we have never sold our loans on the secondarymarket and have no plans to in the future. It is important for us to offer personal service to our customers from their loan application through their last payment. Relationships are the core of our business, and our customers appreciate being able to visit with a familiar face when they have questions or need tomake changes. 3. How did you get started in the banking business? About three years after I moved to Missouri fromNew England, I started helping my husband with business plans and book- keeping, which led to meeting the president of The Bank of Versailles, Dave Baumgart- ner. When a position came open in our Lau- rie location, he called me up and offered me the job as a teller. It was a great way to learn all the cogs and gears of the machine from the ground up, while still giving me the one-on-one interaction with customers that I enjoy. Through the years, my position and job duties have changed, but customer service is still my No. 1 priority and one of my favorite aspects of the industry. 4. What is the most important thing you’ve learned from this career so far? This is a tough question, but if I must- choose one, I will say the most important thing I have learned to date is: never underestimate the importance of asking questions. Whether learning how a piece of software works or helping a customer, I live by the phrase, “there are no stupid questions.” The only way to get to the root of an issue or better educate yourself and others is to empower people to ask questions. This is also important, to me, to impress upon our customers. If they don’t understand a charge or how our mobile banking app works, it’s my job to help them feel comfortable asking. With education comes independence, and there are few things in life I value over independence. 5. Tell us about the bank’s community investment efforts. We have a lot of fun when it comes to giv- ing back to and investing in our commu- nity. Our main bank staff has fundraisers throughout the year. There are chicken wing contests where you pay per vote, craft fairs and an infamous Halloween Trick-Or-Treat auction where all the items are wrapped, and no one can peek. These have become traditions we look forward to, and at the end of every year, the bank matches what we raise, and the donations are spread throughout the community at Christmas time. We also work with the Morgan County R-II School District to encourage finan- cial literacy in our youth. Once a year, we meet with the fourth grade students to talk about earning money and hit the highlights of what goes into running a business. The children always have great questions, and the experience leaves a positive impression on me every time. On the other end of the spectrum, we visit the high school’s personal finance class to discuss digital finances (everything from debit cards and mobile wallets to the importance of complicated passwords) and the effect credit report scans have in your life. We also sponsor financial liter- acy software from Banzai for the district and the neighboring Morgan County R-I district as well. 6. What is the bank’s biggest challenge in the area of internet banking andmobile banking? I believe our biggest challenge with internet and mobile banking is educating our cus- tomers about all the different products and features we have and the level of security we offer. Many assume that because we are a small community bank, we cannot or do not offer many of the products and features 10 | The Show-Me Banker Magazine