Finalist: Signature Bank

For the second time in its five-year history, Springfield-based Signature Bank is a finalist for the W. Curtis Strube Small Business of the Year Award, presented by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Signature Bank was founded in 1997 by 17 Springfield-area businessmen who invested their own money in the new bank. Signature Bank now has 44 employees and three locations, with headquarters at 4039 S. Kansas Expwy.

David Kunze, president and chief executive officer of Signature Bank, attributes the bank's growth to more than one single factor.

"I think that if you're going to be successful, no matter what business endeavor you're in, you've got to surround yourself with the best and the brightest," Kunze said.

"Fortunately, we've been able to do that. We've been able to hire experienced bankers that are well-known in Spring-field, and that have tremendous sales skills and customer service skills.

"The second reason would be that we've been able to capitalize, if you will, on our advantage of being an independent community bank who knows its customers and provides the personal touch."

Kunze noted that once a business builds its team with the best people, it's important to recognize their worth. At Signature Bank, he said, pay for performance and other elements are key to the Signature Bank business/management philosophy.

"I believe having an open-book and an open-door style of management is important. Also, I think probably the most important thing is to just treat others the way you want to be treated, and that's both with customers and with what we call our team members," he said.

Because Signature Bank started with only one location, a key challenge faced by the company was a lack of distribution channels for providing customer convenience, a key service attribute. That challenge, like many others, is one Signature Bank has met head-on. In addition to expanding to three full-service locations with each having its own ATM, Signature Bank has added three ATMs at Springfield Village Marts.

Signature helped to develop Privileged Status, a shared network of ATM providers whose customers can access more than 1,200 ATMs in 15 states without additional fees. Signature Bank also offers its customers a bank-by-phone product, and Signature began offering Internet banking in 1999.

In addition to Internet banking and the Privileged Status ATM network, Sig-nature Bank also offers other programs for customer convenience, including a medical banking program and a business services program. Each of those programs offers specific products and services tailored to meet the needs of the customer bases they serve. This year, Signature is adding an overdraft privilege program, a courier service for large commercial customers, and upgraded personal and business credit card offerings.

Signature also is developing a customer database to increase profits and customer retention. By using the information in the database, Signature will be able to identify the most profitable customers and give them the attention they deserve. The bank also will be able to determine the least profitable customers and develop a plan to make them profitable.

As for its community service, Sign-ature Bank has donated a total of $320,000 to several area charitable and civic organizations.

"Most of us have been experienced bankers and we've been able, because of our positions, to get involved in the community and we have some very dedicated individuals that want to make Springfield a better place to live," Kunze said.