Anne Pace, Consumer Banking Communications Executive, Bank of America
Prior to 2010, Bank of America served small business owners (SBOs) primarily through tellers who weren’t equipped to address their unique needs. In 2015, under Pace’s strategy and leadership, the communications team increased awareness of the company's commitment to SBOs. Pace built a campaign to demonstrate the role small business bankers (SBBs) play within their community, created opportunities for SBBs to network with prospects and clients, and educated SBOs on the benefits a relationship with the bank could have on their bottom line. The driving concept encompassed a four-pronged approach to support SBBs by raising awareness of its small business capabilities and demonstrating the effectiveness of its SBBs through insight and trend reports, influencer events, meaningful conversations, thought leadership, and media coverage.
As a result, SBBs, client managers, and specialists now average more than 170,000 one-on-one interactions with SBOs per week. There has been a 116% year-over-year increase in small business lending since 2010. As a testament to the success of the program, BofA hired more than 200 additional SBBs and has seen a 3.7% increase in deposits among small business clients since the SBB hiring effort began to take shape.