Farmers Bank & Trust Elevates the Business Experience with Help from Retriever Payment Systems

About Farmers Bank & Trust

Farmers Bank & Trust (FB&T), headquartered in Blytheville, Arkansas, was founded in 1908 with a small amount of capital and a big vision for delivering personalized service and innovative banking to Blytheville, Mississippi County and the surrounding areas it serves. As the only bank in the area to survive the Great Depression, over 100 years later, FB&T continues with its proud mission of improving the financial wellbeing of its customers and surrounding communities by delivering high-touch service and state-of-the-art banking.

The Challenge

Recognizing the need to offer a full suite of merchant services to attract and retain small business banking clients, Farmers Bank & Trust (FB&T) rolled out its merchant services offering with one of the nation’s leading payment processing providers. It didn’t take long for the honeymoon period to end, however, as the vendor used a primarily hands-off approach to selling and servicing payment processing to the bank and its clients. That’s when FB&T encountered a new partner that offered a more consultative and hands-on approach to marketing, selling, implementing, servicing and supporting its merchant services offering to business clients.

Results:

Increased fee income/profitability from merchant services offering
Increase in the number of business banking accounts
World class payment processing powered by Worldpay (formerly Vantiv) available to business clients
Nearly 100% client satisfaction
Increased operational efficiency—less time spent managing merchant services program

As a leading banking provider for Blytheville, Arkansas, Mississippi County and surrounding areas, Farmers Bank & Trust has always focused on exceeding customer expectations and delivering comprehensive, innovative banking products to retail consumers as well as small business banking clients.

“We pride ourselves on genuinely caring about our customers and providing a very high level of customer service, so when we experienced service issues with our previous merchant services provider, it was a big problem because it reflected badly on our bank,” said Randy Scott, president & CEO of Farmers Bank & Trust.

“There were no local representatives to help our clients with getting their payment processing up and running. They would ship the equipment by mail and the merchant was left to set everything up on their own. Of course, setting up credit card terminals isn’t what we do either, so it put us in a bad position when clients would expect us to be able to step in and help them.”

“Since coming onboard with Retriever, we’ve experienced significant growth in fee income associated with our merchant services as well as our portfolio of business banking clients.”

—Randy Scott President & CEO, Farmers Bank & Trust

A man in a suit and tie is smiling for the camera

Hands-on Service, Better Value, Better Results

Eventually Scott met his current merchant services representative, Karla Wilson, vice president of area sales with Retriever Payment Systems.

“It was a fortuitous, chance meeting,” said Scott. “She lived nearby and we began to speak about the challenges the bank was having with our provider at the time. Just the fact that we could even have this initial conversation face-to-face showed me how important it was to have local representation.”

That was back in 2006 and now as one of Retriever Payment Systems’ longest-running financial institution clients, FB&T has realized an increase in metrics such as fee income, profitability and the number of small business banking clients, as well as a nearly 100 percent client satisfaction rate with their merchant services offering—all for even lower fees charged than with their original payment processing provider.

“Since coming onboard with Retriever, we’ve experienced significant growth in fee income associated with our merchant services as well as our portfolio of business banking clients,” said Scott.

13 years later, Karla Wilson is still FB&T’s local representative and the bank—and its business banking clients—couldn’t be happier.

“Karla takes complete ownership of the client—from sales to implementation to after-sales service. All we have to do is turn over our referrals to her,” said Scott. She’s quick to follow up and she always provides friendly service. We never worry that she’s not going to represent FB&T with the same care and integrity with which we approach our customers.”

Full-service Banking with the Help of Trusted Partners

“When we launched merchant services, it wasn’t so much about increasing profitability as it was about being able to offer a comprehensive and complete suite of services to our customers,” said Scott.

“Now, offering merchant services can be a game changer for remaining competitive in today’s harsh environment. We must always be on the lookout for new and improved ways of increasing revenue, as well as attracting and retaining high-value clients. It’s rare to find a technology partner you can trust implicitly while achieving tangible, positive results. Retriever is one of those rare partners.”

The post first appeared on Retriever, Advantage Merchant Services.

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