Lisa Rickert's first day working at a bank was on June 3, 1986. She was a teller back then and fresh out of high school.
It was the third of the month, and that meant retirees had received their monthly Social Security checks and had come to the bank to cash them.
"The lobby was full. All of these people were coming in because everyone had gotten paid," Rickert recalled. "I must have asked my supervisor what they were cashing, and then I asked what Social Security was."
Almost 40 years ago, that branch was staffed by a dozen tellers and its hours were 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. — "remember the phrase banker's hours," Rickert laughed — except for Fridays, when the branch stayed open until 8 p.m. Rickert's bank did not have any ATMs yet nor did it offer debit cards, even though that technology was beginning to take hold by the mid-1980s. Much of the accounting by the tellers was still done by hand.
Technology has changed in the years since, and branches look significantly different today with fewer teller lines and far less foot traffic, even on paydays.
Still, to Rickert, the essence of what a branch is and does for its customers and community has not changed.
"The method of how we do things has changed. But there are still phone calls and questions," said Rickert, who now serves as the branch manager for a Seymour, Wisconsin, branch for Nicolet National Bank. "There are just different questions."
A spokesman for the $8.5 billion-asset Nicolet, which is based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, described Rickert, along with Ruth McCord, the branch manager in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, as "quintessential community bankers in towns where community banking still matters" whose efforts inside the office and out in the field were worthy of being highlighted.
Destined to become a banker
Rickert said she always knew she would become a banker. As a child, she loved bringing her change to get counted at her bank, and her mother teased her about that being her future career path. Then she took the teller's job after graduating from high school and eventually progressed to being a teller's supervisor.
"I always said tellering was the best job," she added. "I always thought of it as standing around and talking all day, and I am good at that."
For the last 30 years, Rickert has served as a branch manager for various institutions. She has worked at Nicolet for the last eight years after the company bought out her previous employer, Baylake Corp., in 2015. But when Nicolet purchased Baylake, Rickert took the change in stride. Overall, the banking industry has been consolidating for decades through mergers, and Rickert has gone through several acquisitions as a frontline role. For instance, she had also joined Baylake after it purchased her previous employer, Evergreen State Bank.
Rickert took pride — and comfort — in knowing that her branch was a strong performer, so she did not dwell on any of the potential downsides, such as layoffs or branch closures, that can come with a merger.
"I'm not a big fan of change, but it will happen either way," she added. "You either go with it or get left behind, and luckily all of the mergers I've been through have been pretty positive."
Rickert's favorite part of the job has been working with customers. Because of that, she has never considered moving into a back-office role or another position that wouldn't involve interacting with people.
An advocate for saving, she has made it a point to encourage her customers, family and friends to put aside money whenever possible. Rickert said one of her favorite stories to share about the power of saving involved the daughter of one of her neighbors. At the time, the teenager had just gotten her first job working in a restaurant. Rickert encouraged her to save just a bit of every paycheck by taking the odd amount from the check — for instance, if the teen was paid $63.89, she should save the $3.89 — for big purchases in the future.
A few years later, the teenager told Rickert that she had managed to save enough for a down payment on a car following her advice.
"I honestly love my job because I love the people," she added. "What has been really cool is seeing kids come in who are little, and then they come in to open their first savings account, then a checking account and then needing a loan."
Passionate about making someone's day
McCord, who runs a Nicolet branch about 300 miles northeast of Rickert's location, has worked in banking for most of her adult life. After a three-year stint in the Army, she returned home and "was floundering," she said. To help McCord out, her mother called a family friend who was an executive at a bank who got her a job working as a teller. She's been in banking ever since, including serving as a branch manager for the last 25 years. She has been with Nicolet since October 2021.
McCord described being able to build relationships, including with her staff members, as "her gift." The cornerstones to doing this: honesty, sincerity and passion.
"When people know that you are passionate about your job, they know they can trust you," she said.
To that end, McCord said she always tries to hire staff members who she thinks have the same level of passion for banking and customers, doing the right thing and having fun. An interaction with a customer she once had sums up her passion for the job. One day a gentleman stopped McCord while she was at the branch's water fountain to tell her that coming into the bank made his day.
"I said, 'Thank you! That is what we strive for,'" she recalled. "And he said, 'I don't think you get it. This is a bank. And coming here is the highlight of my day.'"
She added: "I do get it. We have the power every day to make someone's day, and that is a shared goal at our branch."
McCord also makes it a point to volunteer within her community of Sault Ste. Marie, which has a population of about 13,000 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, as much as she can. She is currently involved with the Lions Club, which she described as her passion. "I will die a Lion," she added. She also works with the Chippewa County Community Foundation and recently joined the board of the local North Star Habitat for Humanity.
"I believe it is one of the most important things we can do in the community as a banker," McCord said. "Service is the price you pay for the space we occupy. We occupy this space of importance in people's lives as a bank."
Despite the popularity of digital banking, McCord believes that there will always be a place for branches.
"There will be a need for branches in 2050 and 2060 and 2070," she said. "We aren't going anywhere. There are a lot of things people can do online now, but most people that have real needs beyond cashing a check or making a deposit want to sit down and talk to someone they trust. If they are buying their first home, they want someone to walk them through that. If they are setting up a college fund, they need to talk to someone. Those are the kinds of things that won't be done online exclusively."
