Glimpses

The Grand Forks crew trying to pay Steven’s phone bill.

“This story gives me chills,” says Erica Schierholz, the Director of Frontline Learning & Recruitment at Choice Financial. This is how she begins recounting the story of what happened one afternoon at Choice Financial Grand Forks; an interaction with a customer that she will never forget.

In order to understand this interaction, we must backtrack to when Frontline Specialist Gina Peroutka first met their customer, Steven. Steven first came into Choice Financial with a woman, presumably his girlfriend, and a little boy. They set up an account and he mentioned he’d recently moved to Grand Forks. Gina gave them a warm welcome. Over the course of a few months, they’d stop by the bank now and then and Gina would help them with their account.

“He was always cheery and happy,” she said. “He was always very chatty.”

Then one day, Steven came in alone. Something was different.

“His demeanor had changed,” Gina said. “He seemed sad.”

A few weeks later, they found Steven’s account was covered with fraud. He mentioned his ex-girlfriend still had his old account information, so they closed the account and ordered him a new debit card. He needed it in time to pay his phone bill, he said. “You’ll have it in 7-10 days,” Allysia replied.

Unfortunately, Allysia and her team got notice that the debit card had been lost in the mail. Steven called in to check on the status, and when they told him the news, he panicked.

“You have no idea how much this means to me,” he said, fervently.

The team was quiet as Steven drove away. Tears welled up in Erica’s eyes, and she could see the new team members feeling the same.

“I’m so proud of them for coming together like that,” Erica, who spent time training in this team not too long ago, said. “You could tell what these three did had a big impact on him.”

Chris hopes that a moment like this one can lead to many more.

“He was in a bad situation, and it seemed to be snowballing down,” he said. “We wanted to give him a win, so we could get that ball rolling the other way.”

Gina, Chris and Allysia displayed Choice’s core value, commit to your customers with undivided attention, and it may have changed a life.

Our People First values are at the heart of everything we do. Learn more about our passion for putting People First here.