With its low turnover and long employee retention, Illinois State Bank’s small branch in Lake in the Hills remains a huge favorite with customers. Assistant Branch Manager Sue Tagatz has the rundown for us. Our featured department last week was Marketing.

The Lake in the Hills team: Teresa Wojciechowski, Sue Tagatz, and Blanca Wiley. Not pictured: Area Branch Manager John Ryczek, floating Teller Vicky Blasy.

Personnel
John Ryczek, Area Branch Manager
Vicky Blasy, Teller
Sue Tagatz, Assistant Branch Manager–Sales
Blanca Wiley, Teller Supervisor
Teresa Wojciechowski, Teller

What is your community like? What’s it known for?
Lake in the Hills is a small village nestled between Crystal Lake and Algonquin, Illinois. The first houses here were built in 1923 by a federal judge, who built four homes around Woods Creek Lake, which is still the “main” lake in Lake in the Hills. In the early days, people would come on vacation from Chicago to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. In 1952, the Village of Lake in the Hills was formed. It truly is a very hilly community.

Does your branch have any favorite or special customers?
Since there has been very little turnover at this branch, the customers know the tellers very well. We celebrate happy and sad times with our customers. They feel like we are their friends and share those personal events with us. It seems like not a week goes by that a customer doesn’t bring in some type of treat for the staff.

What services or products seem to be most important to your customers?
There isn’t one specific product or service. I think the most important thing to our customers is good customer service, which we provide daily. Many customers say our branch is no longer convenient for them to get to, but that they won’t change, because they love the people here.

Any personal celebrations or milestones among the people at your branch recently?
For being such a small branch, we have a lot of years of service here: I’ve been with the bank for 11.5 years, Blanca will celebrate 10 years in September, and Teresa has been here for seven years.

Is there some music, or a TV show or movie or book or anything that’s notably popular among the people at your branch?
We all seem to have different interests in TV shows, books, and movies. The fun part of reading is having someone suggest a new book and enjoying it. We are all excited that the Chicago Blackhawks are once again in the Stanley Cup finals!