David Holada has achieved gold-ribbon status four years running in our recognition program based on customer surveys.

Shorewood ABMO David Holada is golden — in a manner of speaking.

The bank regularly surveys customers after they’ve completed a teller transaction at a branch. When customers give the employee who helped them a perfect score on areas within the employee’s control (such as using the customer’s name and making the customer feel welcome), or when a customer compliments an employee by name, the employee receives a star. As an employee receives more stars, he or she also gets ribbons of a different color. Gold ribbons signify an elite level of employee achievement, after receiving 11 or more positive recognitions from customers.

The program has been in existence for four years, and in that time, David has achieved gold status each year.

“It’s nice,” David says. “It’s like a little ‘atta boy’ for us.”

He says there’s no real secret to his success — he just works hard to build good relationships with his customers.

“I know our clientele. I’m pretty good with faces and names, so I can often greet someone as soon as they walk in,” he says. “It’s something that kind of comes naturally to me, but I’ve also been here for, gosh, almost nine years now, so you get to know people.”

Despite his routine strong performance, David certainly isn’t tired of hearing kind words from customers.

“It’s always nice to hear when somebody says, ‘Oh, I bank at a couple different places, and there isn’t any staff I like working with more than yours.’ That’s huge,” he says. “It makes the job worthwhile.”

And he’s quick to credit his coworkers with helping him deliver great service. For example, last year a woman vacationing in Mexico called because she was locked out of using her debit card. David worked with a rep in the call center at Corporate to get the problem solved.

“I wish I could give credit where it was due, but I can’t remember who the other employee was!” he says. The customer came in after returning home to express her thanks. “She said, ‘You saved our trip.'”

As for advice for replicating his success, David says — fittingly — that he just tries to follow the golden rule, treating customers as he’d wish to be treated. He also often thinks back to the Q-tip enclosed with his training materials when he started at North Shore Bank.

“It stood for ‘Quit Taking It Personally,'” he says. “It was a reminder that if a customer comes in and is upset, they’re not really upset with you. That’s always helpful to remember.”

Craig Witz, VP, Branch Sales, says: “David’s friendly approach, easygoing conversations, and can-do attitude make him a natural for customer service excellence. It’s hard not to smile while working with him.”