Frost Bank president says customer service key to success

 Frost Bank President and CEO Dick Evans spoke at Texas Christian University Sept. 4, and discussed Frost Bank’s culture and commitment to keep its business in Texas, and the company’s break from residential mortgage and credit card business in 2000.

“We’re staying in Texas,” Evans said at the event. “People from other states, say New York, will ask me ‘Why don’t you move into Oklahoma?’ and I say ‘Have you ever been to Oklahoma?’”

Frost’s business, employee and customer service culture is focused on relationships and experiences, Evans said, adding that communication between a bank and its customers is key to working through tough economic times.

Evans also said he encourages younger Frost employees to work in what he calls Frost’s “special assets” section, meaning problem loans, to help the employees get banking experience in the current recession that will benefit them in the future.

The company’s decision in 2000 to move out of the residential mortgage and credit card business was key to helping Frost continue growing through 2008 and 2009, Evans said. The decision was made because the mortgage and credit card fields had become too commoditized, he said.

The event was the first in TCU’s Neeley School of Business executive speaker series this fall.

Frost Bank opened six new financial centers through 2008, and plans to open four through 2009. The company has about $16 billion in assets.

Frost has 110 locations, with 27 locations in Tarrant County, ranking fourth in banking size in Tarrant behind JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, according to FDIC data.

lwimmer@bizpress.net