Smart banking that goes deeper than business.
The physicians in our practice had a long-standing relationship with a large bank. But the bank kept changing ownership, and finally, there was no one left with whom we had any relationship. We are a large medical specialty practice with nine offices and relationships with a number of hospitals, dialysis providers, and vascular access centers. We needed a bank that understood our business. And, while it felt like a big risk to change away from a bank we’d been working with for so long, it also felt like a big risk not to.
I had heard great things about the team at Oakworth and knew they had ties to the medical community in Birmingham. They had a reputation of working closely with their clients to understand their business, so it made sense to check them out.
Oakworth’s commitment to service was obvious from the beginning. The person who would eventually become our client advisor brought over a team of people to present to us. They had experience with medical practices and it was obvious they understood our financial goals. In fact, people on their team are members of the Medical Group Management Association. That was important.
They really knew our business! More importantly, you could tell that with them it wasn’t just business. It was personal.
These were smart guys. You could see they’d be easy to work with. Their character showed. They felt like people we wanted to know.
It was a big decision, but we decided to go ahead and make the change. The transition was delightful. They helped us through the changes in technology. They showed us ways to streamline everything. They didn’t hesitate to come right over to the office and work with our staff. And that’s still the case — if we have an issue, they come to us, not the other way around.
Oakworth turned out to be a great business partner. They worked closely with our board on several joint ventures and investments. With their advice, we have more efficient processes in our business office as well. Now we not only do our commercial banking with them, but a number of our physicians and management team use Oakworth for their personal banking and wealth management as well. That’s a credit to the relationships they have built with us.