FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 92

Daryl Oldvader
presents a service
award to Joyce
Borgmeyer during
the 2010 Employee
Conference.

With a thorough understanding of the various segments of their
market, the goals of FCS Financial’s strategic plan was to make them
more competitive by addressing the distinctions between various
market segments, increase the effectiveness of their marketing
efforts, and better match customer needs with staff expertise. The
goal was to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to lending
and financial services. While large commercial operations tended
to prefer on-farm service, traditional and part-time farmers liked
to visit FCS Financial offices in town and some younger, Internetsavvy farmers were increasingly looking for online solutions for
their business transactions. “We realized that our customers were
becoming more specialized, so we started matching our loan officers
to our customers’ needs,” said Daryl. James Nivens, who has served
as chairman of the board since 2012, commented at the time, “I think
it’s just a natural progression necessary to provide the best possible
service to our customers. Delivery channels are changing; that’s pretty
obvious. All you have to do is to look at what’s happening in the rest
of agriculture and then understand that we—FCS Financial—are a
bona fide part of Missouri agriculture. We have the personnel and the
products and we don’t want to play catch-up . . . we need to try to stay
ahead of the curve.” By the fall of 2010 they were ready to roll out the
segment-centric approach to their business with marketing materials
that advertised a redefined FCS Financial: “Focused. Customized.
Solutions. For Who You Are. For What You Do.”

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Selected References