Community First Bank in Kennewick, WA

Finally, a bank that knows my name when I walk in. A true hometown experience.

Absolutely love the staff, they know me by my name. Definitely a true hometown bank.

I almost wonder if it is fair to Community First for me to write what my experience was. I don't know if they can possibly give the same kind of experience to everyone, that I received. I fear that I might set peoples' expectations too high. But I have to be honest. This is MY experience, and readers should know what it truly has been for me. I opened my account there somewhere around 2006. I went in, a total stranger, and I was treated as if they already knew me. A mutual friend had told me that they would help me get my personal check cashed, and they did it, basically on my word after telling them that one of their customers recommended them to me. They didn't try to pressure me to open an account, and in fact all they did was when I thanked them for taking such good care of me, they said, "We are glad we could help. And if you ever decide to move your banking, we hope you will consider coming to us." That was it. I didn't open an account that day, but I did eventually get fed up with GESA, a couple of months later, I believe it was, I went back in, and was floored when Community First greeted me, BY NAME, and asked what they could do for me. I told them that I wanted to talk to someone about opening an account there. I got personal attention, and was told that I would always get personal attention. My wife and I, both, always get treated like friends--not like customers. I feel like we have a personal relationship with our account manager, even though we don't see each other very, very, often. When we have a problem, they take care of it. Community First isn't the biggest, they don't have the bleeding edge products, like using your smartphone to deposit checks, etc. But they do have everything that we really need, and they are extremely responsive to customers. They have a pretty nice online banking system, and we have few problems with it. I am a pretty critical person. I do believe that I am fair, but I don't give five stars lightly. When I find a product or service that I can give five stars to, I want people to know about it. I just fear that my review might influence more people to start using MY bank, and then it will get too big and impersonal. But even that fear has been put to rest. My account representative has told me that her boss has promised that when she feels that she has too many customers for her to give them the right attention, that she can hire another account rep. I don't even know if it has happened. She continues to take care us the same as the first day I walked in there. Community First is a part of our family. They know our kids, they want to know what our family is doing. We have a relationship. And that is rare anymore.

In comparison to the corporate banking experience, inconvenience, anonymity etc, one cannot help but see the difference in the CFB experience. From the time they first initiated the conversation of moving out business banking to their bank, the representatives were in MY office highlighting where they could be of service and what account types would fit best for me. There are NEVER lines in the branch, and every time I make a deposit I am greeted by name. Could not recommend highly enough-

Worst bank experience everytime. Don't even know why i have an account here anymore.