Page 18 - BusinessWest March 2, 2026

Community Bank hosted a ribbon cutting at its new Boston
Road branch in January.
“That team has proven itself, and we like the market in general;
it looks very similar to other places where we thrive. So it just
reached a point where we said, ‘OK, we want to invest in Spring-
field.’ It’s a great opportunity for us.”
What’s in a Branch?
Most community banks have found over the past two decades
that online banking did not make
physical branches obsolete.
“That’s really how we deliver our
model: having people in the markets,
in our communities, establishing
relationships. Customers can’t do
everything online, so they’re coming
to us to help their families or their
businesses,” Plasse explained.
Even for routine transactions,
“there’s still certainly a bunch of
folks that just love to come in;
maybe it’s part of their day. They’re
very loyal customers, and we estab-
lish relationships with them,” he
added.
“But certainly over my career,
I’ve seen a shift. It used to be a
very transactional role — high vol-
ume, you have people lined up out
the door, you’re just trying to help
everybody get their transactions
completed. Now that role — and this
is why we train our folks differently
now — is more consultative. You’re
asking them questions about why they’re there, what they’re looking
for, how we can help them, and we have a lot more services to offer
that can be super helpful.”
Community Bank, in fact, offers what Plasse characterized as a
four-legged stool when it comes to financial products, including its
banking services, a wealth management group, an insurance entity,
and retirement and benefits administration products.
“We position ourselves as a diversified financial services com-
pany. We see that as our differentiator from other banks in terms of
our business model. And those entities really run on their own as
fully scaled businesses, and they contribute an outsized portion of
our revenue,” he went on.
“That’s really how
we deliver our
model: having
people in the
markets, in our
communities,
establishing
relationships.
Customers can’t
do everything
online, so they’re
coming to us
to help their
families or their
businesses.”
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18 MARCH 2, 2026
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