CBOTS is built on relationships

Published 8:55 am Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series featuring the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce’s finalists for 2023 Small Business of the Year. The winner will be announced Saturday, June 10, at the Chamber Awards Gala.

It doesn’t take long for a customer to turn into a friend at Citizens Bank of the South, the bank’s president says.

By the time a customer takes a second trip into the office on Executive Parkway, CBOTS President Bill Jones and his staff strive to keep names with faces in order to provide that small-town customer service feel that has allowed the bank to be in business for over half a century.

“In the banking business, you’re almost like a partner with somebody in helping them through their needs,” Jones said. “Our mission is to provide banking knowledge with friendly service and give people a peace of mind through the whole process. That’s what I see it as.”

Citizens Bank of the South got its start in nearby Sandersville in 1965 and added a full-service branch in Statesboro in 2008. Two years after celebrating its 50-year anniversary, CBOTS expanded operations again, opening its first location in Milledgeville almost six years ago. Jones, who has been in place as president since the Milledgeville office opened, shared that the expansion came about to serve some customers who were journeying from Milledgeville to Washington County to bank with CBOTS and others who had moved over to the lake from the world’s kaolin capital.

“It just made sense that we move here into the Milledgeville market,” the president said. “This community has been nothing but an asset to us. It really has made an impact on us more than we’ve made on it, I believe.”

CBOTS has all the standard banking offerings – checking, savings, mortgage and car loans, certificates of deposit, etc. – along with the aforementioned emphasis on customer service. An additional point of pride in the Milledgeville office is company culture. The local branch opened its doors in 2017 with six employees. Nearly six years later, five of those six friendly faces can still be found manning stations around the office whether it be at a loan officer’s desk or the drive-thru. The only one not remaining retired about two years after the local branch opened. At a time when companies are constantly hiring due to turnover, CBOTS has enjoyed great continuity with seven employees now in place here in Milledgeville.

Other than fulfilling their duties to serve customers, the employees have played another big part in seeing CBOTS receive its Small Business of the Year nomination. A business’ positive community involvement is taken into consideration, and CBOTS employees each year vote on nonprofits in the community to donate to financially. In return they receive a paid day off.

All of that and more has led to Citizens Bank of the South’s Milledgeville office being selected as a finalist for 2023 Small Business of the Year.

“It’s humbling just to get nominated for it, and for us to win it would be really gratifying to know we’ve made an impact on the community,” Jones said. “It just goes to show that you’re doing something right … Building relationships is what this business is about. We work hard at trying to do that here at this bank with this community.”