Western State Bank’s roots date all the way back to 1902 with one location in Webster, ND. Since then, they have grown into a chain with 11 locations throughout North Dakota and Arizona. They are dedicated to creating and maintaining positive relationships with all of their stakeholders including customers, employees, communities, vendors, shareholders and regulators.

“Western State Bank is Your Hometown Bank.” This phrase summarizes what they strive to be every day. They believe the key to success is to balance stakeholder interests through empowered team members living out the organization’s vision and core values through each external and internal customer interaction. In the banking business, the products from one bank to another are very generic, so in order to differentiate themselves from the sea of sameness, it’s important to utilize the opportunity of the customer experience to the fullest each and every day. According to communications specialist Sam Krause, “We have found our biggest differentiator to be quality team members and the commitment to deliver a superior customer experience.”

Since communication between Western’s team members is so important to their company vision, they came to Absolute Marketing Group for assistance improving their Intranet system for employee communication. Krause said, “In the winter of 2014, Western worked with Absolute to redesign our Intranet site. We initially launched our Intranet site in 2013 and found ourselves in the market for a more user-friendly, one-stop-shop for our team members. We also wanted a place for team members to go to learn the latest news in subjects such as health and wellness, company projects and much more. Absolute helped us deliver a user-friendly website to our team members with the ability to publish unlimited content and information.”

The new Intranet was a huge success. “One of our greatest accomplishments is the implementation of our Intranet site. One of our core values here at Western is to communicate openly and often, so as an organization we were committed to developing a platform that would increase the effective communication happening from one team member to another. Our Intranet site has proven to be a place our team members can count on for the most important, up-to-date information regarding our project initiatives, strategic plan and overall organizational news,” said Krause.

Krause also added, “Absolute was great to work with. Western’s Intranet team primarily worked with Brian Meckler and Tyler Wahl on development, and we were impressed with their prompt communication, commitment to deadlines and overall creativity they brought to the project.”

If you need help improving your internal communication, give Absolute a call at 701.478.1111 and ask to speak with a marketing advisor or visit absolutemg.com/contact. We have an immense amount of experience and would be happy to help.