Umpqua Bank

Build economic vitality together for the greater good

Create a unique and memorable banking environment in which OUR CUSTOMERS perceive the bank as an indispensable partner in achieving their financial goals

Create values that build and strengthen your social capital

• Results-oriented
  Accountable for adding value and delivering exceptional outcomes.
• Entrepreneurial
  Like our enterprising customers, this is our company, and we act as if its success depends on us. Because it does.
• Customer-obsessed
  Our customers’ success is our success. We go beyond the expected to provide what they need to thrive.
• Caring
  We care for and respect each other, our customers, and our communities; empathy strengthens us.
• Ethical
  Earn trust, do what’s right, and act with integrity. Always.
• Inspired to learn
  Passionate about learning and growing both as a company and as individuals.

Offer the products and services of a large bank while operating with the local engagement of a community bank and the customer experience of the country’s most innovative retailers

The agile and community-focused caregiver

These caregivers are focused on helping others succeed. Motivated to look out for the needs of the people and small businesses in their neighborhood, they act with a sense of urgency and intensity. As trusted advisors to those they serve, they pride themselves on being friendly, warm, knowledgeable, professional, and joyful. Their energy and positive passion are contagious, and they are not afraid of standing out from the crowd, even if that means being quirky and corny at times.

Spontaneous, quirky, and corny

From surprising customers with gifts to having an orangutan be the star of their commercials, Umpqua Bank looks for ways to bring surprises into their customers' lives. By infusing fun and humor into a serious industry, they create an approachable and engaging experience. As former CEO Ray Davis explains, "We don't worry about being corny, quirky, and spontaneous. In fact, I think all that helps build our brand because everybody remembers it when you do something nice, even if it's corny...We're corny, and people have fun with it. We get noticed, and we get remembered."

Exceptional customer service

Umpqua aims to provide the highest level of service that their customers will ever experience. To deliver on this, they have designed their operations and culture to:

• Be agile: Knowing that they couldn't outprice or out-resource the big banks, Umpqua used their small size to do things quicker, deliver faster, and change how they do things to act urgently on any customer problem.
• Have a plus-one mentality: The ability to deliver knock-your-socks-off service doesn't happen overnight. Umpqua focuses on improving a little every day by asking themselves, 'If we were at a 10 yesterday, how can we be at an 11 today?'
• Empower employees and hold them accountable: Each Umpqua associate can make decisions autonomously, like removing fees, matching rates, or surprising customers with random acts of kindness. However, they are also responsible for being able to explain any decision they make.

Community banking

For Umpqua Bank, being a community bank has nothing to do with their size but everything to do with how they "operate the business, the culture [they] maintain, the relationships [they] build, and the way [they] serve [their] customers." Umpqua prides themselves on remaining a local bank that builds strong personal ties within each of the communities they serve by:

• Making decisions locally at each store
• Empowering each associate to make decisions that benefit customers autonomously
• Enabling staff to spend 40 paid hours per year volunteering in their community
• Creating local advisory boards to address the needs of local businesses and community leaders
• Welcoming everyone, not just customers, into their stores to hang out, hold meetings and events, and connect with other people

Unique design and presence

Umpqua set out to design an unbank-like look and feel where if someone were blindfolded and brought into an Umpqua store and asked, 'Where are you?' they'd say, 'Umpqua Bank' without hesitation.

To Umpqua, design isn't just about how things look but also about what customers hear, smell, taste, and feel. Every Umpqua experience is carefully thought out to reflect who they are as a brand. Former CEO Ray Davis explains, "Our design says that we are part of the local community, we're your friends and neighbors, we're professionals, and we deliver outstanding service."

Community-focused locals

Umpqua appeals to the locals of their community who are tired of the impersonal, slow service that big banks have to offer. Instead, their customers look for a friendly and approachable banking alternative that adapts quickly to the needs of the people and communities they serve. And while they want the self-service convenience that technology offers, they rely on a human connection when planning their financial future.

Measure the quality of your service

To prove to themselves that they are continually improving in service, Umpqua Bank began measuring customer and staff service quality. The scores are calculated each month, teams are ranked, and the results are posted for everyone.

The goal is to reward team performance, not individual accomplishment. The winning store and department both receive a crystal trophy that they proudly display until it moves on to the next winner the following month. Any store or department that ranks poorly for some time is asked to develop an improvement plan and then is held accountable for implementing it.

Store Return on Quality (ROQ) Measurements

• Sales Effective Ratio (SER) measures the average number of bank products and services sold to new customers at each sales session.
• Customer Account Retention measures the number of deposits closed as a percentage of all accounts.
• Customer Service Surveys measure the quality of service that customers receive.
• New Account Surveys measure the average score of new account holders.
• Telephone Shopping Reports are done three times per month by outside vendors. They measure whether the phones are answered correctly and if the associate asks if the customer needs additional information.
• New Deposit & Loan Accounts / Full-time Equivalent measures the total number of deposits and loans divided by the number of employees working in the store.

Department Return on Quality Measurements

Departments at Umpqua each have developed service-level agreements (SLA) with one another. These agreements include standards such as turnaround time. Every associate who interacts with a specific department provides both positive and negative feedback to that department with an SLA survey.

Don't hunker down in times of uncertainty

During the Great Recession, Umpqua Bank had no layoffs and didn't reduce costs. While this was the strategy of many companies, former CEO Ray Davis instead invested in Umpqua's capacity. He explains, "How can we weather the storm by reducing our resources? When you are in stormy seas, you call out, 'All hands on deck,' you don't tell half of them to jump overboard...The last thing we wanted to do was weaken our ability to create our own future."

Even though their earnings took a hit, Umpqua emerged from the Great Recession quickly and with a stronger balance sheet than ever before. Ray attributes this to Umpqua's ability not to hunker down but instead invest in opportunities like:

• Creating an international banking division
• Adding a wealth management division
• Expanding commercial banking operations in Seattle
• Adding a capital markets division

But this doesn't mean Umpqua condones retaining excess overhead. Ray clarifies, "I am as much for efficiency as anyone, but why wait for problems to run your company as efficiently as possible?"

Create a culture of empowerment

On Ray Davis' first day as CEO of Umpqua Bank, he received a call from an associate asking if an upset customer could be reimbursed for fees totaling $20. His response was, "What do you think we should do?" With that one question, Ray began building a culture where every staff member could make customer service decisions without asking for permission.

However, to build an empowered culture, he had to make two additional things very clear:

1. Leaders can never punish or criticize any decision by an associate. Instead, leaders are responsible for defining broad guidelines for associates to operate within. Based on an associate's decision, leaders can either say, "Great job, way to go!" or suggest a better way to do it next time.
2. Associates are to be held accountable for the decisions they make. Every associate is responsible for being able to explain a decision they make. When an associate was asked why she reversed $500 out of $700 in charges, she explained that "the customer was basically broke, and the bank would never collect the $700 anyway. But she wanted to impress upon the customer that the charges were her responsibility, so she didn't wipe them all away."

Create an unrealistic, unreasonable, and 'corny' vision

A few years after becoming CEO of Umpqua Bank, Ray Davis shared the book Raving Fans with the entire Umpqua staff. In the book, service attendants at a gas station would greet patrons by saying: "Welcome to the world's greatest service station." Inspired by this, Umpqua began calling themselves the World's Greatest Bank in 1996 and adopted it as their vision in 2000.

While other banks initially scoffed at the idea and others didn't think Umpqua was serious about it, Ray Davis believed it was perfect because:

• It was unrealistic. "Suppose we...settled for a smaller vision; say 'A Pretty Good Bank in the Pacific Northwest.' We would not have achieved anywhere near the dedication, commitment, and passion we have in our company."
• It set unreasonable goals. "Give your people unreasonable goals because unreasonable goals inspire people to reach for a higher level...'Only when people subscribe to unreasonable goals will they start searching for breakthrough ideas.'"
• It was corny but genuine. If the people you lead "sense that you are not absolutely committed and passionate about achieving your vision or that you don't have the discipline to live your vision day in and day out," it will become empty words. "'The World's Greatest Bank' is corny. But for us, it's not an advertising slogan...We do it for ourselves. It represents our state of mind."

Build trust through constant, transparent communication

Former CEO Ray Davis has always believed that "people can handle good news for sure, and they can also handle bad news. What worries people and what builds anxiety is uncertainty. If people don't know what's going on, they become nervous and unhappy." During his 23 years at Umpqua Bank, Ray found many ways to communicate with his staff openly and honestly while never speculating.

• Broadcast calls: After Umpqua's earnings were made public every quarter, Ray held broadcasts for all staff to learn about the company's finances.
• Town halls: Ray regularly held town hall meetings for staff and the public to align everyone around the company's strategy. Employees submitted questions or complaints anonymously, and Ray would answer each one with the provision that he would read them exactly as they were written.
• Focus groups: Ray frequently would meet with 10 to 12 different associates from across the company to hear how Umpqua could improve. Managers were not allowed in these meetings to empower staff to speak freely, and everything was on the table for discussion, from the type of coffee supplied in stores to internal processes. The only rule was that staff could not discuss their issues with other individuals.
• 'Viewpoint' communications: These quarterly communications to all Umpqua associates were sent out by Ray to align staff around topics important to Umpqua's culture, like ethics, brand, communication, and leadership.
• 'Get to know you' visits: Ray held informal meetings with associates at Umpqua stores to allow him to meet team members and answer any questions they may have while sharing a pizza.
• Ad hoc calls and emails: Even with more than 25,000 associates, Ray made it a point to answer every question that came his way as fast as possible—usually within the same day. For Ray, this is "one of the most effective things I can do as a leader. It clearly demonstrates my commitment to our associates and my respect for their experience and perspective, and it reinforces our culture of telling the truth."

Increase alignment by circling back with your staff

While leaders may think they are aligned with their staff once a decision is made, follow-ups give "people a chance to come back to you and tell you if they still have questions or concerns." Former Umpqua Bank CEO Ray Davis often found that staff would say they agreed or understood in meetings because "that's what they thought you wanted to hear." Ray made it a habit to follow up with his staff personally four hours after any discussion to ask:

• Are you okay with our discussion?
• Is everything cleared up?
• Is anything bothering you?

Don't manage by emails

"If you have a sense of urgency, you can't manage by memos and email," writes Ray Davis, former CEO of Umpqua Bank. Instead, Ray believes in dealing with people directly. A two-minute phone call can get the job done quicker than spending "ten minutes typing up an email, which has to be responded to, which then has to be responded to, and so on and on."

Have the self-discipline to stay committed to your strategy

Just before launching a new product at Umpqua Bank, former CEO Ray Davis was confronted with bad news. Due to a change in their newly 'upgraded' system, the technology team would be unable to support the new product, and the rollout would be delayed.

With no way of judging the technical explanation given and having all eyes on him, Ray decided they would continue with the launch as planned. He told the tech team that they would need to keep track of the product manually until the software could be fixed, then got up and left the meeting.

While some on the team most likely considered this unreasonable, it was not to Ray. Ray was sending a message that he was serious about making progress at Umpqua and that his vision to make change was unwavering. Not surprisingly, within two days before launch, the tech team fixed the problem, and the product launched as initially planned.

"Any time you have people asking you to be...reasonable, put your guard up," Ray explains. "Stay true to your vision...So many people are cynical. They all have experienced the fad of the month and have been conditioned by bad management to expect new programs with bold announcements to eventually peter out." It is the leader's job to remain self-disciplined and stay the course.

Change department names to align with their higher purpose

When Ray Davis became CEO of Umpqua Bank, he wanted to help department leaders rise above their operational tasks and see their jobs from a higher strategic level. One of his first steps was reorganizing the company and changing department titles to correlate with the department's higher purpose.

• Marketing became Creative Strategies with the purpose of differentiating Umpqua in the marketplace.
• Human Resources became the Cultural Enhancement Division, whose purpose is to enhance the company's culture.
• IT became Technology Advancement with a core focus on advancing the company's technology.
• Finance became Financial Integrity with a responsibility to keep the company's financial statements beyond reproach.

Ray found that these simple changes helped shift people's state of mind. And "as a leader," Ray writes, "Do you have anything more important to do for the people you lead than ensure that their state of mind stays focused on the important goals of the company?"

Study businesses from outside your industry

Former Umpqua CEO Ray Davis often sent his team on road trips to study companies with "a reputation for some sort of pizzazz." They were looking for unconventional ideas that could disrupt what they called "bank think." Ray explains, "I wanted to know about the senses they felt. What did they feel? What did they taste? What did they touch? These are the things that bankers don't normally give credibility to."

• By studying the Ritz-Carlton and how they provided every receipt on a silver tray, Umpqua began giving receipts on small wooden trays with an Umpqua chocolate.
• From Norstrom, they saw how "clerks would straighten shelves after customers looked through things, and when the customer wanted to buy something, they would take them to the cash register and cash them out."
• They gained ideas on how to greet people, display products, and create a community atmosphere from brands like Gap, Nike, Disney, Starbucks, and Restoration Hardware.

Empower staff through rewards, recognition, and engagement programs

Just telling Umpqua staff they are empowered to make decisions was not enough to create an empowered culture. Staff wanted assurance that it was safe for them to make decisions independently and that their work would be appreciated. Former CEO Ray Davis began introducing new incentive programs to reward good judgment and to signify that management trusts and believes in their associates.

• Brag Box recognitions: On Umpqua's intranet, associates can submit a story of how a team member went above and beyond to solve a customer's problem. Each month, Brags are selected, and those associates receive $50 and special recognition on the company's intranet.
• Spirit of Excellence Awards: Every month, associates are selected by their peers to receive $100, a plaque, and an extra day of paid vacation for doing extraordinary things for both customers and other associates.
• Team Recognition Fund: Every store and department has a special fund that associates can freely access to send team members something special, like gift cards, flowers, and a free dinner at a local restaurant.
• Team Awards: The President's Club recognizes the team or department that they feel is best living up to the company's standards in the most professional way.
• Culture Champion Awards: Each participating department's executive chooses a winner based on that department's criteria of cultural excellence.
• World's Greatest Bank University certification programs: When completing a certification program within the Umpqua training department, associates are recognized with an announcement on the company's intranet, a certificate of achievement, a graduation ceremony, and a recognition luncheon.
• Recognition cards: On the first of every month, Ray Davis would send out about 250 cards to associates celebrating their anniversary, letting them know how much he appreciates them, their work, and their dedication to customer service.
• Years of service awards: On landmark anniversaries, staff are presented with a gift box that includes a personalized plaque and gift catalog that associates can use to select a gift for themselves.
• Return on Quality (ROQ) crystal trophy: Each month, the department and store with the highest ROQ scores are awarded the highly coveted traveling crystal trophy.
• Celebration of Excellence: This yearly black tie event is like the Academy Awards. There is a master of ceremonies and a live band. Gold statues are presented to associates for their individual and team accomplishments.
• Annual Chairman's and President's Award: Presented at the Celebration of Excellence, these awards go to associates who exemplify Umpqua's core values. Winners receive seven days for two in Hawaii, $1,500 in spending cash, and a week's paid time off.

Inspire staff by sharing WOW stories

Umpqua added a WOW! blog on their intranet for associates to inspire colleagues with stories of how they went above and beyond for customers. Stories were organized into seven "superpower" categories:

• MegaEar: Listening for and fulfilling even the faintest customer needs
• Unbeatable Heart: Displays of care and compassion that shine through no matter what
• Bankability: Helping customers with banking and protecting them from fraud
• Hooray Holler: Loudly and proudly celebrating the great things others do
• Presents of Mind: Thinking of a personalized gift that makes someone's day
• Helping Hand: Jumping in to assist or rescue someone
• Dr. Umpqua: Prescribing the perfect products and services to serve a customer's financial needs.

View WOW story examples.

Start every day with a motivational moment

At the beginning of each day, every Umpqua team is required to set aside a few minutes to recharge their batteries and have some fun. These motivational moments can be spent doing anything except talking about operations and are meant to encourage staff to think differently, keep an open mind, and work together. A few examples of motivational moments at Umpqua include:

• Thinking outside the box: Ask your team to cross out six letters from this thread of letters so that the remaining letters spell a familiar English word: BSAINXLEATNTEARS
• Simon Says: Play a fast-paced game of Simon Says. If everyone succeeds, praise your team's ability to stay focused. Otherwise, remind them of the importance of staying focused and that you want everyone to remain standing.
• Moving forward: Have everyone sit on chairs with wheels and ask them to roll backward several feet and then forward. Make the point that it is always more challenging to move forward, but moving forward is the only way to "continually grow and experience new and exciting things."
• What's on your back?: Tape a blank piece of paper to each person's back and have everyone write one positive quality about that person. In the end, everyone walks away with a list of compliments from their team members.
• The power of communication: Using small LEGO kits, have two team members stand back to back—one with the pieces and the other with the instructions. See if the person with the pieces can assemble the kit by only listening to the instructions.
• Getting to know you: Have each team member write down an unknown personal fact about themselves. Collect the responses and read them aloud to see if the team can guess which goes with which person.
• Quality check: Have your team look at your work area as a whole through the eyes of a customer and discuss how a customer would perceive it.
• Culture word search: Create a word search with words that embody your company's culture.
• Play it loud: Play an upbeat song and have everyone stand up and dance or do a few aerobic exercises.
• Who are you? Using this list of roles, have your team write down the name of the person who embodies each role. Afterward, discuss how it is essential that "all team members assume most of the roles on the list at one time or another."
• Build a castle: Tell the following story: "Three bricklayers were asked what they were doing. The first replied, "I'm laying bricks." The second said, "I'm earning a living." But the third said, "I'm building a castle." Then go around and "ask each team member for a brief phrase that personally describes how they contribute to building a great company."
• First impressions: Have each team member draw a doodle on a piece of paper using a pencil with an eraser. Then, have them erase their drawings. Comment how every action, no matter how insignificant, leaves an impression and can never be completely taken back.

Create a club of cultural ambassadors

To keep a pulse on the company's culture, former CEO Ray Davis created the President's Club, whose members are cultural ambassadors for Umpqua Bank. Besides acting as cultural role models, members are responsible for recognizing teams for doing a great job and providing Ray with unfiltered constructive feedback on how to improve the organization's culture.

Each month, the club meets for dinner with Umpqua executives, where Ray discloses what's going on from the leadership's perspective, and members talk about how new initiatives are being received and the overall morale of the staff.

To be a club member, associates must first be nominated by their peers and then receive at least a 75% approval rating from club members. Only one or two members are admitted each quarter, and once initiated, members receive company stock, special name tags, and other perks. Associates can be a club members for up to ten years and then be eligible to join the President's Club Advisory Council.

Hire people outside your industry

After defining that they were in the retail service industry just as much as the banking industry, Umpqua stopped hiring people with only banking backgrounds.

"For a teller position, we would hire someone who perhaps worked at the Gap since their job was to dazzle people who came to the store, know their product line, help customers find what they were looking for, suggest other things to buy, and make sales. These people were used to working on their feet and understood the sales process."

Umpqua also focused on working with non-banking consultants who helped them see their business from a completely different perspective. This helped foster new ideas that they could tailor to their own business.

Hire based on attitude and spirit

When former CEO Ray Davis began reshaping Umpqua's culture, he personally recruited the first handful of people to lead the change. He writes, "I wasn't interested in their job skills...just to get to know them...I was looking for that twinkle in the eye...And I ended up picking people who didn't really have much relevant experience."

Ray instead focused on finding people with the right character who were "willing to go against the grain" and "challenge conventional wisdom." Rather than hold formal interviews with a set list of questions, Ray measured a candidate's character by having informal conversations, asking questions like:

• How are you doing?
• What are your goals?
• What are your plans for the future?
• What do you want to do with the bank?
• What is the hardest part about your job?

Have leaders teach

At Umpqua Bank, executives, managers, and officers regularly teach in training and development programs for staff, as well as at their Student Board of Directors program. By placing leaders into a teaching role where they have to explain their job and responsibilities to someone else, it helps them to:

• Organize their thoughts and gain perspective on their role
• See their roles in a different way
• Get up to speed in their area of expertise

Don't rush the onboarding process

Former CEO Ray Davis originally had The Ritz-Carlton lead Umpqua Bank's onboarding process. This highly intensive multi-week onboarding curriculum focused on educating new employees on the bank's history, service standards, policies, benefits, and retail culture.

As Umpqua Bank grew, they developed their own training facility, the World's Greatest Bank University. Expanding beyond orientation, Umpqua created personal growth and development classes like professional presentation appearance, communication skills, and time management.

Inspire and encourage people to take action on their financial future through interacting with their bank

The Umpqua Bank experience was built on a legacy of community banking and helping others succeed. Building on top of this, former CEO Ray Davis wanted to create an inviting space for the community where people could stop in for a while, hang out, or host an event—and if they wanted to do some banking, they could do that too with the help of a knowledgeable advisor.

Prioritize random acts of kindness

Every Umpqua store has a designated account funded each quarter for associates to spend money delivering "extraordinary customer experiences that inspire buzz and word-of-mouth." These random acts of kindness have included offering customers a coupon for a free local dinner, sending them flowers or cookies, or depositing a cash bonus into their accounts.

Associates are given gift catalogs to use, names of florists and bakeries, and examples of what others have done to wow customers. They also do not need to ask permission or fill out any form to spend the money.

However, the money wasn't being spent when former CEO Ray Davis first implemented this program. It wasn't until Ray continuously checked in with managers that mindsets began to change. These check-ins ensured that managers made these acts of kindness a priority. Ray Davis writes, "We wanted [the money] used as directed. If not, we'd take [that store] out of the program and, if necessary, find new managers who would follow directions."

Make serving the customer a full-time job

"If you make [serving the customer] a part-time job, you're going to get part-time results." This idea led former Umpqua Bank CEO Ray Davis to create the Universal Associate role.

This role focused on removing all administrative work from frontline staff to allow them to devote 100% of their time to the customer. All Universal Associates were cross-trained to handle any customer request like making deposits, opening an account, filling out a mortgage application, applying for a loan, and more. This empowered them to be able to answer any question the member asked.

Since all staff participated in an incentive program and some stations in an Umpqua store were more lucrative than others, Universal Associates rotated weekly from the teller station to the Serious About Service Center.

As for the administrative work, there was a fear that additional staff would need to be added to handle those tasks. However, that never happened. Dividing the team into frontline and back office staff actually made each role more effective and efficient.

Write out your quality service standards

To set the baseline standard for customer service, Umpqua Bank documented precisely what was expected of associates when working with customers. A few of these unnegotiable standards include:

• We will smile and acknowledge our customers immediately as they walk through the door.
• We will stand to greet our customers.
• We will consistently wear our name badges.
• We will call our customers by name at least twice.
• We will Deliver Plus One—always looking for opportunities to do a little extra.
• We will hand out our business cards to offer additional help or to personalize our service.
• We will thank our customers sincerely for doing business with us.

Take turns being a greeter for the day

Umpqua Bank had trouble getting staff to look up from their work and acknowledge customers when they entered a store. After failing to change this behavior with memos and pep talks, former CEO Ray Davis implemented a greeter for the day program.

All in-store staff, from tellers to loan assistants, had to take turns standing by the front door wearing a corsage or boutonniere and greeting customers as they walked in. This gave staff the needed experience welcoming customers, making eye contact with them, and learning their names.

At first, the employees hated the idea, but Umpqua Bank kept it up. It took several months, but eventually, welcoming customers became a natural part of everyone's job, and the program was sunset.

Give your customers a direct line to your CEO

Almost every Umpqua Bank store has a special phone connecting customers directly to the CEO. Former CEO Ray Davis made it a point to answer every call himself, and if he weren't at his desk, he would respond to any message within the same day. On average, he would receive several phone calls per week.

As he sees it, "I know that all CEOs are very busy people. I'm busy, too. But I always have a minute or two in my workday to pick up the phone and say hello to one of my customers."

Have a plan in place for when things go wrong

While an Umpqua Bank store manager was waiting for facilities to come out to fix a broken drive-thru lane, CEO Ray Davis challenged the manager on why he wasn't turning this pain point for customers into the best customer experience they had ever received.

For moments like these, Ray has managers be proactive by working with their staff to brainstorm a list of things they can do to wow customers if something goes wrong and then hold them accountable to take action. This list includes:

• Handing out free soft drinks
• Depositing an extra $10 into a customer's account
• Washing their windshields
• Sending customers flowers or cookies

Even when Umpqua receives complaints through social media, they contact customers directly to apologize and encourage them to call Umpqua to address the problem. They then connect with the customer's local store to send out a personal hand-written note or a gift.

Turn your locations into community centers

Umpqua Bank designed their stores to be a place where customers can have fun, hang out, network, and even hold personal business meetings. Former CEO Ray Davis believed that if you can get people to want to spend more time in your stores, they will more likely buy something.

Umpqua Associates are encouraged to take initiative and hold events based on their customers' interests. Three to five times a month, stores host events like Hawaiian luaus, yoga classes, book clubs, poetry readings, Nintendo Wii bowling nights, 'stitch and bitch' knitting sessions, and 'Friday Nite Flicks,' where anyone can enjoy a free movie.

As for the cost, Umpqua partners with local businesses to keep expenses low. When they hosted a Greek art show, a local Greek restaurant provided food at a 40% discount.

Design a store that appeals to all five senses

When former CEO Ray Davis reimagined Umpqua Bank branches as stores, he put design at the center of their creation. "Design isn't just about how things look. We pay attention to what our customers see, hear, smell, taste, and feel."

• Sight: Beginning with their floor-to-ceiling windows that invite people to look in from the street, Umpqua stores have 40-foot plasma screens on their walls and clearly designated sections to Sip, Read, Surf, Shop, and Bank.
• Taste: Customers can treat themselves to a cookie or a cup of Umpqua-brand coffee. Chocolates are also delivered to the customer on a tray with their receipt after every transaction.
• Smell: Walk into their store, and customers can smell their freshly made Umpqua brand coffee.
• Sound: Local music is featured in each Umpqua store to create deeper connections with their community.
• Touch: From plush chairs to interactive multiscreen displays, Umpqua invites customers to explore and relax within their stores. Electronic "daily specials" menus are also available for customers to view bank products and neighborhood events.

Redefine the experience to match the business you are really in

When Ray Davis started at Umpqua Bank in 1994, he set out to understand 'Why would somebody want to bank with them?' and 'How were they going to stand out?' He felt that "the only way to break away from the pack...[was] to start operating on a different playing field."

He then began looking at other industries and found that while Umpqua was in the banking business, they also sold products and services like retailers. With that clarity, Umpqua began changing their entire operations to mirror retail companies like Nordstrom and Starbucks.

With the help of brand strategists from Ziba, Umpqua began by redefining their branches as stores. "The old-style bank branch where you've got tellers on one side and desks with loan officers at the other—and velvet rope telling people where they're supposed to stand—[was] over." Instead, they created an experience with an unbank-like look and feel.

Don't promote commodities

Umpqua Bank made it a point not to spend scarce advertising dollars promoting bank commodities, like online or mobile banking. As former CEO Ray Davis saw it, "When the larger banks advertise their products and services, they're also advertising my products and services...If, for example, Bank of America spends a few million dollars to advertise the virtues of its mobile banking program, it's advertising for me and all other banks because customers assume that every bank offers mobile banking."

Instead, Umpqua focuses their advertising budget on their unique services and products, like their Go-To app that allows customers to text their preferred personal bankers about any banking issue.

Create buzz about new locations with handshake marketing

When Umpqua Bank opens new stores, they get people talking around town through what they call "handshake marketing." Instead of standard direct mail promotions, they rely on random acts of kindness and will:

• Randomly buy lunch for everyone at a restaurant.
• Buy out a nearby Peet's coffee shop for the morning.
• Leave a gift on nearby doorsteps, like a plant or all the ingredients for a spaghetti dinner, with a note inviting people to stop in.
• Buy an ice cream truck and deliver ice cream around town for a few days or weeks.
• Hand out $5 transit passes to commuters at random times.

Before opening their San Francisco store, Umpqua surrounded it with construction walls and had local artists recreate Twitter messages from people who used the hashtag #umpquasf. Umpqua would then select ones at random and send the tweeter a gift based on their interests. One person received a Nike gift card because he was a huge sports fan.

Start conversations with your community

An illuminated sign on the outside of an Umpqua Seattle store asked its community to fill in the blank: 'We want to have a conversation about ______.' A passerby could text topics to complete the phrase and have them appear on the store's facade in real-time. Inside the store, customers could also fill out postcards to finish the same statement and hang them on the display wall. Umpua used the submissions to determine which events they would hold next in their store.