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Banking on Relationships - Christina and the St. Johns

In banking, as in life, personal relationships often transcend career changes and major milestones.

Both were true for the relationship between State Bank Vice President and Relationship Manager Christina Gilchrist and customers Dr. Terry and Sandi St. John.

The St. Johns first met Christina not long after they were married 22 years ago.

“We had refinanced our house at another bank shortly after we got married,” Sandi said. “We had such a great experience with Christina, that for a time we had everything through that bank - we had our credit cards and our car loans there.”

Over the years, Dr. St. John built his veterinary practice and the couple became more established. But when it came time to buy a motorcycle, they sought out Christina.

“We were comfortable with Christina and she was familiar with our financial status,” Sandi said. “Sometimes there’s less rigamarole when you go through someone you know.”

So even though Christina had since moved on to a different branch, the St. Johns tracked her down.

“We did a signature loan for my husband to buy his first motorcycle,” Sandi said. “I remember thinking ‘thank God she knows us and our background because that makes this really pretty simple.’”

After that, Christina and the St. Johns maintained their relationship through Facebook. Christina even began taking her pets to Dr. St. John.

“Any time I would get something in the mail I wasn’t sure about, she’s always been willing to answer questions,” Sandi said.

Christina joined State Bank in 2018. Even though she is now based at the Columbia, Illinois branch and the St. Johns live in Imperial, Missouri, they maintained their relationship.

“Over the years I’ve been blessed to have them as a client,” Christina said. “We have deep roots with each other and I’m lucky that they have trusted me since the beginning of my banking career.”

In 2022, the St. Johns came to Christina once more for a financial matter.

“Most recently with State Bank, we tracked her down again and just refinanced our house,” St. Johns said. “She even met us over in South County to do all our paperwork, so again she went above and beyond to make it a good client experience.”

The St. Johns admit that during their most recent home refinance, they saw rates at other institutions that were .25% less than what State Bank was offering at the time. Still, they opted to stick with Christina.

“I told my husband that I was more comfortable with Christina and is that .25% worth the price to pay to work with an unknown?,” Sandi said. “She’s always been so great to us and there’s a level of trust there that you can’t put a price on. I can say with fair confidence that we will follow Christina wherever she is.”

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