Pinnacle Earns 27 Greenwich Excellence and Greenwich Best Brand Awards

Pinnacle Earns 27 Greenwich Excellence and Greenwich Best Brand Awards

Research shows measurably distinctive service will lead to growing market share

February 16, 2021

Pinnacle Financial Partners brought home 27 Greenwich Excellence and Greenwich Best Brand Awards for 2020. Only one bank in the nation won more, and Pinnacle is the only one in the Southeast to earn more than 20. These awards are national and regional honors earned by banks who have measurably distinctive brands and service quality.

“We’ve said for 20 years that our model, which is focused on people, service and advice, sets us apart, and 2020 showed its true power,” said Terry Turner, Pinnacle’s president and CEO. “No matter how many challenges were thrown their way, our associates rose to meet them. The research from Greenwich Associates proves with plain data how valuable our advisors are to business owners. Banks who were able to help and be flexible in tough times, as Pinnacle was, stand apart from bigger, more bureaucratic systems.”

Read more from Turner on the links between distinctive service and financial results and how 2020 proved the Pinnacle model at PNFP.com.

Greenwich Best Brand Awards are based on interviews with more than 23,000 small business and middle market business leaders about experiences with their bank. Of more than 600 banks evaluated, only 13 were found to have a measurably distinctive brand among small businesses, and 13 among middle market companies. Pinnacle was one of only five banks nationwide that swept all four Greenwich Best Brand Awards for Trust and Ease of Doing Business, which are widely recognized as the keys to client satisfaction, loyalty and long-term relationships.

Greenwich Best Brand Awards for Middle Market Banking ($10-500 million in sales)

  • Best Brand – Ease of Doing Business
  • Best Brand – Trust

Greenwich Best Brand Awards for Small Business Banking ($1-10 million in sales)

  • Best Brand – Ease of Doing Business
  • Best Brand – Trust

Pinnacle’s 23 Greenwich Excellence Awards were nearly evenly split between small business and middle market banking and represent clients’ feelings about their financial advisors and the firm as a whole. Of the awards, 15 are national honors and eight are regional, with Pinnacle winning every regional category in the South.

Greenwich Excellence Awards for Middle Market Banking ($10-500 million in sales)

  • Overall Satisfaction
  • Likelihood to Recommend
  • Overall Satisfaction with Relationship Manager
  • Relationship Manager Proactively Provides Advice
  • Overall Satisfaction – Cash Management
  • Customer Service – Cash Management
  • Ease of Product Implementation – Cash Management
  • Overall Satisfaction (South Region)
  • Likelihood to Recommend (South Region)
  • Relationship Manager Proactively Provides Advice (South Region)
  • Overall Satisfaction – Cash Management (South Region)

Greenwich Excellence Awards for Small Business Banking ($1-10 million in sales)

  • Overall Satisfaction
  • Likelihood to Recommend
  • Overall Satisfaction with Relationship Manager
  • Relationship Manager Proactively Provides Advice
  • Overall Satisfaction – Cash Management
  • Customer Service – Cash Management
  • Ease of Product Implementation – Cash Management
  • Product Capabilities – Cash Management
  • Overall Satisfaction (South Region)
  • Likelihood to Recommend (South Region)
  • Relationship Manager Proactively Provides Advice (South Region)
  • Overall Satisfaction – Cash Management (South Region)

“Many small businesses felt like they fell to the back of the queue while their banks focused attention on larger clients,” said Chris McDonnell, Greenwich Associates head of digital benchmarking, banking and CEM. “In many cases, they were probably right.” Of middle market banking, he continued, “The number of regional and community banks appearing on the list this year shows they hustled their way through one of the most challenging business environments on record.”

According to Greenwich Associates research, “Expected turnover will likely bring new business to banks that stepped up to provide small businesses with the support they needed last year—especially the regional and community banks that took home Greenwich Excellence Awards in Small Business Banking for 2020.”

“Every person at this firm has a heart to serve and will do right by the client every chance they get, because we’ve designed Pinnacle to support it,” Turner said. “They have the freedom to make decisions and the tools to see them through, all supported by a culture based on doing the right thing. As the research from Greenwich Associates clearly shows, clients are the winners because they get what they need in the ways that suit them best.”

This is Pinnacle’s 11th year of earning Greenwich Excellence and Greenwich Best Brand Awards.

Pinnacle Financial Partners provides a full range of banking, investment, trust, mortgage and insurance products and services designed for businesses and their owners and individuals interested in a comprehensive relationship with their financial institution. The firm is the No. 1 bank in the Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin MSA, according to 2020 deposit data from the FDIC. Pinnacle earned a spot on the 2020 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For® in the U.S., its fourth consecutive appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For eight years in a row and No. 1 among banks with more than $10 billion in assets in 2020.

Pinnacle owns a 49 percent interest in Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG), which provides innovative, hassle-free financial solutions to healthcare practitioners and other licensed professionals. Great Place to Work and FORTUNE ranked BHG No. 1 on its 2020 list of Best Workplaces in New York State in the small/medium business category.

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $34.9 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2020. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 12 primarily urban markets in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia and Atlanta.

Additional information concerning Pinnacle, which is included in the Nasdaq Financial-100 Index, can be accessed at www.pnfp.com.