I sent the following email to a Great Southern customer service supervisor, and did not receive a reply in over a month so I am now posting it here. I am writing today to describe a very disappointing experience my wife and I had yesterday at one of your local branches. My wife and I have been customers of your bank for over 30 years. You will not find a more loyal customer base than our family. Great Southern Bank 620 E. Harrison St. Republic, MO 65738 Time of visit to this branch: Approximately 2:00pm Date of Visit: 2/12/24 My wife and I entered your bank branch at approximately 2:00pm on Monday, February 12th. When we entered, there were two tellers at the front counter, and no other customers in either the bank or the drive-through. I believe the greeting we received was something like "hello", but certainly was not a welcoming "Welcome to Great Southern Bank" or "How can I help you today". Therefore, we walked up to the counter and I said "We need to close our accounts please". And yes, I did say "please". At that point, the teller on the left simply stared at me and did not say anything. The teller on the right who was on a computer did not look up and did not say anything either. This lasted for at least 10 seconds, what seemed a very uncomfortable amount of time with no response from either of them. Therefore, I looked at the teller on my left and said "Um, that wasn't a hard question, but you look like you don't know what to do". He still said nothing. The teller on the right, not looking up from his computer, then said "He doesn't, I'll be with you in a minute". Ok, that was a completely unsupportive and inappropriate comment to make about a co-worker, and certainly did not instill any confidence in my wife or I. The teller in my right then took our photo ID's, asked us a couple of questions, and closed the accounts giving us cash. At no time were they friendly to us, or ask us why we wanted to close our accounts. The both seemed generally disinterested in the entire transaction. When he was done giving me the cash, I said "thank you, now I need to give you some feedback. When we walked in and said we needed to close our accounts, an appropriate response would have been something like "Sure, I'll be happy to help you with that" or, I'm sorry, I'm not sure how to do that but my partner here can assist you in a minute". Instead what we got was blank stares and silence." While I was saying this, the teller on the right interrupted me forcefully and said "I don't need to listen to this, and you need to leave the bank now". I said to him in a calm voice, never yelling or using any profanity, "No, I'm not leaving the bank until I tell you what I want to say". He said, "that's fine, then I'll just call the police". Wow, is this how you train for de-escalation of situations at your bank? One constructive comment said in a normal tone and they jump right to "I'll call the police"? So I said "go ahead, call the police. I would welcome it because I'm not doing anything wrong". During this time, a woman who may have been a branch manager walked through the lobby and into her office next to the front counter. She could hear the entire conversation, but refused to make eye contact with me when I looked into her office, uncomfortably looking away instead, and made no attempt to defuse or redirect the situation. She simply left us out there and did nothing. At this point, I said, well this is the reason we are leaving Great Southern, because customer service no longer seems to exist. At that point we left the bank. Now, I understand your tellers have to deal with all kinds of frustrating clients. Our current political climate has normalized all kinds of inappropriate behavior. However, there is much they could have done to make that a positive experience when I entered the bank so it never came to that. My biggest concern is that all I did was tell them they could have been more friendly and helpful when we came in, and they immediately escalated the situation to threats. I would suggest some additional training not only in quality customer service for this team, but also in de-escalation techniques. The behaviors they displayed yesterday put your branch at risk of further unnecessary incidents. An appropriate response to my concerns would have been something like: Sir, you are absolutely correct - we could have been more welcoming and could have better explained why my partner was unable to help you until I was free. I apologize. That's all we wanted was some recognition that they could have done better. As someone who has worked in customer service for most of my career, I'm aware of the many things they could have done differently. read more

I just read some negative reviews about Great Southern Bank. My experience with Great Southern Bank has been one of easy convenience and a comfortable experience. I have been doing business with Gt. southern for over twenty years and my first home mortgage was with them. The transaction was fantastic in every way. When my debit card was lost, they took steps to immediately issue a new card. The staff has been so very friendly and helpful in advising on many financial issues. I first banked with Gt. Southern at Nixa, but for the last twenty years here at N Glenstone. I give them a FIVE star rating. read more

At every step of the way, and in very facet of service, convenience, and outright quality, Great Southern has been the most friendly, accommodating and downright helpful choice that I have ever made in a banking institution. Thank you SO MUCH, for all that you have done. You made finance for a weird arty type like myself so much easier. Your service truly outshines the competition in every way! read more

I was hesitant about using a smaller home town bank as opposed to a larger more well known chain bank. I have been happy overall with Great Southern. I have banked here for about 9 years now. Anytime I have a problem the bank employees are able to resolve it. Weather it be that my debit card had been compromised, or that I made a mistake and over drafted my account. The bank has always been able to help me and resolve the problem to make me happy. Well as happy as one could be about these types of problems. I am currently at the south Ave branch now over an unauthorized debit card transaction. The staff are friendly and they are actually printing me a new debit card now so that I don't have to wait 2 weeks to get another one in the mail. If you are Leary about smaller banks like I was give great southern a try. I promise you won't be disappointed. read more

Terrible experience. Slow to respond to inquiries. GSB sold our assets to West Gate Bank of Lincoln NE without ever communicating to us of the sale. The paperwork never, ever made it to WGB of Lincoln. So we were very confused why two banks would be sending us two current statements and one was a Trust and then all the confusion. GSB was always slow to respond to emails prior to this experience so it is no surprise paperwork and NO communication to the bank customer was ever executed. Glad to be done with GSB. read more