It’s A Wonderful Life is a work of fiction – but you might be excused from thinking you’d wandered into the Bedford Falls Building & Loan when you come to the Waterford branch of Chelsea Groton Bank, and it is Branch Manager Anne Ogden who makes it that way.
“I have always, always, always wanted to work in a bank,” said Ogden. “I love helping people. Nothing beats Anne’s Customer Service. Because I really do go above and beyond. If they need me to come to the house, I’ll come to the house. If they’re in the hospital, I’ll go to the hospital. I have a customer in a nursing home, [and] every month I visit her and help her balance her checkbook.”
That’s an assessment echoed by Lori Ellen Wesolowski, senior vice president of retail banking for Chelsea Groton. Wesolowski hired Anne to serve as head teller at one of the bank’s branches over 20 years ago, and her drive quickly set her apart.
“The customer relationships she’s developed, no one does it better than her. She’s a role model to her employees, and to her fellow managers, too. Sometimes it really does take going that extra mile to make a difference for customers, and because of that Anne has a pool of loyal customers who would never go anywhere else,” she said.
Part of that loyalty is generated by her customer service. But another reason Odgen’s so popular with customers is that many of them know her from seeing her at the Little League field, or at American Cancer Society fundraisers, or for her leadership roles at the Rotary Club, or the Chamber of Commerce, or St. Paul’s church, one of the two dozen other events and organizations she’s organized or helped to lead in town.
“Anyone in the area who has some type of a fundraiser project or a committee, they’ll always contact Anne,” said Wesolowski. “Because they know she will do it, and she’s a great organizer, and she’s well known and does a terrific job.”
It’s a job she’s happy to do. Though not quite a native, having moved to Waterford when she was in kindergarten, Ogden grew up within the town and takes great pleasure and pride in making it a better place. It’s one being taken up by the next generation: A divorced mom of two, Odgen’s son is a firefighter in town.
“This is my dream come true – being in Waterford, the town where I grew up, and helping everybody,” she said.
