The Cooperative Finance Association’s agricultural customers aren’t start-ups with standard corporate protocols. They are second, third, and fourth generation family-owned companies who tend to do things the way they have always been done. CFA has close relationships with these customers, working with some of them for 20 or even 30 years. “Customer service is our product,” says Doug Richards, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (SVP; CTO) at CFA. “That's where we excel and that's what our reputation is built on.”