In the fierce battle for commercial lending customers, Cambridge Savings Bank has opted for the hospitality approach.

The bank has opened up a Business Resource Center in its Arlington branch – business borrowers can swing through to fax or print something, enjoy a little wireless internet, maybe book the room for a PowerPoint presentation with associates.

Small business owners often either work from their homes or are constantly on the move, so the bank thought it’d be convenient to offer this up, said Karen Kindle, Cambridge’s head of retail and business banking. The center officially opened in April after a few try-out months and has worked like a charm, driving traffic toward the branch. And because it’s open to non-customers, too, it’s turned a few prospects into clients, she added.

Winning a good business borrowers’ heart is a key victory during a time of sluggish loan demand. Aside from battling over rates and working to hire the best possible loan officers, banks are also playing up their softer side, sometimes seeking new ways to impress borrowers.

At the moment, those borrowers know they have a choice in where they get their loan.

“If you are a good business borrower, you are getting a very good deal right now,” said John R. Barlow, head of Minneapolis-based Barlow Research Assoc., which works with mostly national or larger regional banks such as Wells Fargo or Connecticut-based Webster Bank.

The Heat Is On

Many small businesses are still hesitant to apply for more loans: In Barlow’s most recent Pulse Report, only 8 percent of small businesses – those with less than $10 million in annual sales – expected to ask for more credit or loans within the next 12 months. A healthier 21 percent of middle-market businesses, or those with between $10 million and $500 million in sales, said they expected to increase their borrowing.

The research proves that good business borrowers are relatively hard to find – allowing those in the market to be highly selective regarding their banking relationships, Barlow said. That only heaps more importance on intangible extras, like offering extra services or being particularly knowledgeable and helpful about each borrower’s business.

And there are also rumblings that big banks, which had largely scaled back lending in the past few rocky years, are waking up from their recession-induced nap. More loan officer positions at megabanks are studding job-search websites, Barlow said – an indication that the larger banks are revving their engines.

Community banks have enjoyed a relative reprieve because of bigger banks’ retreat, but that was always going to end sooner or later, said Dedham Savings Bank CEO Peter Brown, who added that the competition was already pretty stiff: “We’re getting heat from banks of all sizes.”

To keep up the fight, his bank recently added two new loan officers to its staff. Dedham keeps its rates competitive, but has been undercut by some competitors who have the kind of rock-bottom prices that make Brown wonder how they can possibly make money on some deals.

Dedham has instead turned to offering both the high-touch service community banks are known for, and some convenient extras.

“We’re trying to look and act like a billion-dollar bank,” Brown said, by offering perks like remote deposit capture or beefed-up wealth management services – often hallmarks of much larger institutions.

Distinguishing Characteristics

Barry Sloane, CEO of Medford-based Century Bank, was skeptical of the idea that giant banks were truly ramping up loan officer hires.

“That’s window dressing,” he said, adding that he hadn’t heard of any local officers being wooed away by large competitors. Century Bank plays up its business community involvement, which is something Bank of America or Citibank, and even many smaller banks, never do.

“I spend a significant part of every day visiting customers, prospects, attending community events for the business community,” he said. “We are rare in that.”

For Peter Anderson, president of Rockport National Bank, it’s a matter of doubling down on local expertise – being keenly aware of the ins and outs of the bed-and-breakfast business, for example, which is popular in his neck of the woods.

Making sure would-be borrowers have plenty of information on vacancy rates and other aspects of running a small inn keeps the borrower running a better business, which in turn keeps the loan from going sour.

“You try to distinguish yourself by providing that kind of service,” he said.

As for Cambridge Savings Bank’s business center, Barlow of Barlow Research Assoc. said he approved of the strategy. Most businesses in the U.S. are considered “micro-businesses,” – those with less than $500,000 in sales – and it’s far more cost-efficient to give them a reason to come into the bank, rather than send individual loan officers to them.

Some banks already offer services similar to the Business Resource Center, but Cambridge has formalized the idea, Barlow said. In case studies, bank customers repeatedly talk about how important it is that their bank understand what their business is.

“That’s a demonstration that [the bank] really respects the customer,” Barlow said.