Editor’s note: MyEverettNews.com is working to introduce our readers to more independent business owners here in Everett, Washington. We want to highlight their businesses, tell their stories and invite you to shop locally and help move Everett forward. If you know of a business we should feature, send us a suggestion via email: news@myeverettnews.com. Leland Dart – Publisher
Claudia McClain recently marked her 45th year of providing insurance in Everett.
The client advocates at McClain Insurance,
Claudia McClain founded McClain Insurance Services in 1977 in the basement of her Everett home. She was the first female independent insurance agency owner in Snohomish County. She was only 23 years old at the time and had been one of the first female employees at Pemco headquarters in Seattle.
Prior to moving to Washington State after meeting her future husband Pat in California, Claudia worked as a trainer for a major retailer teaching sales staff how to bundle orders to make sure customers got what they needed.
Claudia raised two children Tim and Caitlin, while building her agency in Everett. “I’m so grateful that both the company and my clients allowed me to grow my agency as my family grew,” Claudia told us. “I never wanted to be a 100-person agency but to grow intentionally.”
She credited the success of McClain Insurance Services to her employees. “Our team is everything to me,” Claudia said. “We never lost any employees during the Pandemic.”
She shared how lucky she felt to find the right people at the time she needed them. Her longest tenured employee, Nick Pembroke has been there twenty-one-and-a-half-years. Others have been there eighteen years; fifteen years and her newest employee has been there four years.
She works hard for her employees and makes sure they:
McClain Insurance Services is an independent insurance agency which means they choose what they feel are the best companies to work with and then develop deep relationships with those firms. “Every client has different needs and those can change over time,” Claudia explained. “Being independent allows us to choose the companies that are most responsive to our clients after something bad happens.”
Claudia also stresses what she called the three C’s:
“Our business is only as strong as our community,” said Claudia. “I challenge every business owner to look at it that way.”
When it comes to community, McClain Insurance Services focuses on children, families and animals. Money others may spend on “traditional” advertising is instead directed to programs that share the good. When a client refers someone to McClain Insurance, they donate $25.00 to one of four community partners.
If you’d like to learn more about McClain Insurance Servies you can check out their website here. You can also call them at (425) 379-9200, give them a text or visit them on social media.
June 4, 2022
Everett