With a full suite of personal, commercial and employee benefit insurance products, Pilkey Hopping & Ekberg has been serving its community in Tacoma, Washington, for 124 years.
Tacoma, Washington
Founded: 1896
Employees: 22
With a full suite of personal, commercial and employee benefit insurance products, Pilkey Hopping & Ekberg has been serving its community in Tacoma, Washington for 124 years. Agency President Reid Ekberg credits the long-term success to its staff, which has nearly 300 collective years of experience at the agency. While it would be impossible to name an MVP, Gerald—a toy giraffe and employee morale specialist featured on the agency website—plays a crucial role motivating the team to provide excellent service.
Ekberg is the fourth generation of agency leadership, taking the reins from his father in 2015. “Many careful steps went into achieving a successful transition from the third generation to the fourth," he says. “It takes a lot of thought, but that has set us up for continued success in the future."
Achieving Best Practice Agency status in 2019 for the fifth year in a row, the agency's focus in 2020 is completing an acquisition while providing leadership and support for their clients and employees during the coronavirus pandemic.
Reid Ekberg, President
Our biggest values are providing service with integrity and doing the right thing to protect the interests of our customers. During the coronavirus pandemic, the team has continued to remain focused on helping our customers as they call with concerns about employee benefits, business income loss and coverage.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted everyone in different ways. This year, we acquired another local agency that shared our values and aligned with us closely. Our No. 1 goal for the year is to bring all the clients together, move forward and keep everybody safe.
Laci Moyer, Vice President
Our agency offers personal lines and commercial lines but also has a very strong benefits department. We've integrated technology into our platform and the services that we're offering to employers to make our systems more efficient for them, while at the same time maintaining that remarkable level of service.
With so many new laws passed as a result of COVID-19, there was a steep learning curve for our clients. Our employee benefits department took the lead for our clients, providing them with resources to reduce the learning curve and help them understand the options they have for their employees and their business.
John Shouse, Vice President, Personal Lines
We provide personalized service, which in today's world is becoming rarer and rarer. Being open to our employees when they have questions or issues is all part of making sure that we maintain a family atmosphere at the agency.
As we're in the process of the acquisition that we began earlier this year, we're working to blend our employees together and provide the same level of service from both offices. Everybody has the success of the agency as a whole in mind.
PHOTO BY RICK DAHMS
