Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gary Peterson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gary, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Is your team able to work remotely? If so, how have you made it work? What, if any, have been the pitfalls? What have been the non-obvious benefits?

The reality is that work from home “works” and is not going away – working from home is a permanent fixture in American business. In hindsight, we were in a strong position going into the pandemic as we lived by foundational core values, which held us together during the 1.5 years apart. A company’s core values are what you lean on when you don’t know what to do, they clarify behavior. Our values of Ownership & Trust were cornerstones of our success, especially Trust. Trust is achieved through communication and as a company we have numerous channels to give and receive feedback, talk through issues, and be transparent. Those avenues of communication made working from home through the pandemic and the ongoing future successful.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When we started gap intelligence in 2003, I was inspired by companies who recognized that private business is responsible for the public good. I admired Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, the Container Store, Wholefoods, Patagonia, and others because they made it their mission to make their community better as a result of them doing business there. With that as your purpose, the company can’t help but do similar great things for its employees and ultimately customers.

gap intelligence exists to do great for its people, its clients, and the community. We do that by empowering our people to bring data to life for our clients and ultimately tell our clients what is happening with their competition and marketplaces. Our clients are hardware manufacturers and they are busy building and designing and selling their goods. Our clients don’t have time to understand what is happening in stores or what tactical moves their competitors are making and that is where gap intelligence comes in. In a world full of software as a service or big data analytics, our core value is our People – a human being who is an expert in an industry. A person is more intuitive, responsive, and insightful than any software platform and it is our people that we lean on.

I’m proud that we have walked the talk for all these years. We’ve grown the business, helped our clients make smart business decisions for three decades, and have raised over $500,000 for local San Diego nonprofits. You’re not signing up for a data feed when you work with gap intelligence, you are signing up with a true partner and contributing to something bigger than ourselves.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

In a word: responsiveness. In a world of automated operators, ignored emails, and artificial intelligent chat boxes, our clients indeed appreciate how quick we are to respond to their questions, comments, and suggestions. Our brand is that we care about our clients and the evidence of that is when they ask for help, they get a response quickly. Of all the compliments I have received from clients, by far the most frequent and appreciated is the timelines of our people.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

As industry thought leaders, we need to constantly remind our clients why we are thought leaders and how we do it. These reminders are regularly scheduled in the form of client trainings and presentations on a quarterly basis. Through our trainings, we can introduce new staff to our data and services and through our market presentations we can prove to executives that we are thought leaders in the industry. The more familiar our clients are with our capabilities, the stronger our brand and business with them.

As CEO, I personally reach out to five individual clients a week, regardless of title and position. I am interested in talking with junior data folks who are crunching my data. I want to learn about the decisions product managers are making today and how account managers are working with retailers. Of course, I reach out to executives to learn where they see the hockey puck headed in the years to come.

When I reach out to 10 clients, I might get 3 responses in return, which is fine as I know people are busy. However, I’m assured that 10 clients now know that I care enough about their opinion that I reached out to them directly and that’s really the goal isn’t it?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gapintelligence.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gapintelligence/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gapintelligence/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gap-intelligence/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gapintelligence
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu9fzwLZpgWHjcGW9aZz08g