Refreshingly Human — A Professional, People-Powered Experience

Now more than ever, business has become depersonalized. The rise of AI and the increased reliance on clients and consumers being self-directed means fewer human interactions. This is why Brian Harmon is so critical to our team at GutCheck. 

When Brian took the seat of Executive Vice President of Client Service and Delivery in 2020, it was the perfect accumulation of his past roles. One-part client management, one-part operations, and all parts human experience. Brian and his team are critical to the agile HXI process and helping clients navigate their results. 

What does his role really do? Brian says, “To me it means meeting and exceeding client expectations. Clients are coming to us with a business question, and we want to answer that to the best of our ability. We want to delight them, please them, make their lives easier.” 

Making clients’ lives easier means remembering one key factor—clients are also humans. “I think sometimes people in the industry can forget that. The client becomes a thing. We have to have clients, but clients are all individual people at a company. We keep that in mind. We like making them heroes,” Brian says.

And people are truly at the center of everything GutCheck does. “I think one of the things we usually get high marks for is our people. Probably in most market research companies that is true. But we try to live it more. Empathy is a big word for us.” To Brian, empathy on his team and throughout the company leads to teamwork, trust, and respect.  

These same values carry over to client interactions as well. “It’s really important we be vulnerable with our clients and let them be vulnerable. That’s when you start to build a relationship that’s more than just the report on a page.” Agile HXI is all about getting to the core of a consumer’s human experience with a product or service. Delivering the results of that research should be equally humanistic.  

…And client focused. “Sometimes, at the big companies, you’re kind of working this dual purpose,” Brian explains. “Yeah, I need to please the client, but I also have to worry about pleasing my boss and hitting these metrics and hitting these numbers. You almost serve two masters. And I think at GutCheck what we’re trying to do is just serve the client.”

When Brian thinks of what makes something “refreshingly human,” he says it’s about “being yourself and not having to put on a façade. If you’re quirky, be quirky. I know that sounds silly, but to me it’s that simple. And I feel like when people are able to do that and let their guard down and you see who they really are, it actually creates a stronger connection.”

If you’re looking to be more than another company name in a database, then you need to work with GutCheck. Our focus on being refreshingly human with our clients means more cooperation and better results. Let’s get started. Contact Us or Book A Demo to see how our people-first process can deliver outstanding results for your insights projects.