ESA's Green Joins Former Colleagues at Silent Customer

UK-based mystery shopping specialist Silent Customer, part of newly-formed SHARCC Group, has appointed Richard Green as Commercial Director.

The company was recently acquired by SHARCC, just ten days after the Group was established, and provides mystery guest programmes, analysis and consultancy services for the hospitality sector. Silent Customer says the appointment reflects its ambition to grow the business and challenge how traditional mystery shopping programmes are designed, delivered and used by organisations.

Green (pictured) joins from ESA Retail, where he was Client Service Director, and brings more than fifteen years of MR experience, much of it focused on designing, growing and leading mystery shopping programmes across retail, financial services, automotive and transport. At ESA, in addition to leading the client service function, he played a key role in developing more insight-led and behaviourally informed approaches to mystery shopping.

In his new role he will work with MD James Keleher - also recently arrived from ESA Retail - who comments: 'Richard has a rare mix of deep operational experience and genuine innovation in how customer insight is delivered. He's built and scaled these kinds of programmes before, so he understands both the detail and the bigger picture. We're really pleased to have him on board.' Green himself says he sees 'a huge opportunity [for mystery shopping companies] to rethink how programmes are designed, how technology supports delivery and, importantly, how the results are used.'

The six original agencies in SHARCC are Potentia Insight, its subsidiaries DataTree and SigDiff and its Sports division; along with independent agencies Pegasus Insight and data collection specialist InsightX Research Solutions. The individual agencies retain their full operational independence.

Web sites: www.sharcc.co.uk and www.silentcustomer.com .