Add Primo Solutions to the list of MSPs recently purchased. In October 2014, Bild & Company, a Tampa based consulting firm for senior living facilities, announced the acquisition of Primo Solutions. Bild was founded in 1999 to offer “Integrated sales and marketing services to help healthcare organizations build occupancy and maximize revenue.” Additionally, it offers “Sales coaching and training, recruiting, retention strategies, operational analysis, mystery shopping and full marketing programs for numerous leading senior living providers.”
It appears mystery shopping was a very small part of their offerings before acquiring Primo, as there was only one reference to it on Mystery Shop Forum. That was a recruiting post by Bild in March, 2014. According to their press release, former CEO of Primo, Michael Miller stays on with Bild as Regional Vice President of Sales. Additionally, all employees of Primo stay on as well. That should be good news for shoppers as Primo was well liked as an MSP.
Primo Solutions LLC was a MSPA member company based in Arizona and offered mystery shopping to senior living facilities. Limited discussion on the forum was nearly uniform with high praise for this company. Shoppers said the work was well paid for the time involved, they were paid quickly and the schedulers were great to work with. Scheduler Dawn Hunt (who also schedules for other companies) was singled out for praise for her work with Primo. The only negative comment was a 2011 post about a bounced check. However, the original poster seemed to tell only part of the story at first. The issue seems to have been resolved in a reasonable manner.
Bild continues with Primo’s platform Prophet. I have been a shopper for Primo since 2009 without taking any of the limited number of shops in my area because I was not been able to find a good match for my schedule.
A recent search for shops in a few other states gave the standard Prophet response, “You are not eligible for any of the visits in the cities you choose.” Video shops are listed as a service on their client website. Payment for Bild is listed as within 45 days by PayPal or check. The shopper website is accessible
here.
News about the acquisition was announced publicly by news release, on Bild’s tweeter page, and Bild’s client page. For shoppers the change was not announced in the normal channels. For example, I learned of it when attempting to check Primo’s job board and encountered the Bild & Co. login page. More than three months after the acquisition, I have received no emails from Bild or Primo with shop offers or announcing the change. It was not unusual for go three months without an job posting email from Primo. Also, some shoppers have posted on the Primo thread after the acquisition without making mention of Bild or the acquisition.
In sum, this is a company that offers senior living shops. After acquiring a well-liked MSP, it seems to have missed an opportunity to announce itself to shoppers. As they hired the CEO and entire staff of Primo, they are well positioned to continue to perform well for shoppers. If shoppers are aware of the change, they have not yet reported on the forum their experiences with Bild & Company.