Richard Blank Podcast Guest Appearances Costa Rica's Call Center

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: What I've got. You care by every side between my eyes. Walk through the, came out better on the other side. See? Looks like a, You find the same. Right now I'm feeling like a hundred grand. You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Wise. Dr. Jeremy Weiss here, founder inspired insider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurial leaders.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Today is no different. I have Richard blank of Costa Rica's call center. You can check it out. I'm gonna formally introduce Richard in a second. But Richard, I always like to talk about other episodes people should check out of the podcast. And because, uh, Richard is a pinball fanatic, we will definitely point out Roger Sharp.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Um, they call him the Babe Ruth of pinball. He called his shot in 1970. To, I guess pinball in the day was illegal and he made it legal somehow. So watch that. There was an episode on Drunk History of Roger Sharp. That's hilarious. Um, also because we're talking call centers in direct response, um, you know, I've had some direct response legends on the podcast.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: You can check 'em out. Um, Ron Po. Peel, if anyone's heard this saying, But wait, there's more. He is an infomercial legend selling over $2 billion worth of stuff. Unfortunately, may rest in peace. He passed. But check that episode out. He was fantastic and Rick Sari as well was a great episode. Direct response.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: He helped Santa Care toothbrush and George Foreman Grill with their infomercials and juice Man Juicer and so many other legendary companies. So check that episode out as well. This episode is brought to you by Rise 25 and it rise 25. We all businesses give to and connect to their Dream 100 relationships.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: How do we do that? We help you run your podcast. You know, for me, Richard, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I'm always looking at ways to give to my best relationships, and I've found no better way to do that than to profile the people and companies I most admire over the past decade and have them on and shout from the rooftops what they're working on, what they're doing.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: So if you've thought about podcasting, you should, uh, if you have questions, go to Rise 20 five.com or email. At Support Rise 20 five.com and Richard Blank is a CEO of Costa Rica's call center. His journey in the call center space is filled with a lot of twist and turns, and I know Richard, for you, when you were 27 years old, you relocated to Costa Rica and you started training employees from a larger call centers in San Jose.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: You've shared your knowledge and trained over 10,000. Bilingual telemarketers, and I know, um, people could check out Costa Rica's call center.com, where they have a variety of services we're gonna dig into, um, like customer care, telesales, lead generation, appointment setting, and much more. And Richard, thanks for joining me.

Richard Blank: So happy to be here today. Jeremy, thank you so much for having a guest in podcast. 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: I'm excited because there's so much stuff we wanna talk about gamification of culture, um, expat moving there, some of the challenges of call centers, training, soft skills. But I wanted to start off with people of misconceptions.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Of call centers, right? They picture is just like a churn and burn calling people. What are some of the misconceptions that you come across in the call spanner call center space? 

Richard Blank: Well, the first thing is my friend, they say that I call them during dinner, and we don't have any campaigns that do that. But, uh, it's pretty much what you've seen in Hollywood from Glen Gary, Glen Ross Boiler room, and of course the Wolf of Wall Street.

Richard Blank: You see these environments where it's fast paced aggression and they're selling stock well. Not every single environment has those sort of verticals. In fact, at my call center, most of our campaigns revolve around inbound support, outbound lead generation and appointment setting. So there's a certain level of assertiveness, not aggressiveness in regards to the campaigns that we accept in work with at the center who's not a fit.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Um, what about from a service perspective? People calling, maybe, maybe they're a fit from a company perspective, uh, the type of company you serve, but they're looking for a different type of service. What are the, the service type of services that maybe people are expecting that you're, you tell them, we don't, we don't really do that here.

Richard Blank: Well, a lot of it has to depend on their workforce. I mean, if somebody in their office is starting out as just a one man show, I can scale for them. A lot of the times people need to offset certain work or to be able to, uh, once again give a certain sort of a company a chance to be able to compare apples to their metrics at home office.

Richard Blank: But we offer all different types of services. As I mentioned before, inbound and outbound support. My difference is the infrastructure. I do have redundancy in regards to our internet. We do have backup electricity with generators. And also have immediate IT support. And so a lot of the people, if they're just starting out or if they have a limited budget, would be able to use us in regards to making their company grow.

Richard Blank: Now, the only difference is, and it's really not a difference now because most people working from home that these agents can fulfill these needs virtually. What I try to do is to extend all of my resources, my experience in regards to script writing rebuttal. A quality assurance department. I, I'd like to see if we could find some consistency with the client to be able to find areas of improvement.

Richard Blank: And so a lot of it, my friend, is just an investment in a process and sometimes the client just gives me a plug in play operation where they already have things in place, which makes it very easy for me. And then on the flip side, it is my pleasure to be able to build a custom made campaign for my clients.

Richard Blank: For my clients. 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Let's talk about culture for a second and when, when Covid hit, again, like you have the tools and opportunity to do things virtually, obviously, cause people call you, you're a call center and you're doing things virtually, but what about in house? Did things change at all with Covid? Did you find that more people were able to work from home, Um, and then, you know, or did they come back in the office?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: How'd that transition look like? Kind. During Covid and then, and then post Covid. 

Richard Blank: It's an excellent question, Jeremy. Well, nobody knew what was happening. You're a doctor. I mean, nobody really knew what was happening when Covid first did. So the Costa Rican labor law gave me up to 50% capacity in my call center.

Richard Blank: I chose to make it 20%. I did need people here for PCI compliance onboarding. Something happens at home. They can have a turnkey station. What we lost is the camaraderie. This is a very social environment. I do believe in synergy and unlike certain vocations where people can just sit in a cubicle and get their job done, this is a very open floor plan where people were feeding off of the energy and we're all public speakers.

Richard Blank: And so it really reduced my effectiveness in regards to onsite training where I could just walk the rows and, and stand there and give someone shadowing or some sort of positive reinforcement. But I also saw the isolation side of it. People once again, loved coming to work to eat lunch and spend time with their best friend.

Richard Blank: And we also had some people here that were so influential that if you sat next to 'em, you were definitely gonna be better. Like, you know, when you're playing basketball, if you play with someone better than you, you're probably gonna hit better shots. And so the positive side of it has a lot of people that lived far away could save their time and money, spend more time with their family.

Richard Blank: And once again, they showed some sort of composure and maturity to be able to work from home, even though we are able to monitor their work. And so it was really a give or a take. You and I, what we had to do was just adjust accordingly. And so besides just following the labor laws, we had to open up a lot more communication channels.

Richard Blank: We had to be a lot more active. And in the best way that we can try to continue our company culture of empathy, of caring about the agent, letting them know that we're still investing in them and they're not expendable, are we capable of doing it? Sure. And I think everybody needs to adjust to this virtual world.

Richard Blank: It's, it's a shame, my friend, because I think a lot of it we're losing a certain artist perspective of what it's like to do something live in front of people. Compared to just doing something virtually. And so as long as people, once again, can make sure if they're on a Zoom call to represent themselves properly or if they are working with somebody, just take the extra efforts to let them know that you're thinking about them and that you support them in that sort of way and, and those sort of messages.

Richard Blank: Doctor, as you know, go a long.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: So when you talk about gamification culture that you have there, tell me more about 

Richard Blank: that. Whew. My job is my, my second half. I mean, the first thing of this company is buying more machines and finding places to put them. I grew up in the seventies and eighties and unless you were a really, really good game where your $5 really had to last you an entire Saturday, and so once I started my business and making some money, I got to choose my own pastimes.

Richard Blank: And one of them, once again, was this gamification. And so one man's trash is another man's treasure journey. So I am constantly looking for retro pinball machines, arcade machines, jute boxes, and I've created such a wonderful neutral environment so agents can meet people from other departments that can let off steam recharge batteries.

Richard Blank: And one of the greatest things is to spend time with the hefe down in the game room. And so prior to any sort. First day training class, the dozen agents will spend time in the arcade to get to know one another and relax. So when they do enter the training room in the class for the first time, instead of just absorbing information, they're so comfortable and having a great time, they start contributing.

Richard Blank: So I really start with a very strong momentum and can reduce any sort of fear that people can have without knowing individuals. So strangers or friends you haven't met. Once you have a recess and play with somebody, now that's your best friend, , and chances are your attrition rate will be reduced because you'll be working with people that you enjoy big with.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Yeah. I wanna talk about the training process, since I know you've trained over 10.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Talk about different things on educating people with diplomatic phrases. I'd love to hear some examples because I think we could all, at least I could speak for ourselves, can always improve on customer support, whether it's spoken or written. And you had several, I heard you say several different versions, not just like, Can I help you?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: But there's other things that you tell people they could say that comes off really well, you know, really good as far as customer support in, in diplomatic. 

Richard Blank: Well, not trying to correct a doctor, but I would initially say, How may I assist you , You know, so these are certain things I would replace the can to the May.

Richard Blank: I'd replace the help with guide, assist or lend a hand instead of asking you to repeat something. I would say, Jeremy, for my clarification, was it C or 1, 2, 3? I would make sure to do a five to one name drop to pronoun. I would constantly saying, Your, your, your are. Does that make sense, Jeremy, at the end?

Richard Blank: So there's certain checkpoints and also if you're making outbound phone calls and imagine if I was pawing inspired insider and you had somebody answering the phone for you, I would definitely try to do a positive escalation. So once I got transferred to you, I would let you know how amazing these individuals are that are working with you.

Richard Blank: I would do it verbally and then at the end of our conversation, I would also have mentioned to that in writing. Why? So when the Richard Circle comes back and I call the inspired insider, and this individual answers the phone, a, they're gonna remember me. They're gonna thank me very much for that compliment, and we're gonna separate ourselves from the other people trying to angle their way into meeting you.

Richard Blank: And also these individuals working with you could be giving you additional company information in regards to anniversaries, promotions, or company culture. So instead of trying to squeeze a fit, just do some due diligence on a website, a LinkedIn profile, Take a little bit of extra time to show some more active listening.

Richard Blank: So when I'm repeating questions to you, it shows that I'm up to speed with you and there are certain checkpoints. And so a lot of the times with my agents, they might come into the center with bad habits. And that's okay. I mean, they've worked at other places and they have the experience, but what I like to do is not to have them so well rehearsed.

Richard Blank: They should always be more, uh, raw and have that sort of essence where they can once again, be more of a painting and make almost every call unique. And there are certain areas of a call where since people are working from home, you could hear something in the background like a dog. And instead of just asking about the dog, ask the dog's name and find out certain things to.

Richard Blank: Topics in common, a me too technique, and so besides just grading your performance on the questions to qualify the client, I'm more focused on the soft skills of when you used rebuttals of positive escalation or certain areas for clarification in order to be able to prolong the conversation for first call resolution.

Richard Blank: And so as long as somebody is increasing those sort of active listening and participation skills, They should become phenomenal on the phone and their earnings potential and their marketability should be limitless. What.

Richard Blank: Marketability should be limitless. 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: What are some examples of bad habits people come in 

Richard Blank: with? I, I think that what happens is they'll give up to easily, I think if a phone call, if someone hangs up on you, that's fine, but if somebody is there, and even if they are, let's say their tone may be aggressive, you can adjust that compared to matching that we spoke about more diplomatic vocabulary.

Richard Blank: But then again, if somebody, uh, can use deductive reasoning and do listening twice speaking, one, I can almost know what you know and then focusing my attention on that for you. And, and a lot of the times people will leave a door open. They will just be rushing so much to get an appointment or to get a yes out of somebody that they overlooked an area where they could have done a follow up question or gotten some more information out of.

Richard Blank: But I will tell you what's a terrible habit that certain companies do. They only communicate with their clients via chat or email. And, and that's okay in certain circumstances if you have to fill out a form first to be able to get assistance. But in my opinion, what what can happen is it can elevate stress.

Richard Blank: If you're not speaking with a client, you're eliminating any chance for retention, a referral, and upsell. And how about this in a mature way, Jeremy? In exit interview, worst case scenario, we lose the business. But somebody is willing to walk me through areas of improvement or what our competition had done in order to earn their business.

Richard Blank: So even though people think that today it should be just texting, texting can be very much misinterpreted and you're also not getting the sort of mileage out of a relationship that you could if you would build a certain rapport through speech. And so some of the bad habits we have today, Or that a lot of the agents are coming in preferring that sort of inbound support that's nonverbal.

Richard Blank: And so for me, I believe that they're almost limiting their potential. At least give it a shot and just to see if you have the sort of skill set to be able to have a specific conversation with somebody to be able to get a positive.

That. 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: So Richard, let's say there's a company and um, they have a list of whatever every month of clients who decided not to use a service, they can hire a company like you to go, Hey, Richard, here's the list right now. We don't offer support via phone. Here's a list of these clients every month, and your company would call them and almost do kind of like an exit type of interview.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Sure. Is that. 

Richard Blank: We can, I'd be very much interested to see the tone of the script, the voicemails, and the email templates that you have to offer me. If I have to start that, I'd like to start off positive or one of the first things I could say is, Hey, we didn't forget about you, and unlike other companies that just sent emails, I'm giving you a personal courtesy call.

Richard Blank: May I have a few moments to be able to find out what we could do in order to earn your business? What the competition did to get your business. And I'd like to see if I could match it or to be able to exceed those sort of expectations. And so as long as I mentioned before that you could almost custom make this, you'd have to gimme the exact vertical, how long you communicated with them, the sort of communication they gave to us services we were offering.

Richard Blank: So as I say before, there's certain ways there. There's a philosophy of Woo way. Where it's least resistance. I don't want to call you and badger you on why you're not giving me the business, but if you're kind enough to spend the time with me, even if I'm starting five touchdowns behind, there is a chance we can come back and win this game.

Richard Blank: It's just a matter of earning time. At least let me get the first 30 seconds and if I can get the 30 seconds, maybe I can get a 10 minute conversation out of you and we can take it step by step and piece by piece. And even if I have to stop midway, To reschedule it or to follow through with information to pick up where we left off.

Richard Blank: That's your protocol and I'm okay with that. As long as your clients can build a pipeline, depending on sense of urgency and the sort of company culture, I think you can then once again readjust your prospect rich.

Richard Blank: And this sort of company culture, I think you can then once again readjust your prospecting accordingly, 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Richard, in that situation with a company, go, Great. We want you to actually. You know, these are customers that aren't using, decide not to use this anymore for whatever reason. And what volume does it make sense for them to call you?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Like let's say if they have one a month, it probably doesn't make any sense, right? To have them use your services. Is there a certain volume of calls that make sense for a company before they, you know, uh, I guess a baseline of a volume? You're like, Yeah, this makes sense to work with us. 

Richard Blank: I think as long as they get full-time work for somebody.

Richard Blank: Cuz I, I, by labor laws, I don't do part-time work here because they won't be able to get their benefits. But if somebody only has enough leads to call for one month and it's an individual working out of their home and it's a startup company. Not saying that I have a preferred child, but I was in those shoes back in the day.

Richard Blank: So I guess I have more, uh, empathy and compassion towards the startup company. That might even almost be embarrassed that they're not able to give me a hundred seat, 10 year commitment. Well, once again, everybody had to start with their first step. And it's almost like when somebody says, How do I get job experience if somebody doesn't hire me?

Richard Blank: Not saying I'm willing to take any campaign. I'm extremely selective of those that come in here. But if they make their case and if they're willing to, you know, invest in a process and there's no surprises, and we can share resources, It's my pleasure to see what happens. I mean, Pete Rose should have been in the Hall of Fame for singles.

Richard Blank: It's still okay and 100 singles opens up to a huge 100 seat account. And so, as I mentioned before, uh, a little at a time equals a lot in the end. And from time to time, a client may be testing you small or it might be an iceberg where they want to see how I would react to a one seater before they give me 100 seats.

Richard Blank: And for me, as I mentioned before, everybody gets the same red carpet treatment and everybody gets the same sort of attention, and I would love to earn their business. And so I have had certain clients, as you were mentioning, test me on a certain volume just to see what my reactions are and I've earned that business.

Richard Blank: And so anybody out there, you should be extremely appreciative of anybody that walks into your door that orders one slice to 20 pies. You just never know because the 20 pi guy come is a one and a done. The one slicer could be there for the next 20 years. And so as I mentioned before, I believe in good faith and stars being aligned in energy.

Richard Blank: And as somebody has that sort of, uh, interest to contact me, it's my obligation to be able to share ideas with them. So, on an educated point of view, Jeremy, they can make a decision to move forward with me. Richard.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Richard, you mentioned from an outbound perspective, so there's different kind of parts to the call. So I'd love for you to break that down, especially the opening part. Cause if you, you know, you've mentioned before, if you don't get past that, it doesn't matter what you have planned 

Richard Blank: for the rest of the call.

Richard Blank: That's a great point. Well, every conversation has an introduction of body and a conclusion. You can't land that intro. There is nobody in conclusion. Doctor. I also believe that every conversation and attention span is 30 seconds to two minutes. Okay? And so when we're touching base with somebody, there is a give and a take initially before that positive escalation for the assistant that's answering calls for your company.

Richard Blank: What I love to do is a company name Spike. I'm not anonymous for the entire phone call, but the first thing that comes outta my mouth is the name of your company, how your company is doing. You know, before I even introduce myself, so I'll say better than somebody that answers the phone at your company.

Richard Blank: And then from there, a lot of the times they'll be asking me questions. And what I have here is a certain technique, it's called the buffer boomerang technique. Hypothetically, Germany, if somebody is answering with a negative tone, there's a way to be able to buffer that negative tone. Do a name drop, let them know that's an Exxon question.

Richard Blank: Repeat the question to show active. Listen. Then boomerang it back as a plus two. And so initially somebody could ask what my name is, and now I'd say, Jeremy, that's an Exxon question. My name is Richard Blank, as an example. And so what happens is you're able to show the active listening, readjust the tone of a call, but then in the middle of a call there is something that I like to consider.

Richard Blank: Micro phonetic, micro expression reading, and what I have here, As an actual chart, it's very simple. You're focusing on phonetics, which is your tone, rate, pitch, and duration. Your tone should be the consistent variable of empathy and confidence. There's a mirror imaging technique, but I believe that should be done every 30 seconds to two minutes with your rate of speech and your pitch.

Richard Blank: You're speaking level. Now. I need to match you with this. Because if you do a spike or a dip, that's usually when I ask a tie down or a pin down question if it makes sense or sounds good. And then also when people are on the phone and they're explaining their services. A lot of times they'll do desert pitching, Jeremy.

Richard Blank: Well, they'll just talk without any sort of oasis for drinking and resting. And so what I like to do is to give my list pause in between each one, like a dessert tray to see if there's a reaction at the end. Say in a brazen way. I'm sure you'll like at least one, so I can break the sort of questions that I have.

Richard Blank: And then sort of positive or negative reinforcement in these conversations. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. After three weeks, it becomes practice. I believe in a five to one name drop to pronoun, where in every sentence you're either saying R or your, and then usually use a name drop for the tie down question.

Richard Blank: And then at the end you can also rake one last tongue by saying, Listen, since you have me on the phone today, Jeremy, are there any other additional questions that you have? Usually you might mention something else after I repeat the. I repeat information in military alphabet because instead of concluding the call, there's a very good chance we could be talking about how proud we are of the military and those that have served.

Richard Blank: And then as I mentioned before, giving you a positive written escalation regards to those that are working with you. And so these are things that I believe won't compromise ethics, values and morals naturally. I'm skimming over this quickly, but there are certain things as expression reading. And since we're losing three of our senses over the phone, our taste, touch, and smell, the doctors and scientists say that your other senses should be expanded.

Richard Blank: Besides your active listening. I believe in image streaming where they say that books are better than movies and there's no reason why your imagination, your adjectives and your descriptions could be incredible. It could be illuminating. It could really put some insight in where you're going on some of these phone calls.

Richard Blank: And so as I mentioned before, as long as you become animated, engaged, and you are this individual's biggest fan, and you really take in the information and energy that they're giving with you, you'll find your job very fulfilling. It's because most people today see a telemarketing job as transitional or they look down upon it, but there is a ton of people that make and receive phone calls for every type of business.

Richard Blank: And some of the greatest people that you could speak with in the world do show this empathy because I, I'll share an example with you. I have a law firm account here, and we have intake coordinators for, it's a disability and wrongful termination. And so what happens is, and you being a doctor as well, you might be meeting people when they're most vulnerable in having the worst day of their life.

Richard Blank: And so if you are capable. Of having somebody calm down, find their focus and move forward with you. You could be one of the greatest individuals there when they needed you the most. And so a lot of my agents, instead of they can earn a living so many different ways, but if they can get this sort of fulfillment by knowing that success is built on a million thank yous and that they get all these positive written escalations to our company about how great they're doing.

Richard Blank: They know that they are on the right path and that once again their karma's gonna kick it, and that if they do leave this company and I am the last boss that they ever have, they will be prepared to build an incredible organization.

Richard Blank: An incredible organization. I love 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: the law firm example. Richard, I'd love for you to talk about, I know you do lead generation for, uh, industrial real estate, and I'd love for you to walk us through what that 

Richard Blank: looks like. It's changed a bunch because a lot of the times people are working from home or it's just going through and answering service.

Richard Blank: Or just sending in emails. And so our call to contact ratio dropped considerably. And so what we're doing right now is, as I mentioned, spending a little more time on LinkedIn and company websites to custom make emails and voicemails for people. Now, as I mentioned before, our efforts are bringing a little bit less of a return because of the lack of contact ratio verbally, but I have seen this when people do custom make an email or leave an incredible voicemail.

Richard Blank: For an example, if you sent me an email and mention my pinball machines, you'll get my attention. It's almost yours to lose. And so a lot of people have thanked us for taking the extra efforts to research their company or to compliment a promotion. And so what we had to do was just adjust accordingly in regards to that aspect after Covid.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: So it's kind of like,

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Will you, when you do the outbound uh, calls, will you also do emails and texts as well? Or is that, or the company handling those things and you're following up with the call? 

Richard Blank: It really all depends. Um, a lot of the times we're logging into their system, so something is automated or if they're not doing it, I would make a suggestion to do it, just to make sure it's not too labor intensive.

Richard Blank: But then again, I just don't want them clicking an email template and just sending it to you, calling you, sir. I mean, that's, that's nothing special. You're probably not gonna look at it. It's like, almost like jump bail and you're gonna throw it away. And so if I could have some takeaways as I mentioned it, either on a phone call, a positive escalation, where if I didn't even speak with you, but I spoke with in your coworkers.

Richard Blank: I could almost once again separate myself, and instead of doing half court, not even three point, now you and I are looking at foul shot percentages. I'll never give you a hundred percent slam dunk. I mean, nothing is a hundred percent. There's not even straight lines in nature. But what we can also do is just increase our percentages by doing things that are not too aggressive or misleading.

Richard Blank: We're just, once again, trying to separate ourselves from others that are trying to earn your. 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: From an inbound perspective, So that was the outbound from inbound perspective. Talk about some of the things that you do in the, in the movie and music space. 

Richard Blank: Well, this is a wonderful demographic. It's a 55 plus female, so they get like almost a, a, uh, phone book sides book of movies and music that they get to go through every year.

Richard Blank: And this company's actually outta Chicago. They're an incredible company. We've had them for over a decade, and what's beautiful about this account is that these are existing clients and they already know. So we call, we, you know, once again, their contact information so we can get into their account. But when they're explaining the sort of movies that they like and the music, most of the agents here are so young that they've never seen a Humphrey Bogar movie before.

Richard Blank: Or they don't know who John Wayne is, or even Elvis Presley's a loha special. And so the agents, little by little, when they'll go home at night, they'll YouTube some of this stuff and get to know it. So the agents that have been on this campaign for a long time will know these genres and the most beautiful thing.

Richard Blank: And I will say this is how excited. The client gets when we can find their movie because then they, for a moment tell us on how that was the first date they went to with the drive-in with their husband X amount of years ago, where this is the music that they danced to at their wedding back in 1960, or this is what reminds them of Sunday afternoons with their grandmother watching that movie.

Richard Blank: And I love. I find it fascinating because you're learning so much about these people and when we do have their information and what they're looking for in stock, you should really hear the reactions of them. Are the talk times longer? Of course they are because besides double checking prices and shipping information and, and what they ordered, I want them to explain the passion for each thing that they're purchas.

Richard Blank: And do you remember Columbia House? It was like when you were ordering those CDs for a penny? As I say before, most people can order things online with Amazon and they could just click a button, but, but not these clients, they love to go through the book. They love to call us. They usually ask for the same individual that assisted them a couple months ago cuz they have that sort of relationship.

Richard Blank: And the reason I believe that I grew so much was the ups. When we were on the phone with them, you might hear, as I mentioned in this, I have a funny story. They, they, they were ordering Elvis Pres. And we heard dogs barking in the background. So the agent mentioned the dog, and then this client loves dogs.

Richard Blank: So we had this Beethoven special of like six movies that you could just include without the shipping. And we just told them about it and this, and this individual loved her grandchildren, loved dogs, and the Beethoven, you know, movie pack was perfect for her. And so how did Elvis Presley go to Beeth? Just as easy as anything else.

Richard Blank: There's a thousand topics to talk about in regards to movies of music, and if somebody lived a life, we can make a suggestion. But the reason I was able to grow so much was because of that upsell that was done flawlessly and just without resistance and just making a mention. And the client realized that we had not only the active listening skills, but the assertiveness to make that sort of suggestion and to be able to convert that sort of sale.

Richard Blank: They love this account and the attrition on this account is next to nothing. And some of my oldest supervisors that have been with me over a decade are managing this account. And so for me it it, it was really a gift to be able to work with this company for so long out of your amazing Chicago.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: Just as far as a quality over quantity, I mean the quality interactions over, yeah, we can go ahead and, and call a thousand people, but maybe we research, uh, and call 200 people and have a closer connection. It's more targeted. 

Richard Blank: I would prefer you do the thousand, but instead of doing 150 calls a day, I'd rather you do about a buck 20.

Richard Blank: And so give about 30 seconds. Per person, so you don't have to reduce it that much because you need to have a certain sort of momentum. You need to have a certain sort of metric there to get a certain return. So maybe only doing 20% might not be good enough because you were working before, you know, at a hundred percent.

Richard Blank: But I could reduce it to about an 85% and use that 15% as you were mentioning, to make it custom made. And that could potentially, Any sort of, you know, latency that you might have in regards to the phone calls. But, um, I also, I always believed in a quality phone call, and I don't want somebody, it's, it's almost like a painter when you're commissioned, compared to doing it on your own, you might have a different sort of way to create that work.

Richard Blank: And so I just don't want somebody on the clock. I don't want them to go on the phone for five hours if it happens, you know, so be it. It'll be an amazing phone call, but they should never rush the middle or the ending of the call, or when they're getting a referral or if they're talking about a company's promotion, because that my friend is where I give the most points when I'm grading their calls.

Richard Blank: Not that they go through the motions to see if they had that breakthrough with that individual. So when we're taking notes and putting in the system and have to call them back, they're gonna compliment us. On our note taking skills because they're so detailed and we've taken the time, unlike other people to remember certain facts about them, that when they take our offer into consideration, they realize how we work prior to any sort of context to talk about.

Richard Blank: In Chicago 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: that, you know, there's, there's such an art and a science to this and you talk about upsells, right? How do you teach upsells when there is an art to it as well? Like what are some of the, the parameters or guidelines you give? Cause you have to give some type of guidelines. It went from Elvis to do to Beethoven, the, you know, but you probably gave them training and guidelines.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: What's your process for at least giving guidelines for the upsells? 

Richard Blank: It's composure, it's timing. I mean, I can't start mentioning dog movies before this individual started talking. All Elvis present. If her dog never bark, I would've never known. I could have heard something else in the background. Could have been anything, but as long as the agent is in the moment.

Richard Blank: Because a lot of the times they'll be stressed because of the past, anxious of the future or thinking about lunch. And if I didn't hear that dog bark for two seconds out of a 15 minute phone call, I would've never sold those additional movies. And so almost like a boxer, you need to be focused 100%. When you were on that call, in between calls on your break and lunch zone out as much as you.

Richard Blank: But you will be getting these sort of clues that are on these calls in regards of and, and in upsale sometimes is not even offering additional stuff. An up sale could also be retention because if I can keep you and get a referral that's an up sale cuz we're getting business out of that, or you'll be calling us back again to order a second time, I can consider that a client upsell in regards to fidelity and loyalty.

Richard Blank: So as long as they use their common sense, Jeremy, if they have the sort of manners that we were raised with, with our parents and grandparents, our amazing grandparents, then what we can do is we can relate with individuals in a natural way, and we have a huge menu. And all we have to do, and we don't have the time to go over every movie, but as long as you're not hanging up and you're excited and we just keep talking, we can make suggestions and some of the best, as you wanna say, sales people are the ones that will let you know that it's not the right fit.

Richard Blank: You play basketball. Not every shoe is perfect for you on the court. And so the greatest salesmen for sneakers will look at your size and the way that you play and make those sort of suggestions. And almost the takeaway is what adds to your credibility? Because you're not just throwing everything at the wall to see what fits.

Richard Blank: When someone is not just a yes man, but can be almost a devil's advocate and explain why today or at this moment, this is not a perfect fit for you. That individual not only will come back in spades, but tell all their friends, Hey, I finally got someone that calls the balls in the strikes and will tell me if my tie is not straight.

Richard Blank: So I've earned so much of my business by being forthright with my clients and as much as I'd like to earn their business, a lot of times by default, I'm not able to take the account because of one reason or another. But then again, when I am capable, we've established such trust before even working together that if any sort of complication or challenge comes.

Richard Blank: It's nothing. We've already established that sort of working relationship where we can get through it together. And so upselling is not a forced fit, my friend. I'm not forcing a hand or telling you I only got two left and you got a minute to buy it. Uh, that's a one and a done. You'll have them one time.

Richard Blank: But if we're talking about long term clients, these are the individuals that you need to walk with, not hit the ball and drag. Richard, 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: I wanna be the first one to thank you. Everyone should check out Costa Rica's call center.com to learn more and more episodes of the podcast. And Richard, thank you so much.

Richard Blank: Had the best time today. Thank you so much, Jeremy. What I've got you between my eyes. Walk the.

Inspired Insider Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding taking a chance by moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Dr. Jeremy Weisz discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.

INspiredINsider.com Show features interviews with successful and inspirational entrepreneurs, authors, and visionary leaders.The interviews reveal deeply personal stories and explore the tough journey of Big Challenges or Big Mistakes that the inspirational leaders overcame to achieve success. Have You Ever Hit a Wall in Business or Life? 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz is the Founder of InspiredInsider.com & CEO of Rise25.com He has been featuring top entrepreneurs with video interviews since 2010 that include founders/CEO’s of P90X, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, the Orlando Magic, Rx Bars and many more on InspiredInsider. He was senior producer for 6 years at one of the early top business podcasts helping to put systems in place and to run some of the behind the scenes operations.He continues to run his own chiropractic & massage facility in downtown Chicago and is founder of a nutritional supplement business.

Richard’s journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008.

Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.

Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies.

We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry.

https://youtu.be/DalFHGMWEvk

https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/

https://www.inspiredinsider.com/richard-blank-interview/

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-inspired-insider-wi-29650573/episode/improving-your-customer-support-with-richard-99381742/

https://player.fm/series/inspired-insider-podcast/improving-your-customer-support-with-richard-blank-of-costa-ricas-call-center

https://www.deezer.com/en/show/38477

https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/2939630

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/improving-your-customer-support-with-richard-blank/id729464589?i=1000569868046