Richard Blank Podcast Guest Appearances Costa Rica's Call Center

Dave Lorenzo: Hey now, welcome to

another edition of the inside BS show.

Today we go down to Costa Rica, a

beautiful nation, just south of the United

States, where the weather is always good.

The people are always friendly

and the work is really efficient.

In fact, today, we're gonna talk about.

Setting up a call center in Costa Rica

and why you don't need to do that, cuz

there's already one waiting there for you.

My guest today is Richard blank.

He's the CEO of Costa Rica's call center.

And he's gonna share with us.

How easy it is for you to offshore

the tedious stuff that you can't hire

people to do here in the United States.

This is gonna be a great show.

I can't wait to bring you Richard blank.

So without further ado,

please welcome Richard too.

There we go.

Inside BS show Richard.

Welcome.

It's so great to have you.

Richard Blank: It's good morning to you.

Good morning to your audience.

And as we say in Costa

Rica, Pura vida, I'm very

Dave Lorenzo: happy to be here today.

Oh, it's so great to have you.

So, Richard first, we let's start

by having you explain to people,

uh, some of the, um, some of the

unique qualities of Costa Rica.

But I, I visited Costa Rica.

I shared with you probably

And before I visited, I didn't know

very much about Costa Rica explained

to folks some of the really unique

characteristics of that country.

Richard Blank: Well, not only

we a powerhouse in the, uh,

call center industry, but we

have an incredible labor force.

We have a 95% literacy rate.

So there's no standing army.

All that money was put

back into education.

We have the best infrastructure

in central America.

We are below Nicaragua, north of Panama.

A lot of people think we're an

island, but no we're right there.

Smacked out right in central America.

We're very close to the United

States or our proxemic on a direct

flight is just a couple hours.

We're very attuned to the

north American market.

So a lot of people have

lived in the United.

Have family in the United States,

or there's a lot of expatriates

that live here, including myself.

Who's an expatriate for the last 21 years.

And their skillset here is incredible.

Besides them being bilingual.

They also have very high skills in

regards to it customer support, lead

generation appointment setting, and

even non-voice omnichannel support.

So companies such as.

Intel Oracle and Amazon have a

very, very large presence here in

Costa Rica for, for many reasons.

But you know, personally from

being here and me being here for 21

years, it's, it's a beautiful life.

And the people here are very

cultured and educated and kind, and

it reflects over our phone calls.

So I believe that's why a lot of

our agents show very high levels of.

Dave Lorenzo: Yeah.

You know, Richard, my, um, my biggest

takeaway from my time in Costa Rica

related to the people was that,

and my, my friends here in Miami

are gonna kill me for saying this,

but it is the God's honest truth.

People in Costa Rica speak better

English than the people in Miami.

It's just the facts.

I'm not, I'm not saying anything.

That's not true.

The people in Costa Rica

are extremely well educated.

I, the healthcare system is excellent,

correct for people who retire

there, the healthcare is fantastic.

Richard Blank: Absolutely.

There's a lot of medical tourism,

and I believe you were mentioning

to having more of a neutral tone in

regards to some other Latino countries.

So yes, we've been known to have

a certain sort of accent that

could be more relatable compared

to let's say offshoring in India,

where the Philippines, where it's.

More noticeable.

But as I say before, Spanish, it will

be the most spoken language in the

United States, if not today, very soon.

So the fact that these agents here, as you

say, are structured and disciplined and

they show the cognitive skills to become

bilingual, which takes a lot of work.

I get these individuals that

are walking through the door

already showing me something.

And so what I try to do, and

I think you'll agree with

this, cuz you've been here.

I will focus on not just their

grammar, but more their vocabulary.

We look in the FSO so we can

choose certain words that would

be more appropriate for a phone

call or for customer support.

So we can do a first call resolution

because just by saying the word

help, Dave, you know, this, that

could open up so many rabbit holes.

It's better to say assist,

lend to hand or guide somebody.

And so under my direction,

that's where I take this delicate

second language of theirs.

And use our experience being an

Anglo-Saxon and growing up in the

United States and giving them the

ability to be able to communicate more.

With the sort of clients

that we have in the United

Dave Lorenzo: States.

Yeah.

You know, my, um, so I, where I live

in Miami is I, I live, uh, probably 15,

not even maybe 10 miles from the Western

border of Miami-Dade county, uh, you

know, heading toward the Western part

of Florida and this particular area.

Is, uh, was settled by,

uh, a lot of Cubans.

So when we go to the supermarket,

where in my neighborhood, we,

more than likely we speak Spanish.

Um, when we go to get our

car washed, we speak Spanish.

When we, uh, go to the doctor's office

and the, and the, the receptionist

greets us, she'll greet us in Spanish.

She speaks English in Spanish, but

it's just the, it's the dominant

language here in, in my neighborhood.

Now, when you get toward the toward

Miami beach, There it's a tourist area.

So people there will, you know, th

the default there will be English, but

the, the specific reason that my family

and I moved to this part of Florida

is because we wanted a, a culturally

diverse experience for our kids.

My kids go to a bilingual school.

Um, they speak English half the day.

They speak Spanish half the day.

They speak Spanish with, um,

their grandmother on my wife's

side, they speak English with my

parents and they have tested out.

My son is in seventh grade.

He's tested out of high school Spanish.

My daughter is two years behind him.

She's tested out of high school, Spanish.

So they're taking other

languages now in school.

My, my point about that.

We were kind of forward thinking

and we, we understand the global

nature of the workforce today.

And I think 20 years ago when I

visited Costa Rica, It was like a

novelty to offshore your call center.

Now I think nobody, nobody

would even think twice.

And in fact, you may have people

in Texas who have a heavier,

uh, you know, who have a heavier

accent than people in Costa Rica.

So I.

I don't think it makes

any difference today.

I don't think people would be put

off in any way, as long as they

can get the level of service that

they're accustomed to Richard.

But before we get into the details of

all the types of services you provide

and how you do that, tell us your story.

How did you come to you now?

You've been in Costa

Rica for 20 plus years.

How did you come to be in

Costa Rica in the first place?

Richard Blank: Well, my story

began in Northeast Philadelphia

when I graduated Abington high.

You were very fortunate.

Uh, Dave, because in my family, my

grandparents were speaking Romanian,

Russian, Polish, and German.

And so I'm the first person

in my family that decided that

Spanish should be my major.

All of my friends were going to Ivy

league and they were studying law in

medicine and architecture, engineering,

or going into their family's business.

I chose to double down on languages

and go to the university of.

I chose a communication major, which made

it a lot of fun for those five years.

But I also realized that I could pick

up public speaking skills, rhetoric

skills, and nonverbal communication,

micro expression, reading skills.

I was able to get an

internship at Telemundo.

J Cohen was kind enough to give me in 1995

and 96, my senior and super senior year.

I worked for promotions and

public relations at Telemundo.

And.

there.

I was able to meet, and this is

dating myself gentleman by the name

of Pedro SEK and Miguel Kitana.

One was in charge of the

news out of Los Angeles.

And the other had the main

talk show in Miami, across

from Christina, from Univision.

And so imagine a 22 year old boy that is

doing public speaking events with these

players, these professional men that have

made it and have taken the time to mold

my confidence and to give me the SELFA.

Us to stand in front of 5,000 people

at a Tucson Toro's baseball game and do

a Halina Cantina chili eating contest.

And so given these opportunities

that a young man, it molded my

confidence that I could do it.

And I knew that I could

do it in two languages.

and so postgrad, I landed a job that

was for the importers of Corona beer.

So I worked that in the Southwest of the

United States and that was incredible.

And when I was 27, I had the opportunity

to move to Costa Rica for a couple

months to do some training at a friend

of mine, from college, his call center.

And as you know, when you fly

here and you're here are you

fall in love with Costa Rica?

So everything of mine got put in storage.

If you can get past your parents, guilt,

Dave, you can live anywhere in the world.

and I decided to take a chance.

I worked at my friend's call center

for four years, and this was back

in the day when we were making calls

with Cisco phones and printouts of

Excel sheets with highlighter pens.

And it was a young environment.

It was a fun environment, a bilingual

environment of, of artists, of speech.

And I got to see the highs and the lows

and the gripes and the successes of it.

But between me and you, I

also saw areas of improve.

and the areas of improvement that I saw

the most was how people are treated.

Not saying my friend didn't do a good job,

an amazing job, but a lot of people felt

like numbers, or they felt like robots.

And my other friends and supervisors

from other call centers tell me that

sometimes agents are not properly

onboarded where they're not prepared

where the S scripts are sho.

With spelling in grammar mistakes, and

maybe some over aggressive language that

you would see in a Glen Gary boiler room

Wolf of wall street movie, that might be

completely out of character for somebody

here because we're, we're in a very strict

Catholic country, Dave and these young

men and women have to go home and tell

their parents what they do for a living.

So we are extremely selective

of the campaigns that come in.

Not, not only can I fulfill

your needs, but I gotta make

sure I don't have an attrition.

And I gotta make sure that the,

that the agents that come in,

that we invest in that are able

to stay here and build upon that.

So we just don't waste that.

And so my thoughts about how I got here,

you don't say you're gonna be a call

center CEO for a major in college, or when

you're seven years old, you tell that to

your mother, but I definitely knew this.

I was the only one out of my group

of friends that could speak Spanish.

And not only that, but every job

I had, I was the one that could go

out to the Southwest Phoenix when

I was selling telecommunications

and sell a T1 to somebody and

translate it for my supervisor.

And I knew I had something that was

different and it was wonderful for me

cuz I enjoyed it and that I was embraced.

I might had a grammar mistake in my

subjunctive tense, but people would

invite me in correct me and feed me

and then recommend me to 10 of their.

So why do you think that every environment

that I was in when I was able to make

these calls in Spanish, that I ran the

board, I could do it in English and

I did, but I also did it in Spanish.

I could double gun it.

I did two boards, English and Spanish.

My point being is that you can show

this sort of the first impression,

respect Dave, when not only are you

bilingual, but so am I, and we're doing

this without even knowing each other.

. And so it really assisted me in having

these sort of engagements and finding

a lot of these things in common and

really reduced any sort of defense or

anger or setting a tone of aggression

that that was eliminated immediately

when I knew exactly what to say.

And, and these are gonna be some of

the additional selling techniques

we'll talk about later and stuff.

But my friend, I just wanted

to discuss with you the.

Of how I am and how I was raised.

I'm when someone calls me a salesman

and I take that as a compliment,

I might look and sound like

one, but Dave, I'm an educator.

I don't ever force a hand from

an educated point of view.

My clients, my agents, my friends, and

anyone I relate to then makes a decision.

And I feel that if given the

chance to explain how I feel and to

answer their questions, everybody

can leave with something on the.

I, I think it's a wonderful way to start

Dave Lorenzo: relationships.

Yeah, I love, I love what you said there.

You know, we teach people, uh, we

being me, the people that I work with,

we, we teach people that selling is

helping and nobody knows that you can

help them unless you tell them, right.

They don't know who you are.

They don't know what you do.

They invited you in for a reason.

So you have to let them

know how you can help them.

And then if they say, no, they say no,

that's just, that's just the way it is.

So.

The, the quote, I think it was a Jim Roan

quote that nothing happens until somebody

sells something is never more true.

Right?

Nothing, nothing gets started in

any business, anywhere in the world.

Until somebody goes to somebody

else and says, would you like

assistance in this area in exchange

for financial compensation?

That's it really, it really is that

easy, but you know, Richard, the thing I

want to really, um, bring out from, you

know, from your commentary there, and you

said so many important things, but one

of the most important things, at least

from me looking at the, the labor force

now, Let's just take here, here in the

United States is, uh, and I, I just, I

just had this conversation with my niece.

Who's graduating high school and going

to college, the, it, it used to be

like when I, so when I worked, I worked

in the hotel industry for 12 years.

And when I worked in the hotel industry

in New York, it was kind of a nice to have

if somebody else, if you spoke Spanish,

if you spoke a different language.

Well, my, my Spanish became great

working in the hotel industry.

It was fantastic, you know, between.

the folks in housekeeping, the folks in

engineering, uh, the folks in the laundry,

the folks in the dish room, the servers,

the, you know, the people who were

working at the front desk, everyone was.

They were thrilled to see the white

boy making an effort to speak Spanish.

And they were, you were

a hundred percent right.

More than willing to take you

out for a beer and help you

with your verb conjugation.

Right?

Take you out for a beer and

explain what that phrase that.

The Dominicans used that

everybody else didn't use meant.

Right.

And those are the, the

subtleties of the language.

The nuances of the language are the

thing that's really, really cool.

So when you, when back in those days,

it was a novelty for someone who

wanted to advance in the corporate

world to speak English and Spanish.

Today it is the price of entry.

You can't really work anywhere

unless you can communicate in English

and in Spanish because the 60% of

the labor force these days here in

the United States speak Spanish.

But even more importantly, now

your customers half about half

of your customers would be more

comfortable doing business with.

More than likely in Spanish, in Florida,

in Texas, in Arizona, in New Mexico,

in California, you know, and it's,

and it's, it's pervasive everywhere.

I was just in Chicago last week and,

um, having a conversation with some

folks in the hotel and I picked up

an accent and I switched to Spanish

and they were just blown away.

And it was like, I was, I was their

favorite guest, all of a sudden,

because I was making an effort.

So my point is it used to.

Great.

It used to be a novelty.

Now it is essential.

And this is the conversation

that we have with our kids.

This is the conversation I have

with anybody who's willing to

listen because it's the you're

you're in the next 10 years.

be, uh, folks who speak in other language.

And the majority of those folks

will probably be Spanish speaking.

So, you know, I think that you are

providing a great service because it's

gonna be a competitive advantage, cuz

you can probably do it better and less

expensive than we could do it here in the.

States.

And I think that your agents who are,

who are taking calls from the United

States will probably be taking an

equal number of calls in English and

Spanish in 15 years from customers.

I, I just, I see it happening.

It's

Richard Blank: very interesting.

You, you bring that up because the certain

key performance indicator that KPI is

talk time and also conversion ratios.

There's two metrics that are

increased by at least 20.

When you're on a phone,

speaking in Spanish with a

client, the call goes longer.

They make less calls that day, but

their conversion ratio is higher.

Obviously it's their native tongue.

Or as you were mentioning about

certain details and certain mannerisms

that people use, they might be able

to connect better with somebody

on the phone, speaking Spanish.

I, I almost see it as

like Popeye with spin.

Once they switch over to Spanish.

All of a sudden they're

calling you Don Davi.

They're doing hard though.

And these are the sort of things where

I can tell in regards to their tone

and their rate and their pitch, they're

pausing and their pregnant pausing

and their follow up tie down questions

that they're extremely comfortable,

not only with the conversation, but

with this client that they've only met.

Five minutes ago.

They've already figured out

So their me too technique

is off the roof too.

Dave Lorenzo: All right.

So, uh, talk to us about.

The, uh, the type of work you do.

Uh, I think a lot of people who

are listening, a lot of people who

are watching, they think of when

they think of a call center, they

think of, you know, calling like

the help desk to solve problems.

But you do a lot more than that.

So explain the spectrum of work that

you do at Costa Rica's call center.

Richard Blank: Many different

profiles that we have here.

And that's an excellent question, Dave.

We, we're very flexible.

If there's non-voice support, you can

have people that are just answering

emails or just doing chat support.

Then you have people that are

inbound customer support, which

is what you're usually used to

calling any sort of company.

We also have certain agents that are

capable of doing outbound lead generation

and appointment setting for people.

My favorite is a hot lead transfer one.

Get it while the lead is hot.

And then you have the, the ACEs, you got

the closers, they're very competitive

down here and they're in high demand.

So, uh, once again, I kind

of see them as mercenaries.

They'll just jump to the best deal

and you might not keep them along.

So I usually like to feel most comfortable

around a level one customer support.

Lead generation and appointment setting,

and then avoid, uh, eventually we can mold

them into being salespeople on the phone.

Uh, these individuals, it's very

important that the client respects

the labor laws here in Costa Rica.

Because a lot of the times they will be

asking for certain overtimes or certain

adjustments that they need to understand.

Um, you are dealing with another country

and they have different types of rules.

So the best thing for us to do prior

to working with the clients, to

let them know of our holidays that

we have and the other things that

might disrupt any sort of workflow.

We also would like for them to

know the sort of culture that

we have here, not necessarily in

Costa Rica, but at my call center.

I don't like when supervisors write

in bold or they write in red, I

don't like cursing or screaming

because you can bend them, Dave.

But the worst thing we can do is break.

and it's not fair, not for our

reputation for your project or

even for the vibe of the project.

The clients have to ensure

that we have all the resources

well before making phone calls.

I gotta make sure that

the station is set up.

Do we log into you through a VPN?

Are we using your CRM or our CRM?

Our dialer, your dialer list,

scrubbed rebuttals script.

Do you have recordings for me?

Who's doing the onboarding.

Who's doing the training.

What sort of quality assurance

and QA scores do you have there?

So, and it's okay.

Dave, if I've worked with people

before that don't know the, the

terminology or the QA forms or

onboarding, that's my pleasure because

my resources are your resources.

And anytime I can, uh, educate a client

and guide them through a quality assurance

form on what we should be looking for from

the agent, then you and I see consist.

So your sales cycle gets

a little bit shorter.

You build your pipeline more,

you're closing more on first calls.

And when we're listening to these

calls, you and I will be able to

deduct where our strengths, where

there areas of focus, where we were

dropping the ball on the rebuttal,

on the pauses with the tele signs.

So my class here is not just a bilingual

person taking a script and making calls.

I am very, very, uh, strict.

In regards to representing

our clients in the best light.

I'm very selective of the

tone that we have on the call.

It's always empathetic and confident.

And then I always teach my agents

how to do these sort of micro

expression reading on the phone.

So when they allow the client to talk

or then it's our turn to interject

to be able to do a follow up.

And I've seen that our conversion ratios

just by not, uh, having a hedge for an

example, Where somebody says, um, okay.

Or just wonderful.

Great.

When someone's answering a question, Dave,

you know, it's much more to your advantage

for someone not to repeat, let us repeat.

Let us do it for our clarification.

If it's ABC or 1 23, and the same thing

goes, my friend, when there's a bad

cell phone connection, a dog barking

music, cuz people are working from

home now that's to our advantage twice,

we can get things in the background

to have things in common and in

inadvertently and passive aggressively.

I can tell you how much I love your

dog, which is pretty much a hint to,

you know, having quiet down, but it also

gives me a chance to be able to work

with these clients in that certain way.

To be able to move that conversation

forward and to understand how they speak.

I always believe in active listening

because a lot of the times the people

are just moving things forward.

Um, in case there might be some sort of

family situation or a business promotion,

a lot of people just skip through that.

They should pause for a moment

they should celebrate with them

or should they pay condolences.

And the one thing that I'm

really missing on these calls

is when people give positive.

You have a business associate MJ that

does a wonderful job written me multiple

times with the emails, just to make sure

that we were locked in today, a plus.

So there's a lot of people, a lot of team

behind Dave Lorenzo and Richard blank.

And so I want your business strategy

and marketing strategy to take very

much into consideration all those, that

answer calls, filter calls, and that

may be able to give you company culture.

Or I might be able to tell you

about a promotion or I might

just get real with you for a.

and then when you're at that stage of

the call, Dave, then it's not selling

anymore, then it's really just, uh,

strangers or friends you haven't met yet.

So now you're just really hanging

out with somebody and just finding

ways to meet in the middle.

Dave Lorenzo: I agree.

I think that's terrific.

Richard.

I want you to, um, I want you to

take a minute and think about this.

And then when we come back,

give us kind of a, um, give us a

case study and you don't have to

tell us the name of the client.

Of course, obviously I don't want

you to betray any confidences, but

give us a, uh, give us a case study

of a company that you work with.

Uh, and some of the things

that you do for them.

They're in Costa Rica.

And, you know, I, I want, I want you to

give us one where our listeners will go.

Hmm.

I, and they wouldn't be able to tell

the difference that it was done in

Costa Rica compared to the United

States, or maybe after you tell them,

they'll be able to tell the difference,

because it was probably done better.

In Costa Rica.

So take a minute and think about that.

And while you're doing that, I need to

remind our listeners, remind our viewers

that we're brought to you by Sindrowski

corporate advisors for over 35 years.

Sindrowski has helped people all over the

United States with their accounting needs.

Now here's the thing about Sindrowski that

I really focus on when I'm talking to you

every day about them Sindrowski works with

privately held companies and they also

work with individual families of wealth.

Why do they focus on these areas?

Well, you're gonna say, Hey, listen,

they focus on families of wealth because

those people have money and you're gonna

say, well, they work with privately held

companies because you know, they have

money too, and that's partially true.

But the rest of the truth is that

privately held companies, particularly

companies that do in revenue between

say 5 million and a hundred million

in annual revenue, that's kind of.

A sweet spot for Sindrowski because

they're still a little too small

for the big four accounting firms.

And there are some special nuances

in the UX tax code that Sindrowski

can really help you take advantage

of if your company is of that size.

You've heard me talk before.

If you listen to the show about the

qualified small business, uh, stock

exemption, and this is something

that Sindrowski really excels at.

One of the things that Syras has been

able to do for their clients is when a

client determines that they have a five

year time horizon for selling their

business, Syras will come in and they'll

look at the way the business is organized.

And then they will analyze whether

or not their company qualifies for

a small business stock exemption.

If the company does qualify, if

they're in specific industry type

and they have a revenue that is

below 50 million in annual revenue.

Centras will reorganize the company so

that in five years when the company is

sold the owner of the company, regardless

of whether it's a partial sale or a

full sale, will be able to shelter

a huge portion of the capital gains.

From taxes, Harry Sindrowski, uh,

the, the managing partner of the firm.

And I were talking last week and

he told me a story about how he

saved someone $10 million in taxes.

The gentleman sold his

company for $49 million.

Harry was able to save him $10

million in capital gains taxes

because he had organized his.

Company appropriately five years prior.

If you're thinking about selling your

business or you just wanna reduce your

tax exposure and you have a privately

held company, you need to call this

number eight six six seven one seven one

six oh seven eight six six seven one.

That's the number fish and Draki

corporate advisors call 'em today.

They're a CPA firm with

a different perspective.

We're also brought to you

by my revenue roadmap guide.

So, you know, I work with professionals

and I help them with business development.

I help 'em with sales.

I help 'em with marketing.

I use a plan to do that and

I call it my revenue roadmap.

Well, I'm gonna give it to you for free.

It's my gift to you for watching,

for listening to the show.

Here's what you need to do.

Go to this website, write it down.

If you're driving, pull over, type it into

your phone revenue, roadmap, guide.com.

Put all those words together.

Revenue, roadmap, guide.com.

When you enter your contact

info, you can download the same

guide I use with my clients.

You customize it for your firm, just

the way I customize it for my clients.

It's my gift to you for listening to

the show for watching this show today,

go to revenue, roadmap, guide.com.

Right now, enter your contact info.

Get your free business development plan.

My guest today is Richard blank.

He's the CEO of Costa Rica's call center.

You can call.

At 8 8 8 2 7 1 67 50

that's 8 8 8 2 7 1 67 50.

I'm also putting his email

in the show notes for you.

If you want to shoot him an

email, he's very responsive.

He'll probably respond back to you

as soon as you hit the send button.

All right, Richard.

So before we went to that break, I asked

you to think of a case study for us.

Have you come up with one?

Richard Blank: I have, in fact,

I can make it easy for you.

I can do it.

All verticals.

How does that sound?

So it applies to every

account that I have.

I always have an answer for

that couple things we can do.

The first thing is there's certain

words that you have because the vowels

in Spanish and English could give away.

So we write certain words out phonetically

for them, even though they need to

know how to spell it properly, that

can eliminate any sort of confusion.

And he's sort of guessing.

The second thing is, let's

say for an example, that we're

representing a company that's out

of Chicago in a certain suburbs.

What we like to do with a lot of the

times is just take a Google map right

around the block and just to see the local

pizza parlors, the parks, the churches,

and what's going on around there.

So instead of just giving us specific

direction, we can talk about Mike's pizza,

which everybody knows more than anything.

And finally, we, we have to ensure

that if people do follow up or even

subcategory questions that we need to

have every single sort of vocabulary

for that account doesn't mean that

we need to have it memorized, but

we should have a glossary of terms.

So just, if something comes up,

we're skilled enough to say that's

an excellent question, Dave, and

we could look it up while we're

answering that question for you.

Many people are capable of doing that.

So as long as we're on a level

playing field and we're given all

the resources to, as you say, make

it assume like we're in the United

States and we know what the shore is

and cheese fries and things like that.

Then, uh, maybe tell us a couple

more local flavors that we have or

things that we should be aware of.

And those are the sort of calls that

we make to the people where it sounds

like we have more in common with

them and we know where we're going.

It's a simple, an example, like what

we're calling businesses, instead

of just saying, how are you a lot

of the times we'll ask, Hey, how's

Costa Rica's call center doing today.

And the tens of thousands

of calls I've analyzed.

We find that company name, spike technique

by asking about a company or organization,

a lot of people have responded with

you've been here before, or you an alumni

sounds like, you know where you're going.

You can parlay that with an

extension or a person's name.

And so you're rotting on that sort

of high of familiarity, and they'll

be able to transfer you over.

I always believe that lying

on the phone is not ethical.

I'm not saying I'm lying and I'm

not saying that we're being slick.

There's nothing wrong with being clever.

And as long as you say a person's name

a certain way, or company's name a

certain way with your anonymity, they

can kind of maybe reduce the fact that

you're a telemarketer or you're selling.

So.

And you make a different sort

of first impression approach.

And so these are the sort of things

that enable us to prolong our

conversations, to at least increase

our odds of a conversion ratio.

I could give you 50 tips and

tricks today, but we don't have

as much time to go over that.

But I think the most important thing,

my, my friend, Dave, and thank you

so much for you and your audience's

time is that I think the first

You need to, once again,

not be egocentric.

You need to put that company first and

by saying their names and being polite

to those that answer the phone and making

sure that they get credit when you are

transferred or have given you information.

And you should especially do that when

you do a follow up letter, because

you're probably separating yourself,

Dave, from a thousand other people.

And I've had the secretary or

gatekeeper say, you know, thank you

very much for that positive escalation.

I got a raise or I got acknowledged, or

it just made me feel good after 30 years,

you're the first person to say that.

So of course they're waiting for my

call to transfer it for the clothes.

And I believe in woo will weigh.

Why have resistance do at least resistance

allow the wind and the current to

take you so any sort of friction and.

Motion is not natural.

I think that if I can gain their

confidence in the beginning and show very

nice, uh, reserved side where I can still

close a deal, but I'm not gonna do it.

Like you see in the movies I can,

but that's out of character for me.

And if I'm looking to have long term

relationships with people, it's not a

one and a done, I want to get referred.

I want Dave you and my network to.

To grow as well.

And as I say before, coming on

your show today, I, I wanted to

share with you certain things that

enabled me to be in business for 14

years and running this call center.

If I were not able to do these

sort of baseline ethics, morals,

sort of phone calls for my clients,

this would've never worked out.

And, um, if anything of nothing

taking that away today is that if you.

If you reject more than you accept, if

you stand tall to your beliefs and you

do things to make your great grandparents

proud, you're gonna preserve, you're

gonna last, you'll have the endurance.

You'll make it through the tough times.

Cuz those are the times you

look in the mirror and you ask

yourself, is this still worth it?

Well, it is worth it.

I have a luxury trade.

This should have never happened.

The fact that I'm here in Costa

Rica for 21 years and I have a

company with my wife after 14.

It's a long shot from

Northeast Philadelphia.

So I smile every day.

I've learned to do that and I've

learned to give my agents dignity

and to know every single one of their

names and to break bread with them.

And I have the largest

collection of pinball here.

When you visit me, you'll see.

So it's free play that they can play

pinball with me, go to the pack, man

machine, make yourself comfortable.

because that's my goal in a call

center environment, which is a

grind is, is to be the opposite.

This is not a boiler room.

This could be a career for

these young men and women.

They could build it like me.

And if I could be the last boss they

ever have, maybe when they move on,

they can know every agent's name and

keep that sort of tradition that I have.

Dave Lorenzo: That's terrific.

I love that.

Um, Richard, there's, there's two, uh,

two questions that stand out for me

before, before we finish up that I have

to ask you about, and the first is.

Do you think because, um, because

being, uh, being a, um, being a, an

associated call center, being a rep at

a call center in Costa Rica is a noble

good, uh, well respected profession.

Is there less call reluctance?

Is there, is there less hesitancy?

Uh, among folks in that culture,

whether it's the culture of the

country or the culture you've created

in your call center, is there less

hesitancy for the reps to get on the

phone and to do business on the phone?

Cause one of the things I find

here is 2030 year executives.

When I tell them, Hey, listen, you

got, you know, an inquiry just came in.

You need to see what it's like to

talk to people on the front lines.

I want you to call these customers,

call these five customers on the phone.

The executives are like, you, you

want me to do what you want me to do?

Like there's, there's tremendous call

reluctance among people, you know,

even at the senior levels of a company,

if they haven't had any interpersonal

interaction or if there hasn't been

interpersonal interaction over the

years, You in all your experience at

call centers, have you been able to,

to, to create a culture where it's just

normal to pick up the phone and you

know, can't, I can't wait to call people.

I don't know.

And start relationships with them.

Is that, have you, have you been able

to overcome that with your folks?

It

Richard Blank: really hasn't

been that much of an issue here.

The main issue I have is getting

rid of their bad habits from,

from the sports books, casinos

stocks, pharmacies, and sweep.

Dave Lorenzo: Wow.

Yeah, those are the, I

didn't even think of that.

So they were, so they were working in

other places on the phone before they came

to you and they have those bad habits.

I see.

Those are five

Richard Blank: accounts

Dave, that I do not do here.

And those are some of the accounts

where I can get some of these

star salesmen that come here.

Not saying it's ethical or not ethical.

I choose just not to do it.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so some people might have come from

an environment or thought about that

sort of environment because the money is.

but that's okay.

There's many different

ways you can earn money.

That's their decision.

So when they come to me, there's

no reluctance to be on the phone.

These are public speakers.

As you see in Spanish Portos or UR, these

are people that are wonderful speakers.

My thing is to eliminate the fear.

It's a morbid anticipation of

something they haven't happened yet.

Learning a second language

is 10 times harder doing.

And if I can properly prepare them,

then it reduces any sort of fear.

If I can answer any of their questions.

And prior to making a single phone

call doing a two hour soft skills

training class with me, once again,

it takes 'em from a 10 to a two.

The rest is just practice.

And as long as I can listen to some

of their recordings and discuss with

them certain soft skills in regards

to pausing in regards to tie down and

pin down questions, confirmations.

Military alphabet, which I

highly recommend for anybody.

Why?

Because half the people have served

or know someone that's served.

So that's another beautiful me too

technique to be able to land the plane.

And so these are the, every time I add

something to them, their fear reduces and

they get more self-reliant and self C.

and then all of a sudden they're

knocking on my door saying, Hey

Richie, I got my third one today.

And you know, I love that sort of stuff.

I love walking the rose, Dave.

I love knowing their names and stopping

and listening to them pitch and giving

them a thumbs up and telling them why

they're artists of speech and why it's

beautiful because everyone is texting

these days, which could be misinterpreted.

Yeah.

And if you not only speak with

somebody, but use choice vocabulary,

and really you could really.

express yourself better.

And so I see it as being a lost art.

That's why I'm so excited.

And what drives me to do this is because

I made a living off playing with.

Speech.

Yeah.

The article,

Dave Lorenzo: let me, let me ask you this.

Uh, the, does it make it harder

because you, you mentioned they're

working from home now, right?

So is it, does it make it harder for

you as the, as the leader, because

you're, you know, you, you're an

inspirational person, you really care.

I, you know, we can tell just from

the short period of time, we've

spoken that you really care about

the folks that work with you.

Does it make it harder for

you to kind of pump them up?

Because I know that myself.

Working from home.

Like today, today's a perfect example.

You know, my interaction with you today

is probably the fourth or fifth time.

I've talked to another person

because today here in my home

office, it's just me and the dogs.

My, my wife had something to do all day.

My kids are in school.

So, you know, I finish up with you.

I'll talk to the dogs.

They don't talk back.

I may talk to one other person

until everybody comes home.

Yeah.

And I'll tell you, Richard,

it's not, it's not as fulfilling

as talking to other people.

During the course of the day.

So for you, is it, is it more difficult

to keep their training at a high level?

Because now I would imagine

that it's asynchronous, right?

You're listening to them in recordings.

You're making notes and then maybe

you do a zoom with them and you say,

Hey, you know, Joe, I was listening

to this recording on the phone.

Let's play it together.

You play it.

You know, here's what

I would've said here.

And it's not real time anymore.

Is it more difficult for you?

Because I, I would imagine many of

them are still working from home.

And then are you gonna bring

'em back in so that you can

have that collegial environment?

Richard Blank: Exxon question.

I'll give you the quick pros and cons and

legally what we had to do when COVID hit.

We were allowed to have 50%

of our people in the office.

I sent about 70% home to give myself a

PCI compliance, or if someone has a

redundancy, electricity, or, or hardware

problem, they can jump onto a station.

It's just me.

I'm a coach.

I'm not sensitive, but I love my people.

And I love walking the rows and I felt

like that was my special sauce and

that was taken away from me from COVID.

But let's talk about the pros

they're in a much better head.

They're closer to their family.

They're saving tons of money.

As long as their work environment

is professional they're.

As I say before, they're much

more relaxed on the phone.

Their metrics are, are incredible.

It's just a comradery of

having lunch with people.

And just missing them, but no,

we've increased our, our channels

of communication, but this is

the one thing I really got this,

you have an excellent background.

You see my, um, yeah.

Cola and my candy machine, but you get

to see how a lot of people are living and

you get to see what's in their background.

So the one thing I would've never

gotten from here is some of their

interests and what makes them proud.

So I might lose it physically.

standing next to somebody, but I think

I've gained three times the sort of

knowledge about what makes somebody tick.

So on a rainy Wednesday, I can motivate

them or I can compliment their,

their stuffed bunny rabbit in the

corner and tease 'em for a minute.

And, um, that might break the

ice too, but no, check this out.

The fact that I take the time with a

suit to zoom, call them and to maybe

discuss a five minute call with them.

That's something that you

almost get more points.

By showing that extra effort,

then you would just standing

next to 'em and smiling while

they're on the phone with Mrs.

Jones.

So I think I get a lot

more mileage out of it.

I think they're a lot more appreciative.

I think the lack of communication

that we have, cuz it's so sparse,

when you do have a chance to speak

with somebody's more enriching.

And so maybe as a boss or maybe as

a leader mentor or possibly in these

tough moments, Dave, as a friend.

we all were able to get

through COVID together.

I got a lot of friends where their

business went out of business.

Yeah.

Oh me too.

And the fact that I'm still

standing and you're still

standing, you know, right on man.

Yeah.

Right

Dave Lorenzo: on.

No, I appreciate that.

Yeah.

I, I appreciate it.

Is that, is that gonna be a

permanent part of your, um, of

your say employment offering now?

There'll be certain people.

You know, even when the government

opens up completely you'll, you'll

allow them to work from home because

maybe they're in a place that's an hour

and a half car ride or bus ride away.

And they're excellent.

So they can work from home because

their particular job is fine at home.

Or do you plan on bringing PE

everybody back at some point

Richard Blank: I'm open for

everything, but there's one thing

I have to ask for a new hire.

You gotta spend a little time with me.

I'll send you.

Yeah, but my goodness gracious.

Can you please come in

the office for a day?

Yeah.

For at least a week.

Yeah.

So we can sit together.

We can, I can send you home with

my computer if it's not, if you

were, but it's not even that.

Can I at least have some

pizza with you one day?

Can I train you a little bit?

Can I stand next to you

when you make a phone call?

So I can be proud of you?

Can you meet my supervisors?

Can you meet my entire company?

So at.

You're not an independent, at

least, even though you're virtual,

you're still part of my culture.

That is my only prerequisite.

You can go home as fast as you want, but

you're gonna have to know me a little bit.

And I'd like to know you too.

So maybe as I said before, and I will

stress this certain bad habits, or there

may be certain areas where I could enhance

their skills, make a suggestion or work

on, or maybe be, maybe be that one coach.

That parent or that best friend that

they didn't have Dave, that one guy at

takes the time to get to know this agent.

Maybe he will stay because of that.

Maybe they might do dedicated

practice after work because of that.

So they come back to me the

next day saying they practice

recordings on their own.

Nobody does that.

But if you do that, and those

usually are my future supervisors.

Those are the ones that

I promote from within.

Dave, those are the ones who, whom

I delegate and whom I grow with.

So those are the sort of secrets

or the inside BS, as you would say.

of, of my success.

It's really about building foundation.

My man, it's about having

people that are willing to come

work with me for another day.

And it's very humbling.

As I say before, I'm a

guest in this country.

I might have learned their language and

I know their customs, but once again,

I'm, I'm 3000 miles away from my mother

and my father, but I was embraced.

And when I saw something

that was positive, I realized

I shed a skin that day.

And I realized that back in

closed my first account, it

was only one seat for 50 hours.

But my life changed that day.

And I guess I was on a mission.

and that's why we're here because you

can do this as long as you have good

intentions and you have good faith.

And remember the way that you were

raised, people will accept you.

It might take a little bit longer,

cause you might need to learn other

customs and cultures or the way.

but once you crack those codes, Dave,

it kind of seems to be easy after

Dave Lorenzo: that.

Oh, that's terrific.

That's really great.

All right, Richard, take a second

and think of three things we should

take away from our time together.

Three things we want people to remember

from our conversation today, while

you're doing that, I wanna remind

folks that were brought to you by St.

Draki corporate advisors.

So if you wanna reduce your tax exposure,

you gotta give some Roski, a call.

You can reach out to them at 8 6, 6 7 1 7.

Sun Draki corporate advisor.

Is there a CPA firm with

a different perspective?

We're also brought to you

by my revenue roadmap guide.

Go to revenue, roadmap, guide.com.

Enter your contact info.

Download your free business

development plan today.

It's my gift to you for listening

to the show for watching the show.

Our guest today is Richard blank.

You can call him at Costa Rica's call.

Or you can email him his

emails down in the show notes.

All right, Richard, what should, what

our folks listening, our folks watching

what are the three things they should

take away from our time together

today?

Richard Blank: First thing they

should take away is that I'm

very grateful for their time.

And thank you for listening

to the entire podcast.

I know a lot of people like

short segments, hopefully

I kept your attention, but.

Anybody that wants to reach out to me

just to say hello and just to touch

base or have any sort of suggestions, be

more than willing to take any call and

just to say, uh, in to meet some people.

I'm hoping that people after watching

us today will see that you can

be self confident in what you do.

And also you can assist others

to become more self-reliant.

Success is built on 1 million thank yous.

And I believe that like the bricks in

the wall behind me in my building, that

I built that you're capable of growing.

If you're assisting others.

And I've learned that.

And I learned that the easy way, not the

hard way, because that's how I was raised.

And the third thing is if you

take these long shots and you take

these risks, it can also pay off.

I have a beautiful life here.

As I mentioned before I collect

antiques, I bought a limousine in

And I restored that was able to build

out a building for my call center.

So all of my dreams have come true.

And I think the most satisfying thing that

I did was I was true to myself, going back

to Philadelphia and being a Spanish major

and using that to being where I am today.

Obviously I had this vision as a

young man that I, that I stuck behind.

Most people quit 80% in, or there's a lot

of naysayers that will say don't do it.

And these are the ones that love

you the most and care about you.

The most.

But you also have to stand firm and

you have to also have to look at

yourself in the mirror every day.

And what sort of man or

woman do you want to see?

And so I had to make sure that I

could live with myself and I'm very

happy that I made these choices.

And especially making a choice

to be on this podcast today.

So, uh, Dave, thank you again and your,

Dave Lorenzo: no, thanks to you deco.

Thank you so much.

It was a pleasure having you on.

I loved having this conversation with you.

And we're gonna have to have

you back again to understand

how you built a building and

collect antiques in Costa Rica.

Richard Blank: I mean, there's, we didn't

even know my micro expression reading

Dave Lorenzo: or today we'll have

I promise we'll have you back.

We'll make it a regular segment.

Richard blanket was such a

pleasure having you on folks.

If you wanna reach out to Richard, let

me give you his number one more time.

Call him at eight eight eight two seven.

That'll do it for another

episode of the inside BS show.

Mike, thanks to Richard

blank for joining us today.

We'll be back here again tomorrow with

another great interview until then.

Here's hoping you make a

great living and live a life.

Inside BS Show has accepted my invitation to join your audience for a solid discussion regarding taking a chance by moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Dave Lorenzo discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.

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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVFQWhymunU&t=884s

https://getinsidebs.com/how-to-build-a-world-class-call-center-richard-blank-show-95/

https://player.fm/series/inside-bs-with-dave-lorenzo/how-to-build-a-world-class-call-center-richard-blank-show-95

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/inside-bs-with/how-to-build-a-world-class-y0jPVSM64FX/

https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/how-to-build-a-world-class-call-center-richard-blank-show-95/id1506769228?i=1000567719961

https://www.audible.com/pd/How-to-Build-a-World-Class-Call-Center-Richard-Blank-Show-95-Podcast/B0B54HPXGK?ref=a_pd_Inside_c1_lAsin_1_7

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0lGBT4kd7026zRzP3C8mlu

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Inside-BS-with-Dave-Lorenzo-p1258770/?topicId=173106229

https://www.ivoox.com/en/how-to-build-a-world-class-call-center-audios-mp3_rf_88970286_1.html