The Science of CX podcast. Key Takeaways Into More Productive Customer Engagements with Richard Blank
The Science of CX is a groundbreaking new weekly podcast developed to
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Getting to know Richard the man. How did he end up with such a large collection of restored pinball machines and jukeboxes?key ingredients to ensure an effective micro-expression conversationHow agents can positively handle and grow from negative calls and feedback from customersRunning a small business? Well tune in and find out what tips Richard has to help you leverage your everyday conversations into a goldmineTime and numbers. Find out whether or not it's productive to measure your employee’s efforts based on the number of hours or sales made Richard shares with us his unique and world-class system of training and mentoring new agents An exercise you can easily pick up in helping you become a better micro expression reader
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Learn how to turn new customers into the most loyal customers and be on the
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CXpert - interviews with CX Leaders and Influencers that have made it their
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Steve has built a career transforming, growing, expanding and turning around businesses. He has created successful companies by delivering remarkable customer experiences. Steve makes sure each employee has the actionable knowledge necessary to make better decisions, build great culture and serve customers in a way that increases loyalty, referrals, sales and satisfaction.In his recent role with Panviva, the knowledge cloud company, Steve expanded the Australian software company successfully into the US to a market powerhouse position. Steve also advises many companies annually on their CX strategies. Industry associations, publications, and Fortune 500 companies invite him to speak and write about CX best practices in healthcare, finance, utilities, insurance, and telecommunications.A successful entrepreneur in his own right, Steve has built and sold six companies. He has spent many years cultivating his approach to CX and each company has held to the mantra of “the customer is at the center of the universe.
In fact, his first CX initiative was a college Honors project where Steve redesigned the student registration system to ease the process of registering for classes and enhance the student registration experience. He then went on to running an Technology Division with over 12,000 employee customers, while working for one of the largest global government contractors. All the while addressing internal customer expectations and increase customer satisfaction and productivity.Next, he perfected the concepts of personalization with marketing automation tools to better target and deliver one-on-one communication with customer messaging. Now, Steve is focused on helping business leaders build great strategies to deliver the ultimate in customer experiences and drive their business to new heights.When he is not driving CX strategy or launching companies, Steve plays the guitar and mentors startup business. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and sons.
you're listening to the science of C. X. A podcast that hopes to inspire business owners and leaders to learn new techniques and turn prospects into customers, enter customers into raving fans. My name is Steve Pappas. I'm known for my relentless pursuit of all thing’s customer across my career. And in my six startups, I've had to learn how to make decisions in business that customers really respond to. Let's spend some time together and help your business soar grow and accelerate. Well, welcome everybody to another episode of the science of C. X. I'm Steve Pappas, your host and as always, we look everywhere to find the experts that can help you in your business journey as well as your customer experience initiatives within your organization.
Today is No exception. Today we're going to be talking about some remarkably interesting areas. We're going to cover a lot of material. Please take notes if you want or you can come back and listen to it multiple times because that makes it seem like we have more listeners. Hey, yeah, do that. Instead listen to this episode 3, 4 or five times. That'll do it. Anyway, we're going to be talking about advanced telemarketing strategies. We're going to be talking about conflict management, interpersonal skills, customer support, rhetoric, Gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Have I piqued your interest yet? Well, we have a gentleman on today. His name is Richard blank, and he comes to us from Costa Rica, and he is the head of a great business process, outsourcing contact center, but he's also an expert in so many different areas that we want to talk about. So why don't we bring him in from the virtual green room? You know, there's no real green room of course by now, but let's pretend he's coming in from the green room and we'll welcome him to the show.
Richard, thanks for joining us today on the show. See, that's an amazing introduction. I'm so happy to be here, really enjoy your work and cannot wait to share amazing ideas with your audience today. That's great. Well, I'm going to give folks a little bit about your bio just so they understand where we're going to start from and maybe some interesting things about you too. So, Richard's journey in the car Contact 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 Costa Rica 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. I think he learned a few things along the way. Richard blank has the largest collection of restored American pinball machines and antique rock ola jukeboxes in central America making Gamification a strong part of Costa Rica Contact center. Culture. Richard blank is the chief executive officer for Costa Rica’s Call center since 2008. Richard also holds a bachelor's 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 Honor Society induction ceremony.
Giving back to the high school is especially important to Richard as such. He endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level. So, I've got to start Richard with the first part here that just jumped right at me as the largest collection of restored American pinball machines and jukeboxes. Now if anybody knows me, they know that I love pinball aside from playing guitar for the last for years. I love pinball, I don't quite go into the Galaga and those things that my wife loves but I love playing pinball.
So, tell us what you have got, I'd love to know what kind of pinball machines you have Steve, I'm so glad that you started with dessert first and naturally our favorite class in school was recessed. So absolutely. I grew up in the seventies and eighties and the arcades were just some of the most amazing places to make friends and compete. It was so new and the artwork on the cabinets and the marquees, it really was an experience and always wanted that game room like Ricky Schroder and silver spoons.
I was jealous. So, I wanted one and down here since I own a call center and I have the space, I go treasure hunting and one man's trash is another man's treasure and they just really do not know what they have in their bodegas. And so, I will find a machine and bring it back here. And with specialist I restore them now regarding my pinball machines. The oldest one that I have is a 1976 Bally's freedom. And one of the newer ones would be like, let's say a last action hero where a doctor who I have an M. B. A fast break in a mouse.
And around I got Williams, space shuttle 1987 I got a judge Dredd Street fighter, two lethal weapon, three jokers, World cup hook and Jurassic Park. So, it turned out into a hobby became an obsession. And when you're a married man, you decide which hills to die on which swords to fall upon. And my wife and I have this agreement where pretty much everything is in her favor. But the one thing she knows that makes me happy of restoring these old classic jukeboxes and pinball machines because what an error and the craftsmanship and the fact that they've been preserved for decades shows that people really cared about these machines.
Now you and I was awfully expensive growing up. So, it seemed like a luxury. But the fact that we can afford it. It really is something that I take full advantage of when I have the moments with just not my agents but myself. There's always a pinball marathon going on down here. Well, it's great that you have the employee engagement to do that. But I'll tell you, we had bought one, we had a terminator pinball machine at one point that had the gun for the pinball release, but it took so much to get it into the basement of the home that we were living in when we sold the house.
We negotiated to sell the pinball machine, so I didn't have to get it out of there. It was so heavy to move, and I wasn't about to, but I have been in the market for another one right now. The prices are through the roof on all those two. I was looking for an Adam’s family or another terminator, but the Adams family was the one that kind of thrilled me and as well as jukeboxes, it's funny, we have a lot of similar interests in collection.
I don't have any jukeboxes. I wanted to cut my teeth on the first one and I have a buddy in the UK that restores German jukeboxes and he's one of the largest in the world that restores those early seventies and eighties jukeboxes that were built in Germany. I think it was like N C D M or something like that and that's an interesting market. But let's get on to some of the other areas that we're going to talk about. I gave folks at the beginning of the episode, a lot of terminology that we're going to be talking about today.
And one of the things that I really wanted to discuss, this idea of phonetic micro expressions, I don't know if our audience knows what that really is or maybe some do and of course they'll yell at me in the comments etcetera. But can we talk about these things because let's jump into some of these areas that we're going to get across and are these all used the things we're going to talk about? They all used in the contact center, and can you train people in all these areas?
They're used in my call center and just depends on the sort of profiled agent that you have there. Let me take it back a bit. Everybody studies micro expression reading. There was a tv show called Lie to Me that specialized in where you can judge people's postures, their eyes, their face, their hands. I mean there's books and seminars about it now when you're on the phone, three of your senses are removed, your taste, touch and smell. And the scientists claim that when you do have one that is removed, your others expand.
So, I expect you to do much more active listening and then people can also argue that you can't see people on the phone, but I beg to differ because there is image streaming, you have metaphysics when you read a book, it's better than the movie because of imagination. You can use more descriptions and more adjectives but let's just concentrate on the sound of speech. The average attention span is about 30 seconds to two minutes, conversations have introductions, bodies and conclusions. So, if you have a controlled environment, you can have a consistent variable and then you can see inconsistencies.
So now we have a base of how we're going to study speech and 32nd segments. Okay your tone is what represents your emotion, and it should be confident and empathetic because that should be consistent on your end. People will talk about a mirror imaging technique Steve, and I agree with that. But you also need to know how you're speaking for your adjustments. So, your mirror imaging isn't about you sitting across from someone and crossing your arms and tapping a finger. No, you don't have that over the phone.
So, eliminate any sort of mirror imaging face to face. I study the rate and the pitch. These are things that can be done in any language. I do not study semantics. The word choice. I'm studying the tone of your voice which is mine is consistent. I could care less what your tone is. That could be a flag or a mask, but you study someone's rate of speech and how loud they speak their pitch and every 30 seconds to two minutes. Think about the X. Y. Chart that you had in pre-algebra, you can see how fast or how loud they're going.
You consistently market every 30 seconds to two minutes. I would back it up with an answering speed because that is something that you cannot control. It's more subconscious, you can manipulate your tone rate and pitch. But the professional interrogators and police officers’ usual throw the question in the fourth or fifth time to really judge the answering speed. So, if you can do that xy chart with a horizontal line behind it and kind of gauge from 0 to 10 where you're going, you will see areas of spikes or dips and in my opinion that's the time to ask a tie down or pin down question or clarification question.
And these are certain times in which you're able to assist the conversation of moving forward for better clarification and it's not really giving away your power on that. You're really doing more of the Wuwei the less struggle the rudder of the ship. And so, this phonetic micro expression reading can be done just mind you this in your 1st 30 seconds. I don't know you and one is the loneliest number in your second minute. We could have a match off one and a one fast and high, low and slow by five at least.
You might have an odd man out in regard to your quadrants because after you've gone all four quadrants you have to repeat a quadrant, but most of the time people are in quadrant, on the top and the fast and so by your 10th 30 seconds to two minutes. Think about it like this, it's about 4. 5 to 5 minutes on something like that. And by your 11th you should know how somebody is speaking that's 5. 5 minutes in on a 10-minute conversation. And by then you will know how to close the deal.
And so, once you see it you can't unsee it. After three weeks it becomes habit and once you start paying attention to it it becomes very lucid and clearer. You are not lying and I'm not manipulating but these people are obviously giving away certain tell signs on how they speak on first time or even long term conversations and if you do catch somebody being facetious or not as clear, maybe ask them to repeat it using other senses or using another example to see if they're consistent. And so, I think it's an excellent way not to be offensive because passive aggressively you could once again use a me-too technique with somebody.
Let's just say you can't hear them. It's a bad connection on a cellphone or a dog is barking in the background. I try to fall on that small sword instead of placing blame on them, it's for my clarification Steve, did you say 123 or ABC because the worst thing you could ever do Is have somebody so upset and go down rabbit holes because now you need to restart your phonetic micro expression, reading the Tarot Card Reader said you could read two different reads in 10 minutes depending if it's sunny or raining, same person, same hour, but it could be a different read.
So, the greatest thing you could do is to ride that weight and keep it at that apex if you can. It's like when people said lucid dreaming, you really don't want to readjust your body to be able to keep that consistent breathing and body posture. With someone that you're speaking with, you try to keep them as consistent as possible. There's a little wiggle room there but don't go extreme and if you can handle something like that, fall on these swords, get clarification.
I think your audience would have some extremely effective conversations with people on the first time. This is a remarkably interesting area because we do have an awful lot of folks that either work in contact centers or are managing contact centers or even outsource to contact centers. And the training of agents tends to be remarkably similar in most organizations but they're not thinking about how they can better control they’re usually using the approach where gee I'm sorry you're having that problem. So, they're falling on the sword most of the time.
But if you think about the calls, right? If you think about the types of calls that come in, I mean they're not picking up the phone because they're just calling to say thank you or their colleagues to say gee what an excellent product this is. They're usually picking up the phone or they're making a contact with them because there's an issue, there's some type of an issue either they don't understand, they don't know how to fill out, they don't know how to do something or there's a more negative issue.
So, if you think about the incoming approach that happens, a lot of it tends to be negative. And unfortunately, the contact center agents these days are feeling increasingly of society's negativity coming out of the pandemic. You know, because people who are very understanding more, more understanding during the pandemic, but they’re taking it out on front line people. So, I don't know how you guys have seen things. But from the folks that I've spoken to in the last few months, it seems like most of the calls are key issues and they have to diffuse right away.
So can they use the phonetic micro expression method that you talk about to kind of even the playing field and get them to calm down so that they can explain what their issue is better rather than they're ready to blow up at any moment type of thing. Sure. And I'm glad that you brought that up, that's a subject that I can easily address and apply the phonetic micro expression read because mind you my friend you could start the call yelling and cursing and at the end thanking them.
So naturally your phonetic micro expression reading might be adjusted with raid and Fitch. But I would never say that I'm sorry unless you specifically spilled the drink or broke the window because then you might get offended because this individual speaking with you is so nice, they didn't do it but they're apologizing for someone else's broken window. So, my suggestion from my agents immediately is to thank you Steve for sharing that with me. I understand your position didn't mean that I agree with it, but I understand your position and allow me a moment to make it work and fix it for you.
And so now the audience, your client coming in, guns a blazing isn't really putting all that anger at the individual because that individual did not make that problem. They're taking the shrapnel; you say the incoming. That's a wonderful way to use it incoming Obama grenade. But I like to defuse. There's a technique that I use called the buffer boomerang technique. And so, if somebody comes at me with a negative tone, I will like sponge and buffer that negative tone. I will name drop you and say Steve.
That's an excellent question, repeat back your question what it was to show active listening. So, there's a connected key lock there and then boomerang it back as a plus three. So, I could potentially my friend readjust the tone and the pace of the call to then put it back into that phonetic micro expression reading that you need to really nail it. But I believe that people are frustrated and mind you this there's a lot more omnichannel non voiced support. So, prior to that phone call they might have filled out a couple forms, send a couple of emails that only elevates the stress.
So, when they're calling, they're almost letting off steam. And if you allow them to speak, you'd be surprised how it goes from attend to it to both in pitching the rate they cry it out and then everyone calms down. You've taken copious notes. Now, Steve, you mentioned A B. C. And D. What about the Richard? Thank you, Steve. And e there's nothing wrong with raking and reviewing and meeting minutes. It's I can't just solve it with you with a magic potion. These things, someone is coming to you emotional, they don't know you you might need to repeat your name multiple times in third person because now they're embarrassed.
Three men it's in to ask your name Steve. So, you could say okay at the end of this call, Richard, you're going to say Steve. You really helped me out in this section you know, oh thank you Steve. Great. I got them I anchored. And so, these are certain soft skills to just be polite, show your manners, Take that certain control of a conversation, more of a shepherd with its sheep. They zigzag but they still go back in the barn. So, I don't need so many jagged edges.
There are no straight lines in nature and and I love empathy with somebody because when I use your name, I will usually use it in a transitional sentence or confirmation. And then during the conversation I will use personal pronouns as you know the yours and ours just to make sure that I'm keeping your conversation going in your attention and then landing in the bomb when I dropped the name drop and you should take these calls every 30 seconds to two minutes because as you say, they could change. But this gives you an excellent chance, my friend, if you really want to look at it logically that if somebody is calling in, you have a chance to retain the client, you have the chance to up sell them.
If that's what you're doing, you could get a referral out of it. But look at it like this, let's say we drop the ball. Worst case scenario, this individual will take the time to do an exit interview and tell us areas in which we could have improved or what our competition had done to earn their business and as long as you're willing to keep an open mind and I don't like the word constructive criticism. I mean you fumbled the ball; you should have known what you were doing.
Then just call the balls and the strikes and let you know that you made this error and learn from it and don't do it again. And these are the sort of things call by call person by person instead of doing 100 calls a day Steve. Why don't you have your agents take 95? They're taking extra couple three minutes on the phone to let Mr. jones relax a little bit. That is the secret to the successor old school style. This is interesting because as you're explaining some of these tips and techniques, it occurs that it doesn't just apply in the contact center world.
I mean this could be if you're a brick-and-mortar store, it could be your pizza place. There could be people calling because hey, you got the wrong toppings on my pizza. The delivery was wrong or there could be all kinds of things, but it applies to all areas of business and people running small businesses could learn from these same techniques. Don't you agree? This could save a thanksgiving dinner. A marriage. These are just diplomatic soft skills of attentive listening and prioritizing, but I couldn't agree with you more and I never even shared with you.
My favorite technique. It's the positive escalation when I call a place and people always give the gatekeeper a bad rap. But these are the individuals that the CEO and the owners love the most and they're the first impression and the strongest warrior of the tribe. They're the first one there, representing them in the best light. And so, for me, I'd like to understand their protocol. I like to properly introduce myself and say the name of their company and ask how their company is doing sometimes better than they do just to at least give them a taste of how I speak instead of just immediately asking to speak to you Steve.
And then if this individual decides to transfer me the first thing, I'm going to let them know prior to the transfers that they did an excellent job. And I will be mentioning that verbally to the owner of the company and at the conclusion of the call with the owner of the company, I will also mention that in writing. So, if I happen to call your company back, the Richard Circle's complete because this individual remembers me, and I've heard dozens and dozens of times. I thank you and saying I've been here for a decade and you're the first person that wrote about me to Mr. jones.
And these are individuals that will tell you anniversaries and promotions or no Steve’s direct extensions. 1 25 calms on Thursdays at two. Thank you, Catherine. I appreciate it and I love them to death. Those are the greatest insiders. It's a plethora of information and the moment that you start bullying your way in there or pretending they're waiting for your call or your insistent. That's why they're there to hang up on you. But there's a certain way to be not clever, but you have 30 seconds to make a first impression.
Half of that is your speech her speech and give a couple of seconds of silence. So, you really got about 12 seconds to speak. That's not a lot. My suggestion is to say things that they're most familiar with which is the name of their company and their own name and then you got to do your own name as well because you can't be anonymous. The whole call that's shady. You can use a little bit of that in the beginning by just doing a name spike in a proper introduction and if you get the past to pitch, you have the momentum and then you do once again that sort of escalation.
It It seems to work for me because it separates you from hundreds if not thousands of people that are prospecting that business interesting back to the contact center for a second. You talked about have your agents take 95 calls instead of 100 but most of the contact centers that I've dealt with over the past 20 plus years. They're driven by their average handle time. They're driven by the numbers to some degree. They're even told when they're going to the bathroom. How do you resolve that to a contact center manager that is just driving everything by the numbers.
So, you're an intake coordinator for a law firm for lawsuits against firings or disabilities and somebody calls in and they happen to become emotional for a minute. What are you going to do Steve look at the clock and say Mrs. jones. Please hurry up. I only have two more minutes to talk to you. You know what would happen? It wouldn't be for the client or for me, the agent might resign on something like that. So as much as we want to stick to certain metrics, you're talking about an artist of speech.
Somebody that is in the moment that's in the now that wants to assist this individual the best way that they can and by limiting their ability to build that sort of rapport or to allow someone to get it out. Which could be the key to closing the deal or to Upsell for something or to get that referral. I don't do things like that. Now we're not doing extreme where someone's doing 50 calls a day instead of 100. But you can see there's an average but that's what it's called an average and if you say you just want to look at conversion ratios.
Look at that too. But everyone once again is an artist and they have their own special sauce and some people are graded intros, other bodies, other conclusions. But my goodness gracious is somebody is in the moment and they're connecting with someone and they're standing up instead of sitting down and you could tell they have the glaze where they're not staring at anyone. They're just thinking of the client, and everyone can see them doing this. You don't think that that energy spreads on the floor. You don't think that that's important as well.
That sort of synergy. So, these rigid centers that judge you on your bathroom breaks and your handling time you're going to break the agent. I mean you can do that and grind it out, but you might have an attrition rate. But if I give somebody the ability to expand on a call and to be themselves my friends. So, they're not just plastic and going through the motions then I can create an ace, I can create a leader. I can create someone that will come to me at the conclusion of the call and say you know, Mrs. jones started crying.
I go she alright, She goes, yeah, it took a couple more minutes but I connected her through to the counselor and I gave additional notes because we had to speak about her husband just passing away and the fact that she has to move and other things that would have never been qualifying the call because you're supposed to be asking her just certain questions but know this individual added additional things and then they say, thank you for listening. You're the different company than the ones before that. Just put me through the assembly line and you know that it's the mom and pop.
It's the bed and breakfast. You'd rather go to the small hardware store sometimes because you know the man, I'll drive an extra couple of miles from my favorite restaurant Steve. That's the sort of the science that you're talking about. It's amazingly simple. It's how you feel and how you were treated. What about the price? What about the price? Sometimes it's worth the money. It's not always about saving a dollar. It's about supporting your business or if I'm having a day with some blues, you come over to me and just let me know you're happy that I'm there and you sit with me for a second.
So, as we get older, my friend, those are the sort of relationships that we see at businesses and you, and I understand that the grind and we also understand when your favorite client walks through the door. So, I like to pay that forward the best that I can. Absolutely. So, I went down that path and I think your answer and your philosophy is brilliant. Unfortunately. I mean it's the way I believe too that the contact center folks in an organization should be revered because they are your front line.
They hold things together. They are the impetus for the referral the up sell the further sell the expansion all those things. Yet still in today's world, C E O s don't always think that way. They look at a contact center as a cost center rather than the proper way of looking at it as it's an expansion center. It's a focus group. It's the lifeblood of the company because those folks have the most contact with our customers post sale, they become the hub of the post-sale journey and unfortunately maybe it'll take another generation before enough sea level folks understand that.
So that brings me more to the conversation of culture. How do we develop a culture in our contact centers especially and I know this can spill out into the rest of the business, but how can we develop a culture that rewards and reveres the contact center agents as being the customer success vehicle, the people that help our customers become more successful using our products and our services. You must look at it Two ways. If you yourself are not centered in balance, it would be exceedingly difficult to expand and to think of others.
I can't hit the ball and drag johnny as much as my agents here have become bilingual, which shows structure and dedication over years outside the classroom. I expect them to do the same thing if they're thinking about being a telemarketer as a profession besides the eight hours that they put in here, they should be doing dedicated practice outside of the center, reading in English watching certain movies or speeches so they can take certain parts of rhetoric that inspired them. That they saw transitional sentences or effective. You could do case studies in history and find out certain speeches that moved people.
And then secondly, I mentioned the word synergy. These individuals were a very social environment. If you and I are working out at the gym Steve, we're going to be pumping each other up to put up three or four more on the bar and put more plates up. So, I expect the audience, the agents to feed off their energy and to share ideas and to pick someone up when they're feeling down. As I mentioned, I created a Gamification culture. So, I have a place where people can let off steam, recharge batteries hang out with me and meet people from other departments.
So that assists me in one way. But also, since once again English is their second language. The fact that they are getting a return on investment. I see that these agents are much more focused for intense periods of time because of the translation. So, it's less area for distraction. But here's the best part my man regarding my culture when I first came down here 27 years old, I didn't start sea level of my friends call center. I taught English decided to stay and then worked at the center and so I was with the proletariat for four years, I went through so many departments.
I saw the good and the bad and what it did for me was it enabled me to see areas to enhance it for the agent and for the client to give them their dignity, so they don't feel like robots are expendable. And when I had the opportunity to start this business, they couldn't fool me because I was on the phone, I've done this before and I hate to say it, I'm not bragging but I am the sin save my dojo in this industry where people burn out and they look down upon it, I thrived really excelled.
But I saw the art in it. Look at it like this, you're very selective of the campaigns that come in here, we're in a strict catholic country. They must go home and tell their parents what they do. If I brought in something gray area or shady, no one would take it. So I'd have no friends of my chuck e cheese birthday party and so you have to do an account to not only where the client feels okay offering it, but the Asian would feel comfortable making the calls because if it's a forced fit, if it's out of place and out of character, they're not going to last long, they're not going to sound natural and we're not giving anything real specific here.
But as I say, I must ensure that what I'm bringing into this call center something where I'm able to fulfill the needs. Now I can add scripts and suggestions, but initially it must be something that just does not compromise any sort of ethics interesting. Well, let's cover a little bit more because I'm fascinated by not only the culture, but the organization that you've built to help organizations that want to outsource their contact center. So, we could talk a little bit about your training, you're coaching your mentoring methods and then what does the knowledge base look like for your agents to always do a better job?
Because quite frankly, I mean you're going to do as good or better a job than the company you're representing because you're going to keep the account and you're going to keep them happy and keep them over the course of a lifetime. So how do you train differently? How do you coach and mentor folks and keep them so that you don't have the attrition level that a lot of places have today. That's a wonderful question real fast in regards to attrition, I have more of a natural attrition than a forced attrition because companies such as amazon hp intel and oracle and Sykes are here, so I'll lose somebody for a scheduling conflict for the university of boyfriend or girlfriend works there closer to their home, very rarely, if not never someone will say that I insulted them, yelled at them, gave them the walk of shame.
It's just maybe an ex-employee with some sour grapes. I treat everybody with dignity, and I look for ways to delegate and promote them, but initially it's really the psychology prior to any sort of skill set. So, fear is a morbid anticipation of things that haven't happened yet. The fact that they learned a second language is 10 times harder than any campaign. I'll put them on. I also believe in the right bus, right seat philosophy. And so, when they come into the call center besides starting their day playing pinball to make friends and relax a little bit.
We really do focus on quality assurance so we can grade their calls for certain metrics. But I try to do certain breakthroughs like when they're filling out their resumes with me and putting in all their credentials, I'll ask them to turn the page over Steve and give me a couple of paragraphs of a coming of age moment, let me know when you beat up a bully or save the kitten from a tree. And so, I could use this when they're having a rainy Wednesday to remind them of when they were a champion.
These are things they always have in them. It's just a matter of getting it out and keeping it consistent and so let's just say in the first day of class, it's especially important not just to lecture them when they just nodded you and walk out the door. You need to have checkpoints; you need to have interaction. You can go over a certain segment and then just maybe have somebody stand up in front of class and read the next paragraph. Why? Because you're triple gunning. They're reading out loud their public speaking, they're doing it in front of the boss.
Imagine those sorts of butterflies you would have, but if you could triple or quadruple your training daily where then you go upstairs, you record yourself reading the script, where you're practicing it. You're not just reading it, you're speaking into a recording device, then you're listening to it and then you're doing a self-analysis for self-adjustments over the things we spoke about. You'll know when you're pausing is off or when you're too loud or too best. Are you stuttered or mispronounced a word and I'm allowing you Steve to write it out phonetically, at least learn how to spell it.
But the vowels are sometimes tricky for Latinos, so it's okay to be able to switch things around so it's pronounced a certain way, and these are the sort of adjustments, minor adjustments that we make for somebody to feel more comfortable initially. So, they don't pick up unhealthy habits and kind of like bedside manner. I can't stress enough; the name drops and the act of listening and the confirmations because people feel much more comfortable when they're being listened to, and you are taking your meeting minutes and if we need to repeat something in the military alphabet.
A it shows that you're extremely involved and engaged in the conversation. A lot of the times people served in the military, so they think that's cool and you're not just making up words and going along. These people know that you are actively trying to spell their name, their email address correctly. And so, I've seen the tens of thousands of phone calls. That that's the most effective way of not to offend somebody when you can't hear them well or they have an exotic name or if it's something where you just say, yeah, okay, but the next thing, you know, your email bounces back.
It would have been better off to confirm if it's L for lima, you know, and just to make sure that you got it. And as I say, these are the sort of things like in school, you come to class, you do your homework and you do your quizzes, you can still not do so well on the final exam, but you're going to pass the class, you will be preparing yourself and marinating and softening up the call in the relationship in order to convert it. And sometimes my friends, it happens a second or third time don't expect a cold call close.
I tell my clients to put their checkbook away. A lot of the times, I just want to answer their questions and show credentials and reintroduce them to other people on the floor that they can meet and make a better decision. So don't feel rushed. People will see that, and they will be apprehensive to move forward with you. So let it happen at a natural pace. So, you said something about you QC. All the calls and I think I remember you were talking about your Hall of Fame, you know, the best and the worst calls.
I mean is that used as a training method for everyone to understand both the good and the bad types of calls. Absolutely. Remember you were mentioning earlier about people calling in the first round of calls coming where people are upset if they can ride that wave and they see the bark is, there's no bite. It's just barking and that we calmed mars jones down. We listened to Mrs. jones, we separated piles, we were able to move forward. The call didn't take that long because we didn't have to repeat things because we were confirming things.
We eliminated rabbit holes. We did the mirror imaging. We did the phonetics; we did the drops. It's beautiful. Now you have this toolbox. It's not a to Z. There are steps that can be skipped or moved back to how about we look at it like this? I loved romantic tragedy. So, I consider that a hang up call is a romantic death. Where am I going with this? Let's just say you're just hardcore carpet bombing, making outbound calls and no matter what you say, you're calling a place that she says, don't call again or not interested or we're good.
Thanks, and hang up. I always look at it like this. If you can do a company named spike and do a name, drop of the individual before they hang up on you. I think that's a beautiful death. I think at least poor lome knows you got something out of that call. But then they wouldn't be surprised that you could anchor yourself by just getting them out of that trance by saying their name in that 1st 30 seconds. I've had Times where we bought another minute, bought another three minutes and just by default, nothing on our own.
We couldn't move forward. I'll give you an example. People can call me, and we could be on the phone and 99% were ready to sign the contract. But then they ask if we do Chinese, I don't have Chinese agents, I don't do graveyard shift and I can't match offshore prices India and the Philippines. So just by that alone, I'm not able to move forward, but 99% fit. So how do I feel about that? A little disappointed. But then again, I was able to go 15 rounds lost on the decision, but I was still able to make my points listen to their points build rapport, have some labs introduce, fantasize good call.
So, another couple of questions, what type of companies or what type of industries do you guys mostly handle calls for inbound or apa? Well, I'll let you know five. We don't do, we don't do sports books, casino stocks, pharmacies or sweepstakes. I have nothing against it. Just don't want to do it. But I'm looking for small to medium sized companies in the United States, Canada Central America and Europe that would need individuals to make outbound lead generation, appointment setting or inbound customer support. And it's amazingly simple.
Our agents are college educated; they're dedicated. I don't have a blended or mixed center. They only work for your campaign, and they have some amazing skill sets here. Costa Rica really packs a punch regarding business process outsourcing. I have mentioned some of the big boys, but there are tons of call centers here and since we're the only democratic society in central America, they don't have a standing army. So, there's a 95% literacy rate Steve so as much as people might see telemarketing call centers as transitional sort of jobs or something in the United States, as you say, has a certain rap here.
It pays more than most vocation. So, I'm having some extremely educated bilingual people with degrees walking in this door and working with me. So, it's amazing the sort of people that you meet here. Very eclectic, all diverse types. That's great. So, if a company called and says, okay, we want to get started, what is that initial onboarding looks like time wise especially and system wise and how quickly can you be up and running to take their calls? Great. Well let's just say I accept the vertical and I'm comfortable with that.
There's a pre-launch checklist that my floor manager and chief technical officer sent to that company. It's exceedingly difficult for me to start moving forward without stations being set up connections, made scripts for bottles, reporting and contact because once the ads go out and people come in, it's really a seller's market. I got to be able to explain it to their candidates a, the campaign that they're doing the incentives that they have and the metrics that they're expecting. It just can't be fantasy time. It needs to be something that's concrete.
And so, once we bring the people in, it really all depends on the training time. I've had people go as low as a half a day just to teacher CRM and do a little bit of role play for fun and others do longer training sessions, even up to a month. That concerns me because we do follow all Costa Rican labor laws and there are certain call centers that are known for like for an example, sykes has the MetLife account and supposedly people will be there for an entire month training and then on their first day of coming back to work, they just don't show up.
And by Costa Rican labor law, they need to get paid for that month they go on a certain list as being a jumper and it's not fair, but that's the name of the game. So, the longer the training, the more I'm concerned because people sometimes can take advantage of that and just use that as a placeholder until they can find another job. So, if we have certain awfully specific checkpoints to ensure that this agent really has done their due diligence, really engage really up to speed.
That's a good risk compared to just doing five days’ worth of classroom, talking about merchant process outsourcing and stuff like that. It needs to be awfully specific, and I have to ensure that this client that I'm speaking with does have a track record. If it's a brand-new pilot project, then we need to invest in the process and there shouldn't be any surprises and I must let them know what to expect when building a campaign, there may be attrition. We may need to readjust the script, call certain area codes, or do certain things.
But I guess the most important thing about it is being forthright, when it comes to onboarding people, I can easily have somebody in five business days, depending if you need 10 people give me up to 10 business days, you know, and maybe we can hire people piecemeal, we can catch them when certain campaigns and other centers and as I mentioned, it's very competitive out there. The more that you put out the start date, the more that you're going to lose people because they need a job between those times and now since Covid came, it really adjusted to the work from home.
So there is an advantage of the brick and mortar because of internet redundancy, my generator and on site I. T. Support but Steve, I was exceptionally fortunate during Covid to be able to adjust my business model virtually because if I owned a brick and mortar only like a bike shop or a pizza parlor, I'm in big trouble as much as I lost a lot of the essence of the center and the camaraderie? I was able to survive. But you know, the labor pools changed. I must ensure if there is training, they should be on site to know the company culture and at least meet us before going home.
It's one of those things my friend where I really did see a huge shift that when I first started this back in 2000, that's great. Well, in the last few minutes that we've got, you know, I'd ask you whether we could give our listeners an exercise. We talked about the two-paragraph coming of age. Can you explain an exercise that folks can do as homework after they listen to this episode. And that might be interesting for them to learn more about the content that we gave them here today and then when we come back maybe you can give folks a way of getting in touch with you guys if that's something that they're looking for.
Thanks Steve, I appreciate it. Let people do the Triple watch. They should watch something without sound, they should watch something without sight. And if you want to study the visual body language, that's great. Just watch something without sound. You can assume what they're doing and then if you want to study the phonetics, to choose a channel that you don't understand the language. Like for me it would have to be Chinese or German or something like that. Italian French and Portuguese are too like Spanish for me.
But if I watch the Chinese channel, it's extremely easy for me to do that phonetic micro expression reading because I don't understand any semantic. So even I'm taking out the tone, I'm just studying their rate in their pit. Do not get study it that way while you're on the phone, once again these are things that you can do. You just draw your xy chart the horizontal line and every 30 seconds to two minutes point to how Mr. Jones's speaking just for practice, but it is about practice. It's about dedicated practice.
Record yourself, listen to yourself. I don't like how I sound. That's what everybody says. But guess what you that's what you got. So, you need to adjust it and as you and I have a mirror and our beards look great because we do look great. You could do the same thing with your voice as well. Record it, master it adjusted. And if you do that, you'll see that you'll get more positive reinforcement from people. There will be more I guess inclined to ask you for advice because you were sympathetic about it and the way you spoke about it and finally if you are in a certain situation where there's emotion and its tense, you should choose to speak last.
And if it's not something where you need to immediately give an answer then you should sleep on it so you can decompress and come back the next day a little more levelheaded and prioritize and that's an excellent way to grow and to crack some codes and to get to various levels. You don't always need to prove your point at that moment. There are other ways to do it. So, you don't overreact overextend and say something you regret. So, it's not like you're being weak. No, you're being considerate of it and you're being tactful about it.
If you're in the moment and its face to face with somebody if you must, even though it looks funny, you should close your eyes when speaking. So, there's less distraction and you're not energy being sucked from you. They might say why you close your eyes. I'm allowed. There's no rules to this. It's not tag you're asking me something emotional, so allow me my focus and my balance and if somebody is being aggressive with you, I think you should look in between their eyes, it looks like you're looking in their eyes.
So it's not like you're looking away or allowing them to suck the energy out of you, like Medusa, but it is a certain technique sir where instead of losing your direction and your energy and your breathing, you can regroup yourself and these are the sort of conflict management skills that have assisted me and having more productive conversations when they could have really gotten out of hand. That's great. I mean this has been filled, filled with great techniques, tips and insight as well. Thank you for being so generous with your expertise.
This has really been a wonderful episode, Richard. How can people get in touch with you if they're thinking about outsourcing if they're thinking about needing a contact center because I think by the end of this, they understand what you bring to the table. So how can they get in touch with you? I really appreciate having me on the show today with you, your audience and allowing me to share this information. The first thing they should do, my friend is by a first-class plane ticket. Come down here to Costa Rica so you can enjoy some eco-tourism, go to some beaches and waterfalls but your audience can give me a call at triple 82716750.
Or send me an email. CEO Costa Rica’s call center dot com. And finally have an exceptionally large Facebook fan page about 98,000 local Costa Rican Ticos. And they can't wait to meet you, Steve. You're going to have tens of thousands of new fans in central America. I can't wait. Well, Richard, thanks again for joining us today. I really love the thing that you said earlier and I'm going to add something to it. So, each agent is a voice artist, and this is a message to all the C E. O. S out there that have contact centers and folks that have agents working for them that each agent is a voice artist and I think you should let them create a great interaction.
So let them create, let them build those great interactions. So that's it for our episode of the Science of C. X. I'm Steve Pappas, your host. We've had Richard blank on today from Costa Rica call center and I want to thank you all for joining us. If you like the content that we bring to you, please feel free to drop us a review wherever you get your podcasts and until we meet again, please stay safe. Stay healthy and do take care everyone. Bye bye. You've been listening to the science of C. X. My name is Steve Pappas.
I really hope you've enjoyed this episode and if you have the highest compliment that you can give us is to subscribe rate and review the science of C. X. Thanks. And we'll see you in the next episode. Finding one place to see all customer experience related tools of technology has been difficult until now. We just built it. Get ready for a science of C. X. Original customer experience technology has been helping to drive businesses by giving them insights into better methods to engage and delight their customers for some time now.
But if you're looking for C. X. Tech you must search everywhere to understand the whole landscape. C. X stash is your simple why stop directory of all the Great Sea X related technology you need. It breaks down all C. X by collections like analytics, crm, journey mapping, voice of the customer, you ex customer support and more. It's free to create an account and use no advertising. Cluttering up your experience just one place to find all the great C. X. Tech. Sign up today at www.
Richard’s vision quest journey 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. In addition, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business. 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.
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
#RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Leadgeneration #Appointmentsetting #SacrificetoSuccess #Scienceofcx
Science of CX, The Forgotten Art Project, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business,Podcast,Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,
https://youtu.be/RJnuK2lPYFc?si=yrsPGin8LM1sXy5F
https://youtu.be/AOPI8wCqX-0
詐欺や悪徳商法がある世の中ですが、少なくともロック音楽は自分の味方だという歌です。
Lyrics
So many theories , so many gods , so many advocations
Conspiracies , Machiavellianism , Double-dealing and subterfuge
Oh ! Full of treacheries for zippy profits
Too good to be true . It's rubbish !
A wily , slick , sales talk
Many people coax me to do unreasonable things
I'm often flummoxed whom I can listen to
But at least there's one probity that is so trustworthy
Yeah ! Rock and Roll is always on my side !!
Look up the sky . Wonder a while the meaning of the life !
There were gratifications , despondencies
usually busy but sometimes free
Sincerity , Manipulations , Volunteers , Swindlers
Salvations , Exploitations
What can I do in the middle of the matters ?
What should I do in this complication ?
What can I make ?
What can I leave in , in , in , in , in , in this chaotic world ?
Ramification , Quagmire , Backfire from propaganda
Being chagrined a little bit in the cesspool of sordid throng
But I've got a little treasure giving me pleasures in many ways
Oh ! Like the Aladdin's magic lamp !
Dazzling , Vibrant , Astounding , Exuberant
Stupendous , Glinting , Vivacious , Enthralling
Ebullient , Buoyant , Diverting , Captivating
Awesome , Riveting , Scintillating !!
An ineffable treat , Inimitable and Ethereal
Music is the most valuable invention to me !
Rockin' in North America , rockin' in Europe
South America , Asia , Australia and Africa
It goes forever ! It'll go forever !!
Rock and Roll is always on my side !!!
https://ausertimes.blogspot.com/2023/01/how-not-to-commit-suicidethe-one-i.html HOW NOT TO COMMIT SUICIDE(the one I explain in the video and the other one British, Germans, Americans anticipated from me) VIA DIRECTED ENERGY ATTACK: 2 OF 2 Directed energy attack I endured tonight as WAS INTERPRETATED TO ME AS I CITE ALL WILL BE ADDING UP VIA HEALTHY FOOD CONSUMPTION TIMING issues
@BRITISH ROYALS - I LOOK STUPID SO YOU CAN LOOK MORE CREDIBLE. ITS MY GIFT TO YOU BASED ON YOUR GLORIOUS VICTORIOUS INDIGNIFYING FOR GREAT BRITISH STATE ASSOULTS(VIOLENCE) OF WHICH I CAN'T DEFEND MYSELF. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE I POSSIBLY COULD DO FOR YOU EXCEPT OFF COURSE TO COMMIT SUICITE WHICH, HOWEVER, I AM UNWILLING. I POLITELY HAVE TO EXCUSE MYSELF FOR HAT PART AS FOR OTHER PARTS I HAVE FULLFILED ALL YOUR DEMANDS. SORRY
YEAH, THREE HOURS OF SLEEP CAN REALLY LEAVE ONE WITH THREE DAYS OF PAIN IN CHEST AREA....
PRINCE WILLIAM DIDN'T ONLY BODY SHAMED, BUT ALSO INSISTED WITH HIS BROTHER HARRY TO PAY ATTENTION HOW HE LOOKS LIKE IN DAILY MEDIA AS FOR ME TO SEE WHERE I AM AT....YES, HE AGAIN APPEARED IN MEDIA AT LARGE WHERE ONE POSED NEXT TO OTHERS AND THIS JUST PRIOR TO THIS ATTACK....
https://ausertimes.blogspot.com/2023/01/eu-and-us-officials-involved.html
@JOE BIDEN - HAVE YOU FOUND ALL YOUR CONFIDENTIAL PAPERS STORAGEG IN GARAGE ALREADY !!????? GARAGE IS ABOUT THE RIGHT PLACE TO KEEP THOSE....ISN'T THAT RIGHT !!???? KEEP SEARCHING JOE KEEP SEARCHING - GOOD JOB.
How INXS can be used to close a deal on an Australian sales call. Stand Out Get Noticed podcast (The C Method Episode 283) guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
Richard Blank: I got through.
Christina Canters: Can I? Okay. So can I summarize what I believe you did there? Yes, ma'am. So firstly, you said you asked how the company was going and you said the C method named with so much joy and excitement that I got excited just hearing you know, what my company was up to. So that was one thing. Yeah.
The second thing you used Aaron's name, you said, hi Aaron, how are you doing? You know, how are you doing? Which I believe builds that rapport. Cause people also love hearing their own names. Yes. You also mentioned a couple of interesting facts about yourself that I wouldn't have expected on an initial call.
Exactly. So you said you've got a pinball collection and that INXS is your favorite band. Why do you do that? And is that random and weird?
Richard Blank: No, because I'm extremely proud of INXS and everybody in the world should listen to them. Um, Because if not, I'm gonna sound like everybody else and you're gonna hang up one and it's gonna put a bad taste in your mouth.
And yes, you don't need my pinball machines, and I'm sure you love INXS, but what's that have to do with the C method? It's got a lot to do with the C method. Everything's got to do with everything.
Influence People Over The Phone With These Powerful Communication Techniques – with Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center [The C Method podcast Episode 283]
The C Method podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Christina Canters discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading and INXS.
The C Method provides public speaking and communication skills training for high performing professionals.As a manager and leader, your ability to speak up, present with confidence and communicate well is key to career success.You may be highly skilled, intelligent and work harder than anyone, but if you can’t articulate your ideas clearly, engage your team or influence others to take action, it will hold you back from getting the promotions, opportunities, and recognition you deserve. Listen to the 'Stand Out Get Noticed' podcast. Now at 2 million+ downloads! Discover how to develop a success mindset, speak with confidence, articulate yourself clearly and build strong relationships for more influence and impact in the workplace. Topics include: public speaking, mindset, social skills, overcoming fear, workplace communication, relationships and leadership.
Have you ever wanted to have more influence over the phone?
My guest this week is Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Centre. He is a master of the cold call, and has trained over 10,000 telemarketers to improve their communication techniques over the phone.Richard is here to share his powerful techniques for improving your ability to lead and influence in conversation – and some of them are much simpler than you think!This will benefit you if you want to build better relationships and be more persuasive with your team, senior managers and clients.
“I love to allow people to feel more comfortable with me, to become more engaged in a conversation. This is not a lecture, and I’m not just checking off boxes and interrogating you. It’s a conversation. And it’s I mean, I don’t learn anything new when I speak. I love hearing what other people have to say to see what I have in common.”
This is Richard Blank’s story…
My name is Richard Blank and I’m the CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center. I’m skilled in reading phonetic micro expressions and use this to my advantage when speaking with people, especially over the phone.
I’ve found that by using someone’s name, asking how their company is doing, and sharing interesting facts about myself, I’m able to build rapport and influence the person I’m speaking with. This has been beneficial in both my personal and professional life.
In this episode, you will discover:
Phonetics is the purest form of communication, the sound of speech, not the semantics or even the tone.
The tone of voice should always be positive and empathetic.
0 seconds to 2 minutes is the best time to gauge a person.
How to gauge someone. They discuss some of the techniques they use to do it.
Richard believes in open-ended questions and specific name drops.
He also believes in the art of speech and meeting minutes to avoid conflict.
Richard’s advice to people is to be authentic.
When he was in his 20s, he tried to change his personality for a job interview, but he realised it was not going to work for him. Now he allows people to grow naturally.
He believes that people that feel seen, they feel heard, and they feel like they matter through the way that they communicate with others.
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://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/fpq8w6ojYgs
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https://thecmethod.com/podcast/standoutgetnoticed/influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-centre-episode-283/
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https://pdcstly.com/en/episod/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank/17826865
https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/984946507/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
You gotta do the quarter second slide pronoun technique on a sales call. Stand Out Get Noticed podcast (The C Method Episode 283) guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
Christina Canters: Oh, you've trained thousands. I know about like 10,000 call center, uh, sales people a a lot. Um, this is your bread and butter. This is what you're really good at. Yeah. What you were talking about before in terms of your voice going up and then a pause. Uh, I'm trying to, I'm trying to do it, uh, right now, but I'm not sure how effective it's been.
How do you go
Richard Blank: back? You gotta do the quarter second slide.
Christina Canters: The quarter, second slide. Where do you do that at the end of the sentence?
Richard Blank: No, no, no, no, no, no. There's, there's even forced stutters that you can do. I, it's, it's natural speech. The, the greatest form of speech, my friend is sincerity. And so you can tell there's certain subjects where I extend and there's others like I did earlier with that phonetic micro expression reading.
It was almost military. I was just going through it quick and and banging it out. But I believe in the art of speech, there's nothing better than that. The source. So you can expand on your vocabulary with similes. For an example, I don't like to use the word help, I think Okay. That you could adjust it with a certain assisting.
How about a guiding tone? And my favorite Christina is lending a hand sort of approach. Okay. And so just that way alone, you can almost give yourself an advantage in regards to your momentum because you're being sincere, you are standing solid ground and obviously, , you are very excited about what you're talking about.
It could be any subject, but here's the beauty of it. You don't need to sell anything first. Put that stuff away. You and I should be talking about our lives prior to me sharing my products with you. Now, how about this as a salesman, no one ever bats a thousand, but you gotta let me go the 15 rounds, or at least I gotta earn it.
And from an educated point of view, make a decision. If, if I explain everything and. The sweetest peach in you just don't like peaches. I'm willing to accept that, but we're good. Thanks. No, thank you. Click. You didn't even gimme a chance. And so these techniques that I do in the beginning, I'm not lying, I'm not compromising ethics, values of morals, but my goodness, Aaron heard me say the name of your company better than he did.
I answered him well. I got excited. He, I cracked enough codes to transfer the call and I also gave a gift. And so these are the sort. First impressions that you can do that is just natural. There's no money exchanged. All you're doing is just putting your best foot forward and, and that should make for amazing days where you jump clouds, where every call could be 80% the same, but there's still 20% special sauce.
I mean, you do like a certain topping on your ice cream, and I love those sort of things. I always try to look for that on every single.
Christina Canters: Okay, so it's like you, you don't even need to change a lot of how you're talking. It's, it's maybe tweaking a few of those things, especially to start with. So if someone's never even thought about this before, never thought about their tone, or thought about making that great first impression, these are some tiny tweaks that they could start to do in order to make, you know, put the icing on on top.
Like you say,
Richard Blank: Richard had you practice. Yeah, they need to record themselves. No one likes having a sound, but they do realize that they can make that sort of adjustment. Maybe they have certain actors or actresses where they find that their tone of voice is not offensive. They like their rhetoric. They like their delivery.
Some people watch Pacino movies like Sent of a Woman, and they get inspired. Others will see the Wolf of Wall Street or Glen Gar. Glen Rosson get inspired or, or how about, uh, dead Poet Society? You might see a movie or you know, or Patch Adams when you have an inspirational doctor or teacher that could then move you.
And inspire you. And so maybe you study that sort of rhetoric because the market speaks Christina, because as much as movies and you and I have our opinion, if the masses get influenced by a speech or by an action, that is what you should study and, and potentially try to emulate.
Influence People Over The Phone With These Powerful Communication Techniques – with Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center [The C Method podcast Episode 283]
The C Method podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
The C Method podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Christina Canters discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading and INXS.
The C Method provides public speaking and communication skills training for high performing professionals.As a manager and leader, your ability to speak up, present with confidence and communicate well is key to career success.You may be highly skilled, intelligent and work harder than anyone, but if you can’t articulate your ideas clearly, engage your team or influence others to take action, it will hold you back from getting the promotions, opportunities, and recognition you deserve. Listen to the 'Stand Out Get Noticed' podcast. Now at 2 million+ downloads! Discover how to develop a success mindset, speak with confidence, articulate yourself clearly and build strong relationships for more influence and impact in the workplace. Topics include: public speaking, mindset, social skills, overcoming fear, workplace communication, relationships and leadership.
Have you ever wanted to have more influence over the phone?
My guest this week is Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Centre. He is a master of the cold call, and has trained over 10,000 telemarketers to improve their communication techniques over the phone.Richard is here to share his powerful techniques for improving your ability to lead and influence in conversation – and some of them are much simpler than you think!This will benefit you if you want to build better relationships and be more persuasive with your team, senior managers and clients.
“I love to allow people to feel more comfortable with me, to become more engaged in a conversation. This is not a lecture, and I’m not just checking off boxes and interrogating you. It’s a conversation. And it’s I mean, I don’t learn anything new when I speak. I love hearing what other people have to say to see what I have in common.”
This is Richard Blank’s story…
My name is Richard Blank and I’m the CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center. I’m skilled in reading phonetic micro expressions and use this to my advantage when speaking with people, especially over the phone.
I’ve found that by using someone’s name, asking how their company is doing, and sharing interesting facts about myself, I’m able to build rapport and influence the person I’m speaking with. This has been beneficial in both my personal and professional life.
In this episode, you will discover:
Phonetics is the purest form of communication, the sound of speech, not the semantics or even the tone.
The tone of voice should always be positive and empathetic.
0 seconds to 2 minutes is the best time to gauge a person.
How to gauge someone. They discuss some of the techniques they use to do it.
Richard believes in open-ended questions and specific name drops.
He also believes in the art of speech and meeting minutes to avoid conflict.
Richard’s advice to people is to be authentic.
When he was in his 20s, he tried to change his personality for a job interview, but he realised it was not going to work for him. Now he allows people to grow naturally.
He believes that people that feel seen, they feel heard, and they feel like they matter through the way that they communicate with others.
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://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/Wl_tS1ielGg
https://youtu.be/fE6Ufvn-1Nc
https://youtu.be/NWxjuBEkzMI
https://youtu.be/R2GTKLTPkiA
https://youtu.be/M-x7nAeWBxw
https://youtu.be/dQWPUr_rsII
https://youtu.be/XnFQgNqQ3iA
https://youtu.be/iPP49p8dagI
https://youtu.be/aX85iiUrR88
https://thecmethod.com/podcast/standoutgetnoticed/influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-centre-episode-283/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JaJIUI4BKQ7mhAmW4b8To?si=5cc254ba7af14830
https://player.fm/series/2694716/346501897
https://podtail.com/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-com/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-pow/
https://www.stitcher.com/show/stand-out-get-noticed/episode/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-208353649
https://podknife.com/episodes/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://getpodcast.com/es/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-_1ba52e93a1
https://podcasts.apple.com/pe/podcast/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these/id984946507?i=1000585579846
https://deezer.page.link/pPgVrtZwEi988y6H6
https://chartable.com/podcasts/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-communication-skills-confidence-public-speaking/episodes/127787912-283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ0MjAzODAucnNz/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjbWV0aG9kLmNvbS8_cG9zdF90eXBlPXBvZGNhc3QmcD0yNTM5Mg?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjoi-a949v7AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ
https://pdcstly.com/en/episod/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank/17826865
https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/984946507/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
A style that immediately anchors with the client 100%. Stand Out Get Noticed podcast (The C Method Episode 283) guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
Richard Blank: Because I'm letting you know that I'm vulnerable. I'm showing with you three or four things that I do it my call center by playing pinball with the agents by moving from Philadelphia to Costa Rica by once again talking about walkabouts and in excess and stuff. At least I'm showing some major interest.
And you're amazing country. Yeah. And so, um, these are the sort of soft skills that could be a me too technique that someone could. I, I chose three different things. Travel, music and games and business. And so one of 'em had to hit, I could talk about food if you want . You're not gonna do shrimps on the barbie.
Yeah, I could have done that one, but everyone does that one. But, um, yeah, and I, I, I try to be non-threatening. I don't do this on every call. I mean, once again, someone says, who are you? Well, that's when we used the buffer boomerang technique. Not saying Aaron's tone was negative. But sometimes they are. And so what I like to do is do the name draw, let 'em know it's an excellent question.
Repeat the question for active listening, and send it positive. And you know what my favorite part was before I was transferred to Christina? The fact that I was just about to get transferred. I stopped there and stop, stop, stop. And I'm getting transferred. I could have killed the call, but I said, stop. I gotta let you know.
That I'm gonna compliment you, . You
Christina Canters: gotta be feeling me. Oh, I love that. Yes, yes, of course you do. It's a positive
Richard Blank: escalation. Some people get paid on that at call centers and other companies, but it's really, so how about this one, Christina? Imagine if, if hypothetically, Aaron transferred me to the mail room.
And then I got transferred over into it, and then I got transferred over here and there. I write everybody's name down. So even though I spoke about Aaron, imagine if I mentioned two or three people. You'd be like, who are you? You got passed around. My company, no one speaks to Matt in the, in the mail room.
I go, he's like the nicest guy I ever met. Don't tell me that. That immediately anchors. With the client, hundred percent. It's yours. Hundred percent. It's yours to lose,
Christina Canters: and if the person doesn't say their name, I'm assuming you ask for their name.
Richard Blank: They don't need to. I just need to say my name. And I have to let them know and if I'm about to transfer them and they still don't wanna gimme the name, err.
Put out your nails. Well, good for you. Why don't you have a nice lunch? Relax a little bit. You should be a little sweeter on the phone. But let me put to you this way, you know perfectly wont. When I get transferred to you, I'm going to get their name cuz I'm gonna compliment Mr. Or Mrs. Bidder. And then when I call you company back, I'm be like, how you
Christina Canters: doing Buddy
And they're gonna be, how did you get my name? You know, I was gonna get your.
Richard Blank: You remember me, and then they love me to death. I, I, I get them. The shed is skin a little bit. Once someone gets complacent, especially is the first impression of a company that's terrible. They should be bells and whistles, trumpets, red carpets, guns a blazing.
And so maybe it's just to remind them that they need to sell that sizzle and to bring somebody in appropriate. So you can meet in the middle and start strong. That's, that's just my thought. Hm.
Influence People Over The Phone With These Powerful Communication Techniques – with Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center [The C Method podcast Episode 283]
The C Method podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
The C Method podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Christina Canters discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading and INXS.
The C Method provides public speaking and communication skills training for high performing professionals.As a manager and leader, your ability to speak up, present with confidence and communicate well is key to career success.You may be highly skilled, intelligent and work harder than anyone, but if you can’t articulate your ideas clearly, engage your team or influence others to take action, it will hold you back from getting the promotions, opportunities, and recognition you deserve. Listen to the 'Stand Out Get Noticed' podcast. Now at 2 million+ downloads! Discover how to develop a success mindset, speak with confidence, articulate yourself clearly and build strong relationships for more influence and impact in the workplace. Topics include: public speaking, mindset, social skills, overcoming fear, workplace communication, relationships and leadership.
Have you ever wanted to have more influence over the phone?
My guest this week is Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Centre. He is a master of the cold call, and has trained over 10,000 telemarketers to improve their communication techniques over the phone.Richard is here to share his powerful techniques for improving your ability to lead and influence in conversation – and some of them are much simpler than you think!This will benefit you if you want to build better relationships and be more persuasive with your team, senior managers and clients.
“I love to allow people to feel more comfortable with me, to become more engaged in a conversation. This is not a lecture, and I’m not just checking off boxes and interrogating you. It’s a conversation. And it’s I mean, I don’t learn anything new when I speak. I love hearing what other people have to say to see what I have in common.”
This is Richard Blank’s story…
My name is Richard Blank and I’m the CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center. I’m skilled in reading phonetic micro expressions and use this to my advantage when speaking with people, especially over the phone.
I’ve found that by using someone’s name, asking how their company is doing, and sharing interesting facts about myself, I’m able to build rapport and influence the person I’m speaking with. This has been beneficial in both my personal and professional life.
In this episode, you will discover:
Phonetics is the purest form of communication, the sound of speech, not the semantics or even the tone.
The tone of voice should always be positive and empathetic.
0 seconds to 2 minutes is the best time to gauge a person.
How to gauge someone. They discuss some of the techniques they use to do it.
Richard believes in open-ended questions and specific name drops.
He also believes in the art of speech and meeting minutes to avoid conflict.
Richard’s advice to people is to be authentic.
When he was in his 20s, he tried to change his personality for a job interview, but he realised it was not going to work for him. Now he allows people to grow naturally.
He believes that people that feel seen, they feel heard, and they feel like they matter through the way that they communicate with others.
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://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/Wl_tS1ielGg
https://youtu.be/fE6Ufvn-1Nc
https://youtu.be/NWxjuBEkzMI
https://youtu.be/R2GTKLTPkiA
https://youtu.be/M-x7nAeWBxw
https://youtu.be/dQWPUr_rsII
https://youtu.be/aX85iiUrR88
https://thecmethod.com/podcast/standoutgetnoticed/influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-centre-episode-283/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JaJIUI4BKQ7mhAmW4b8To?si=5cc254ba7af14830
https://player.fm/series/2694716/346501897
https://podtail.com/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-com/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-pow/
https://www.stitcher.com/show/stand-out-get-noticed/episode/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-208353649
https://podknife.com/episodes/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://getpodcast.com/es/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-_1ba52e93a1
https://podcasts.apple.com/pe/podcast/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these/id984946507?i=1000585579846
https://deezer.page.link/pPgVrtZwEi988y6H6
https://chartable.com/podcasts/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-communication-skills-confidence-public-speaking/episodes/127787912-283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ0MjAzODAucnNz/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjbWV0aG9kLmNvbS8_cG9zdF90eXBlPXBvZGNhc3QmcD0yNTM5Mg?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjoi-a949v7AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ
https://pdcstly.com/en/episod/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank/17826865
https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/984946507/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
Secrets to properly introduce yourself on the phone. Stand Out Get Noticed podcast (The C Method Episode 283) guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
Christina Canters: Prospecting, you. Can we role play this? I would love to. Let's role play this. So can I, I'm gonna pretend that I'm the secretary. Right. And did I hear you say before that you say the company name better than how we would say it? How's
Richard Blank: the C method doing today? ? Yeah, let's reaction , you know?
Christina Canters: Um, let's play this.
Okay, so I'm gonna be the secretary and then I'm gonna put you through to me, Christina, and I wanna hear how, what's
Richard Blank: your secretary's name, who you're gonna be in Charact.
Christina Canters: Uh, let's make my secretary Aaron, my husband .
Richard Blank: I love it. There you go. Are you gonna use a gr voice when you answer the phone? Being
Christina Canters: character?
He's very friendly, but I'll make, try to make my voice deeper. There you go. Okay, so ring, ring, ring, ring. Hello, the same method. This is Aaron speaking.
Richard Blank: Hey Aaron. How's the SEA Method doing today?
Christina Canters: Oh, you know, ticking along. That's what he would say, .
Richard Blank: Well, that sounds good to me. My name is Richard Blank, and I'd like to see if I might be able to speak with Christina for a minute,
Christina Canters: please.
Uh, can I ask what the
call's
Richard Blank: regarding? Absolutely, Aaron. The reason for this phone call is that I'm in Costa Rica. I got an amazing call center. I collect pinball machines In excess is my favorite band in Australia, and I just would like to touch base with it for 30 seconds to properly introduce myself.
Christina Canters: Oh wow. What kind of pinball machines
Richard Blank: do you have? Oh my goodness gracious. My oldest is a 1976 Ballet's Freedom. I got 13 of. One man's trash is another man's treasure. And I'm so glad, Erin, that you brought that up. I tell you what, when you ever come and visit in Costa Rica, we'll do a pinball marathon.
How does that sound?
Christina Canters: That sounds absolutely fantastic. I love, I love me bit of vintage, uh, gaming. Uh, alright. I'll put you through to Christina.
Richard Blank: She should be available Before you transf me or I just wanna let you know that you did an excellent job and when I speak to Christina, I'm gonna let her know that.
Christina Canters: Thank you. That means our, our marriage is strong, man. Still strong. . I'll transfer her through. Excellent. Then ring, ring, ring, ring. Uh, hello, Christina
Richard Blank: speaking. Hey Christine, this is Richard Blake. I just gotta let you know that Erin is probably the greatest employee that I've ever spoken to. You should be very proud working.
Christina Canters: Ah, thanks Richard. Um, can I ask her
Richard Blank: what the call's about? Well, absolutely. He was kind enough to transfer. My name is Richard Blank. I'm with Costa Rica's call center, and I just wanted to touch base and introduce myself. Let you know I got a great call center in Central America. I collect pinball machines in excess is my favorite band.
And I just wanted to share some of our services with you to see if this is something that you may be interested in.
Christina Canters: Awesome. All right. Pause, role play. Big round of applause, Richard .
Richard Blank: But check it out. When I call your company back and I speak to your amazing husband, you know he is gonna remember me and he's also going to thank me for saying that to you and in writing.
And then he might also tell me your direct extens. In anniversary or promotion, something of your company culture that may move the ball forward a bit. And those are the sort of things, my friend, that we just paid it forward. And as you can see, your husband actually gave me the pass, the pitch. So rock on.
I got you. .
Christina Canters: Can I, okay. So can I summarize what I believe you. Yes ma'am. So firstly, you said you asked how the company was going and you said the C method name. With so much joy and excitement that I got excited just hearing, you know, what my company was up to. So that was one thing. Yeah. The second thing you used Aaron's name, you said, hi Aaron, how are you doing?
You know, how are you doing? Um, which I believe builds that rapport cause people also love hearing their own names. You also mentioned a couple of interesting facts about yourself that I wouldn't have expected on an initial call. Exactly. So you said you've got a pinball collection and that in excess is your favorite band.
Why do you do that? And is that random and weird?
Richard Blank: No, because I'm extremely proud of in excess and everybody in the world should listen to them. Um, why? Because if not, I'm gonna sound like everybody. And you're gonna hang up on me and it's gonna put a bad taste in your mouth. And yes, you don't need my pinball machines and I'm sure you love inaccessible.
What's that have to do with the C method? It's got a lot to do with the C method. Everything's got to do with everything.
Influence People Over The Phone With These Powerful Communication Techniques – with Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center [The C Method podcast Episode 283]
The C Method podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
The C Method podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Christina Canters discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading and INXS.
The C Method provides public speaking and communication skills training for high performing professionals.As a manager and leader, your ability to speak up, present with confidence and communicate well is key to career success.You may be highly skilled, intelligent and work harder than anyone, but if you can’t articulate your ideas clearly, engage your team or influence others to take action, it will hold you back from getting the promotions, opportunities, and recognition you deserve. Listen to the 'Stand Out Get Noticed' podcast. Now at 2 million+ downloads! Discover how to develop a success mindset, speak with confidence, articulate yourself clearly and build strong relationships for more influence and impact in the workplace. Topics include: public speaking, mindset, social skills, overcoming fear, workplace communication, relationships and leadership.
Have you ever wanted to have more influence over the phone?
My guest this week is Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Centre. He is a master of the cold call, and has trained over 10,000 telemarketers to improve their communication techniques over the phone.Richard is here to share his powerful techniques for improving your ability to lead and influence in conversation – and some of them are much simpler than you think!This will benefit you if you want to build better relationships and be more persuasive with your team, senior managers and clients.
“I love to allow people to feel more comfortable with me, to become more engaged in a conversation. This is not a lecture, and I’m not just checking off boxes and interrogating you. It’s a conversation. And it’s I mean, I don’t learn anything new when I speak. I love hearing what other people have to say to see what I have in common.”
This is Richard Blank’s story…
My name is Richard Blank and I’m the CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center. I’m skilled in reading phonetic micro expressions and use this to my advantage when speaking with people, especially over the phone.
I’ve found that by using someone’s name, asking how their company is doing, and sharing interesting facts about myself, I’m able to build rapport and influence the person I’m speaking with. This has been beneficial in both my personal and professional life.
In this episode, you will discover:
Phonetics is the purest form of communication, the sound of speech, not the semantics or even the tone.
The tone of voice should always be positive and empathetic.
0 seconds to 2 minutes is the best time to gauge a person.
How to gauge someone. They discuss some of the techniques they use to do it.
Richard believes in open-ended questions and specific name drops.
He also believes in the art of speech and meeting minutes to avoid conflict.
Richard’s advice to people is to be authentic.
When he was in his 20s, he tried to change his personality for a job interview, but he realised it was not going to work for him. Now he allows people to grow naturally.
He believes that people that feel seen, they feel heard, and they feel like they matter through the way that they communicate with others.
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://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/Wl_tS1ielGg
https://youtu.be/fE6Ufvn-1Nc
https://youtu.be/NWxjuBEkzMI
https://youtu.be/R2GTKLTPkiA
https://youtu.be/M-x7nAeWBxw
https://youtu.be/aX85iiUrR88
https://thecmethod.com/podcast/standoutgetnoticed/influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-centre-episode-283/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JaJIUI4BKQ7mhAmW4b8To?si=5cc254ba7af14830
https://player.fm/series/2694716/346501897
https://podtail.com/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-com/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-pow/
https://www.stitcher.com/show/stand-out-get-noticed/episode/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-208353649
https://podknife.com/episodes/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://getpodcast.com/es/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-_1ba52e93a1
https://podcasts.apple.com/pe/podcast/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these/id984946507?i=1000585579846
https://deezer.page.link/pPgVrtZwEi988y6H6
https://chartable.com/podcasts/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-communication-skills-confidence-public-speaking/episodes/127787912-283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ0MjAzODAucnNz/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjbWV0aG9kLmNvbS8_cG9zdF90eXBlPXBvZGNhc3QmcD0yNTM5Mg?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjoi-a949v7AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ
https://pdcstly.com/en/episod/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank/17826865
https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/984946507/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
You're looking to gain 30 seconds for a pass to pitch a sale. Stand Out Get Noticed podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.[The C Method podcast Episode 283]
Christina Canters: So, Richard, can we take a step back? You mentioned earlier that when you say, when you're wanting to gauge someone, so when we bring it right back, you know, let's say like we're for someone who's in the workplace, they're working with a team, or maybe they're speaking to a, a high level manager, um, or a client, let's say yes.
What, why? Why are these techniques useful in terms of gauging? So what are we actually gauging with the other person and how does that then benefit us or benefit the relationship?
Richard Blank: Fantastic. Christina, you're really gaging positive or negative reinforcements, and since if it's someone you've known for a long time, you know if he gets you, but if it's someone you don't know and you can't see them, I don't know if you're nodding, taking notes or with me.
And so a lot of the times in the beginning, it's a very delicate area. To where you should listen twice and you speak. There's a very good time by asking open-ended questions that people will tell you what they're looking for. So you could have been way off. And also there's an attention span. And so I believe by doing specific name drops, it's more towards transitional sentencing or tie downs, and every sentence has personal pronouns like a your or an R.
So these are trigger words. Every sentence where I can just bring you in, bring you in, and then knock it in for the close. And so, um, I always believe in military alphabet because there's a lot of the times things are misspelled or mispronounced, and the last thing you want is an email bouncing back.
And these individuals, it's very time sensitive. So if you think that you're getting 10 minutes, you're, you're sadly mistaken, my friend. You're looking to gain 30 seconds for a pass to pitch. And you're not pitching for 10 minutes, you're doing ten one minute pitches like a boxer and around, because this is like, when we're nothing, things
Christina Canters: can adjust.
Yeah. So this is like when, so, so let's say we're having a phone call with someone and I mean, this could even be face to face right? As well. Yes. So, so, so what I'm hearing is that, um, we have a very short amount of time to influence. On the phone or face to face. So we need to be constantly keeping an ear out and gauging what their reaction is to us so that we can keep adapting.
Our style of communication is
Richard Blank: that, but my friend, we're not looking to do a cold call close every time you and I, for an example, we had to communicate multiple times because of scheduling conflicts. It wasn't anything bad, but life happens and you and I were professional. We communicated in real. And we are extremely flexible for convenience, and I think that was wonderful prior to jumping on this podcast today.
And that's not even a sale. It's just because you and I wanna work together and have an episode together. But I, I think if people are able to gauge boundaries, and maybe somebody would like to review your credentials before a contract, or maybe what you and I could have done today is move forward three or four paces and then tomorrow.
We can always pick up where we left off. And how about this one? Unless there is a major sense of urgency, give somebody the luxury of time, allow them the ponder, sleep on it, write a draft, and maybe not send it because the next day you might even make more progress that way. Then you would if you felt like you needed to force somebody's.
on a previous conversation. And so, um, I, I always believe that if you start something, it could always grow and you should never compare it to stuff you've done in the past. And each, each individual, it's almost like a riddle. And you know, how about this? I'd rather collect a million dimes than just gimme $100 bill.
And so things can be chipped. Masterpieces can be molded and worked on. And some of your best relationships, and you know this well, have been over a decade and these things are five minute conversations, the two hour lunches, and that's the way I look at an individual. You, you and I, my friend, don't know what's happening outside the office.
There might be something distracting them or influencing their decision, so give them the benefit of the doubt. Give them two or three different types of shoes to fit in. And then you'll know how to walk with them. Christine? Yeah.
Christina Canters: Do you have an example, Richard, of like a personal example of where you had to chip away at, you know, you know, collect the dimes as you say, in order to get that final end result that you wanted?
Richard Blank: Sure, and I was actually able to give myself major momentum in the beginning. Two things I did. When I like to prospect companies, I use my anonymity to my advantage. Not for the whole call, cuz that's shady, but my first impression is not to ask for your boss or to, you know, trip up on my intro. Usually I like to do a company name spike and I'll ask how the company is doing, so at least it sounds like a mystery shopper.
I've been there before and it really reduces any sort of defense from a gatekeeper or a filter.
Influence People Over The Phone With These Powerful Communication Techniques – with Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center [The C Method podcast Episode 283]
The C Method podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
The C Method podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Christina Canters discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading and INXS.
The C Method provides public speaking and communication skills training for high performing professionals.As a manager and leader, your ability to speak up, present with confidence and communicate well is key to career success.You may be highly skilled, intelligent and work harder than anyone, but if you can’t articulate your ideas clearly, engage your team or influence others to take action, it will hold you back from getting the promotions, opportunities, and recognition you deserve. Listen to the 'Stand Out Get Noticed' podcast. Now at 2 million+ downloads! Discover how to develop a success mindset, speak with confidence, articulate yourself clearly and build strong relationships for more influence and impact in the workplace. Topics include: public speaking, mindset, social skills, overcoming fear, workplace communication, relationships and leadership.
Have you ever wanted to have more influence over the phone?
My guest this week is Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Centre. He is a master of the cold call, and has trained over 10,000 telemarketers to improve their communication techniques over the phone.Richard is here to share his powerful techniques for improving your ability to lead and influence in conversation – and some of them are much simpler than you think!This will benefit you if you want to build better relationships and be more persuasive with your team, senior managers and clients.
“I love to allow people to feel more comfortable with me, to become more engaged in a conversation. This is not a lecture, and I’m not just checking off boxes and interrogating you. It’s a conversation. And it’s I mean, I don’t learn anything new when I speak. I love hearing what other people have to say to see what I have in common.”
This is Richard Blank’s story…
My name is Richard Blank and I’m the CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center. I’m skilled in reading phonetic micro expressions and use this to my advantage when speaking with people, especially over the phone.
I’ve found that by using someone’s name, asking how their company is doing, and sharing interesting facts about myself, I’m able to build rapport and influence the person I’m speaking with. This has been beneficial in both my personal and professional life.
In this episode, you will discover:
Phonetics is the purest form of communication, the sound of speech, not the semantics or even the tone.
The tone of voice should always be positive and empathetic.
0 seconds to 2 minutes is the best time to gauge a person.
How to gauge someone. They discuss some of the techniques they use to do it.
Richard believes in open-ended questions and specific name drops.
He also believes in the art of speech and meeting minutes to avoid conflict.
Richard’s advice to people is to be authentic.
When he was in his 20s, he tried to change his personality for a job interview, but he realised it was not going to work for him. Now he allows people to grow naturally.
He believes that people that feel seen, they feel heard, and they feel like they matter through the way that they communicate with others.
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://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/Wl_tS1ielGg
https://youtu.be/fE6Ufvn-1Nc
https://youtu.be/NWxjuBEkzMI
https://youtu.be/aX85iiUrR88
https://thecmethod.com/podcast/standoutgetnoticed/influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-centre-episode-283/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JaJIUI4BKQ7mhAmW4b8To?si=5cc254ba7af14830
https://player.fm/series/2694716/346501897
https://podtail.com/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-com/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-pow/
https://www.stitcher.com/show/stand-out-get-noticed/episode/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank-208353649
https://podknife.com/episodes/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://getpodcast.com/es/podcast/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-_1ba52e93a1
https://podcasts.apple.com/pe/podcast/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these/id984946507?i=1000585579846
https://deezer.page.link/pPgVrtZwEi988y6H6
https://chartable.com/podcasts/stand-out-get-noticed-by-the-c-method-business-communication-skills-confidence-public-speaking/episodes/127787912-283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ0MjAzODAucnNz/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjbWV0aG9kLmNvbS8_cG9zdF90eXBlPXBvZGNhc3QmcD0yNTM5Mg?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjoi-a949v7AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ
https://pdcstly.com/en/episod/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank/17826865
https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/984946507/stand-out-get-noticed/283-influence-people-over-the-phone-with-these-powerful-communication-techniques-with-richard-blank
Richard Blank: And my twin down in Costa Rica. .
Louisiana Country Boy: That's right. I, But look, I want you to, uh, but lastly, lastly, what I'm gonna do is I am gonna shut up and if there's a, uh, a word, a message, um, that you, your last words that you want to leave, what the people will remember, Richard, by your last words, uh, have your way
Richard Blank: fortune favors the.
Mm-hmm. . That's it. Wow. And if you can get past your parents' guilt, you can live anywhere in the world.
Louisiana Country Boy: Hey, there
Richard Blank: it is. And our family's got strong guilt.
Louisiana Country Boy: Yes, indeed. Yes indeed. Look, Richard, I thank you so very much. I thank you. I, I greatly appreciate you gracing the table. Um, you
Richard Blank: southern gentleman. I had a great time hanging out with you too. .
Louisiana Country Boy: Look, y'all go and as I say about all my guests and anybody that comes on, That took the time out to come to share, that took the time out to come to share openly, honestly, and transparent to share.
Um, go follow him. Look, you can look this man up on Facebook, LinkedIn, uh, Twitter, uh, uh, all that stuff. I, I can't even name my, He's all over there. Y'all can go look him up, y'all. emailing, calling, whatever, get your plane ticket going on down the Costa Reef. So I'll be down there next week. Um, . But honestly, just, you know, it doesn't cost anything to, to share.
It doesn't cost any anything to go and support people. It really doesn't. It doesn't. Um, he's doing wonderful things. He's doing wonderful things, and that's the thing about it. There are. They are doing wonderful things. It's an amazing man doing an amazing job in Costa Rica. Well, water
Richard Blank: seeks at own level.
That's how we found each other, right?
Louisiana Country Boy: That's it. That's it. Um, you know, so just go follow support. Follow support of all my guests cuz they're doing one for. Richard, I thank you. I thank you so very much. Thank you, sir. I, I look forward to, uh, to hooking up later, know that there's always a spot right here at the table for you.
Anytime you got another dish you want to cook, just be like, Look here. I've got another dish that wants to bring to the table. And I'll be like, Okay, let me clear the table. .
Richard Blank: Maybe we'll do our second podcast when you're visiting me here as. Oh yeah, I like that. We gonna take the show on the road. I was just gonna say, , That's it.
That
Louisiana Country Boy: would be beautiful. That would be beautiful. Do it from right there. Mm.
Richard Blank: I mean, the Brady Bunch went to Hawaii and you can come down here.
Louisiana Country Boy: They show did it. Wait a minute. But then they had that little thing, Remember that little thing that they were looking for? And then, Then G got I, I can't remember.
I'm going, You finna go? You're talking
Richard Blank: about Oliver and the Tiki stuff? Yeah. Yes.
Peter almost dies with the, with the, with the spider Greg. Surfing wrong with these people. Who the hell does that on vacation? Oh my God. See?
Louisiana Country Boy: Oh my look, I thank you again, Richard. I thank you so very much. And uh, like I say, y'all go like, follow support my friend. He's doing wonderful things, but like I say, folk, I leave.
Thank you. I love each and every one of you unconditionally and ain't nothing you can do about Richard. We on our way to cold.
We on our way up to college. I appreciate your, Thank you. Hey, y'all have a good one, .
Richard Blank: Have a good night my friend.
My Worthless 2cents Table Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Donnie Lewis-The Louisiana Country Boy- discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
A place to freely express our thoughts and feelings where your worthless 2cents is priceless sharing our journey with each other,and always remember “Your Approval Not Needed “
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/xdxLRZ0K440
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/1USx0n2RMoQ
https://youtu.be/_nEDb7cvu_A
https://youtu.be/O2jukpEruYQ
https://youtu.be/mKnzAfDDx7k
https://youtu.be/ZgI2PGn1EDQ
https://youtu.be/7gZ1e2vgLKg
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6g8yr6ltjMRm2HZlL5NoFf
https://www.spreaker.com/user/14867186/my-worthless-2cents-table-is-with-richar
Louisiana Country Boy: Can you please if it's okay, and again, just tell the people about the other side of Richard I, not the personal side, not the business side of Richard, the business side of Richard. I mean, I mean, you ain't got to now. You ain't got to you. You know, you tell me. I, Well,
Richard Blank: it's my pleasure. I, you know, I'm a CEO of a, of a bilingual call center in Costa Rica.
These agents here make outbound appointment setting and lead generation. They also take inbound customer support and non-voice support. We do not call you at dinner cuz if I do, you're never gonna, you're never gonna talk to me again. And we're very selective of the campaigns that come in here cuz this is a very strict Catholic country.
I wanna make sure that the agents can go home and tell their parents what they do for a living. I prefer to bring in people that sometimes do not have call center experience because they could be bringing in bad habits or be a. I prefer somebody that is bilingual and has these skills where I can mold them.
It's very easy to teach 'em a CRM and and phone system, but you know, if they're coachable, if as you say, they have the grit and desire, it's my pleasure to find ways to delegate in order to promote them. It's very important for me as well to give positive reinforcement to the. I do it through quality assurance.
We listen to their recordings and I can grade them on certain metrics and I just don't grade on the simple stuff. You and I talk about bedside manner and certain soft skills diplomacy, since English is their second language. Donnie, I really focus on the FSOs so I can expand their vocabulary with similes.
So instead of saying words like help, they'll use assist guide or lend a hand, Little things like that. And let's say we're even making outbound prospecting. A lot of people are concerned about gatekeepers and filters. To me, I think they're the greatest people. We like to do positive escalations. So where if I speak to somebody and then I get transferred to you, I will say verbally how amazing this individual was.
And also do certain things in writing. If you get that at a call center, you can get money and prizes for it. That's how they get bonuses out. Wow. But if you call certain businesses, churches, schools, organizations, or even friends and family, And you mention others, you give the gift of a positive escalation.
They're gonna be happy that you call back. They'll give you information on how to close a deal or a company culture, right? And so instead of just going in there and trying to sell Donnie a 1995 book, it's very important for us to build rapport, to do a little bit more due diligence on your LinkedIn profile, on your podcast episodes, or your website.
So if I have to leave you a voice, or an email, I can custom make it. Mm. And that's only going to separate us from thousands of people that are knocking on your door trying to get sales. Now, not every time we make a call, we get a sale, right? But I increase our percentages by being on the phone longer, by asking more questions and knowing more people in your organization that I can refer to, that added momentum in my sales.
So it's not like what you see in the movie. We're not the Wolf of Wall Street, Glen Gary, Glen Ross Boer, and there are a lot of call centers that do that. I could personally do that if I wanted to, but I once again have chosen a certain environment where the profiled agent is something that not only the client could be comfortable with, but the agent would feel comfortable making those calls.
And so owning a company, if I try to force a fit, someone may not come back. They might. And you're only as good as the foundation that you have. That's it. And so it's, it's extremely important just to have that sort of sweet spot and balance for the client and for the agent. So it meshes in that it works because as I say before, if nobody shows up at your Chucky cheese birthday party, You have no friends,
Yeah. I'm just not gonna break you. So as a business owner, I'm constantly looking for ways for you to master levels and to crack some codes and to get better. But I, I, I just can't, You let you become complacent and, and, um, Monotonous and, and board on the phone where you just go through the motions.
That's, that's, as I say, you become plastic. Yes. Yes. And there's nothing that's, uh, raw about you anymore. And, and that's a shame when people get into that sort of trap.
Louisiana Country Boy: Most definitely. You know, and what I, what I hear originally I'll say this, is that you're not building a, a company. You have built a culture.
Mm-hmm. . Um, and that's, that's, you know, and that's a lot of people. It's, it's, that's how you can call it. , that, that's how people can say CC is home. It it because you built a culture. You, you, you. They're not just employees. They're not just people that work here. This is like a family and these are people that you know sometimes and, and I, you know, just doing what I do and learning that and, and working for others.
Some places you can work and it's just a job. Some places you can be and it's, and it's a home because you feel. Not excluded. Not like, Oh, well this is just a person over there that just does this over here. But they are, you look at them and everything that you've said and just talking to you. These are, these are what we forget to call people, humans.
I
Richard Blank: take stuff further. You remember our favorite class in school was recess. I have a gamification culture here. I collect pinball machines and juke boxes and Oh wow. machines. I have a neutral environment, Donny, where people can go down and meet agents from other departments, let off steam recharge batteries.
Hang out with me. Because if you're having a cigarette outside or on your phone on Instagram, you're by yourself. Right. But this is a very social environment and these games are older than they are . It's so important that they, That they have fun. Yes. And that there is a work life balance that's essential.
Louisiana Country Boy: Yeah. And that's great. That's great. Cause you know, and, and I know, fortunately for me, that makes you want to get up and go because you're looking, you're excited to get there. Like, man, I can't wait to get there. Um, I hear so today and, and, you know, in so many different places how people just be like, uh, gotta go.
Because it's, for me, when they say that, it's because of the culture. There hasn't been a, a, a positive culture. There's no positive. Feedback there. There's nothing positive and, and they're not a part of it. They're just an employee. When, when you change that whole scope around, oh man, you have you, you have done it, you, you have, you have put your hands on the crystal ball again.
You have made people understand like, we are in this, this ain't just me. You know what you just said. There's not a lot of places that genuine. I can go with the CEO and, and you know, he's right there and we can have a conversation. And it's not like, Oh dad, you know, what is
Richard Blank: work? Right? And a lot of the times, my friends, something outside of the office could be affecting their performance here.
They're not robots, they're not expendable numbers as you were talking earlier where people aren't even known at an office. And so, um, I have to take that into consideration because sometimes people have moments. Yes, but my favorite is when they bring their family along, a wife or a husband or their mother or father.
And I'll go downstairs and they have to pull me away cuz I'm gonna be telling them for 10 minutes how amazing their son is. And that's just a gift that keeps on giving. And I'm not just saying he's great. I'll give five examples cuz I care. Right? I know about phone calls. He makes a two year anniversary, what he did last week.
I pay attention to these small things because they claim that I, that people don. , but you and I notice these little details
Louisiana Country Boy: Yes. That, that make a difference. And that's, I'm telling you that is if, if, if, if there's any business owners out there that might not hear what we are talking about mm-hmm. , if you want to retain and grow, if you, I'm gonna say it again.
If you want to retain and grow mm-hmm. , these are the things coming from O employee and coming from a ceo. Mm. These things right here. I'm telling you, you would have the happiest people there. They would break down the door just to come work for you what you know. And that, I think that that here is why so many people decided, you know, with, Oh, I'm not going back to work.
Or when the pandemic thing, they didn't want to go back. They gonna go out and do they own thing because they felt so mistreated or they felt so de. They don't, they don't value me. I'm just, But when you, again, that's just me, You know? That's just my old family when, when it's like this and, and we are, and we can have a conversation and what you just said, those things, Well, I know anniversaries, I know birthday, I know these things and, and I can sit and talk to 'em and I can talk to their family.
When you can do that, that means that, that you have said, this is. Well,
Richard Blank: these are people as well. They don't need to sell their soul for a dollar. They have options. They don't need to go to an environment like that. But let's address something for a second here. I, I might create the greatest office environment ever, but there is a natural attrition that happens here.
Amazon's in Costa Rica, hpn, Tele, Andor. There's a hundreds of call centers. Right. So I compete especially against the big boys. So Donnell will lose somebody from time to time for scheduling conflict. If they go to the university, their boyfriend or girlfriend may work there. It might be closer to their home, or sometimes it even pays more.
There's different types of vocations here, right? But the one thing that they will not do, and you'll definitely appreciate this, they're not gonna say, Richard defaced me, insulted me, made me do the walk of shame. Yelled at me. No, no, no. That just doesn't happen. And I, I'm okay with that. As long as somebody is here and we can walk together and grow together, that's great.
I, I sometimes get a two weeks notice. Sometimes they just piece out on me. The next thing you know, I gotta call my client with a solution, which is fine, because if you can work through minor. Issues with a client, they see how you act during tough times. Yes. And how it is during good times. And so that, that just solidifies the relationships with my clients.
But I get disappointed from time to time. People I expected a little more from just disappear or they become a fading flower because this industry does, does create burnout. And in the United States, people look a certain way towards telemarketers and call center work. And for me, I was a gladia that not only survived it, but I thrived in this industry, in my own.
So go figure, . I saw the art and the speech. Yes. I saw the vocabulary and the delivery and I thought it was incredible if people were able to have that sort of conversations and convert sales site on. , there is an art to it, and as long as you practice that craft, I mean the, the earnings are, are, your potential is just limitless.
You could do very
Louisiana Country Boy: well. Hey, that is, that, that is definitely, definitely amazing. You know, I I, and again, Richard, I, I applaud you. I, I keep applauding you for just your.
My Worthless 2cents Table Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Donnie Lewis-The Louisiana Country Boy- discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
A place to freely express our thoughts and feelings where your worthless 2cents is priceless sharing our journey with each other,and always remember “Your Approval Not Needed “
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/mKnzAfDDx7k
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/xdxLRZ0K440
https://youtu.be/1USx0n2RMoQ
https://youtu.be/_nEDb7cvu_A
https://youtu.be/O2jukpEruYQ
https://youtu.be/ZgI2PGn1EDQ
https://youtu.be/7gZ1e2vgLKg
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6g8yr6ltjMRm2HZlL5NoFf
https://www.spreaker.com/user/14867186/my-worthless-2cents-table-is-with-richar
Mastering Spanish before moving to Costa Rica. Table Talk My Worthless 2 Cents guest Richard Blank
Louisiana Country Boy: If you don't, if you don't want to go in the deep, So I mean, actually, how was it, you know, making the transition? Was it, was it difficult for you? I mean, you know, I don't like to ask questions, but I don't know. I mean, was it, was it a difficult thing or did you go like, you know what, I feel comfortable with what I'm about to do.
I'm about to make this step and this is, I'm led to do this and, and this is at peace. That's it. You were just at peace with your decision. Um, and never thought about turning.
Richard Blank: I was taking it a day at a time. It was only supposed to last two months. So being here 22 years is really a godsend. But let, let's look at it a couple different ways logically.
The first thing is I, I mastered Spanish before coming to Costa Rica, so that transition was very easy for me. I could James Bond it all day long. Yeah. Secondly, I knew that I was a guest in this country, so I wasn't the loud foreigner. I wasn't expecting certain things, and I had a lot of. Keeping an open-mindedness for a new culture and tradition.
That made it easy for me because a lot of things that you hold dear in Louisiana and Philadelphia don't mean anything here, So you don't have that home court advantage. You need to show who you are and that essence and, and also, I wasn't looking for trouble. I wasn't licking my thumb and counting dollars on the side of the.
Right. I wasn't being insulting to taxi drivers of the locals. I wasn't throwing trash on the ground or being rude. So there wasn't no sort of violence, right. Or any sort of aggression. Or, or pressure naturally I stand out. I'm a, you know, we call me a Blanco, I'm an extra arrow. I look like I'm from the United States, no matter how and, and I never really volunteer my Spanish initially, depending on the situation.
Cuz I just wanna see the good faith, right? And I let them assume that I don't speak Spanish, so at least I use that to my advantage. You have to do certain things strategically, right? I don't keep the earbuds in. I'm looking around the street. I'm not paranoid. Uh, you know, I'm astute. I'm looking around.
This is not a game. I'm 3000 miles away from you and my mother, and so I, I need to take this seriously. Right? And so I was really kinda like, if you're getting through the desert, I could look in the direction of where I was going, but if you're not looking at your feet, you could sprain an ankle. You're dead.
And so I was really taking it a day at a time just to make sure I was getting positive reinforc. Acclimating Well, cost of living was good, so there wasn't pressure there earning very good money, and so my friend, a lot of things just kind of fell into place to make it easier. Now, I'm, I'm telling you the end result of it.
Trust me, there are certain times where, you know, I needed to really use my resources here to make my life comfortable. There's certain things you can do. There are local people that will assist you cut a certain line if you know somebody or get things done quicker. You know, there's a lot of red tape here with the government.
So if you have accountants and attorneys, your life can be a lot easier too, and I prefer that. And, um, but I, I guess I just didn't want the United States rat race. I could have done it, but I didn't want it. Right. And so at 27 years old, I put up the white flag and said, You can have. Let me just see if I could do something else, and fortunately, This paid off and I just didn't know.
But that's what makes life exciting. That's it. Who wants to have things planned out like school or camp? You, you really wanna have a zig and a zza every now and again and a and a mix up because it keeps it exciting. And you and I were talking earlier, it's not really about what happens to you, it's how you react to what happens to you.
And the more that even though things could. difficult. Mm-hmm. , when I can look back at it and realize that I handled myself in a certain way with good faith, yes, and with good intentions. My good friend, I can live with myself. And those are the sort of personal. Positive reinforcements that let me know that I was doing the right thing and to keep doing.
It's not for everybody. And trust me, Costa Rica is gorgeous. I don't iberia, I'm not gonna stay there for 22 years. So, um, but it's nice. It's a good cocktail. Story to tell people and and a lot of my friends from Philadelphia, when they see me and they've done exceptionally well, they've all said, Richard, I wish I tried my own adventure.
Not specifically mine, right? But all of them had something in them that they always want at least test or try before the kids, the career, the mortgage, the pressures, right? Just to take a bite outta life just to see what it tastes like. And for me, I guess it was being a little selfish. I just. . I was a romantic.
I wanted to see what could happen in this beautiful hundred years that I have. Mm. And so that's why you see me so smiling. Right now. I have a luxury trade. I married the girl, my dreams, and I'm on a podcast with a
Louisiana Country Boy: mine.
You know? And you know, but I'll say it is wonderful. It is wonderful. And you did it. You, you walked out on again, I say that you, you know, you climbed. Uh, you didn't allow the things, whatever it may have been, whether it was this whole thing, you know, that's the worst one. This whole thing in between these old heels right here telling you don't, do you, You didn't listen to that.
You know, You didn't go like, Okay, well this is the box. I gotta be in this box. You didn't and may I, I, I applaud that and that's what I tell, I say to anybody, That's what you should do. Um, no, they can't be a Richard and they can't be a Louisiana country worker. We already taken. Uh, but they can be who they are.
And man, I applaud you for what you're doing and going there and, and, and staying and sticking with it. And, because I'm sure that old thing in between here again, say you need to come on back home now. You need to go on back many a times. But you said no. Mm-hmm. . Well, yes
Richard Blank: and no. You kind of live it now.
Prior to coming here, I. W besides the schooling, Imagine the sort of work I did with the Spanish outside of the classroom, with the movies and the reading and the writing and the, and the practice. So you wield your sword. You are prepared for this. Yes. And if you live it, then it's really just a natural progression.
This was my destiny, my friend. It had to be done.
Louisiana Country Boy: That is, that is, that is, You know, I, I'll say this, What you. And I tell everybody, this is what, what you should always do. You walked in purpose. On purpose. Mm-hmm. and, And people miss that. You know, some people know when you walk in purpose, on purpose, everything that's purposed for you, you get.
You walk into your destiny, that's the only way you can walk into your destiny. You have to do it in purpose. On purpose. You, you ain't gonna trip into your destiny. You ain't gonna just back bow into it. No, no, no. It requires something from us. It requires what you did and you did it. I mean, you did it. Um, and, and again, like I say, man, I, I applaud you for it.
I applaud you. I applaud you. For, for being able to just come here and, and, and, and share, like, you know, to tell the story about it. You know, this is not okay. Lemme say that. Look here, y'all, this man right here was not born in Costa Rica. Oh. I don't know. I don't know if y'all missed it. He was not born in Costa Rica.
He took the steps before he went, He said he learned Spanish. Okay. He took the, Okay. That's, that's that thing, right? He took the steps. He was walking up, parked up here. I need to do something outside the box. This is what I'm gonna do if I want to go here, then this is what? See, when you got to Costa Rica, my opinion, I don't know, You had everything in your toolbox already that you needed to fix, whatever it was.
Richard Blank: I wish you was shining brighter than I've ever done in my entire life since that first. And I never did tell a marketing before I got on the phone.
My Worthless 2cents Table Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding moving abroad and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica. Donnie Lewis-The Louisiana Country Boy- discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
A place to freely express our thoughts and feelings where your worthless 2cents is priceless sharing our journey with each other,and always remember “Your Approval Not Needed “
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/_nEDb7cvu_A
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://youtu.be/xdxLRZ0K440
https://youtu.be/1USx0n2RMoQ
https://youtu.be/O2jukpEruYQ
https://youtu.be/mKnzAfDDx7k
https://youtu.be/ZgI2PGn1EDQ
https://youtu.be/7gZ1e2vgLKg
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6g8yr6ltjMRm2HZlL5NoFf
https://www.spreaker.com/user/14867186/my-worthless-2cents-table-is-with-richar
Lyrics
Ah ! Love is Blue !
We were in the park . My hands got dirt for cleaning a bench
so washed them at the water fountain
As I was going to dry wet by rubbing my shirt
She picked up her handkerchief and said joyfully
" I bet you never bring a handkerchief for dating women ! "
Handed me with a smile like some amusement
Ah Love is blue
As the colour of autumn sky soothing me utterly
We were on the jet coaster rising
She asked me about my dreams in the future
Talked some plans when the coaster at the top
then it plunged with super speed , I felt thrown in the air
Some screamed in the upside-down world
I myself shouted in confusion
" Besides plans , I love you so much ! "
She said " Good ! "
Ah Love is blue ! Yeah !
The colour of the shining sea , an endless summer
But sooner or later everyone would know
life is not perfect neither are relationships ...
Ah Love is blu ----------------------- e
Sometimes the colour of the bottom of the ocean
But you'll love somebody again !
Secrets to getting the highest QA scores when working at a call center? INspired INsider Podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
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.
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/qUPls0fWIMM
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
What is a perfect volume of calls per month for a telemarketer? INspired INsider Podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
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.
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/ADwIu8q76yM
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
How gamification pinball cultures reduce a call center attrition? INspired INsider Podcast guest Richard Blank.
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.
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/IsdNa9uueuw
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
Richard Blank: Enhanced communication.
Joe Killinger: Yeah. I You get it. Um, who is your, What does your typical client look like?
Richard Blank: Well, there's two types. Okay. It could be someone like yourself in the United States that needs to scale, and sometimes it's difficult to find qualified individuals that will meet your requirements in the states.
Richard Blank: Yep. Otherwise, individuals might not have the resources. We do, like I was mentioning earlier, manual dialing to predictive dial. Quality assurance department, human resources department supervisors, in my experience. So a lot of the times my consulting could enhance their, uh, I guess plug in place system.
Richard Blank: Mm-hmm. . Cause I can log into your crm. I could even log into your phone system. Yeah. But once again, by using my dialer and other sort of resources we have, we can almost just enhance what you have. And then other companies use us for overflow. Like if they have a dedicated workforce and their queue gets filled, then calls will come into our department too.
Richard Blank: But I always believe if we're on a level playing field and we're given all the resources as corporate, I have on multiple occasions be able to match and exceed expectations. Yeah. And that's why I'm able to earn these seats. But my ideal client would be someone that would first ask me about the labor laws.
Richard Blank: Just to make sure that everything is followed perfectly. Yeah. And the second thing is to judge me on merit, not on price. Because offshore centers in the Philippine and India obviously have much more. Competitive pricing. Sure. And then finally, metrics. I would like realistic expectations. And you asked me earlier about how many calls somebody could do.
Richard Blank: I was mentioning the dialer. I understand reverse psychology, but if you could only make 10 calls an hour, six minute calls, you can't expect me to do 15 or 20. I can't expand time. But you are mentioning manual dialing, I'm talking predictive dialing, and my backend structure. There may be a chance, Joe, that I could do 50% more an hour and recuperate those costs and earn those seeds, but it's really more for somebody to have an open mind.
Richard Blank: A lot of the times they have made phone calls before, but there are things they haven't experienced yet, and so just by me, as you say, listening first and one by one reviewing with them. They don't have enough numbers to call. I need some more rebuttals. You don't have an email template. No one's answering when I try to do a hotly transfer.
Richard Blank: Mm-hmm. , these are certain ways to see if they qualify for me. Gotcha. I just wanna make sure I fulfill the agents' needs, right?
Joe Killinger: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So are you focused mostly on mid, uh, single agents or midlevel companies or large companies for all of the above?
Richard Blank: Oh, pretty much all of the above. All the above. And so we're half and half.
Richard Blank: We do 50% inbound, non-voice and customer support, and then the other half does appointment setting lead generation in some. Okay,
Joe Killinger: well, I'm gonna make sure we have your website in the bottom of this video so people can reach out to you. Talk about pricing. I don't, we don't wanna get into it now, I don't think, but they'll definitely be able to reach out to you and, um, you know, this, this was amazing.
Joe Killinger: I appreciate all the information. Thanks. I'm gonna have to go write some of this down. Actually. I'm gonna, I'm gonna utilize that and so thank you for coming on today.
Richard Blank: The pleasure is mine. Thank you for spending the time with me today.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/n3QEVAlvv6o
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
Joe Killinger: you gotta create the connection past the pitch, you know, from there. Yeah. Well, um, so tell us a little bit about what you do. You've got a call center down in Costa Rica, so I'm a little jealous about, I gotta come down there and scuba dive. I swear to God it's on my bucket list. I made it to Belize.
Joe Killinger: That was great. But Costa Rica's gotta be next. But tell us about your call.
Richard Blank: Well, I've been in business for 14 years in the industry for 22. I have bilingual agents here. They're college educated and they're dedicated, so they only work on specific campaigns, and so I have a gamification culture here. Okay, So I believe in restoring old pinball machines, jute boxes.
Richard Blank: I have an air hockey table, so I've created a neutral environment for agents from other departments to meet one another. They can let off steam and recharge batteries and, and it's an environment where I, as the el jefe can spend time with my people. Sure. And, and so this sort of gamification environment has enabled me to reduce any sort of attrition.
Richard Blank: and to have some sort of bridge with the agents here. And so let's say it's a first day of training. Training class doesn't start till seven 30 cuz seven to seven to 30 we start with recess. So everybody can have a great time together. Yeah. And when they enter the first training class, they're loops.
Richard Blank: They have friends. Yep. They're just absorbing now Joe. They start contributing so, So I believe with your training sessions with the agents, there's nothing better than Interac. Role playing and suggestions and pausing it and showing different techniques. It's a dojo. They all, Does everybody work in the same office or are they virtual agents,
Joe Killinger: Joe?
Joe Killinger: Well, uh, about half and half the newer agents are in the office. The guys have been with us for 10 plus years, or at home. Most of you
Richard Blank: know the synergy in your office, you know, the new agents, they feed off of that energy with one another. Oh. And if somebody gets one, the high fives are
Joe Killinger: plenty. Yeah. One of 'em gets a good call and you know, they got a listing employment or something.
Joe Killinger: It's just the energy it just through the roof. Rock on.
Richard Blank: Yeah. I missed that. With Covid that got taken away from me. The essence of my call center was to walk the rose and to break the bread and the high five. Yeah. And so I missed that, but um, I'm glad to hear you have that sort of culture there. I'm sure it's amazing.
Richard Blank: What, do you guys ring a bell? What do you do
Joe Killinger: when someone gets to leave? We don't ring a bell, but it's, it's, it's just fun. And you know what, it motivates the other agents, you know? So I find that if we really support that and, you know, make that a focus, the other agents are like, So what did you do? What did you.
Joe Killinger: How did it happen? And then they kind of grow from that as a team. Can you
Richard Blank: pull the call? What? Pull the call. Pull the call for the agents. Oh yeah. Listen to it. Go right into the training room right after you cut it and then cut it up and everyone gets a slice. Let 'em see. Cause it's still fresh off the griddle, what that call was like.
Richard Blank: It's,
Joe Killinger: I just love the inter, I love this business. First of all, I love the real estate business. I've done auctions and real estate auctions here in the US when it was a startup that worked, went very well and residential. And now I've been focused on commercial the last. 20 some years. So, uh, I love the business and the people, and I love watching new people, you know, build a business and bring it in.
Joe Killinger: And I think, you know, e everybody's afraid that the economy's gonna slow down here. And, you know, being in Southern California we're a little bit spoiled and that we don't, and we are usually the last one in, if we go into recessions. I'm not saying we are, but if we. We're always one of the last ones in one of the first ones out.
Joe Killinger: I think our biggest dip has been in under, even under 10%. So we don't take a big hit, large population in the small geography. Right. But um, yeah, so it works pretty well. Now you get into Inland Empire, that's different deal, but LA proper. But yeah, I love the business. I love the love the energy. So I could imagine being in your call center, you know, it's gotta be.
Joe Killinger: That would be fun. That'd be a fun environment. And you even make it more fun with all this stuff, all that. Box and
Richard Blank: a candy I five at an eating lunch every day. If you were here, it's best time.
Joe Killinger: Yeah. You know, as we get older we re appreciate that even more, I guess, you know, so it's, it's just fun to be around youthful energy that makes me want to go back in and do more work.
Joe Killinger: So I probably,
Richard Blank: These agents here are bilingual. Yeah. So once again, in regards to their intensive. Listening. Yeah. It could be exhausting. Yeah. And so the respect to them using what they've studied as I have with my Spanish Yeah. To recuperate that education costs and, and to earn a very, very good living.
Richard Blank: So once again, people are chatting and texting. I prefer the artist speech and if they can write and cursive, I think that's nice as well. So I'm always encouraging enhanced communication. Yeah.
Joe Killinger: I You get it. Um,
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/swjtRP1X1vg
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
Joe Killinger: Yeah, finding those people and making sure they have, We have a bad habit as real estate agents. We are, you know, we're a type personalities are entrepreneurs, most of them, and that I run into, and so they just go, go, go, go, go. But if they've got a great individual like you're talking about, you really want to give them the opportunity to really enhance the experience that they're trying to create for you.
Joe Killinger: Really give 'em the proper training. And I think we, we tend to not do that. And so having the proper training, I think is.
Richard Blank: Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. It reduces fear. Yeah, it prepares them. And, um, let me share something with you. Since I'm a CEO of a company like yourself, we have leverage. We can hire and fire, make or break somebody.
Richard Blank: And I choose with this sort of position to encourage and to move people forward. And so these individuals, and I break the stereotype because a lot of people say, Wow, you are so hands on and you know people's names and you break bread with them. And I say, Well, As you and I do, Joe. Yeah. We break bread with our people.
Richard Blank: And I heard how you spoke about this individual prior, so I don't need to remind you. Uh, but the greatest thing is with these individuals is it's about maturity. And when they realize that each individual is a unique experience, they might be making their hundredth call, but it's the first call for them.
Richard Blank: And so you really have to take that sort of delicate situation and not, and not be bored with your pitch. Yeah. Because as I mentioned before, you're, you're becoming plastic. Yeah. You'll burn out on something like
Joe Killinger: that. Yeah. If they don't, we we, what we do is we make sure our agents know the market very, very well.
Joe Killinger: So let's say if you're gonna be a multi-family agent in, in Hollywood, and you better know every property that's on the market. Average days on market, average price per square foot, average size of units, everything. That makes the conversation a lot easier because you've got all this data in your head that you can give to these people cuz you're bringing value.
Joe Killinger: And that's another thing, you know, we get so many people that hey, they'll, they'll call like caught one a couple weeks ago, his calling was, Hey, are you somebody to answer? And he goes, Are you thinking about selling your building? Oh you're not. Okay, thank. I'm like, No, no, no, no, no. . That's not
gonna
Richard Blank: work.
Richard Blank: What's, what's his nickname? Fonzi.
Joe Killinger: Yeah. I was like, Oh dude. Um, but yeah, it just doesn't work. There's gotta be a connection and I really think, you know, being in real estate the last 10 years has been, it's been really, really good. Right. You know, the economy's been booming. Uh, real estate's been. That's changing.
Joe Killinger: You know, we're gonna, The fundamentals kind of got pitched out the windows when times were great. And so we're going back to fundamentals. So cold calling's gonna be a big part of it for a lot of people, so you gotta get back to it. I
Richard Blank: listen to their calls, self analysis, self improvement. If they can take a step back.
Richard Blank: And I know you were mentioning that you have scripts. Mm-hmm. , I make a huge suggestion not putting the script on an Excel sheet, but you have qualifying. At least put them in there. Two or three soft skills, Joe, that has made you successful, like positive escalation, pronouns, Name drops, military alphabet.
Richard Blank: Since you have me on the phone, I'm sure you like at least one. Those sort of soft skills just to ensure active listening because they are name dropping and they're putting back on the straight line grade them. Hall of Fame call them. When you bring everybody together, not just for cake, but for training, and when the training session comes, you bring out the call and you watch the tapes like an athletic team does.
Richard Blank: And since this is an individual effort like wrestling and boxing, your team knows the plays, they know the moves. Mm-hmm. , but they're watching an individual, so there's no way to spin it. Yeah, that's new. And if your tone is negative, if you're interrupting. We spoke about desert pitching with no oasis, just to take a breath and a drink.
Richard Blank: If they're not name dropping or having their name dropped, then we need to pause it for a second and say, What do you think you could? Why didn't you ask a follow up question? When someone's father passes away and gives the house to the daughter and the daughter is in a certain state, and I've, I've seen people show, Oh, I'm sorry to hear that and continue with their next question, their closers, but I would've stopped immediately.
Richard Blank: Yeah. And
Joe Killinger: you gotta create the connection, have the pitch,
Richard Blank: you know, from there.
Joe Killinger: Yeah.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/ImjaWfrYQr0
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
Richard Blank: So I was just the sell the sizzle. Come into the tent. Yep. Greatest show on earth, kinda guy, .
Joe Killinger: Now how many calls, you know, we always get how many calls is, is, I'm sure it varies between commercial and residential, but um, how many calls a day were you making when you were doing residential? I bet you were cranking
Richard Blank: out.
Richard Blank: I could manual dial myself 400 calls a day and Oh good. Don't take yourself. I got the phone with the big buttons on it. Yeah, it was much more easier and I didn't have to look at it, you know, the lady at the supermarket, but I used to work 10 hours a day, six days a week to hustle. Right. , and that was the money that I had earned in order to invest in growing my business.
Richard Blank: So it was like more of a leap fraud, but no manually dialing. I was doing about 400. Now, if you're here with a predictive dialer, my suggestion is to at least on a five minute talk time, to give 4,000 unique numbers a month. You got two to four lines dialing at the same time. Mm-hmm. , which means you have.
Richard Blank: Contact ratio of almost a hundred percent besides your dispositions and ready status. Yeah. And so all it's like, it's like a bating cage. It's one call after another. And unless you've worked at a call center, you might not have that sort of endurance. Yeah. And my suggestions for a real estate company is to have a specialist making these calls for you, like a Squire or a page, and setting up the knight for the win.
Richard Blank: Yeah. They are professional bird dogs and telemarketers out there that are phenomenal at their craft and now would leave them alone because if they can build your pipeline and they can make follow up calls for you and they're definitely your sidekick, then you focus on the other things. But, but don't just leave them alone.
Richard Blank: If you're the closer, I would always be coaching, I would be listening to the calls that they made so you can enhance those skills or, or possibly. Uncover certain speaking styles of the potential client. So you can prepare your rhetoric, you can prepare your approach. Or even if the best case scenario comes, you uncover a gem where you know you're gonna anchor immediately with that individual and do some research on it and just, you know, bring the present.
Richard Blank: And
Joe Killinger: yeah, finding those people and making sure they have, we.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/UwY9hImex6w
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
A simple common sense approach to my phone calls. I sold a lot of sizzle. Real Estate Jam Session Podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center.
Richard Blank: don't be surprised if Joe's gonna be way too busy and it's gonna have to eat two lunches to get his energy back.
Joe Killinger: Yeah. It's, you know, as far as you know, sales people we're always taught, get the lead, get the deal, you know, get the appointment, You know, and I'm like, you, it's just kind of like, you know, it's a process, you know, you gotta have the process in place.
Richard Blank: You gotta do clean business. Yeah. You gotta properly represent yourself in the best light and, and there's no surprises with you, Joe, like as much as you'd like to give somebody a price or sell it with certain terms. Mm-hmm. , you're also realistic. And if you're able to have that sort of conversation with your clients, I think once again, they respect you that much more.
Joe Killinger: Yeah. I would bet that when you were doing residential, you knocked it outta the park, didn't you?
Richard Blank: I sold a lot of sizzle. I said, Unlike other people that are just boring you, I'm telling you, your house is great. Oh, I had the greatest phone calls with people. I bet you know what I got the most. I tell you, it used to be about 80% prospecting, 20% referrals.
Richard Blank: Yep. And it got 50 50. Yeah. And then it got about 20% prospecting, 30% callbacks, 50% referrals. And so I got passed around, which was wonderful. Yeah. And people realized that if I myself at 10:00 AM on a Sunday morning or making prospecting calls to you, isn't that the sort of company you'd like to work with?
Richard Blank: And so it was very easy for me not to lie. I'm telling you the truth. I'm representing myself, introducing myself, and it's Sunday morning. I'm not hungover and I'm not on vacation. I'm, I would love to represent your home and, and why don't we have a, a meeting from this momentum that we have. I like you, Richard.
Richard Blank: Great. Put the checkbook away. I don't wanna sign who's talking about signing anything today. Mm-hmm. , what I, since obviously we have a momentum and we both know each other's names. Maybe the next step is to have Joe meet you and then from an educated point of view, then make a decision. But you're gonna love him , you know?
Richard Blank: And um, And it's being kind. Yeah, it's being nonthreatening. And they realized that, and maybe Joe, it's the way that you and I were raised by our parents and grandparents. We were taught to have certain manners. Yeah. And to respect other people's times. Yeah. And so by just taking that very simple common sense approach to my phone calls, I was not the real estate beast you thought I was.
Richard Blank: I was a very kind, non-threatening appointment set for my older brother who is the broker or for my clients now that are in the United States that are doing their business. So I was just the sell the sizzle. Come into the tent. Yep. Greatest.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/Dnt-4hwnfM4
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
Why you should listen more than you talk on the phone? Real Estate Jam Session Podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
Joe Killinger: Richard is the, um, not listening. They're so busy. They've got somebody on the phone, they're trying to get everything out so fast and, but they're not listening to what the person on the other end is saying. And I just think that if you, you, you know, my, my father, it's amazing how the older I get, the smarter he gets it, just, you know, he goes, Joe, you've got two ears and one mouth.
Joe Killinger: He goes, Listen more than you talk. And he's right. He was right on, and I just am like in sales. That is something that you really have to take into consideration.
Richard Blank: So I have a follow up question to your statement there. Do your agents know your script by? A to Z, one to three. Do they know everything? No.
Joe Killinger: No, they don't.
Joe Killinger: They, you know, and depending on the personality, you know, we have so many different scripts, so most of them don't even really follow a script. They go by. What we try and teach is, you know, when somebody picks up the phone, you need to be listening to them and you know, kind of, I don't wanna say mirror, but understand how they're coming out of there.
Joe Killinger: You can tell right in the first few seconds how somebody is that day if they feel like they're bothered. But I mean, they do have scripts, don't get me wrong. And they have like three of 'em that they all play off of, but nobody has one of them memorized, I don't think. But it's, But that's fine.
Richard Blank: As you say that, they're well versed.
Richard Blank: They know they're subject well, yeah. And, and what I've seen happen multiple times is that they become plastic. Plastic to commercialize. They're not a painting, they're not raw. They're a character, not in character. That's why when your dog was barking, Joe, I asked what the dog's name was. Yeah. As a follow up question, or how many years have you been in this position, this promotion at your company?
Richard Blank: Now, congratulations on being ceo. How many years has it been, Joe? You know what? You know, where are you at right now? Yeah. And so when you say active listening to me, it's really more of an engagement. Because you're saying also as well that you might be upsetting somebody, but I'm telling you this, these are people you're meeting for the first time.
Richard Blank: I can't gauge the first round of the fight as I can on the 12th because things do change, like tug of war. It goes back and forth. There's a push in a bull. Yeah. But if I can. Match just your speed and how loud you go. Then there's no crosstalk or interruption cuz I'm really moving with you at your speed.
Richard Blank: But then I know when to interject to do the follow up. That's the active listening they need checkpoints. They need pauses. Do you remember the show gets smart when he was walking down the hallway and the doors were closing behind him? They're gonna leave. Yes, I do. Yo, my main man, you know, they're gonna leave a door open.
Richard Blank: So after 15 minutes they wonder why they didn't get the appointment. And all the client says is, Hey Joe, send me information. Yeah, no, because that's why when you gauge these people, you ask a follow up question to see if it makes sense or if it sounds good, I'd rather take a three second insurance policy.
Richard Blank: To ask you a tie down question, then to assume, which as you know, it makes an ass out of you and me and just keep moving forward for the fear of being hung up upon. And yeah, I believe in selling sizzle. So somebody has a beautiful building. I would love to take a look at it because when I was doing residential real estate, the MLS was a gold mine for me because you talk about the, the bedrooms, the kitchen, the sport court, the pool, the, the, the, the crown molding or even the curve appeal.
Richard Blank: And obviously it was the biggest glaring tell sign of what the people were most proud of. Oh yeah. And what they loved the most. And so I allowed through least resistance. It's called Woo Way. To, as you say, two on one. Listen, twice I know what I know. I need to know what Joe knows. Yeah. And so by me allowing you to ask these questions and, and me bringing you back in the conversation, don't be surprised if you not only can get everything out of it, but once again, they're probably gonna call you and tell you how great I was by setting the appointment.
Richard Blank: Mm-hmm. , that should be the goal of your staff. is to get that positive escalation when you call back Mrs. Jones to represent her property. Mm-hmm. and I always gave the most points on the call, Joe, when the client says your name. Yeah, I know you want a conversion and, and the scripts and, and I'm so proud of what you built.
Richard Blank: But to me, if they are not capable of having that sort of balanced, grounded in the moment. Sort of conversation where they are selling or buying one of the most expensive investments of their entire life. You have to put, it's almost like a vulnerable state for somebody. You really have to take that into consideration, and so instead of being a prospector, you're almost more of a consultant.
Richard Blank: Yeah, but you're not, Joe, The closer. That's not a problem at all. What I'm here to do today is to clarify for our edification additional things above and beyond your specs that Joe would need to know in order to be in the moment with you to move forward emotionally and to either purchase or let.
Richard Blank: Property go. So you're are such a good man in regards to the psychology, like someone's best friend or older brother, making sure I don't get in a fist fight and stay out of trouble. And Joe, that's why you get these accounts. I don't know if they could price shop around or give it to a family member, but you've closed a lot of deals of people you've met for the first time and these people once again are entrusting this in you.
Richard Blank: And so as much as I'm telling you before, there's no real secret sauce to this. If you show empathy, if you take an extra five minutes to speak with somebody when you're online with them, just start looking at the website and making compliments and asking how Eddie in the, in the mail rooms doing. Don't be surprised if Joe's gonna be way too busy and is gonna have to eat two lunches to get his energy back.
Joe Killinger: Yeah. It's, you know, as far as you know, sales people we're always taught, get the league, get the deal, you know, get the appointment, you know, and I'm like, you, it's just kind of like, you know, it's a process, you know, you gotta have the process in place.
Richard Blank: You gotta do clean business. Yeah. You gotta properly represent yourself in the best light and, And there's no surprises with you, Joe, like as much as you'd like to give somebody a price or sell it with certain terms.
Richard Blank: Mm-hmm. , you're also realistic. And if you're able to have that sort of conversation with your clients, I think once again, they respect you that much more. Yeah.
Joe Killinger: I would bet that when you were doing.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/sdL9DJOHz6o
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
The sweet spot for making callbacks to potential clients? Real Estate Jam Session Podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
Richard Blank: You're probably gonna get to the front of the line and you will be given your true chance to state your case and to earn this business.
Joe Killinger: Yeah. How often do you, if you, you can't get through two or three or four times, how often do you call them back? Every two weeks. Three weeks?
Richard Blank: That's a great question.
Richard Blank: Depends on the sense of urgency, the size of the list and what vertical you're calling about. Yeah. You could be. Over killing it. And then how many times can you be creative on a voicemail? I mean, after you're, you're just cussing '
Joe Killinger: em off, right? You know, Now they're just angry at
Richard Blank: you. It depends. You could be clever and you could talk about, unlike other people that are doing one thing, you're doing another.
Richard Blank: Or if this person is celebrating an anniversary, you could be calling on those days and saying congratulations on your 14th year. You could really time it perfectly for certain things that you know, they're celebrating if you want to do that. Um, You know, persistence is fine. Yeah. And as I mentioned before, sometimes people only prefer to do non-voice.
Richard Blank: Yeah. And I have to respect that. But if they're gonna be doing non-voice, then I'm gonna be expanding 50 times the descriptions of the emails that I'm gonna be sending to you. Mm-hmm. , or I might just, you roll the dice and go to page seven on your website and describe some sort of machinery or some sort of photograph you took with your crew.
Richard Blank: And mention how awesome that was. Why, Right? Why not ? We might as well try. And so, no, that's
Joe Killinger: it, right? You've gotta try and. Well,
Richard Blank: you're gonna catch my attention. Yeah. I mean, if you really take the time to Google me and to go to my website, it's obvious I've given you three things that will get you to, for me to take your call, write you back and say, Thank you, my man, for taking the time.
Richard Blank: Mm-hmm. , you know, it has to do with the beautiful art building, the pinball machines I have. Yep. And also the writings that I do with the empathy and the relationship I have with my agents. Those are the keys to unlock my door, to pitch me on buying or selling my building. Yeah, so I'll at least give you five minutes no more, and you have to earn more time after that.
Richard Blank: No one's giving you 20. It might just give you a minute. What I believe is that, Joe, you're buying time. I have a huge suggestion for you and it's a soft skill suggestion. Okay? A lot of people say you have to name drop 'em. Well, yeah, you do. But I would suggest doing a five to one name drop pronoun, where you're gonna say your, your, are your.
Richard Blank: Right, Joe , you know, so I think you set 'em up, set 'em up, set 'em up, power bomb. And so if you practice that sort of speaking structure to keep their attention, then there's a good chance you don't have to repeat something, ruin the tone of the call. Next thing you know, the information has to be done.
Richard Blank: Again, you don't want to walk home to get your homework. And so you should really slice and dice these calls very, very carefully. And I've even seen calls that had to go halfway in. And then you pick up where you're left off and as long as you take meeting minutes, as long as you're up to speed and can recap, maybe it is a 50% call.
Richard Blank: And then Joe and I go over next Thursday, next week to finish the call. And as don't be surprised when I call you back on Thursday on time and I am ready to go pen it. The ready the odds. Once again, Joe, are in our favor. Mm-hmm. ?
Joe Killinger: Yeah.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/k1VMUwh1oaQ
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
How to get past really good Gatekeepers? Real Estate Jam session guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
Richard Blank: You custom make it and you compliment a promotion or an anniversary and, and you really just take that extra effort that will separate it. And I have seen a larger conversion ratio of emails coming back from those. Not just, it just
Joe Killinger: doesn't work. Yeah. It's, it's personalizing. It is. You know, we even, I've even tried doing a personal note after I had a conversation with somebody sending it.
Joe Killinger: I couldn't believe the return. You know, it's just
Richard Blank: the positive escalation of
Joe Killinger: everyone that's helped. Yeah. Yeah. It was just a quick little notes and it really worked, but now how do you. I've got so many questions because this is brilliant. The way you're phrasing all this is understand how do you get in, Let's say you the, the gatekeeper's.
Joe Killinger: A really good gatekeeper. Ooh, what's the, Yeah, , How the scary ones, right. How do you break through that? How do you get through to, from them to the next
Richard Blank: level? My good friend, did you ever see the movie Wall Street when Bud was trying to get into Gordon Gecko? Oh Christ.
Joe Killinger: I watched that movie a hundred years ago, ,
Richard Blank: But what I remembered most about that movie was he wasn't disrespectful to the coworkers and the executive assistant of this gentleman.
Richard Blank: And so instead of trying to. Not follow the protocol, be rude, curse or, or just bully their way in there after a while when he did get that pass to pitch and he did show up at the office before going into that meeting, obviously there was a bit of admiration from, as you say, this tough gatekeeper because that's why they're there.
Richard Blank: Yeah, they're the best, but they're also human. I'm sure they're wonderful mothers and fathers and, and, uh, and they're responsible people because that position is very important. But that's why I mentioned the anonymity in the beginning, because if I can say, How's Costa Rica's call center doing today?
Richard Blank: Yeah. You have to respond. Well, and I get to give them that sort of power punch right off the bat. Mm-hmm. and. , it might take two or three calls to call back because Joe, you might be busy and that is fine, But, But how about this? Once you follow the rules and you're respectful, and if you ever do those positive escalations, this individual is a plethora of information about the company culture.
Richard Blank: They might give you direct extension numbers or tell 'em about the son's birthday party or, or just let you know other things. You, you were mentioning yourself celebrating a birthday with one of your most treasured employees, and I think that was very cool. I hope they saved you the biggest piece. , but, uh, yeah.
Richard Blank: No, it was too big. I know, right. And, uh, That's what I'm hoping too, as I mentioned before about anchoring. Yeah. As much as I'd love to give you a tip and a trick and, and a million dollar secret, the success I've had in, in real estate is this, you know, relationship building mm-hmm. and respecting their rules.
Richard Blank: And sometimes a pipeline could be a week or could be six months out. Yeah. And as long as you leave a lasting impression. And custom make emails and especially voicemails. Yeah. And involve everybody that's assisted you, You're probably gonna get to the front of the line and you will be given your true chance to state your case and to earn this business.
Richard Blank: Yeah.
Joe Killinger: How often do you, if you, you can't get through to.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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/XQBpdAiMcug
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
Joe Killinger: Welcome to the Real Estate Jam session. You know, I always try and bring value to you guys and it's all geared toward the real estate industry, and I'm always looking for ways that I can really enhance the experience of being in this industry. And cold calling, like it or not, is a big part of our industry.
Joe Killinger: So as fortunate to run into Richard Blank, Richard has been a cold collars entire life. Matter of fact, he runs a cold collar company down in uh, Costa Rica, which I think I need to go visit. Looks beautiful down there, but he came on the show today and really gives us tips and tricks to really be more successful with our cold calling.
Joe Killinger: So make sure you check it out. Give us a like while you're there. Now, if you're new to the channel, my name is Joe Klinger. I've been a real estate entrepreneur for over 20 years, and I use this channel to bring on people like Richard to really help you learn all that tips and tricks to be successful in this industry.
Joe Killinger: So make sure you check it out. Give us a like while you're there, and if you haven't done so, make sure you.
Joe Killinger: So Richard, you know, is a, a real estate agent. Breaking those barriers, getting in front of a client, a serious client, and, you know, a, it's, it's daunting, right? You know, you gotta pick up that phone and be ready for rejection and, um, you know, it, it's very hard. So, can you kind of, uh, let's, let's start with commercial real estate first.
Joe Killinger: Let's, let's start there and talk about what tactics do you put in place to really help you, um, get through to the decision maker?
Richard Blank: Well, first and foremost, very happy to be sharing these ideas with you and yeah, I appreciate it. Really enjoying the time that we're having today on this podcast. And so what I do here, I have a simple structure.
Richard Blank: I have an introduction of body and conclusion, usually in a normal conversation, and the average attention span, in my opinion, is 30 seconds to two minutes. So let's say you're making a prospecting outbound phone call, as you were mentioning, B to. B to B business to business, the first thing I would do is when somebody answers the phone, is to use your anonymity and do a company name spike better than they would.
Richard Blank: So I'd say, Hey, how's Joe doing today? , you know, and then just to make sure that the whole company is doing great. And then the individual that answers the phone would usually ask me. What is your name? And the first technique I would mention is a buffer boomerang technique because they're usually, as you mentioned, black and blue, from getting so many phone calls.
Richard Blank: Mm-hmm. . And the fact that they are just gonna say, We're good. Thanks. Hang up or not transfer the call. You almost have to differentiate yourself, mothers, So usually I like to say even the name of the company, how the company's doing the first time. And then when they ask me this buffer boomerang technique, I will say, Hey Joe, that's an excellent question.
Richard Blank: My name is Richard Blank, and so this individual sees the active listening. I can readjust their negative tone into a positive tone, repeat their question, and then send it back once again with a name drop and who I am. And so after gaining the trust of this gatekeeper, as you would call them, I'm also gonna let them know that I'm transferred to the decision maker.
Richard Blank: I'm gonna let them know how great you are on the phone. We call that a positive escalation. So it increases your odds of actually having that call transferred. Didn't say you get the appointment but transferred. So then when the call is transferred, you are given the gift of telling this individual how amazing Joe was who answered the phone.
Richard Blank: And so you still have your anonymity. And don't be anonymous. The whole call, that's a little bit of shape, right? But if you just start off strong by complimenting someone that works with them. , it separates you from the others that have been calling and shows what you do prior to contracts. And so this individual, once again will ask who you are.
Richard Blank: So another with Buffer Boomerang, that's an excellent question, Mr. Decision Maker. My name is Richard Blank, and so we're having these conversations with the individual and if you're mentioning all the different services, options, and features of your real estate business, In your way. I just wouldn't do desert pitching Joe, because a lot of times people are so scared or reluctant to let someone speak for the fear of being hung up upon, So I believe pitch.
Richard Blank: Desert Pitchings. If you give a list of five things in a row and not even giving the person a chance to look at your dessert and make sort of reaction on it, there's no oasis in the desert.
Joe Killinger: I'm gonna learn a lot today, I can tell. Ok. And so
Richard Blank: it's almost like the MLS when you're talking about a house, you know, you're mentioned ways of the house.
Richard Blank: With the commercial real estate, you have to go over certain sections, and since it's a non-visual call, you have to gauge the positive or the negative reactions from. This potential client. And so I say slow down on your list of things that you're offering. Take the horizontal to a vertical because you are gonna find one or two things of interest, and then stack that with opened ended questions so they can explain to you.
Richard Blank: Why commercial real estate is important, why they may move forward. Okay. And so as we're continuing this conversation, my suggestion, cuz you're very keen on this, is that this is a first time phone call and there are certain tele signs you can get from somebody over the phone. Once again, I talked about 30 seconds to two minutes.
Richard Blank: My tone needs to be consistent of empathy and confidence, right? There's four sections to phonetics. It's tone, rate, pitch, and duration. Everyone talks about mirror imaging, but I'm not gonna mirror image someone that's negative, so I will always stay positive and always have the answer, but this is the part Joe.
Richard Blank: Of manipulation that you will enjoy if you pay attention to how fast and the speaking level, the pitch of somebody. In every 30 seconds to two minutes, you might see a spike or a dip, and you know perfectly well that's the perfect time to ask a tie down, pin down question. Or potentially if there's noise in the background because some people are working from home, that's still even within, uh, commercial real estate that you would passively, inadvertently and passive aggressively.
Richard Blank: Let them know the Me Too technique on how much you like dogs. Because the dog is making noise or there's a distraction. Someone's on a cell phone. In a car. And so you can always ask the follow up question, What's the dog's name? And so if someone says, Fluffy , Well, I love dogs. Yeah, Put fluffy outside. It's throwing in the call.
Richard Blank: And when they come back, Joe, and I know you're trying to lock in in an appointment, but this is the time that your audience can anchor the coal. You've already made your introduction and you're in the body of the call, but the fact that you and I could talk about your dog for a couple minutes, What that does is that's when you will usually ask me again, excuse me, what is your name?
Richard Blank: And then I'd say, That's an excellent question Joe. My name is Richard Blank. And then your name dropping me the rest of the call. And so when we finish it up, when we go to the conclusion, I want you to say, Joe, since you still have me on the phone, are there any other questions that you have? Cuz you showed me you like A, B, C, and d.
Richard Blank: I know you don't like 'em all, but you showed me you'd like two. Any other questions that you may have, You may or may not. But I always review the information, Joe in military. Because A is the cleanest way, but instead of ending the call, a lot of the times the people have served in the military, nobody's that has.
Richard Blank: Yeah. And then instead of ending the call, you're on the call for another five minutes. Yeah. But I'm still not done. When I'm doing the follow up email to the individual, I will definitely give a written positive escalation on Joe who assisted me. Mm-hmm. to transfer the call. So when I do the Richard Circle and I come back again making the follow up, call the individual yourself, that answer the call is gonna say, In 10 years, no one has ever written something like that about me.
Richard Blank: Yeah. Thank you. And so I'm not saying that you're gonna get the deal, but obviously going from half court to three point to foul line, Yeah. I think you've increased your odds and you've also separated yourself. A lot of people that are just trying to angle in on that goal. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Joe Killinger: You're not just.
Real Estate Jam Session 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. Joe Killinger discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Joe Killinger has been an active member in the real estate industry for many years, wearing different hats, and at times multiple hats! Over the years he has been an Agent, Investor, Syndicator, Founder and Operator of companies as well as properties he invests in. His expertise has been developed over the past 30 years. During that time he has been personally responsible for the sale of and/or directly involved in the marketing of over 5,900 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling over 900 million dollars throughout the United States.
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=DgL4aBGjWqU&t=328s
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
I saved enough money to purchase and build a 300 seat center. Positive Talk Radio guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
Should that have lost their way. We have, we have those encampments here now. And, uh, and it's, it's a, it is a big problem here. And it's because we, as a people, don't take care of each other as, as well as we should. Um, and, and there is some drug abuse and there is some, you know, uh, stuff like that, but.
it's interesting that if that people will, you know, give you a banana, if you're, if you're down there or whatever, and I, I think, I think it's great. And I, and I really applaud you for doing, for working the way you're working and doing what you're doing. It is really outstanding. I would say, by the way, we're talking with.
Richard blank. He is the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center. They do everything under the sun, from web design to everything else. You can go to, uh, costaricascallcenter.com and you can get all the information about Richard, his team, the folks that are there, because I'll, I'll tell you I I'm. I am as a human and, and by the way, you're one of the most human people.
And by the way, that's a, that's a huge compliment. Uh, you're one of the most human people that I've ever met. Thank you be, I really appreciate you. And would you, would you come back so that we can have more of a conversation about other stuff and, and more about this? Anytime I'd love to be a guest that comes back a reoccurring guest on a TV show.
So it's like Larry from three's company. You gotta have me on, on a couple scenes. I definitely love to come back. Absolutely. Because the. The way that you word things, the way that you respect people and stuff is it can be really helpful and energizing to other people who may want to do the same thing, but just don't know how well let's break those stereotypes.
A CEO can be one that's empathetic. Someone can take the chance and move abroad, but I make it look easy. My good friend, I started my business at 35. I wish I was a teenager. That was a whiz kid or a genius in my twenties. But I'll be forthright with you after working at my friend's call center for four years, I learned the business, but I wasn't matured enough.
It took me to my mid thirties to have impulse control maturity and enough money saved where I was responsible. For those contracts and job stability. And also, I didn't take a loan now. I don't have a partner. I don't pay interest. I did slow and steady. I first started renting a seat at a opened air blended call center.
Then after a couple years, I rented space and built out 150 seats and bought the equipment. After six years, I saved enough money to purchase and build my 300 seat center. So it's more of the tortoise, not the. It's grandma telling me if you can't pay for it in cash, don't do it. And it's also me saving enough acorns for the winter.
So I could weather storms. I wish it was bells and whistles and shortcuts and exciting, but it's not, it's being very responsible and taking your time and just making sure that you are fulfilling the needs of these agents by giving them their job stability. And in this industry, that's so competitive, especially against.
The best thing that I can do once again, is as you say, just have these sort of ethics and put my best foot forward and you don't owe anybody any money. And which means that your business is growing slower, but it. In order, you know, sometimes in, as you know, sometimes in order to get really RevD up and to really take out a big loan and then grow it and stuff you may have to, at one point in time, compromise your ethics and to do things that you don't otherwise wouldn't otherwise do because of you're chasing the almighty dollar.
At that point, you don't have to do that. So it makes it, it must be really freeing to be able to be an employer of 300 plus people. And their families and by, uh, jute boxes and, and, and, uh, and things, and, and to have a, a happy, a happy life, even if you're not a multimillionaire or a billionaire, well, it made the most sense.
I wanted to sleep at night and imagine if I lost an account, I don't want to be pissed off on the floor and then, you know, stressing about it. And it was very simple. As long as I was making my margins, renting this seat made. Then after you got to four dozen agents, it doesn't make sense to spend five grand a month to some guy when I could have my own place and buy the equipment and build it out.
And instead of buying brand new, you know, computers can be excellent secondhand. And a lot of the call centers were going out of business. So they bought it new. I pretty much got it with the wrapping on it, even though it's second a it's not out of the store, but it's pretty much brand new with the furniture.
Also, since I am a guest here and you look at me in my suit, there's a very good chance. It might charge 20% more. So I'd have local representatives for me with connections that would go and get me the best prices and bring me things. So you gotta build a team around you. You can't do it all on your own, and you gotta trust people to represent you and to speak for you.
And have I been disappointed a few times, but I've also been amazed. By some people that have been with me over a decade and have grown with my company. I have two people with me that have been with me over 10 years. One is my chief technical officer, another one's my floor manager. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
I could bring someone in with 10 times the amount of experience, no way these people wore my stripes. They walked with me, they know my culture. I will allow them to learn, facilitate their on the job training. As long as it takes, I'll bringing specialists for the it depart. But there's no way I'm gonna bring in a, a, a general manager or supervisor from another call center, no way they need to earn their stripes.
They need to work with me for a little while and have the respect of the agents. If not, it's just definitely not gonna work out. And have I said, we experienced that never. I never brought in an outside supervisor. Everything is always promoted from within that is that, and it's the only way to go, because especially if you've got a unique.
Because you're gonna have somebody that comes in that is, comes from a different style of culture, and they're going to try and change that culture that has been so successful. And that would you you'd probably have a, like twenty two hundred and eighty nine people at your house the day after you hired that guy.
saying, get rid of that guy. We can do, you know, it, it it's, it's just amazing. So. I Richard, I really appreciate your time today and it's, it's been awesome. And I gotta, I gotta tell you I'm my team is growing as well. Mm-hmm and I I've got a, uh, a young lady that we just, that we just hired. She's a, an assistant she's just dynamite and you're right.
You have to have the right people and slow and steady. So, um, what is her name? Your new assistant. Her name is de. Well, Demi's getting a positive escalation, cuz I'm sure she's doing an excellent job. Oh, she's fabulous. As a matter of fact, the ending that you're about to, uh, um, watch she did yesterday and Demi.
All right. She's she's. She's awesome. So, and we, we appreciate having her and I, I subscribe to your philosophy of management and management style and company culture and philosophy. I, I, I tell you, I wish I would be sitting at, if we were in the same room, I'd be sitting at your feet. We'd be high fiving, each other, and telling each other how great we are.
But my good friend water seeks its own level. That's why, when I first started watching your podcast, it inspired me enough to write. Here we are. And mind you, this, there were a couple times back and forth because of scheduling conflicts and stuff. It was a mutual goal of ours was to get on a show together and to share ideas.
And we fulfilled that today. And so I am very humble and I'm very thankful for your time and your audience is time as well. We will do this again. Oh yeah, because we, we got more to say and I sounds more, I really, I really appreciate. You you coming here and again, Richard blank has been our guest go to Costa Rica, call center.com.
If you need remote services, he can provide you with all kinds of stuff. So it's just, I so much that, that I can't, I can't describe it all. So it's just really good. And by the way, thank you. You, you watched some of my, some of my other podcasts. You're good. You're addicting. And I can't wait to put this episode on my Facebook page with 98,000 Ticos that are gonna love to meet you.
I've I'm humbled. Thank you so much. I, I, I really appreciate the time that you've spent with me and the, and thank God. There are people out there like you, that's all. I gotta say you too. Powell. That's why we're together. And we're gonna keep on grow. Absolutely. And thank you, Richard, and stay right where you are.
I've gotta do this and I'll be right back. Hey, thanks for enjoying this episode all the way to the end. Please give us a like, and subscribe to this channel. This has been a production of positive talk radio.net. Please visit our website, oddly name positive talk, radio.net for more details about us and our mission, which is to provide great positive programming designed to inspire us.
I'm Kevin McDonald's and I'm proud of these shows. And I truly hope that you'll like them and share them with friends and family. So on behalf of our entire team, remember be kind to one another because each other's always.
Positive Talk Radio 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. Kevin McDonald discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Positive Talk Radio with Kevin McDonald
"Evolving Ideas One Conversation At A Time"
Positive Talk Radio podcast was originally started in 2003 by Kevin McDonald and friends on KKNW 1150 AM in Seattle with great guests, dynamic stories and interviews, plus new thoughts on a wide range of topics. The concept is to provide positive informative content designed to educate, entertain, empower and inspire all who listen Our content includes positive thoughts and idea's and is truly unique in the podcast industry and now again on KKNW 1150 AM on Monday's at 9 and Wednesdays at 4 pm pacific.
Kevin McDonald - Creator and Host. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington. This jovial fun loving man experienced life in a big way from star athlete, to actor, Voice Actor, Restaurateur, Sales and Sales Management, Transit Operator, Audio Producer, Talk Show Host, Creative Consultant, Motivational Leader and current podcast creator. (My Independence Report) Who’s mission is to Declare Our Freedom From Hate, Division and Fear, featuring positive motivational guest, music interviews and fun episodes. KM Media.pro is the parent site for, Positive Talk Radio. We are a live podcast/ Video cast that focuses on todays life challenges. In addition we are able to produce audio/ video products for other companies and people looking to find a voice in the crowded world of podcast journalism
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=6XO0R1aN1WU
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://positivetalkradio.podbean.com/e/richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingly-gifted-business-man/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingly-gifted-business-man/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/191-richard-blank-chief-executive-officer/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/191-richard-blank-chief-executive-officer/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1736657096686275
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/guests/richard-blank/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/208-richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/160-richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingly-gifted-business-man/
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/positive-talk-radio-3982674/episodes/richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingl-141119081
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-positive-talk-radio-87062639/episode/richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-100280727/
It's amazing. I I've talked to a lot of people that have traveled internationally. I haven't had the ability to, yet. I plan on doing it at one point in time, but I will, I don't think I'm not gonna no. So, but what they tell me is that when you leave this country and you go elsewhere, mm-hmm, people who have nothing.
And I mean, nothing mm-hmm can still be happy. It. Absolutely. Doesn't take a car. Doesn't take, you know, a lot of money. Uh, they've got water, they've got food, they've got a roof over their head. They've got family and they're happy. And I, I think we've, you've been gone a while. I think we've lost that we've lost touch with that in this country.
And I would hope to get it back. They also have faith. They have faith in themselves. They have faith in their family and they have spiritual faith. And I like things like that. And I believe that everybody in the world has that in common. It doesn't matter your culture, religion, your language, your skin color, or whatever.
No, there, there a smile is universal. And when people offer food and share things like that's universal, too. and in this culture, you cannot turn down a second plate of food as an insult. So just be prepared to eat and be prepared to be taken very well cared of, and also have the pleasure of reciprocating that as well.
And so I've seen that as part of this culture, but no, the, the United States is fine. We have this, I just think people need to slow down. Calm down a little bit and just get back to the basics, get back. As I mentioned, the way that we were raised by our parents and grandparents, and if we can get back to that sort of simple sort of mind frame and, and communication, people have much more, uh, effective and fulfilling relationships.
What what's happening is people are texting too much and they're not calling. or they're not seeing one another, because it may be COVID people got isolated and it's not easy. It's really, the tough road is to get back into that. The easy way is just to keep doing what you're doing, but the, but the more challenging way is to walk next door to your neighbors and to say hello, or to make that extra effort to not break a plan and to see your friends or to do a follow up email or phone call for courtesy.
And not be latent about it because people are expecting that. And so as long as you can do those sort of things on a daily basis, it won't pile up. You won't forget about it and you'll be invited to a lot of parties and events because you're showing interest in that sort of relationship. Absolutely.
Yeah. I ask my youngest son. When he was, uh, 18, 19, this is about 10 years ago, but he, he was to the, he was so good at texting that he could in class have his phone in his pocket and be able to text without looking at the, the number to the, uh, uh, letters as to mm-hmm. what he was. I mean, he was so gifted at texting.
He did it so much. So I asked him one day, I said, Don't you find that texting takes away from the personal attention of having a conversation with somebody. And he said, no, I'm fine with texting besides I can talk to five girls at the same time when I'm texting. And I can't do that when I'm on the phone.
So it's like, well, okay, but what's your son's name? The Fs . That sounds great. Five girls at the same time. He's remember our generat. Okay. We had to call people's homes to ask permission to speak to our friends. Yes, we did. Cuz dad would pick up the phone and it would be like, who's this that's right. Oh, you know, can I talk to Lisa please?
Uh, you know, and uh, but nowadays none of that's, but I think you're right. We've lost a human touch and we, and you would be great to get that human touch back. I gotta ask you in Costa Rica, what's the homeless situation like. It's there. Uh, and I, I see it a lot in, in San Jose, but really what I see is it's more of somebody that's lost their way.
It's usually a young man or a young woman that might be indulging. too much. Wow. Yes. And so that's what I see. And so, but other areas where yes, it is a third world country. And I have seen individuals out there asking for the most asking for OS from people. And you can tell that this individual might be a senior citizen or have a handicap.
Or something that's not drug or bad habit related. And a lot of people, including myself, not just give money, but then all of a sudden you ask, is there something that you need specifically? I need some sneakers, I need a jacket. I need something. You get that for them. It's not like a one and a done, like in my neighborhood, there was a corner and there was, there was Donna Katia.
She must have been at least 75 years old. And this woman was out there every day, sweetest woman. And she was literal. Almost supporting her family. I didn't ask too many questions, but this woman was out there asking for money and saying, you know, blessings for people. And she was very smart. She remembered people's names too.
And so when I would see her, I would give something. And then when Christmastime came along, I asked if there was something specific. She mentioned the sneakers for, you know, a grandchild and I, and I got that for her. And so, um, there's certain ways to do it. Like I'll give somebody money on the corner if they're juggling knives or doing some sort of acrobatic event.
Yeah, sure. I'll give you a couple dollars. But then when you see somebody every day and you realize they're part of your community, it's, it's something where people want to take care of them. It's interesting how neighbors will talk about this individual that you saw and they start learning about them.
And so this is a culture that really likes to take care of their own. And I've seen on the side, like if you walk past the banana plantation, they'll be a worker there and you're just walking and he's like, Hey, would you like a few bananas? You know, it's just, people are always sharing and they're always, um, Once again, trying to make people feel welcome, but I don't see it that bad.
I don't see really tent encampments here. We just see certain packets of the city that might have individuals, as I've mentioned that.
Positive Talk Radio 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. Kevin McDonald discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Positive Talk Radio with Kevin McDonald
"Evolving Ideas One Conversation At A Time"
Positive Talk Radio podcast was originally started in 2003 by Kevin McDonald and friends on KKNW 1150 AM in Seattle with great guests, dynamic stories and interviews, plus new thoughts on a wide range of topics. The concept is to provide positive informative content designed to educate, entertain, empower and inspire all who listen Our content includes positive thoughts and idea's and is truly unique in the podcast industry and now again on KKNW 1150 AM on Monday's at 9 and Wednesdays at 4 pm pacific.
Kevin McDonald - Creator and Host. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington. This jovial fun loving man experienced life in a big way from star athlete, to actor, Voice Actor, Restaurateur, Sales and Sales Management, Transit Operator, Audio Producer, Talk Show Host, Creative Consultant, Motivational Leader and current podcast creator. (My Independence Report) Who’s mission is to Declare Our Freedom From Hate, Division and Fear, featuring positive motivational guest, music interviews and fun episodes. KM Media.pro is the parent site for, Positive Talk Radio. We are a live podcast/ Video cast that focuses on todays life challenges. In addition we are able to produce audio/ video products for other companies and people looking to find a voice in the crowded world of podcast journalism
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/lHwxCUKsY9E
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://positivetalkradio.podbean.com/e/richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingly-gifted-business-man/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingly-gifted-business-man/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/191-richard-blank-chief-executive-officer/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/191-richard-blank-chief-executive-officer/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1736657096686275
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/guests/richard-blank/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/208-richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center/
https://www.positivetalkradio.net/160-richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingly-gifted-business-man/
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/positive-talk-radio-3982674/episodes/richard-blank-ceo-and-amazingl-141119081
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-positive-talk-radio-87062639/episode/richard-blank-ceo-of-costa-ricas-100280727/
For doing this for so long.
Excellent. Okay. All right. So now, now we have an understanding of how it all came to be. So, uh, now we want to kind of get into, uh, some of the sales related questions, right. And tap into that, that great wisdom that you've accumulated over the 14 years. There's so much emphasis on cold email these days in selling.
Why should the use of the phone still command?
I think a cold email is fine. If you're just doing email blasts. If it's just a templated, I think a phone is essential these days for multiple reasons. The first is it'll give you a chance to understand the company's culture where you're calling. Secondly, you might meet people prior to the decision maker.
Where you can build a relationship, learn more information. And in my opinion, do a positive escalation. So when you have this relationship with either the gatekeeper or somebody else that's assisted you before transferring, you can give the gift of mentioning how amazing this individual was, that works at your company.
So your first impression, if it is a cold call and you're meeting somebody for the first time. You're showing very good faith. You're just not coming in, asking for an appointment. In my opinion, you're gaining a couple points and I think you're also eliminating the chance of any sort of upsell compared to just a cold email.
You're eliminating any sort of chance of getting a referral or any additional business from that, unless they decide to write back. There's no way to get any sort of feedback, the positive or the negative aspects of the product in which you're representing. And then finally, as I say before, there's, there's that relationship and rapport building that you're meeting with somebody.
So where you would be able to get the pass to pitch, you will be able to get that follow up appointment, or you would be considered a little bit more than somebody that just sends out templated emails, but. I will say this, my friend, if somebody is just using these cold emails as their marketing strategy, why don't you take an extra 30 seconds?
Okay. Just to look at their website or a LinkedIn profile, because you would possibly be able to uncover something that would give you a sort of connection, or you can congratulate them on a promotion. On an anniversary, a third location, you could say they're slogan. I don't know, but if you're just calling me, sir, and giving me some email, it's extremely informal.
But if you mention my pinball machines, I'm gonna read your entire email. So at least you're gonna have a shot with me. So my suggestion is just to, instead of being a, a, a, a print. Be a painting, actually add a little bit to these templates, if that's your only strategy, but Michael, to answer your question, you are eliminating so many different ways to build momentum, energy, and relationship building by eliminating any sort of phone calls.
Wonderful. Yeah. I, I, I totally agree with you. So thank you for that. Um, I recall a past client telling me that they'd only reach live people about three or 4% of.
Build and Balance Show has accepted Richard'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. Michael Neuendorff discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Build and Balance is dedicated to serving salespeople with 0 - 5 years of experience; and anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills. Michael Neuendorff been in sales and marketing for more than 20 years and know what it's like to start out in sales. Michael has 25+ years of sales and marketing experience; extensive team building and leadership experience; teaching, training and mentoring experience and a proven ability to think creatively and listen deeply. Michael was a marketing director at Oracle Corporation, and an assistant manager of direct marketing at Softbank Forums. Michael has also been a top inside sales manager and a private English instructor in Tokyo.
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=NxtvkG1i-b8&feature=youtu.be
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/#
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/richard-blank-and-michael-neuendorff/#
Michael Neuendorff: Uh, when we talk about that, the, uh, the last question is when should a business consider using a call center like yours? What's the thought process that one would go through to make that decision?
Richard Blank: That's a very good question. And if I may, I have to, I guess, say something for my, my own piece. I would prefer Michael, that people choose me for merit over price. I can name 10 call centers that can do it for half my cost in the Philippines in India or anywhere in town. So if that's your first question for me, I'll answer you by saying a thousand dollars an hour.
They go, no, you're not. And I go, of course, I'm not, what's your second question. at least just to see what they have to say. And then a lot of the times on those calls, because people shop around which they. People do know certain telemarketing, they have done it in house, but they've never, uh, outsourced. So maybe they're not familiar with some of our infrastructure, our reporting, our supervision, onboarding training, quality assurance.
They've just done it with a half a dozen guys in their office. And a lot of the times they have unrealistic expectations. Sometimes people have to go through a certain process with me. So they qualify. I reject more campaigns than I accept because I'm very selective. I use the smart theory specific measurable, agreed upon realistic.
And timeframe oriented. But to answer your, your question in a certain way, anybody that would like to scale their company, maybe compare apples to what they're doing to my structure here. We're very price comparable to the United States, including full benefits here. I don't force hands. I don't twist arms.
And from an educated point of view, potential clients make a decision about working with. Most of the time and I will be candid about this it's price and how can I compete when we're the most expensive in central America, but we also have the best infrastructure. If that's important to you. We also have Spanish language capacity.
We're very close to the United States. We're on certain time zones and we have a democratic society here. We don't have an army, so there's a 95% literacy. So one of the questions that I would ask as let's say a salesman is since I have these skills and you're asking me because I'm 50% more, am I capable of doing 1.5 an hour compared to just one an hour?
If I put it on a predictive dialer, if I speak in Spanish, if I use Richard's coaching, if we do rebuttals, if I do voicemails, am I capable of doing 0.5? Because you're saying you pay half. Well, then that's fine. Put me on a level playing field. Maybe my agents are capable with the skills that they possess and the coaching and the environment that they have.
And I've seen it to do 0.5 more, which means that we even out and I'm worth my cost. And then we get seats. But my goodness gracious is I can't do 20 calls an hour. you know, if the average one is 10, you can't, you can't make up time, but those are the sort of questions that I would ask to see if it would be a good fit or not.
But, um, but I do appreciate anybody that calls me where they must have found me on the internet through search engine optimization or read an article, or at least took the time to reach out. And so I almost tell them to put their checkbooks away. No one sends me money on a first phone call. It's my pleasure to share information.
And I hope that I shared plenty with your audience today because there's so much more I could share, but there's only so much time, but I believe that I shared with you my best. Where it would give somebody such great foundation training where Michael, all they do is just dedicated practice. If they just do things when the cameras are off and no one's around and they just practice their kicks, punches and painting their guitar, they're gonna be amazing artists of speech.
But the one thing is when they're too well rehearsed and they're too commercialized, they they're not raw anymore. They lose that sort of sparking character that they first started off this journey with. And that's pretty much my final thoughts on that.
Yeah, no, that that's excellent. Uh, that, that was, that was a, a, a nice little nugget right there at the end, too, Richard.
So thank you very much for sharing with us today. Grateful for the time that you spent with us because you're, you're running a busy and successful business down there in Costa Rica. So I'm grateful.
Thank you, Michael.
Build and Balance Show has accepted Richard'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. Michael Neuendorff discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Build and Balance is dedicated to serving salespeople with 0 - 5 years of experience; and anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills. Michael Neuendorff been in sales and marketing for more than 20 years and know what it's like to start out in sales. Michael has 25+ years of sales and marketing experience; extensive team building and leadership experience; teaching, training and mentoring experience and a proven ability to think creatively and listen deeply. Michael was a marketing director at Oracle Corporation, and an assistant manager of direct marketing at Softbank Forums. Michael has also been a top inside sales manager and a private English instructor in Tokyo.
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/MVX44qrEXP0
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/#
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/richard-blank-and-michael-neuendorff/#
A realistic percentage of reach for cold calling? Build & Balance guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center
For that. Um, I recall a past client telling me that they'd only reach live people about three or 4% of the time when calling all day long. What do you think is a realistic percentage of reach for cold calling?
If all they're doing is speaking to these people like four times out of a hundred phone calls, it's really an Oasis in a desert.
My opinion is why don't you hang out for a while instead of doing an average five minute phone call, why don't you stretch it to 15 minutes? Cuz you're probably a little cold and you need to warm up and somebody's there. These are two ships passing in the night we take advantage of that. If you need to throw your list in a predictive dollars, you can speak to at least three more people, but.
That's not the point. The point is if you're doing these phone calls, I think you should slow down a little bit more and just take advantage of that. More people are doing omnichannel non-voice support. As you were mentioning, filling out forms, doing check. One of my clients has the same challenge.
They're getting the 4%. So instead of doing 150 phone calls a day, they reduced it to about one 15. So as I mentioned before, they can find out a recent promotion or some sort of company culture. So when they're leaving their voicemail or they're sending that email template, it's really custom made and I've seen that yes.
Phone call, area contact conversion ratio dropped a little. But then here's your advantage? Let's say you make another phone call back to these people. You're mentioning cold emails, not anymore. Michael. Now it's a warm email. because I've sent it. I could be following up on it, even if they haven't read it, but I might ask and I'm sure you like something from the email to at least try to anchor in there, but you could be doing a second, third or fourth touch approach to a client.
Realize this is their pro. But I do believe by doing a little bit of due diligence research and seeing the one thing that the person loves the most and just mentioning it with them. It will give you a lot more mileage when you're speaking with the people. Yeah. I,
I, uh, think that's really smart, Richard.
Build and Balance Show has accepted Richard'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. Michael Neuendorff discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Build and Balance is dedicated to serving salespeople with 0 - 5 years of experience; and anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills. Michael Neuendorff been in sales and marketing for more than 20 years and know what it's like to start out in sales. Michael has 25+ years of sales and marketing experience; extensive team building and leadership experience; teaching, training and mentoring experience and a proven ability to think creatively and listen deeply. Michael was a marketing director at Oracle Corporation, and an assistant manager of direct marketing at Softbank Forums. Michael has also been a top inside sales manager and a private English instructor in Tokyo.
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/ezLE7wUVXAU
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/#
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/richard-blank-and-michael-neuendorff/#
Michael Neuendorff: How, how do you, how do you develop sales? People who are relatively green to become someone that is effective at following your methods and processes? That, what, what, what do you look for in salespeople to know that I'm working with someone who could be great?
Michael? Those are my favorite agents to.
I can mold them. They're not coming in with bad habits. They're coming in bilingual, which shows such education for them. I get to be their first coach, if it's their first call center, telemarketing job, but let's go through it in three stages. If we may, the first one is the psychological stage. I have to let them know that fear is a morbid anticipation of something that hasn't happened yet.
Just in my own instance, just by these agents being bilingual and myself, once again, it shows dedication and structure. So they've done something very difficult. If I can properly prepare them and put them on a level playing field with all of the resources, such as a proper script. Rebuttals training in the CRM, in the system, how to use their phone system, doing quality assurance, which is QA support, where we go through, we call them KPIs, which are key performance indicators.
So we can just see their consistency. Trust me, everybody. It's a test. You can easily pass. The points that I give are for the soft skills. We just judge you to ask their email address and mention your information. I don't do that. I, I concentrate on the ACEs. I, I expect you to do that. That's what I'm paying you to do.
Richard Blank: What I want you to do when you're in class is to once again, relax and realize that this could be something that could pay more than most vocations. And the fact that you have a Thor. And you should expand your vocabulary. So instead of using words like help, my suggestion would be to use in this specific order would be assist guide or lend a hand, same message, different delivery.
You're being more strategic on this. You're being a little more clever. You don't once again, need to say, I'm sorry. It's for my clarification. So once I expand their vocabulary, just with work words, and then they go home and learn additional words cuz they're just so into it. And so what happens then, then you start connecting people together.
So you have a certain sort of buddy system or unlike myself, who's the owner of the company telemarketer. When you have somebody that shine. Let them work with the local Costa Ricans in their own language, knowing their culture. It's very important for me that people get promoted here from within, and I'm able to delegate certain responsibilities.
Now you're talking about a new guy. But if the kid shows up on time, front row center takes notes, role plays participates, just a great all around kid. You don't think I'm gonna want him to stand up on Wednesday and do a little bit of the class just for fun to build his confidence, love kids like that, have to do things like that.
And they will make sure that the people that work with them break bread with them, know each other's names. And you just don't say, good job. What do you saying? Good job. Let them specifically know you listen to a call or let them know, thank you for your one year anniversary with us. I must be doing something right, because Amazon, Oracle, Intel, and HP they're here.
I compete against the big boys, but guess what? They don't play pinball with their people. They don't train their people personally, like I do. They're not selective of sometimes the campaigns that they choose, just to make sure that people feel comfortable with the sort of training that they have and the preparation.
And so that's why I believe that this smaller sort of company that I have is why certain people gravitate towards this. It may not be for everybody. Some people just wanna lose themselves in thousands of people. But those that work for smaller call centers can make a very, very good name for themselves.
Very fast. Yeah.
Michael Neuendorff: Excellent.
Build and Balance Show has accepted Richard'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. Michael Neuendorff discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation and phonetic micro expression reading.
Build and Balance is dedicated to serving salespeople with 0 - 5 years of experience; and anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills. Michael Neuendorff been in sales and marketing for more than 20 years and know what it's like to start out in sales. Michael has 25+ years of sales and marketing experience; extensive team building and leadership experience; teaching, training and mentoring experience and a proven ability to think creatively and listen deeply. Michael was a marketing director at Oracle Corporation, and an assistant manager of direct marketing at Softbank Forums. Michael has also been a top inside sales manager and a private English instructor in Tokyo.
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/bcX13KGnqYI
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/#
https://www.buildandbalance.com/an-interview-with-the-ceo-of-costa-ricas-call-center-richard-blank-best-practices-in-outbound-sales-conversations/richard-blank-and-michael-neuendorff/#
Dave Lorenzo: 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.
Dave Lorenzo: 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.
Dave Lorenzo: 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, P Avita, I'm very happy to be here today.
Dave Lorenzo: 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.
Richard Blank: But I, I visited Costa Rica. I shared with you probably 21 or 22 years ago. 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.
Richard Blank: 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 smack out right in central America. We're very close to the United States or our Proximic on a direct flight is just a couple hours.
Richard Blank: 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 is an expatriate for the last 21 years. And their skill set here is incredible. Besides them being bilingual.
Richard Blank: 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 HP, Intel, Oracle, and. 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.
Richard Blank: 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 success.
Dave Lorenzo: Yeah.
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://youtu.be/nybGZd8p2wI
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
Dave Lorenzo: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 least 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. That one guy at 50 years old that wears a suit and 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 a few 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. 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 2008 and February 6th, when I closed my first account, it was only one seed 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. 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 that.
Dave Lorenzo: No, that's terrific.
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://youtu.be/2y2TqpZowyw
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
Dave Lorenzo: 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, if today's a perfect example, My interaction with you today is probably the fourth or fifth time.
Dave Lorenzo: 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.
Dave Lorenzo: 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.
Dave Lorenzo: 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 again?
Richard Blank: Excellent 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. I sent about 70% home to give myself a 20% buffer in the office for onboarding, PCI compliance, or if someone has a redundancy, electricity or, or hardware problem, they can jump onto a station.
Richard Blank: It's just me. I'm a coach. I'm not sensitive, but I love my people. And I love walking the rose 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. They're closer to their family. They're saving tons of money. As long as their work environment is professional they're.
Richard Blank: 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, 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.
Richard Blank: 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. 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.
Richard Blank: And, um, that might break the ice too, but no, check this out. The fact that I take the time with the 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.
Richard Blank: we all were able to get through COVID together. I got a lot of friends where their business went out of business. Yeah.
Dave Lorenzo: Oh me too.
Richard Blank: And the fact that I'm still standing and you're still standing, you know, right on man. Yeah. Right on.
Dave Lorenzo: No, I appreciate that. Yeah. I, I appreciate it. I.
https://youtu.be/30D56dNySFU
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
Dave Lorenzo: 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 an associated call center, being a rep at a call center in Costa Rica is a noble good, uh, well respected profession.
Dave Lorenzo: 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.
Dave Lorenzo: 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, In all your experience at call centers, have you been able 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.
Dave Lorenzo: I don't know. And start relationships with them. Is that, have you, have you been able to overcome that with your folks?
Richard Blank: It 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 sweepstakes. Wow. Yeah, those are the one.
Dave Lorenzo: 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.
Richard Blank: Those are five 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.
Richard Blank: Not saying it's ethical or not. I choose just not to do it.
Dave Lorenzo: Yeah.
Richard Blank: Okay. And so some people might have come from an environment or thought about that sort of environment because the money is great, 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.
Richard Blank: These are public speakers. As you see in Spanish port Voz or UR, these are people that are wonderful speakers. My thing is to eliminate the. it's a morbid anticipation of something they haven't happened yet. Learning a second language is 10 times harder doing this, and if I can properly prepare them, then it reduces any sort of fear.
Richard Blank: 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.
Richard Blank: 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 Confident.
Richard Blank: 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 rows, 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.
Dave Lorenzo: Yeah.
Richard Blank: When, 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.
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://youtu.be/mZj5mHRCNYM
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
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.
Richard Blank: 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.
Richard Blank: My favorite is a hot lead transfer. One. You 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. Best deal and you might not keep them along.
Richard Blank: So I usually like to feel most comfortable around a level one customer. 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 overtime or certain adjustments that they need to understand.
Richard Blank: 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.
Richard Blank: 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. Yeah. 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.
Richard Blank: 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 rebuttal 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?
Richard Blank: 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.
Richard Blank: 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.
Richard Blank: 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.
Richard Blank: 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. 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 it.
Richard Blank: Let us do it for our clarification. If it's ABC or 1, 2, 3, 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 inadvertently and passive aggressively.
Richard Blank: I can tell you how much I love your dog, which is pretty much a hint to, you know, have him 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 listen, 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 escalations, you'll have a business associate M.
Richard Blank: 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 might be able to tell you about a promot.
Richard Blank: or it might just get real with you for a minute. 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 are 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.
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://youtu.be/IVFQWhymunU
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