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
