The Importance of Personal Interaction in Business

Real People, Real Business - EP #63 with Richard Blank - Creating Connection & Balance With Games A weekly podcast and show by Stephanie Hayes, Business Strategist. Each week, Stephanie interviews business owners who have real, in-the-trenches stories and experiences to share. Real People, Real Business is my online show featuring business owners and entrepreneurs who are in the trenches, creating and growing their dream businesses, one step at a time. Sometimes we need inspiration and answers from folks who are closer to where we are, and who share the same experiences, constraints, challenges and opportunities that we do. I’m Stephanie, and I work with experienced business owners who are trying to figure out what’s next in their businesses. They have pushed themselves to achieve enough success that they know their business is viable, but feel they have run out of options for growth. I help them create a new vision and strategy for their business so that they can feel completely aligned, excited and energized about their new direction with a clear path for financial and personal growth. Tired of hearing amazing stories that are inspirational but feel out of reach? Craving some real talk with people who are just like you? In Real People, Real Business, Business Strategist Stephanie Hayes interviews business owners that are building their businesses and making progress through grit, determination and action. They are working through the everyday challenges and celebrating incremental wins on their journey to their dream. Every one has a story, and each of these entrepreneurs are telling theirs in funny, vulnerable and heartwarming ways that will make you say "Yes! That's me!" and leave you with creative ideas for breaking through that next roadblock that might just have you stuck. Celebrating all businesses and all business owners, and creating a community of real people. After following his love of Spanish and majoring in Spanish communication in college, Richard Blank landed an internship with Telemundo and the Importers of Corona which prepared him for a once in a lifetime opportunity taking him from Philadelphia to Central America. In this episode, you’ll hear how a friend’s offer to teach English in Costa Rica launched Richard's entrepreneurial journey. By working in his friend’s call center, he learned the ins and outs of the business, gaining the confidence to become an entrepreneur himself, founding his own call center company - Costa Rica’s Call Center. Listen in to Richard’s refreshing, positive, and relationship-centered approach to building a successful business. Learn about the fun business culture he has instilled in his company, born out of a very unique hobby that goes the extra mile in creating a positive experience for both his employees and customers. Richard reveals the complex nature of running a call center business in a foreign country, the differences between offshore centers and near shore centers, and how he combats attrition. He goes on to discuss the type of clients he gets the most joy working with, the criteria he uses to determine if a client is a good fit, how he differentiates his business from his competitors, and the old school approach he follows that has led to his business growth. Running a call center has its challenges and Richard describes how he navigates them, the impact the pandemic has had on the call center industry, what he predicts happening in his industry in the future, and the importance of human interaction in creating a positive customer experience with a company. Finally, Richard shares the 3 things that convinced him he could be an entrepreneur, the number one core value he remains committed to in his business, and the one difference between what is out there in the business world and what is real. Stephanie Hayes Business Strategist & Coach I’m a 25-year business veteran and mentor for experienced, hard-working entrepreneurs like you, who are ready to level up in business and in life. I design personalized, totally aligned business models that suit who you are, how you want to work, and that give you the straight path to success – however you define that. You don’t have time for vague, might-work theories, and I have zero patience for marketing-guru-in-a-Lambroghini nonsense. (We’ll get along just fine) You want to take control of your business and create a deliberate path to your next stage of success. Side-by-side, I help you create a detailed, actionable, and incredibly specific game plan, so you can build quickly and become excited and confident about your next steps. 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. 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. https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/ #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Leadgeneration #Appointmentsetting #realpeoplerealbusinesspodcast , Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,real people real business podcast Advantages of Nearshore Call Centers in Costa Rica It's a great question. We work with clients in Canada, the United States, and some of Costa Rica. But there is a huge difference, Stephanie, between the offshore centers in India, the Philippines, and the Middle East, compared to nearshore centers in Costa Rica, for an example. Our proximity to the United States our skill set, our Spanish and English language capacities, our infrastructure. And you yourself, you've been here three times and you love it. We're the only democratic society in Central America, so there's no standing army. We have a 95% literacy rate, an amazing labor pool. So I'm looking for companies that want to scale, that have an overflow, want to compare apples, or just looking for our sort of specific infrastructure, company culture, hands-on, sort of mentality that might be able to produce different types of results for a company. And so as long as they keep an open mind, working with us near shore could be an amazing option for them. Be cool with yourself There's no reason why you and I can't be watching those people on amazing interviews and telling their stories. And so my good friend, I think that's the only advice to somebody. When you look at the mirror, just make sure that you're cool with yourself and you're doing the right thing so you can be proud of yourself. Contributing Online for Organic Leads I love contributing online. It's like today, I don't have a 1995 book or seminar. I'm really not selling anything. I just love to share ideas. And when people have a chance to, A, learn about near shore call centers, myself, Costa Rica, it almost sells itself. So we've been very fortunate for the amount of rankings that we have on Google, just in general, and especially in Costa Rica. Reducing Attrition with Soft Skills But you and I have discussed so many times the way we treat them to reduce that attrition. And for improvement, we do have a quality control department. We listen to calls. We gauge them on metrics and KPIs. But that's what I'm paying you to do. Stephanie, the reason that you and I have elevated our skills is because of the soft skills. that we use with people, really being sincere in conversations, really caring about people and following through on our word. Supportive Leadership and Personal Growth I don't want someone to be afraid of me. Don't don't judge me on what happened at your last job. And so if they're coming to work pen at the ready and being their best, I'm their biggest supporter. That's a sort of level that they need to get to as well that you and I have gotten to when we worked at our previous jobs. I'm sure we were the top producers and they were very upset the day that we had to move on to greener pastures. But I know that wherever I worked, I gave them my best and I definitely got their ROI. But I couldn't be stuck there forever. Obviously, there were certain areas that we were going to gravitate towards. But it's been a beautiful journey. I don't regret a single thing. My industry is a grind. Fortune favors the brave. It's not for the easiest or the faint of heart. But it was rewarding because I still saw the art of speech in it. And that's what still gave me that sort of motivation and inspiration to keep doing what I'm doing. The Importance of Personal Interaction in Business I like when somebody knows my name. I like when they know my account and my history and can give me that sort of first class service that I'm looking for. And any company that continues to do that and has that in their company culture and organization will grow, will get more business than they know what to do with. I believe that more people would prefer to interact with somebody. And secondly, the agents need to work those skills because most people would prefer to chat compared to making a phone call. In my day, I used to have to call someone's house and ask permission to speak to my friend on the phone from their parents. And I would like the art of speech, just like if people know how to write in cursive. These sort of things should not go away. And if you can master these skills, you'll have incredible relationships in and outside of the office. And so, Stephanie, that's where I see things moving. And if they consider it a niche where somebody answers the phone or works with you, well, then maybe you will just you know, capture that sort of segment of the market that would love to pay an extra 10 cents a minute to speak to somebody, or it might be considered a concierge service. Well, I agree with that. I think it really helps people's experiences with companies. And that's where I see things going. https://youtu.be/EL1L3-QvOzE?si=AwPsgqKPz-DMdRie https://youtu.be/ODQDcDDT-PE https://youtu.be/yCXBcs-88pY https://youtu.be/t-JwwBlmaVM https://youtu.be/5i1HF6MBHZw https://youtu.be/IwZO2AufBTI https://youtu.be/hBmXG6iUxJc