AI vs. Human Touch in Customer Service.

Author your Brand Podcast. Surfing, Bilingualism, and Non-Voice Omnichannel Support with Richard Blank The Author Your Brand show takes a deep dive into becoming a best selling author, sometimes without writing a word. The host, Doug Crowe, interviews CEO’s of multi-million dollar firms, successful entrepreneurs, and “slightly” famous people. Guests include the former CMO of Starbucks Asia, the Inventor of GPS (who sold the company he founded for $6.6 Billion) & NYT bestselling authors. This daily LIVE show uncovers the mindset of these visionaries & their success tips In a lively podcast interview hosted by Doug Crowe, Richard Blank, founder and operator of Costa Rica's Call Center (CCC), a thriving call center in Costa Rica, shares his passion for surfing, bilingualism, and the challenges of operating a call center in a global market. Richard explains the high-quality services his call center provides to clients across North America, Central America, and Europe, emphasizing the importance of bilingual, college-educated agents dedicated to specific campaigns. The conversation then turns to the benefits and drawbacks of non-voice omnichannel support, as Doug and Richard discuss the value of personal engagement when it comes to creating a rapport with customers that extends beyond the immediate transaction. This interview will be relevant to anyone interested in call center operations, customer support, and building lasting customer relationships. AI vs. Human Touch in Customer Service The pros and the cons. I think when people have these non-voice omni-channel supports, which are chats and emails, which could be generated and used, fine, that saves time and can move things forward. But how about this? You've been a client a long time somewhere and you'd like to speak with somebody. And if no one speaks with you or their office hours are better, you're in a queue a long time. When you finally get someone, you're going to pop. And there's a very good chance you're gonna curse, you're gonna scream, and you're just gonna let it out. And so these relationships cost a lot of money to build. And as much as AI can assist you, it really won't put the ball in the end zone because me and you talking about your dog or your trip to Egypt, or your being a magician, or these fun things that both you and I do in lives with pinballs in Costa Ricas, your AI will not catch that. And that's where the situation is going to be. https://youtu.be/CCbCZ-gi8e0 https://youtu.be/eFZHKjI4aA8 Doug Crowe is a business growth strategist that’s passionate about getting results for his clients. Doug is your partner in business growth and your best option for leveraging the digital revolution. He has helped clients maximize resources and build a thriving business. Doug leverages his years of expertise to bring growth to your business. WE TELL YOUR STORY ...Better Why consider becoming an author? Is the time, money, and resources necessary to create a book of impact even worth it? Influence. Impact. Authorship. Becoming an author is always a major achievement... but never done alone. Our authors do more than simply publish a book; they make a dent in their Universe. Why Authoring Your Book Can Change the World (But You’ll Surely Fail if You Don’t Do This…) Your story matters. Your ideas need to be shared. But if you depend only upon a book to become the tipping point, it simply won’t work. In today’s ecosystem of information overload, even a social media influencer has an impact that lasts about as long as the memory of a goldfish. Engagement? That’s cute. What does that mean, anyway? There is a single foundational element all thought leaders, influencers, and visionaries have that most authors hope for, but very few achieve. Stop Dreaming. Start Researching. Your idea for a book may be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Why haven’t you written it and had a dozen publishers beating down your door for a movie deal? For most authors, there’s a bit of doubt and fear, and that's normal. Is what you are saying worthy? Will people resonate with it? Can you make a difference? What if there was a way to find out the answers to all of these questions? Here's the good news. Not only can you get these questions answered, but our proprietary "vet & validate" answers them and begins building your audience... before your book is written. AUTHORS OF IMPACT What’s your idea, your dream, your vision? Do you know a better way to communicate at the office? Maybe your leadership principles would apply to a new demographic like local government? Your story can be life-changing for somebody. But only if you are published. Don’t go through life with the potential to make the world a better place and squander the opportunity. Once your idea of becoming an author is in your heart-don't hesitate. Take action today. What do John Grisham, Tony Robbins, and JK Rowling have in common? These visionaries didn’t start at the top. Like all people of influence, they had humble beginnings. They were just trying to make ends meet as… …A lawyer in a busy firm. …A janitor in a corporate office. …Or a single mother on child support writing the first few words of her book on a napkin. The one thing they have in common is that they were as busy as you (maybe more). But that did not deter them from moving their vision into reality. Authorship, like any large venture, requires a blend of patience and perseverance. Equally important is a process and team to pull it all together. At Author Your Brand, we use that same system the Fortune 100 do for developing and guaranteeing a new product launch. Research. The process is detailed, thorough, and will give you the data, confidence and pre-sales to boldly move forward; to helping you become a #1 Best Selling Author… without you writing a single word. We help people just like you capture, organize, publish, and market a beautifully crafted book that tells your unique story within the context of serving others. We transform leaders into respected experts in their field. We make sure that your book is a timelessly powerful tool that attracts new opportunities and has the power to make a dent in the Universe. If You Qualify, Expect: Unparalleled collaboration to frame your unique perspective Professional journalism to distill your content into a compelling story A systems-based creative process that perfectly captures your voice Over 200 data points of competitive intelligence Unlimited revisions and focus group testing on your book cover #1 status as a Best-Selling author on Amazon. Major media attention and outreach to build your author*ity ...and much more. Doug Crowe Founder A gifted leader with a variety of talents, Doug is a prolific businessman, marketing expert, and a brilliant writer. He writes for Entrepreneur.com and has been published in Yahoo Finance, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, and the Seattle Times. 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. 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. 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/ Author your Brand Podcast, Doug Crowe, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing Call Centre, BPO, Nearshore Contact Center, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership, Marketing, CX, Guest, Money, B2C education, BPO trainer, #Doug Crowe #AuthoryourBrandPodcast #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #AuthoryourBrandPodcast https://youtu.be/CCbCZ-gi8e0 Understanding Call Center Contracts and Compliance One seat for one month is my minimum contract. But if it were my own personal opinion, I like odd man outs. I'd prefer three seats for three months just to at least see. Yeah, right. And do you do any list bill stuff or the client's got to provide the list to call on? Not only does the client provide me the list, but it has to be scrubbed through the DNC because my company is inscribed in the United States that follows all U.S. business and banking laws. Okay. And for clarification, those who don't want to mention, DNC stands for do not call list, which I'm not sure if that actually works or not. They should know because I know a lot of people that have been hit for that. And so you have to be very careful.

Author your Brand Podcast with Doug Crowe. A Non-Voice Omnichannel Supp...

Author your Brand Podcast. Surfing, Bilingualism, and Non-Voice Omnichannel Support with Richard Blank The Author Your Brand show takes a deep dive into becoming a best selling author, sometimes without writing a word. The host, Doug Crowe, interviews CEO’s of multi-million dollar firms, successful entrepreneurs, and “slightly” famous people. Guests include the former CMO of Starbucks Asia, the Inventor of GPS (who sold the company he founded for $6.6 Billion) & NYT bestselling authors. This daily LIVE show uncovers the mindset of these visionaries & their success tips In a lively podcast interview hosted by Doug Crowe, Richard Blank, founder and operator of Costa Rica's Call Center (CCC), a thriving call center in Costa Rica, shares his passion for surfing, bilingualism, and the challenges of operating a call center in a global market. Richard explains the high-quality services his call center provides to clients across North America, Central America, and Europe, emphasizing the importance of bilingual, college-educated agents dedicated to specific campaigns. The conversation then turns to the benefits and drawbacks of non-voice omnichannel support, as Doug and Richard discuss the value of personal engagement when it comes to creating a rapport with customers that extends beyond the immediate transaction. This interview will be relevant to anyone interested in call center operations, customer support, and building lasting customer relationships. Doug Crowe is a business growth strategist that’s passionate about getting results for his clients. Doug is your partner in business growth and your best option for leveraging the digital revolution. He has helped clients maximize resources and build a thriving business. Doug leverages his years of expertise to bring growth to your business. WE TELL YOUR STORY ...Better Why consider becoming an author? Is the time, money, and resources necessary to create a book of impact even worth it? Influence. Impact. Authorship. Becoming an author is always a major achievement... but never done alone. Our authors do more than simply publish a book; they make a dent in their Universe. Why Authoring Your Book Can Change the World (But You’ll Surely Fail if You Don’t Do This…) Your story matters. Your ideas need to be shared. But if you depend only upon a book to become the tipping point, it simply won’t work. In today’s ecosystem of information overload, even a social media influencer has an impact that lasts about as long as the memory of a goldfish. Engagement? That’s cute. What does that mean, anyway? There is a single foundational element all thought leaders, influencers, and visionaries have that most authors hope for, but very few achieve. Stop Dreaming. Start Researching. Your idea for a book may be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Why haven’t you written it and had a dozen publishers beating down your door for a movie deal? For most authors, there’s a bit of doubt and fear, and that's normal. Is what you are saying worthy? Will people resonate with it? Can you make a difference? What if there was a way to find out the answers to all of these questions? Here's the good news. Not only can you get these questions answered, but our proprietary "vet & validate" answers them and begins building your audience... before your book is written. AUTHORS OF IMPACT What’s your idea, your dream, your vision? Do you know a better way to communicate at the office? Maybe your leadership principles would apply to a new demographic like local government? Your story can be life-changing for somebody. But only if you are published. Don’t go through life with the potential to make the world a better place and squander the opportunity. Once your idea of becoming an author is in your heart-don't hesitate. Take action today. What do John Grisham, Tony Robbins, and JK Rowling have in common? These visionaries didn’t start at the top. Like all people of influence, they had humble beginnings. They were just trying to make ends meet as… …A lawyer in a busy firm. …A janitor in a corporate office. …Or a single mother on child support writing the first few words of her book on a napkin. The one thing they have in common is that they were as busy as you (maybe more). But that did not deter them from moving their vision into reality. Authorship, like any large venture, requires a blend of patience and perseverance. Equally important is a process and team to pull it all together. At Author Your Brand, we use that same system the Fortune 100 do for developing and guaranteeing a new product launch. Research. The process is detailed, thorough, and will give you the data, confidence and pre-sales to boldly move forward; to helping you become a #1 Best Selling Author… without you writing a single word. We help people just like you capture, organize, publish, and market a beautifully crafted book that tells your unique story within the context of serving others. We transform leaders into respected experts in their field. We make sure that your book is a timelessly powerful tool that attracts new opportunities and has the power to make a dent in the Universe. If You Qualify, Expect: Unparalleled collaboration to frame your unique perspective Professional journalism to distill your content into a compelling story A systems-based creative process that perfectly captures your voice Over 200 data points of competitive intelligence Unlimited revisions and focus group testing on your book cover #1 status as a Best-Selling author on Amazon. Major media attention and outreach to build your author*ity ...and much more. Doug Crowe Founder A gifted leader with a variety of talents, Doug is a prolific businessman, marketing expert, and a brilliant writer. He writes for Entrepreneur.com and has been published in Yahoo Finance, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, and the Seattle Times. 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. 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. 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/

#Doug Crowe #AuthoryourBrandPodcast #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #AuthoryourBrandPodcast https://youtu.be/CCbCZ-gi8e0 Understanding Call Center Contracts and Compliance One seat for one month is my minimum contract. But if it were my own personal opinion, I like odd man outs. I'd prefer three seats for three months just to at least see. Yeah, right. And do you do any list bill stuff or the client's got to provide the list to call on? Not only does the client provide me the list, but it has to be scrubbed through the DNC because my company is inscribed in the United States that follows all U.S. business and banking laws. Okay. And for clarification, those who don't want to mention, DNC stands for do not call list, which I'm not sure if that actually works or not. They should know because I know a lot of people that have been hit for that. And so you have to be very careful. AI vs. Human Touch in Customer Service The pros and the cons. I think when people have these non-voice omni-channel supports, which are chats and emails, which could be generated and used, fine, that saves time and can move things forward. But how about this? You've been a client a long time somewhere and you'd like to speak with somebody. And if no one speaks with you or their office hours are better, you're in a queue a long time. When you finally get someone, you're going to pop. And there's a very good chance you're gonna curse, you're gonna scream, and you're just gonna let it out. And so these relationships cost a lot of money to build. And as much as AI can assist you, it really won't put the ball in the end zone because me and you talking about your dog or your trip to Egypt, or your being a magician, or these fun things that both you and I do in lives with pinballs in Costa Ricas, your AI will not catch that. And that's where the situation is going to be.

Unexpected Disappointments and a Touch of Humor.

Brand-Forward Leadership podcast. Episode 7. Filling Your Sales Needs with Costa Rica's Call Center Our 30 to 45-min podcast shares amazing founder stories who reveal the smartest strategies for scaling TODAY. Our audiences are not newbies. They're ready for their next phase of massive growth! Gerry Foster Branding, CEO and Brand-Forward Leadership podcast host, Gerry Foster has been in the strategic branding field for over 30 years. He's helped over 100,000 small businesses in 600 different industries with their branding. He has been podcasting for three years and has been on more than 200 podcast and media guest appearances. Your host, Gerry Foster, talks with Richard Blank of Costa Rica's Call Center. Costa Rica's Call Center is a state of the art BPO Telemarketing outsource company that personally trains call centers across Central America. They are bilingual and professionally trained and they can do the same for your staff. Brand Forward Leadership Podcast has accepted Richard Blank's Balancing Leadership: Personal Habits for Focus If you can't settle on yourself and make yourself balanced and focused, how could you expand and assist others? So what's very important for me is my own me time. I wish I had the discipline to do Eastern meditation, but I don't. But I have other things that I do that enables me to decompress any sort of distraction and stimulation by putting the phone away. There are three things that I do every week that I have to do. I have to wake up every day at 530 and hit the gym. So I'm in there for about two hours. So I feel good about myself and can get my thoughts. I also love washing my convertible car on a Sunday. So I enjoy that as well. And I do pinball marathons. And so when I do these things, it orders my mind to expand and then I can put things in perspective Breaking Down Telemarketing Stereotypes This is so great to have you here because there's a lot of, I think, false information, bad intel, false news, if you want to call it that, about quote unquote telemarketers, that they interrupt our meals, that all they're trying to do is sell something that we don't need or don't want. So kind of put everyone at ease. Let's break down some of those stereotypes that you are not, my friend. Can you talk a little bit about that? Sure, of course. Well, the first thing is since I'm in a position of leverage and I'm a CEO of 150 seat call center, I have the ability to hire, fire, make or break. And I've decided to do the former. And so empathy is very important for me, Jerry, because if nobody shows up, I have no friends and there's no birthday party. So it's very important for me, especially on the first day, is to put in perspective that what they have done by walking into my call center bilingual first bears the mark of higher education. But secondly, it's 10 times harder than what they're about to do. And secondly, since they have invested their youth in English as I have my youth in Spanish, I understand the importance of vocabulary, not just dichos or expressions. I emphasized a thesaurus so they can learn more similes to be able to expand their vocabulary and to be able to be more descriptive and understood. Business Ethics and Realistic Client Expectations I'll give you three answers. The client, the agent, and myself. How does that sound? Okay. Go ahead. I would prefer if the client called me that they'd first judge me on merit, not price. I could recommend 10 places to do at half my price. That's number one. I want them to follow the labor laws because we do things ethically here. And this is the way that I was raised by my grandparents. So there's no wiggle room on something like that. Right. And then I would like for them to have realistic expectations and to go over real metrics, because as much as you want to reverse psychology and motivate me, I'm also an expert in the call center industry. So if you give me certain sort of numbers and metrics and expect me to make 20 calls an hour when there's an average five minute talk time on 12 calls, it's not going to happen. I can't increase time. From Philly to Costa Rica: An Entrepreneurial Journey How does a boy from Philly come to Costa Rica and start a call center? I don't know, but this is what I do know. It was positive reinforcement from this community, from this country, and from the agents that work with me. And so as long as I have this sort of momentum, right, then I can understand what thriving is all about. Lessons in Financial Resilience But it's not about the forward motion. What happened in 2010, and this is one of the bad things I did in business, was put all of my eggs in one basket. I went from 90 seats to four. I built it back up, obviously. But this is the one thing I did do. I had enough acorns to last that winter. So I saved more than enough money to weather that storm. I didn't have to beg, borrow, or steal. And I realized that that's part of business, the ups and the downs. And one of them is to be financially stable. So I don't walk the rows yelling at people. If you take the account away, I can't pay my lights. Mutual Admiration of Leadership Qualities You got to have a part two one day, Jerry, when you come and visit me. My goodness. I mean, I'm almost breathless here because you have such depth in this capacity of entrepreneurship and leadership. And I just I just, again, want to applaud you and acknowledge you for who you are. And the stand that you are for the people in Costa Rica, I mean, you are such a blessing to that community. They do, Jerry. And I appreciate that. But let me throw a compliment back at you for your brand forward leadership. The Invisible Work Behind Success As much as I am impressing you today, I gave you a good show and I'm glad I did. But on the flip side, you have done such great work prior to me being here. And everybody sees it looks easy, right, Jerry? Look at you today. But nobody saw what you've done off camera, all that dedicated practice you did, all the preparation you did in the last 30 years. to get to where you are today. So I applaud that as well, my friend. Thank you so much. You don't make me cry. Please do. Unexpected Disappointments and a Touch of Humor And so my good friend, if anything or nothing, that's the one part that empathetically does from time to time surprise and disappoint me. I totally get that. I totally get that. I want to switch gears and talk about your clients for a moment because I've been in the branding industry for 30 plus years. I like to tell people I started when Jesus was wearing sandals and dinosaurs were roaming the earth https://youtu.be/kkOsASOJNMs https://youtu.be/zcjX757dKXA https://youtu.be/uvmXWithJ2U https://youtu.be/tcLLxZ_k7Ic https://youtu.be/mGPX4fOar0Y https://youtu.be/uGVukiFUzKk https://youtu.be/NNCThGh5aYE https://youtu.be/xWusDGb6qRQ https://youtu.be/rHxFjdq-_Cw 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, entered into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business along side other famous alumni. Paying it forward 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/ #GerryFosterBranding #BrandForwardLeadershippodcast #AmsterdamTalkpodcast #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO