Thursday, August 25, 2022

Are there well respected telemarketing positions? Inside BS Show guest Richard Blank

Are there well respected telemarketing positions? Inside BS Show guest Richard Blank 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.

The future of second languages Inside BS Show guest Richard Blank

The future of second languages Inside BS Show bilingual guest Richard Blank. Dave Lorenzo: Great. It used to be a novelty. Now it is essential. And this is the conversation that we have with our kids. This is the conversation I have with anybody who's willing to listen because it's the you're you're in the next 10 years, 65, 70% of, uh, of our country is going to. Uh, folks who speak in other language and the majority of those folks will probably be Spanish speaking. So, you know, I think that you are providing a great service because it's gonna be a competitive advantage, cuz you can probably do it better and less expensive than we could do it here in the United States. And I think that your agents who are, who are taking calls from the United States will probably be taking an equal number of calls in English and Spanish in 15 years from customer. I, I just, I see it happening very interesting. Richard Blank: You, you bring that up because the certain key performance indicator that KPI is talk time and also conversion ratios. There's two metrics that are increased by at least 20%. When you're on a phone, speaking in Spanish with a client, the call goes longer. They make less calls that day, but their conversion ratio is higher. Obviously it's their native tongue. Or as you were mentioning about certain de details and certain mannerisms that people use. They might be able to connect better with somebody on the phone, speaking Spanish. I, I almost see it as like Popeye with spinach. Once they switch over to Spanish, all of a sudden they're calling you Don Davi they're though. And these are the sort of things where I can tell in regards to their tone and their rate and their pitch, they're pausing and they're pregnant pausing and their follow up tie down questions that they're extremely comfortable, not only with the conversation, but with. Client that they've only met just five minutes ago. They've already figured out 12 different things in common. So their me too technique is off the roof. 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.

WFH hybrid business model Costa Rica Inside BS Show guest Richard Blank

WFH hybrid business model Costa Rica Inside BS Show guest Richard Blank 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

Inside BS show introduces B2B expert Richard Blank

Inside BS show introduces B2B expert Richard Blank from Costa Rica's Call Center 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