Dave Lorenzo: Hey now, welcome toanother edition of the inside BS show.Today we go down to Costa Rica, abeautiful nation, just south of the UnitedStates, where the weather is always good.The people are always friendlyand the work is really efficient.In fact, today, we're gonna talk about.Setting up a call center in Costa Ricaand why you don't need to do that, cuzthere's already one waiting there for you.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 offshorethe tedious stuff that you can't hirepeople 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.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 CostaRica, Pura vida, I'm veryDave Lorenzo: happy to be here today.Oh, it's so great to have you.So, Richard first, we let's startby having you explain to people,uh, some of the, um, some of theunique qualities of Costa Rica.But I, I visited Costa Rica.I shared with you probablyAnd before I visited, I didn't knowvery much about Costa Rica explainedto folks some of the really uniquecharacteristics of that country.Richard Blank: Well, not onlywe a powerhouse in the, uh,call center industry, but wehave an incredible labor force.We have a 95% literacy rate.So there's no standing army.All that money was putback into education.We have the best infrastructurein central America.We are below Nicaragua, north of Panama.A lot of people think we're anisland, but no we're right there.Smacked out right in central America.We're very close to the UnitedStates or our proxemic on a directflight is just a couple hours.We're very attuned to thenorth American market.So a lot of people havelived in the United.Have family in the United States,or there's a lot of expatriatesthat live here, including myself.Who's an expatriate for the last 21 years.And their skillset here is incredible.Besides them being bilingual.They also have very high skills inregards to it customer support, leadgeneration appointment setting, andeven non-voice omnichannel support.So companies such as.Intel Oracle and Amazon have avery, very large presence here inCosta Rica for, for many reasons.But you know, personally frombeing here and me being here for 21years, it's, it's a beautiful life.And the people here are verycultured and educated and kind, andit reflects over our phone calls.So I believe that's why a lot ofour agents show very high levels of.Dave Lorenzo: Yeah.You know, Richard, my, um, my biggesttakeaway from my time in Costa Ricarelated to the people was that,and my, my friends here in Miamiare gonna kill me for saying this,but it is the God's honest truth.People in Costa Rica speak betterEnglish than the people in Miami.It's just the facts.I'm not, I'm not saying anything.That's not true.The people in Costa Ricaare extremely well educated.I, the healthcare system is excellent,correct for people who retirethere, the healthcare is fantastic.Richard Blank: Absolutely.There's a lot of medical tourism,and I believe you were mentioningto having more of a neutral tone inregards to some other Latino countries.So yes, we've been known to havea certain sort of accent thatcould be more relatable comparedto let's say offshoring in India,where the Philippines, where it's.More noticeable.But as I say before, Spanish, it willbe the most spoken language in theUnited States, if not today, very soon.So the fact that these agents here, as yousay, are structured and disciplined andthey show the cognitive skills to becomebilingual, which takes a lot of work.I get these individuals thatare walking through the dooralready showing me something.And so what I try to do, andI think you'll agree withthis, cuz you've been here.I will focus on not just theirgrammar, but more their vocabulary.We look in the FSO so we canchoose certain words that wouldbe more appropriate for a phonecall or for customer support.So we can do a first call resolutionbecause just by saying the wordhelp, Dave, you know, this, thatcould open up so many rabbit holes.It's better to say assist,lend to hand or guide somebody.And so under my direction,that's where I take this delicatesecond language of theirs.And use our experience being anAnglo-Saxon and growing up in theUnited States and giving them theability to be able to communicate more.With the sort of clientsthat we have in the UnitedDave Lorenzo: States.Yeah.You know, my, um, so I, where I livein Miami is I, I live, uh, probably 15,not even maybe 10 miles from the Westernborder of Miami-Dade county, uh, youknow, heading toward the Western partof Florida and this particular area.Is, uh, was settled by,uh, a lot of Cubans.So when we go to the supermarket,where in my neighborhood, we,more than likely we speak Spanish.Um, when we go to get ourcar washed, we speak Spanish.When we, uh, go to the doctor's officeand the, and the, the receptionistgreets us, she'll greet us in Spanish.She speaks English in Spanish, butit's just the, it's the dominantlanguage here in, in my neighborhood.Now, when you get toward the towardMiami beach, There it's a tourist area.So people there will, you know, ththe default there will be English, butthe, the specific reason that my familyand I moved to this part of Floridais because we wanted a, a culturallydiverse experience for our kids.My kids go to a bilingual school.Um, they speak English half the day.They speak Spanish half the day.They speak Spanish with, um,their grandmother on my wife'sside, they speak English with myparents and they have tested out.My son is in seventh grade.He's tested out of high school Spanish.My daughter is two years behind him.She's tested out of high school, Spanish.So they're taking otherlanguages now in school.My, my point about that.We were kind of forward thinkingand we, we understand the globalnature of the workforce today.And I think 20 years ago when Ivisited Costa Rica, It was like anovelty to offshore your call center.Now I think nobody, nobodywould even think twice.And in fact, you may have peoplein Texas who have a heavier,uh, you know, who have a heavieraccent than people in Costa Rica.So I.I don't think it makesany difference today.I don't think people would be putoff in any way, as long as theycan get the level of service thatthey're accustomed to Richard.But before we get into the details ofall the types of services you provideand how you do that, tell us your story.How did you come to you now?You've been in CostaRica for 20 plus years.How did you come to be inCosta Rica in the first place?Richard Blank: Well, my storybegan in Northeast Philadelphiawhen I graduated Abington high.You were very fortunate.Uh, Dave, because in my family, mygrandparents were speaking Romanian,Russian, Polish, and German.And so I'm the first personin my family that decided thatSpanish should be my major.All of my friends were going to Ivyleague and they were studying law inmedicine and architecture, engineering,or going into their family's business.I chose to double down on languagesand go to the university of.I chose a communication major, which madeit a lot of fun for those five years.But I also realized that I could pickup public speaking skills, rhetoricskills, and nonverbal communication,micro expression, reading skills.I was able to get aninternship at Telemundo.J Cohen was kind enough to give me in 1995and 96, my senior and super senior year.I worked for promotions andpublic relations at Telemundo.And.there.I was able to meet, and this isdating myself gentleman by the nameof Pedro SEK and Miguel Kitana.One was in charge of thenews out of Los Angeles.And the other had the maintalk show in Miami, acrossfrom Christina, from Univision.And so imagine a 22 year old boy that isdoing public speaking events with theseplayers, these professional men that havemade it and have taken the time to moldmy confidence and to give me the SELFA.Us to stand in front of 5,000 peopleat a Tucson Toro's baseball game and doa Halina Cantina chili eating contest.And so given these opportunitiesthat a young man, it molded myconfidence that I could do it.And I knew that I coulddo it in two languages.and so postgrad, I landed a job thatwas for the importers of Corona beer.So I worked that in the Southwest of theUnited States and that was incredible.And when I was 27, I had the opportunityto move to Costa Rica for a couplemonths to do some training at a friendof mine, from college, his call center.And as you know, when you flyhere and you're here are youfall in love with Costa Rica?So everything of mine got put in storage.If you can get past your parents, guilt,Dave, you can live anywhere in the world.and I decided to take a chance.I worked at my friend's call centerfor four years, and this was backin the day when we were making callswith Cisco phones and printouts ofExcel sheets with highlighter pens.And it was a young environment.It was a fun environment, a bilingualenvironment of, of artists, of speech.And I got to see the highs and the lowsand the gripes and the successes of it.But between me and you, Ialso saw areas of improve.and the areas of improvement that I sawthe most was how people are treated.Not saying my friend didn't do a good job,an amazing job, but a lot of people feltlike numbers, or they felt like robots.And my other friends and supervisorsfrom other call centers tell me thatsometimes agents are not properlyonboarded where they're not preparedwhere the S scripts are sho.With spelling in grammar mistakes, andmaybe some over aggressive language thatyou would see in a Glen Gary boiler roomWolf of wall street movie, that might becompletely out of character for somebodyhere because we're, we're in a very strictCatholic country, Dave and these youngmen and women have to go home and telltheir parents what they do for a living.So we are extremely selectiveof the campaigns that come in.Not, not only can I fulfillyour needs, but I gotta makesure I don't have an attrition.And I gotta make sure that the,that the agents that come in,that we invest in that are ableto stay here and build upon that.So we just don't waste that.And so my thoughts about how I got here,you don't say you're gonna be a callcenter CEO for a major in college, or whenyou're seven years old, you tell that toyour mother, but I definitely knew this.I was the only one out of my groupof friends that could speak Spanish.And not only that, but every jobI had, I was the one that could goout to the Southwest Phoenix whenI was selling telecommunicationsand sell a T1 to somebody andtranslate it for my supervisor.And I knew I had something that wasdifferent and it was wonderful for mecuz I enjoyed it and that I was embraced.I might had a grammar mistake in mysubjunctive tense, but people wouldinvite me in correct me and feed meand then recommend me to 10 of their.So why do you think that every environmentthat I was in when I was able to makethese calls in Spanish, that I ran theboard, I could do it in English andI did, but I also did it in Spanish.I could double gun it.I did two boards, English and Spanish.My point being is that you can showthis sort of the first impression,respect Dave, when not only are youbilingual, but so am I, and we're doingthis without even knowing each other.. And so it really assisted me in havingthese sort of engagements and findinga lot of these things in common andreally reduced any sort of defense oranger or setting a tone of aggressionthat that was eliminated immediatelywhen I knew exactly what to say.And, and these are gonna be some ofthe additional selling techniqueswe'll talk about later and stuff.But my friend, I just wantedto discuss with you the.Of how I am and how I was raised.I'm when someone calls me a salesmanand I take that as a compliment,I might look and sound likeone, but Dave, I'm an educator.I don't ever force a hand froman educated point of view.My clients, my agents, my friends, andanyone I relate to then makes a decision.And I feel that if given thechance to explain how I feel and toanswer their questions, everybodycan leave with something on the.I, I think it's a wonderful way to startDave Lorenzo: relationships.Yeah, I love, I love what you said there.You know, we teach people, uh, webeing me, the people that I work with,we, we teach people that selling ishelping and nobody knows that you canhelp them unless you tell them, right.They don't know who you are.They don't know what you do.They invited you in for a reason.So you have to let themknow how you can help them.And then if they say, no, they say no,that's just, that's just the way it is.So.The, the quote, I think it was a Jim Roanquote that nothing happens until somebodysells something is never more true.Right?Nothing, nothing gets started inany business, anywhere in the world.Until somebody goes to somebodyelse and says, would you likeassistance in this area in exchangefor financial compensation?That's it really, it really is thateasy, but you know, Richard, the thing Iwant to really, um, bring out from, youknow, from your commentary there, and yousaid so many important things, but oneof the most important things, at leastfrom me looking at the, the labor forcenow, Let's just take here, here in theUnited States is, uh, and I, I just, Ijust had this conversation with my niece.Who's graduating high school and goingto college, the, it, it used to belike when I, so when I worked, I workedin the hotel industry for 12 years.And when I worked in the hotel industryin New York, it was kind of a nice to haveif somebody else, if you spoke Spanish,if you spoke a different language.Well, my, my Spanish became greatworking in the hotel industry.It was fantastic, you know, between.the folks in housekeeping, the folks inengineering, uh, the folks in the laundry,the folks in the dish room, the servers,the, you know, the people who wereworking at the front desk, everyone was.They were thrilled to see the whiteboy making an effort to speak Spanish.And they were, you werea hundred percent right.More than willing to take youout for a beer and help youwith your verb conjugation.Right?Take you out for a beer andexplain what that phrase that.The Dominicans used thateverybody else didn't use meant.Right.And those are the, thesubtleties of the language.The nuances of the language are thething that's really, really cool.So when you, when back in those days,it was a novelty for someone whowanted to advance in the corporateworld to speak English and Spanish.Today it is the price of entry.You can't really work anywhereunless you can communicate in Englishand in Spanish because the 60% ofthe labor force these days here inthe United States speak Spanish.But even more importantly, nowyour customers half about halfof your customers would be morecomfortable doing business with.More than likely in Spanish, in Florida,in Texas, in Arizona, in New Mexico,in California, you know, and it's,and it's, it's pervasive everywhere.I was just in Chicago last week and,um, having a conversation with somefolks in the hotel and I picked upan accent and I switched to Spanishand they were just blown away.And it was like, I was, I was theirfavorite guest, all of a sudden,because I was making an effort.So my point is it used to.Great.It used to be a novelty.Now it is essential.And this is the conversationthat we have with our kids.This is the conversation I havewith anybody who's willing tolisten because it's the you'reyou're in the next 10 years.be, uh, folks who speak in other language.And the majority of those folkswill probably be Spanish speaking.So, you know, I think that you areproviding a great service because it'sgonna be a competitive advantage, cuzyou can probably do it better and lessexpensive than we could do it here in the.States.And I think that your agents who are,who are taking calls from the UnitedStates will probably be taking anequal number of calls in English andSpanish in 15 years from customers.I, I just, I see it happening.It'sRichard Blank: very interesting.You, you bring that up because the certainkey performance indicator that KPI istalk time and also conversion ratios.There's two metrics that areincreased by at least 20.When you're on a phone,speaking in Spanish with aclient, the call goes longer.They make less calls that day, buttheir conversion ratio is higher.Obviously it's their native tongue.Or as you were mentioning aboutcertain details and certain mannerismsthat people use, they might be ableto connect better with somebodyon the phone, speaking Spanish.I, I almost see it aslike Popeye with spin.Once they switch over to Spanish.All of a sudden they'recalling you Don Davi.They're doing hard though.And these are the sort of things whereI can tell in regards to their toneand their rate and their pitch, they'repausing and their pregnant pausingand their follow up tie down questionsthat they're extremely comfortable,not only with the conversation, butwith this client that they've only met.Five minutes ago.They've already figured outSo their me too techniqueis off the roof too.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 whoare listening, a lot of people whoare watching, they think of whenthey think of a call center, theythink of, you know, calling likethe help desk to solve problems.But you do a lot more than that.So explain the spectrum of work thatyou do at Costa Rica's call center.Richard Blank: Many differentprofiles that we have here.And that's an excellent question, Dave.We, we're very flexible.If there's non-voice support, you canhave people that are just answeringemails or just doing chat support.Then you have people that areinbound customer support, whichis what you're usually used tocalling any sort of company.We also have certain agents that arecapable of doing outbound lead generationand appointment setting for people.My favorite is a hot lead transfer one.Get it while the lead is hot.And then you have the, the ACEs, you gotthe closers, they're very competitivedown here and they're in high demand.So, uh, once again, I kindof see them as mercenaries.They'll just jump to the best dealand you might not keep them along.So I usually like to feel most comfortablearound a level one customer support.Lead generation and appointment setting,and then avoid, uh, eventually we can moldthem into being salespeople on the phone.Uh, these individuals, it's veryimportant that the client respectsthe labor laws here in Costa Rica.Because a lot of the times they will beasking for certain overtimes or certainadjustments that they need to understand.Um, you are dealing with another countryand they have different types of rules.So the best thing for us to do priorto working with the clients, tolet them know of our holidays thatwe have and the other things thatmight disrupt any sort of workflow.We also would like for them toknow the sort of culture thatwe have here, not necessarily inCosta Rica, but at my call center.I don't like when supervisors writein bold or they write in red, Idon't like cursing or screamingbecause you can bend them, Dave.But the worst thing we can do is break.and it's not fair, not for ourreputation for your project oreven for the vibe of the project.The clients have to ensurethat we have all the resourceswell before making phone calls.I gotta make sure thatthe 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 rebuttals script.Do you have recordings for me?Who's doing the onboarding.Who's doing the training.What sort of quality assuranceand QA scores do you have there?So, and it's okay.Dave, if I've worked with peoplebefore that don't know the, theterminology or the QA forms oronboarding, that's my pleasure becausemy resources are your resources.And anytime I can, uh, educate a clientand guide them through a quality assuranceform on what we should be looking for fromthe agent, then you and I see consist.So your sales cycle getsa little bit shorter.You build your pipeline more,you're closing more on first calls.And when we're listening to thesecalls, you and I will be able todeduct where our strengths, wherethere areas of focus, where we weredropping the ball on the rebuttal,on the pauses with the tele signs.So my class here is not just a bilingualperson taking a script and making calls.I am very, very, uh, strict.In regards to representingour clients in the best light.I'm very selective of thetone that we have on the call.It's always empathetic and confident.And then I always teach my agentshow to do these sort of microexpression reading on the phone.So when they allow the client to talkor then it's our turn to interjectto be able to do a follow up.And I've seen that our conversion ratiosjust by not, uh, having a hedge for anexample, Where somebody says, um, okay.Or just wonderful.Great.When someone's answering a question, Dave,you know, it's much more to your advantagefor someone not to repeat, let us repeat.Let us do it for our clarification.If it's ABC or 1 23, and the same thinggoes, my friend, when there's a badcell phone connection, a dog barkingmusic, cuz people are working fromhome now that's to our advantage twice,we can get things in the backgroundto have things in common and ininadvertently and passive aggressively.I can tell you how much I love yourdog, which is pretty much a hint to,you know, having quiet down, but it alsogives me a chance to be able to workwith these clients in that certain way.To be able to move that conversationforward and to understand how they speak.I always believe in active listeningbecause a lot of the times the peopleare just moving things forward.Um, in case there might be some sort offamily situation or a business promotion,a lot of people just skip through that.They should pause for a momentthey should celebrate with themor should they pay condolences.And the one thing that I'mreally missing on these callsis when people give positive.You have a business associate MJ thatdoes a wonderful job written me multipletimes with the emails, just to make surethat we were locked in today, a plus.So there's a lot of people, a lot of teambehind Dave Lorenzo and Richard blank.And so I want your business strategyand marketing strategy to take verymuch into consideration all those, thatanswer calls, filter calls, and thatmay be able to give you company culture.Or I might be able to tell youabout a promotion or I mightjust get real with you for a.and then when you're at that stage ofthe call, Dave, then it's not sellinganymore, then it's really just, uh,strangers or friends you haven't met yet.So now you're just really hangingout with somebody and just findingways to meet in the middle.Dave Lorenzo: I agree.I think that's terrific.Richard.I want you to, um, I want you totake a minute and think about this.And then when we come back,give us kind of a, um, give us acase study and you don't have totell us the name of the client.Of course, obviously I don't wantyou to betray any confidences, butgive us a, uh, give us a case studyof a company that you work with.Uh, and some of the thingsthat you do for them.They're in Costa Rica.And, you know, I, I want, I want you togive us one where our listeners will go.Hmm.I, and they wouldn't be able to tellthe difference that it was done inCosta Rica compared to the UnitedStates, or maybe after you tell them,they'll be able to tell the difference,because it was probably done better.In Costa Rica.So take a minute and think about that.And while you're doing that, I need toremind our listeners, remind our viewersthat we're brought to you by Sindrowskicorporate advisors for over 35 years.Sindrowski has helped people all over theUnited States with their accounting needs.Now here's the thing about Sindrowski thatI really focus on when I'm talking to youevery day about them Sindrowski works withprivately held companies and they alsowork with individual families of wealth.Why do they focus on these areas?Well, you're gonna say, Hey, listen,they focus on families of wealth becausethose people have money and you're gonnasay, well, they work with privately heldcompanies because you know, they havemoney too, and that's partially true.But the rest of the truth is thatprivately held companies, particularlycompanies that do in revenue betweensay 5 million and a hundred millionin annual revenue, that's kind of.A sweet spot for Sindrowski becausethey're still a little too smallfor the big four accounting firms.And there are some special nuancesin the UX tax code that Sindrowskican really help you take advantageof if your company is of that size.You've heard me talk before.If you listen to the show about thequalified small business, uh, stockexemption, and this is somethingthat Sindrowski really excels at.One of the things that Syras has beenable to do for their clients is when aclient determines that they have a fiveyear time horizon for selling theirbusiness, Syras will come in and they'lllook at the way the business is organized.And then they will analyze whetheror not their company qualifies fora small business stock exemption.If the company does qualify, ifthey're in specific industry typeand they have a revenue that isbelow 50 million in annual revenue.Centras will reorganize the company sothat in five years when the company issold the owner of the company, regardlessof whether it's a partial sale or afull sale, will be able to sheltera huge portion of the capital gains.From taxes, Harry Sindrowski, uh,the, the managing partner of the firm.And I were talking last week andhe told me a story about how hesaved someone $10 million in taxes.The gentleman sold hiscompany for $49 million.Harry was able to save him $10million in capital gains taxesbecause he had organized his.Company appropriately five years prior.If you're thinking about selling yourbusiness or you just wanna reduce yourtax exposure and you have a privatelyheld company, you need to call thisnumber eight six six seven one seven onesix oh seven eight six six seven one.That's the number fish and Drakicorporate advisors call 'em today.They're a CPA firm witha different perspective.We're also brought to youby my revenue roadmap guide.So, you know, I work with professionalsand I help them with business development.I help 'em with sales.I help 'em with marketing.I use a plan to do that andI call it my revenue roadmap.Well, I'm gonna give it to you for free.It's my gift to you for watching,for listening to the show.Here's what you need to do.Go to this website, write it down.If you're driving, pull over, type it intoyour phone revenue, roadmap, guide.com.Put all those words together.Revenue, roadmap, guide.com.When you enter your contactinfo, you can download the sameguide I use with my clients.You customize it for your firm, justthe way I customize it for my clients.It's my gift to you for listening tothe show for watching this show today,go to revenue, roadmap, guide.com.Right now, enter your contact info.Get your free business development plan.My guest today is Richard blank.He's the CEO of Costa Rica's call center.You can call.At 8 8 8 2 7 1 67 50that's 8 8 8 2 7 1 67 50.I'm also putting his emailin the show notes for you.If you want to shoot him anemail, he's very responsive.He'll probably respond back to youas soon as you hit the send button.All right, Richard.So before we went to that break, I askedyou to think of a case study for us.Have you come up with one?Richard Blank: I have, in fact,I can make it easy for you.I can do it.All verticals.How does that sound?So it applies to everyaccount that I have.I always have an answer forthat couple things we can do.The first thing is there's certainwords that you have because the vowelsin Spanish and English could give away.So we write certain words out phoneticallyfor them, even though they need toknow how to spell it properly, thatcan eliminate any sort of confusion.And he's sort of guessing.The second thing is, let'ssay for an example, that we'rerepresenting a company that's outof Chicago in a certain suburbs.What we like to do with a lot of thetimes is just take a Google map rightaround the block and just to see the localpizza parlors, the parks, the churches,and what's going on around there.So instead of just giving us specificdirection, we can talk about Mike's pizza,which everybody knows more than anything.And finally, we, we have to ensurethat if people do follow up or evensubcategory questions that we need tohave every single sort of vocabularyfor that account doesn't mean thatwe need to have it memorized, butwe should have a glossary of terms.So just, if something comes up,we're skilled enough to say that'san excellent question, Dave, andwe could look it up while we'reanswering that question for you.Many people are capable of doing that.So as long as we're on a levelplaying field and we're given allthe resources to, as you say, makeit assume like we're in the UnitedStates and we know what the shore isand cheese fries and things like that.Then, uh, maybe tell us a couplemore local flavors that we have orthings that we should be aware of.And those are the sort of calls thatwe make to the people where it soundslike we have more in common withthem and we know where we're going.It's a simple, an example, like whatwe're calling businesses, insteadof just saying, how are you a lotof the times we'll ask, Hey, how'sCosta Rica's call center doing today.And the tens of thousandsof calls I've analyzed.We find that company name, spike techniqueby asking about a company or organization,a lot of people have responded withyou've been here before, or you an alumnisounds like, you know where you're going.You can parlay that with anextension or a person's name.And so you're rotting on that sortof high of familiarity, and they'llbe able to transfer you over.I always believe that lyingon the phone is not ethical.I'm not saying I'm lying and I'mnot saying that we're being slick.There's nothing wrong with being clever.And as long as you say a person's namea certain way, or company's name acertain way with your anonymity, theycan kind of maybe reduce the fact thatyou're a telemarketer or you're selling.So.And you make a different sortof first impression approach.And so these are the sort of thingsthat enable us to prolong ourconversations, to at least increaseour odds of a conversion ratio.I could give you 50 tips andtricks today, but we don't haveas much time to go over that.But I think the most important thing,my, my friend, Dave, and thank youso much for you and your audience'stime is that I think the firstYou need to, once again,not be egocentric.You need to put that company first andby saying their names and being politeto those that answer the phone and makingsure that they get credit when you aretransferred or have given you information.And you should especially do that whenyou do a follow up letter, becauseyou're probably separating yourself,Dave, from a thousand other people.And I've had the secretary orgatekeeper say, you know, thank youvery much for that positive escalation.I got a raise or I got acknowledged, orit just made me feel good after 30 years,you're the first person to say that.So of course they're waiting for mycall to transfer it for the clothes.And I believe in woo will weigh.Why have resistance do at least resistanceallow the wind and the current totake you so any sort of friction and.Motion is not natural.I think that if I can gain theirconfidence in the beginning and show verynice, uh, reserved side where I can stillclose a deal, but I'm not gonna do it.Like you see in the movies I can,but that's out of character for me.And if I'm looking to have long termrelationships with people, it's not aone and a done, I want to get referred.I want Dave you and my network to.To grow as well.And as I say before, coming onyour show today, I, I wanted toshare with you certain things thatenabled me to be in business for 14years and running this call center.If I were not able to do thesesort of baseline ethics, morals,sort of phone calls for my clients,this would've never worked out.And, um, if anything of nothingtaking that away today is that if you.If you reject more than you accept, ifyou stand tall to your beliefs and youdo things to make your great grandparentsproud, you're gonna preserve, you'regonna last, you'll have the endurance.You'll make it through the tough times.Cuz those are the times youlook in the mirror and you askyourself, is this still worth it?Well, it is worth it.I have a luxury trade.This should have never happened.The fact that I'm here in CostaRica for 21 years and I have acompany with my wife after 14.It's a long shot fromNortheast Philadelphia.So I smile every day.I've learned to do that and I'velearned to give my agents dignityand to know every single one of theirnames and to break bread with them.And I have the largestcollection of pinball here.When you visit me, you'll see.So it's free play that they can playpinball with me, go to the pack, manmachine, make yourself comfortable.because that's my goal in a callcenter environment, which is agrind is, is to be the opposite.This is not a boiler room.This could be a career forthese young men and women.They could build it like me.And if I could be the last boss theyever have, maybe when they move on,they can know every agent's name andkeep that sort of tradition that I have.Dave Lorenzo: That's terrific.I love that.Um, Richard, there's, there's two, uh,two questions that stand out for mebefore, before we finish up that I haveto ask you about, and the first is.Do you think because, um, becausebeing, uh, being a, um, being a, anassociated call center, being a rep ata call center in Costa Rica is a noblegood, uh, well respected profession.Is there less call reluctance?Is there, is there less hesitancy?Uh, among folks in that culture,whether it's the culture of thecountry or the culture you've createdin your call center, is there lesshesitancy for the reps to get on thephone and to do business on the phone?Cause one of the things I findhere is 2030 year executives.When I tell them, Hey, listen, yougot, you know, an inquiry just came in.You need to see what it's like totalk 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, youwant me to do what you want me to do?Like there's, there's tremendous callreluctance among people, you know,even at the senior levels of a company,if they haven't had any interpersonalinteraction or if there hasn't beeninterpersonal interaction over theyears, You in all your experience atcall centers, have you been able to,to, to create a culture where it's justnormal to pick up the phone and youknow, can't, I can't wait to call people.I don't know.And start relationships with them.Is that, have you, have you been ableto overcome that with your folks?ItRichard Blank: really hasn'tbeen that much of an issue here.The main issue I have is gettingrid of their bad habits from,from the sports books, casinosstocks, pharmacies, and sweep.Dave Lorenzo: Wow.Yeah, those are the, Ididn't even think of that.So they were, so they were working inother places on the phone before they cameto you and they have those bad habits.I see.Those are fiveRichard Blank: accountsDave, that I do not do here.And those are some of the accountswhere I can get some of thesestar salesmen that come here.Not saying it's ethical or not ethical.I choose just not to do it.Yeah.Okay.And so some people might have come froman environment or thought about thatsort of environment because the money is.but that's okay.There's many differentways you can earn money.That's their decision.So when they come to me, there'sno reluctance to be on the phone.These are public speakers.As you see in Spanish Portos or UR, theseare people that are wonderful speakers.My thing is to eliminate the fear.It's a morbid anticipation ofsomething they haven't happened yet.Learning a second languageis 10 times harder doing.And if I can properly prepare them,then it reduces any sort of fear.If I can answer any of their questions.And prior to making a single phonecall doing a two hour soft skillstraining 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 someof their recordings and discuss withthem certain soft skills in regardsto pausing in regards to tie down andpin down questions, confirmations.Military alphabet, which Ihighly recommend for anybody.Why?Because half the people have servedor know someone that's served.So that's another beautiful me tootechnique to be able to land the plane.And so these are the, every time I addsomething to them, their fear reduces andthey get more self-reliant and self C.and then all of a sudden they'reknocking on my door saying, HeyRichie, I got my third one today.And you know, I love that sort of stuff.I love walking the rose, Dave.I love knowing their names and stoppingand listening to them pitch and givingthem a thumbs up and telling them whythey're artists of speech and why it'sbeautiful because everyone is textingthese days, which could be misinterpreted.Yeah.And if you not only speak withsomebody, 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 becauseI made a living off playing with.Speech.Yeah.The article,Dave Lorenzo: let me, let me ask you this.Uh, the, does it make it harderbecause you, you mentioned they'reworking from home now, right?So is it, does it make it harder foryou as the, as the leader, becauseyou're, you know, you, you're aninspirational person, you really care.I, you know, we can tell just fromthe short period of time, we'vespoken that you really care aboutthe folks that work with you.Does it make it harder foryou to kind of pump them up?Because I know that myself.Working from home.Like today, today's a perfect example.You know, my interaction with you todayis probably the fourth or fifth time.I've talked to another personbecause today here in my homeoffice, 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 personuntil everybody comes home.Yeah.And I'll tell you, Richard,it's not, it's not as fulfillingas talking to other people.During the course of the day.So for you, is it, is it more difficultto keep their training at a high level?Because now I would imaginethat it's asynchronous, right?You're listening to them in recordings.You're making notes and then maybeyou do a zoom with them and you say,Hey, you know, Joe, I was listeningto this recording on the phone.Let's play it together.You play it.You know, here's whatI would've said here.And it's not real time anymore.Is it more difficult for you?Because I, I would imagine many ofthem are still working from home.And then are you gonna bring'em back in so that you canhave that collegial environment?Richard Blank: Exxon question.I'll give you the quick pros and cons andlegally what we had to do when COVID hit.We were allowed to have 50%of our people in the office.I sent about 70% home to give myself aPCI compliance, or if someone has aredundancy, electricity, or, or hardwareproblem, they can jump onto a station.It's just me.I'm a coach.I'm not sensitive, but I love my people.And I love walking the rows and I feltlike that was my special sauce andthat was taken away from me from COVID.But let's talk about the prosthey're in a much better head.They're closer to their family.They're saving tons of money.As long as their work environmentis professional they're.As I say before, they're muchmore relaxed on the phone.Their metrics are, are incredible.It's just a comradery ofhaving lunch with people.And just missing them, but no,we've increased our, our channelsof communication, but this isthe one thing I really got this,you have an excellent background.You see my, um, yeah.Cola and my candy machine, but you getto see how a lot of people are living andyou get to see what's in their background.So the one thing I would've nevergotten from here is some of theirinterests and what makes them proud.So I might lose it physically.standing next to somebody, but I thinkI've gained three times the sort ofknowledge about what makes somebody tick.So on a rainy Wednesday, I can motivatethem or I can compliment their,their stuffed bunny rabbit in thecorner and tease 'em for a minute.And, um, that might break theice too, but no, check this out.The fact that I take the time with asuit to zoom, call them and to maybediscuss a five minute call with them.That's something that youalmost get more points.By showing that extra effort,then you would just standingnext to 'em and smiling whilethey're on the phone with Mrs.Jones.So I think I get a lotmore mileage out of it.I think they're a lot more appreciative.I think the lack of communicationthat we have, cuz it's so sparse,when you do have a chance to speakwith somebody's more enriching.And so maybe as a boss or maybe asa leader mentor or possibly in thesetough moments, Dave, as a friend.we all were able to getthrough COVID together.I got a lot of friends where theirbusiness went out of business.Yeah.Oh me too.And the fact that I'm stillstanding and you're stillstanding, you know, right on man.Yeah.RightDave Lorenzo: on.No, I appreciate that.Yeah.I, I appreciate it.Is that, is that gonna be apermanent part of your, um, ofyour say employment offering now?There'll be certain people.You know, even when the governmentopens up completely you'll, you'llallow them to work from home becausemaybe they're in a place that's an hourand a half car ride or bus ride away.And they're excellent.So they can work from home becausetheir particular job is fine at home.Or do you plan on bringing PEeverybody back at some pointRichard Blank: I'm open foreverything, but there's one thingI 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 inthe office for a day?Yeah.For at least a week.Yeah.So we can sit together.We can, I can send you home withmy computer if it's not, if youwere, but it's not even that.Can I at least have somepizza with you one day?Can I train you a little bit?Can I stand next to youwhen 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.You're not an independent, atleast, 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, butyou'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 willstress this certain bad habits, or theremay be certain areas where I could enhancetheir skills, make a suggestion or workon, or maybe be, maybe be that one coach.That parent or that best friend thatthey didn't have Dave, that one guy attakes the time to get to know this agent.Maybe he will stay because of that.Maybe they might do dedicatedpractice after work because of that.So they come back to me thenext day saying they practicerecordings on their own.Nobody does that.But if you do that, and thoseusually are my future supervisors.Those are the ones thatI promote from within.Dave, those are the ones who, whomI delegate and whom I grow with.So those are the sort of secretsor the inside BS, as you would say.of, of my success.It's really about building foundation.My man, it's about havingpeople that are willing to comework with me for another day.And it's very humbling.As I say before, I'm aguest in this country.I might have learned their language andI know their customs, but once again,I'm, I'm 3000 miles away from my motherand my father, but I was embraced.And when I saw somethingthat was positive, I realizedI shed a skin that day.And I realized that back inclosed my first account, itwas only one seat 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 youcan do this as long as you have goodintentions and you have good faith.And remember the way that you wereraised, people will accept you.It might take a little bit longer,cause you might need to learn othercustoms and cultures or the way.but once you crack those codes, Dave,it kind of seems to be easy afterDave Lorenzo: that.Oh, that's terrific.That's really great.All right, Richard, take a secondand think of three things we shouldtake away from our time together.Three things we want people to rememberfrom our conversation today, whileyou're doing that, I wanna remindfolks that were brought to you by St.Draki corporate advisors.So if you wanna reduce your tax exposure,you gotta give some Roski, a call.You can reach out to them at 8 6, 6 7 1 7.Sun Draki corporate advisor.Is there a CPA firm witha different perspective?We're also brought to youby my revenue roadmap guide.Go to revenue, roadmap, guide.com.Enter your contact info.Download your free businessdevelopment plan today.It's my gift to you for listeningto the show for watching the show.Our guest today is Richard blank.You can call him at Costa Rica's call.Or you can email him hisemails down in the show notes.All right, Richard, what should, whatour folks listening, our folks watchingwhat are the three things they shouldtake away from our time togethertoday?Richard Blank: First thing theyshould take away is that I'mvery grateful for their time.And thank you for listeningto the entire podcast.I know a lot of people likeshort segments, hopefullyI kept your attention, but.Anybody that wants to reach out to mejust to say hello and just to touchbase or have any sort of suggestions, bemore than willing to take any call andjust to say, uh, in to meet some people.I'm hoping that people after watchingus today will see that you canbe self confident in what you do.And also you can assist othersto become more self-reliant.Success is built on 1 million thank yous.And I believe that like the bricks inthe wall behind me in my building, thatI built that you're capable of growing.If you're assisting others.And I've learned that.And I learned that the easy way, not thehard way, because that's how I was raised.And the third thing is if youtake these long shots and you takethese risks, it can also pay off.I have a beautiful life here.As I mentioned before I collectantiques, I bought a limousine inAnd I restored that was able to buildout a building for my call center.So all of my dreams have come true.And I think the most satisfying thing thatI did was I was true to myself, going backto Philadelphia and being a Spanish majorand using that to being where I am today.Obviously I had this vision as ayoung man that I, that I stuck behind.Most people quit 80% in, or there's a lotof naysayers that will say don't do it.And these are the ones that loveyou the most and care about you.The most.But you also have to stand firm andyou have to also have to look atyourself in the mirror every day.And what sort of man orwoman do you want to see?And so I had to make sure that Icould live with myself and I'm veryhappy that I made these choices.And especially making a choiceto be on this podcast today.So, uh, Dave, thank you again and your,Dave Lorenzo: no, thanks to you deco.Thank you so much.It was a pleasure having you on.I loved having this conversation with you.And we're gonna have to haveyou back again to understandhow you built a building andcollect antiques in Costa Rica.Richard Blank: I mean, there's, we didn'teven know my micro expression readingDave Lorenzo: or today we'll haveI promise we'll have you back.We'll make it a regular segment.Richard blanket was such apleasure having you on folks.If you wanna reach out to Richard, letme give you his number one more time.Call him at eight eight eight two seven.That'll do it for anotherepisode of the inside BS show.Mike, thanks to Richardblank for joining us today.We'll be back here again tomorrow withanother great interview until then.Here's hoping you make agreat living and live a life.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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVFQWhymunU&t=884shttps://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-95https://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=1000567719961https://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_7https://open.spotify.com/episode/0lGBT4kd7026zRzP3C8mluhttps://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Inside-BS-with-Dave-Lorenzo-p1258770/?topicId=173106229https://www.ivoox.com/en/how-to-build-a-world-class-call-center-audios-mp3_rf_88970286_1.html

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