Richard Blank

Richard Blank is the CEO, President, and Bilingual Telemarketing Trainer for Costa Rica’s Call Center, a state-of-the-art BPO telemarketing outsourcing company. Through his motivational public speaking style and appropriate rhetoric, Richard has been a proven bilingual trainer for 12 years. 

He also manages a school for advanced telemarketing and soft skills and is often sought-after for private training sessions and consultations. To expand Costa Rica’s telecommunications and business appeal, Richard became a strategic partner of the Pacific Rim Chamber of Commerce and Solo Telecommunications.

Available_Black copy
Available_Black copy
partner-share-lg
partner-share-lg
partner-share-lg
partner-share-lg
Available_Black copy
partner-share-lg

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • Why did Richard Blank choose Costa Rica for his call center, and what are its advantages over other locations?
  • Richard addresses call center stereotypes and key trends in modern call centers
  • How call center cultures maximize productivity and encourage professional growth
  • Pivoting from the pandemic shutdowns and advice for adopting post-pandemic work styles
  • Richard’s approach to reducing employee and client churn rates and how he measures campaign success
  • Top three mistakes businesses make when outsourcing call centers
  • Training employees in telecommunications and soft skills
  • Does telemarketing actually work?

In this episode…

In the past, telemarketing call centers were restricted to offshore countries and were compared to Hollywood boiler rooms. When modernized for today’s social conditions, these centers can provide employee agents with learning and professional growth opportunities. So how can you facilitate a positive experience for both agents and clients?

Telecommunications expert Richard Blank regards the work performed in modern call centers as an art form. These centers are social environments that differ from virtual interactions, so it’s crucial to equip your agents with the verbal communication, active listening, and soft skills needed to engage with clients. Richard is empathetic toward his agents’ needs and work styles and encourages them to embody the same level of empathy when speaking to clients. When you cultivate a socially enriching company culture, your agents are more likely to perform their tasks with passion rather than complacency. 

CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center Richard Blank joins Rolando Rosas in this episode of What The Teck? to talk about optimizing call centers for the modern work environment. Richard addresses call center stereotypes and modern call center trends, how call centers maximize productivity and encourage professional growth, and how to train employees in telecommunications and soft skills.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Global Teck Worldwide

We are a full-service online retailer of professional headsets, webcams, and speaker phones from top manufacturers. 

Since 2002, Global Teck Worldwide has provided affordable, high-quality communications equipment and customized telecommunications services to organizations of all sizes.

Our specialists have invested hundreds of hours in technical training, certifications, and seminars to assist customers with purchasing decisions. 

We have served thousands of customers in a variety of industries with value-added services, including ergonomics, employee work accommodations, and hearing-impaired services. 

If you are a government agency, small business, or Fortune 500 company, contact us at https://circuitloops.com/contact-us/ to discover a solution that fits your communication needs.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:00

Hi welcome to the What The Teck? podcast where we talk about business and Office Technology and put our 20 years of expertise to discussing trends and issues impacting the workplace.

Rolando Rosas 0:25

This podcast is brought to you by Global Teck Worldwide you’re Technology Office experts that’s been around for 20 years providing trusted, personalized office IT solutions check them out at amazon.com/teck. That’s amazon.com/teck. 

Dave Kelly 0:46

Still paying for slow, outdated business internet. Why would you do that everything is so expensive and 2022. But listen, you might not realize you can go to circuitloops.com instant quotes to easily compare with what you’re paying for and find the upgrade that’s right for you. It’s that easy. Go to circuitloops.com

Rolando Rosas 1:06

Richard Blank is a CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center. His journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns and that age 27 He relocated to Costa Rica. I’m going to ask him about that journey. So stay tuned for that. And while in Costa Rica, he’s trained over 10,000 individuals that are bilingual telemarketers, a lot of people to talk to and train will dive into that. And if you want to know more about his company, costaricascallcenter.com is where to go, where they offer a variety of customer care, telesales, lead generation and other outsourced services. So without further ado, let’s welcome Richard to the show. Richard, how are you?

Richard Blank 1:49

I’m doing great. Rolando. Thank you so much for having me as your guest on your show today, I’m really much looking forward to sharing ideas, giving some insight to your amazing audience.

Rolando Rosas 1:58

All right, me, there’s a lot of stuff I did. We were talking earlier in the greenroom and you were saying that you’ve been around for your business, your company has been around for 15 years. And I can’t imagine how folks like yourself, you must breathe, you must live this, I know that for me as being the founder of Global Teck, you become obsessive about things. So there’s got to be some things that you’re bringing to the table at your company that allow it to thrive in an ultra competitive space. The outsource services business has businesses scattered all through the world. And somehow you’ve found a corner of the world in Costa Rica to plant a flag, and over the last 15 years been able to carve out a niche for yourself. 

Richard Blank 2:41

It’s definitely been a challenge. But I can give you one word Rolando and what has given me all this success, empathy. Because if I don’t treat the people, well, they’re not going to come back the next day. And I don’t have any friends at my Chucky Cheese birthday party. So really, the market speaks. And since I am a guest in this country, since I’m from originally, Philadelphia, I realized that there are different customs and traditions here. And as long as I learned the language, it was respectful, and gave the agents dignity in this very competitive industry that has burnout and attrition. I’ve been able to cultivate a very great company culture here, an extremely strong foundation of people that I’ve been able to promote through delegating additional responsibility. So I’ve been able to scale and expand and you my friend, you offer the amazing technology, I have the warriors that need to use it. And so that combination makes you and I very successful in this sort of industry.

Rolando Rosas 3:41

Well, you said something that for me is one of those words that just being at the spidey sense goes off in you said culture. And I know having helped for me having worked with suppliers around the world, there are some idiosyncrasies in working with people from from Africa or from Latin America and from Asia. And there are things that make those regions unique. And one of the things I wanted to ask you is given that you are you offer services for folks that are in Costa Rica, what makes Costa Rica The place it is and gives you that advantage basically against some of the other places like in India, where they have call centers with 1000s of people cheap labor, and also in the Philippines, you have 1000s of people mega call centers, what gives your company the advantage, maybe the difference that sets them apart from those other locations?