From Two Months to a 150‑Seat Call Center

Richard Blank

In Episode 1312 of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, host Josh Elledge interviews Richard Blank, the CEO and co-founder of Costa Rica's Call Center. The episode focuses on how Blank built a premier nearshore business processing outsourcing (BPO) company from scratch in Central America, highlighting advanced telemarketing strategies and the human elements of scaling a business. Key Interview Highlights Founding Story: Richard explains how moving to Costa Rica at age 27 to teach English at a friend's business inspired him to open his own state-of-the-art call center in San José. The Costa Rican Advantage: The discussion covers why Costa Rica is an ideal outsourcing hub, citing its high-caliber college-educated workforce, strong cultural alignment with North America, and thriving ecotourism. Linguistic Focus: Richard breaks down how he builds confidence in his frontline agents by expanding their vocabulary and teaching them how to read phonetic micro-expressions. Workplace Gamification: The episode explores the unique culture at Costa Rica's Call Center, which features Central America's largest collection of restored American pinball machines and antique Rockola jukeboxes to motivate employees. Addressing Misconceptions: Richard clarifies that choosing a nearshore center isn't simply about chasing the lowest possible price point (as seen in offshore regions like India), but rather about investing in high-quality, professional brand representation.    https://youtu.be/xdsImuJOnvE

Transcript

00:00I watched these bilingual agents on their old Cisco phones speaking with people in the United

00:04States and converting calls and getting very positive escalations that they were doing great

00:09work. I gravitated towards it and I stayed and worked at my center for four years. And

00:15I learned it from the inside out, not as a sea level. And there were certain areas where I know

00:19I could enrich the experience. And so when I had my maturity, impulse control, and some money,

00:24I threw my hat in the ring in my mid-30s and started my own call center. And we're in

00:28our

00:2814th year, 150 seats. And I'm very not proud of, I'm not even surprised. It was almost like a vision

00:37quest, a destiny that I had since high school, where it was my favorite class in college, where

00:41I majored in Spanish. Obviously this second language opened many doors for me. Yeah. Okay. So let's

00:50talk about what's working well when it comes to providing, you know, I want to get into customer

00:58care in just a moment. Cause I think that there's, you know, the folks that listen to this, you

01:03know, have established businesses. There's likely cases where they can be partnering with

01:10you. And so let's start with maybe lead gen. Where are you seeing that work very well? Like

01:18what types of industries?

01:20Yeah.

01:28Yeah.

01:48Oh.

01:50You

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