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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
https://youtu.be/xdsImuJOnvE
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00:02In three, two, one, with us right now, it's Richard Blank.
00:07Richard, you are the president and CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center.
00:10You are found on the web at CostaRicasCallCenter.com.
00:16Richard, thank you so much for joining us.
00:19Josh, so happy to be here today.
00:20Thank you so much for having me as your guest.
00:22I am so delighted, too.
00:24For anyone who happens to be seeing a video clip of our conversation, too,
00:29first off, you are a sharp dresser, my friend.
00:33And secondly, I love the background.
00:37You've got a classic jukebox.
00:42Can you tell me, give me the year and tell me what that is?
00:46I could not believe that I found this treasure.
00:48She is a beautiful mint condition, 1961 Ricola Regis.
00:54Oh, yeah.
00:55And it functions?
00:57Absolutely.
00:57But here's the downside.
00:59It came with, you know, hundreds of records, but I just didn't know a single artist.
01:03There's no Led Zeppelin in there.
01:04There's no Jimi Hendrix.
01:06These are stars from Central America from the 70s and 80s.
01:09I had no clue who half of these people were.
01:12Oh, how funny.
01:13How funny.
01:14And then you've got like a classic candy machine, too.
01:17Just really, really cool.
01:19So, Richard, give us an overview of what Costa Rica's Call Center is.
01:24Well, we are a bilingual call center here in Central America.
01:29All of my agents are dedicated.
01:30They're college educated.
01:31They have beautiful, neutral English accents and incredible still sets.
01:36So they'd be able to do outbound lead generation, appointment setting, inbound customer service, or even back office support.
01:44Companies such as HP, Intel, Amazon, and Oracle are in Costa Rica.
01:49So besides being close to the United States in our mountain time zone, once again, many companies feel very comfortable
01:55to place a lot of their operations here.
01:58So it's very competitive.
01:59The agents we have are high caliber.
02:02And as long as we can create an amazing company culture, I can reduce my attrition rate and get the
02:07most out of them.
02:09So tell me about the advantages to Costa Rica.
02:14First and foremost, our ecotourism.
02:16I live in paradise.
02:17It's like 83-degree temperature all year round and not really having to use an air conditioning unit or a
02:24heater.
02:25It's perfect weather.
02:26Cost of living is about a third.
02:28But the lifestyle is different, Josh.
02:31There's a saying here, por vida, which means pure life.
02:35So it's very – there's a very strong culture.
02:39And a lot of it has to do with nature.
02:42And it's almost like being back in the 1950s where all the neighbors know one another and everyone's very polite
02:46and open doors.
02:47And so for me, it was a wonderful experience when I first got here.
02:51And I decided just to keep that momentum going.
02:54And I've been here for 22 years, Josh.
02:56I came here.
02:57Oh, my goodness.
02:58Yeah.
02:58And so where did – how did the call center or the telemarketing center – where did it come from?
03:06How did it start?
03:07It's an excellent question.
03:09When I first came down here in August of 2000, I was only supposed to be for two months at
03:13my friend's call center from college teaching English.
03:17And you always notice one in a million opportunities and then a chance that this one event could potentially change
03:24my life.
03:25And when I watched these bilingual agents on their old Cisco phones speaking with people in the United States and
03:31converting calls and getting very positive escalations that they were doing great work, I gravitated towards it.
03:38And I stayed and worked at my center for four years.
03:41And I learned it from the inside out, not as a sea level.
03:43And there were certain areas where I know I could enrich the experience.
03:47And so when I had my maturity, impulse, control, and some money, I threw my hat in the ring in
03:51my mid-30s and started my own call center.
03:54And we're in our 14th year, 150 seats.
03:57And I'm very not proud of – I'm not even surprised.
04:01It was almost like a vision quest, a destiny that I had since high school where it was my favorite
04:07class in college where I majored in Spanish.
04:10Obviously, this second language opened many doors for me.
04:14Yeah.
04:15Okay.
04:15So let's talk about what's working well when it comes to providing – you know, I want to get into
04:24customer care in just a moment because I think that there's – you know, the folks that listen to this,
04:29you know, have established businesses.
04:31There's likely cases where they can be partnering with you.
04:37And so let's start with maybe lead gen.
04:41Where are you seeing that work very well?
04:44Like, what types of industries?
04:47It's really not about our efforts.
04:49It's the sort of parameters that companies have now post-COVID.
04:53A lot of them are just accepting non-voice chat emails or voicemails being left.
04:59So our contact ratios have been reduced.
05:02But there are strategies with that, Josh.
05:04You can take a look at a website or a LinkedIn profile and make a voicemail, email, or message custom
05:10-made.
05:10But I work with all verticals.
05:13I just want to ensure that I'm able to fulfill not just the need of the client but of the
05:18agent.
05:18It's very easy.
05:20They have a lot of offers here, the labor force.
05:23And once again, what I should be offering them should be 100% legal, no gray area, something that's within
05:29their skill set that we can easily onboard, train, and support.
05:33And so it just has to do with realistic expectations and the sort of resources that are provided to the
05:40call center.
05:40Do they have previous metrics or is this a pilot project?
05:43And so just by uncovering things and asking follow-up questions, I may or may not be the best solution
05:51for them at the moment.
05:52But the one thing they're going to walk away with is tons of intel on how to write a script,
05:57how to prospect, how to do composition letter, voicemail, quality assurance, and even training.
06:03It's my pleasure to share ideas.
06:05And then, Josh, from an educated point of view, they move forward.
06:08But if someone is at a small office, they could use us to prospect appointments for them and follow up
06:13for them.
06:13A lot of the times they could be inundated with inbound calls from marketing where we could be an overflow
06:18service.
06:19And then if you just want to compare apples, maybe my structure, my training, my environment, and coaching might be
06:27able to produce a better return per hour on their phone calls.
06:32We have predictive dialers.
06:34I have a server room.
06:35I have redundancy with internet and electricity so we don't go down.
06:40Plus, I can test multiple types of people to find where the right seat is for this individual that's on
06:45the right bus.
06:46And so these are the sort of resources, Josh, that I can offer somebody looking to potentially partner up with
06:52us here.
06:53Yeah, yeah.
06:54Well, and so obviously, I think your background is in training language and speaking.
07:03And why is that important?
07:05And I'm sure you've got some good data in and around if someone is going to be involved in customer
07:12service, lead gen support, anything involving verbal communication.
07:18Why do you want someone that sounds very neutral?
07:22Does that really have a big impact on outcome?
07:26Well, yes and no.
07:27Some of the most famous actors in Hollywood did have a slight accent.
07:31Could be British, European.
07:32Or, you know, it could be, once again, anything to enhance the speaking.
07:37A language is grammar, vocabulary, and also phonetic delivery.
07:42As I mentioned before, it could be a beauty mark when someone speaks.
07:45But to me, I just want to make sure that somebody is, if somebody walks into the call center, Josh,
07:52and they're bilingual like myself, obviously it shows structure and discipline and cognitive skills.
07:57It's almost like the karate kid practicing without Mr. Miyagi.
08:01You have to practice sometimes outside the classroom to become a master.
08:05And so when they come to me, I really take this delicate sort of impressionable early 20s sort of career
08:12building momentum and emphasize a thesaurus.
08:16So instead of just making phone calls and being aggressive, you and I, Josh, can be more assertive by mentioning
08:23words like assist guide and lend a hand compared to help.
08:26Or something for my clarification and edification instead of asking someone to repeat.
08:32And there are certain soft skills that you easily show your audience.
08:37And I love your podcast.
08:38And what we try to, it's about building that self-confidence, my friend.
08:43And that self-reliance because they always had it in them.
08:46But if they're in an environment where they're encouraged, and it is a linguistic environment, so they're getting a return
08:51on their investment.
08:52And also someone that's bilingual bears the mark of higher education.
08:56So their concentration levels in shorter periods of time are intense.
09:00It's really difficult for them to wander because they're translating and communicating.
09:04So to me, that's the double-double.
09:06These are individuals, if they do not come in with bad habits, we can mold them.
09:11They could be our squire.
09:13We can really, really train them on skills that can get the best out of them.
09:18And so it's not like what you see in the movies.
09:21And a lot of the times people are just handed a script and wished well.
09:25Right, right.
09:26That will create fear.
09:27And that will not produce the best sort of phone calls, Josh.
09:31Yeah, yeah.
09:32I mean, ultimately, that's frustrating for everybody.
09:36Where does Costa Rica's call center excel where maybe other solution providers might fall short?
09:42And particularly in light of maybe there's some case studies of clients that you've been working with for some time
09:49where you do really shine.
09:54Well, we definitely shine in the bilingual marketplace because, once again, that is a language that is becoming much more
10:02influential in the United States.
10:03There are some people that are just bilingual and some people that don't speak English at all, and you can
10:07still convert those sales.
10:08It's not really a niche market.
10:09It could be the main market soon.
10:11We do not have a standing army.
10:14So Costa Rica put their money back into education.
10:16There's a 95% literacy rate here.
10:20Now, in regards to the neutral accent, a lot of it has to do with the expatriates that are living
10:25here or proxemics to the United States.
10:27And a lot of people have family or have lived in the United States.
10:30Or maybe just through their education.
10:33They practice so much to, once again, master that accent level.
10:39We also have this skill set.
10:41It's incredible the sort of agents that come in here with their resumes, not only from HP and Intel, from
10:46the tech world, but they've worked in collections.
10:49They've worked in banking.
10:51And not only that, the tourism, the sort of reputation that we have if they just come here and they
10:56see us face to face outside of the call center.
10:59People have such positive experiences here from the natives that they, once again, Costa Rica has a wonderful reputation.
11:06Really, the only democratic society in Central America.
11:09And so we hold these certain values.
11:12But my thing is, as well, it may or may not add points to what you're looking for.
11:18But this is a very strict Catholic country.
11:20And it's a multi-generational type of environment where people do live with their family and their grandparents.
11:27And they might seem more reserved.
11:30So the agents that I have on the phone that accept these accounts are not compromising ethics or values.
11:36And your clients, that would give them peace of mind, knowing that they're working with an environment that does follow
11:42certain labor laws and will only accept accounts where they can go home and tell their mothers what they do
11:49for a living.
11:51Yeah. And, you know, for someone who is considering hiring, you know, a call center, what are, are there any
12:02misconceptions that you see coming in from customers in terms of expectations?
12:08And you say, I don't know what your observation is in and around that.
12:13So many. And that's a wonderful question, Josh. Thank you.
12:15So they're comparing offshore prices in India and the Philippines to nearshore prices, Costa Rica.
12:22So they're confused on why someone here will not be willing to accept one dollar an hour to work.
12:28You can offer it doesn't mean someone's going to accept it.
12:31And also, they might be having a home court advantage.
12:34There could be people that grew up around Chicago, Los Angeles or New York that know the neighborhood better, know
12:41how to call it the shore and not the beach.
12:44Certain athletics or certain things that they recognize in the city.
12:47So but also there's a tone that an office has, you know, when you've seen the movie Boiler Room or
12:54Glengarry Raw for the Wolf, you and I could handle that environment.
12:58We could thrive in that environment. But if you try to put that sort of energy here, it might not
13:04work.
13:04There are certain things in the United States that just do not really have any sort of value here.
13:10It's really more of the essence. So I think some of the expectations are in regards to how supervisors would
13:16be speaking with the agents, maybe not with profanity.
13:19And sometimes your inside jokes might be misinterpreted.
13:23And so a lot of this stuff we'd have to explain in the beginning is just blending just to make
13:28sure that there is a good fit, because if there is, then, of course, we can share the best of
13:32each other and avoid the worst.
13:34But if they just come in guns a blazing, expecting F-bombs and caps and the sort of thing that
13:41in my Philadelphia ice hockey coach would motivate me.
13:44Yeah, sure. That works for the Flyers, but it might not work here.
13:47And so I sometimes have to not just calm people down.
13:51I just want to give them more of a lucid, a clear view of a different culture and our sort
13:57of expectations.
13:59Tell me about and then I'm going to have you start from here and we're going to talk about the
14:04arcade.
14:05Because while we were chatting, I only saw what you had in the background there.
14:10I was on your website. I love that you guys have that you have a gallery on your website of
14:15just photos of, you know, the premise, everything.
14:19You've got a video arcade in your office.
14:21And, you know, as a classic arcade fan, you and I were just talking briefly, you know, my son and
14:27I built a main cabinet, which is multi-arcade something emulator, machine emulator.
14:34I forget what that all stands for.
14:37But it's so much fun.
14:39It's, you know, the classic joystick console and everything like that.
14:43But you've been able to pick up quite a collection and I'm sure that, I mean, that's, that really shares
14:50a lot of wow factor in terms of like, you know, when someone's considering, okay, well, I got different places
14:56I could work.
14:56I could work at this boring, sterile place, or I could come work at a place that's got a video
15:01arcade.
15:02Like, it's no joke.
15:03You have a lot of machines and pinball too.
15:07The gamification culture.
15:09Thank you so much for bringing that up on your podcast.
15:11We got to definitely talk about dessert.
15:13I created an environment where AIDS free play.
15:16Most of these machines are older than the agents because they are original pinball machines and other retro arcade machines
15:23in an air hockey table.
15:24But you let off steam, you recharge batteries, you make friends from other departments, you hang out with your boss
15:29there.
15:30But it's when you walk through it, it puts you in a different state of mind because it reminds the
15:37agents of how I treat them, how I treat myself.
15:40It reminds my clients that they need to have a game room as well.
15:44I've also had certain white glove comments where people will say, hey, this is a professional environment.
15:50You shouldn't be having these sort of things.
15:52And in my mind, I say, you do you.
15:55This is my company.
15:57I'm still a young kid.
15:58I know how to work hard.
16:00And recess was the best class.
16:01And I just really wanted to fulfill one of my childhood dreams was to have the Silver Spoons Ricky Schroeder
16:09game room.
16:10And I did it.
16:11And since I have the space, I have the money.
16:14I go treasure hunting.
16:15And you were mentioning this beautiful Ricola behind me.
16:18I have Wurlitzers and Seaburgs as well.
16:21And one man's trash, Josh, is another man's treasure.
16:25And they have no idea what they're sitting on.
16:27And so I'm always driving around this country and talking to some guy.
16:31And my problem is I don't have a poker face.
16:34Because if I see this machine, I'm almost like Bo Derek and Dudley Moore in the movie 10.
16:39I'm running towards it on a beach.
16:41And my guy's like, calm down.
16:42I'm going to let him know that something is not working.
16:44I go, come on, just offer him a fair price.
16:46And let's everybody win.
16:49Awesome.
16:50All right.
16:50So Richard Blank, again, your website is CostaRicasCallCenter.com.
16:59When somebody goes there, aside from the gallery, which we talked about, what else should people do?
17:04What should they click on if they're like, I want to learn more?
17:07There's a contact us page.
17:09And also there's different sections for the different accounts that we handle for them.
17:13They'd also like to go to our Facebook fan page.
17:15We have about 98,000 local Costa Ricans.
17:17And we will be putting your podcast there.
17:20So you'll be getting some more fans.
17:21And I'll give you a pulse on the industry.
17:23But they can give me a call, 888-271-6750, just to say hello.
17:28Or to ask for suggestions on their next trip to Costa Rica when they buy a ticket and come down
17:32and visit me.
17:34Awesome.
17:35All right.
17:36Again, Richard Blank, president and CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, found on the web at CostaRicasCallCenter.com.
17:42Thank you so much, Richard, for joining us.
17:44Had the best time, Josh.
17:45Thank you so much for you and your audience.
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