Messaging Through a Great Culture with Richard Blank

Richard Blank is the founder, CEO, and head bilingual trainer at Costa Rica’s Call Center, a business process outsourcing (BPO) telemarketing company. They offer outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions of the highest quality. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s show to talk about Costa Rica’s Call Center, how they help their clients, why he opened a call center in Costa Rica, and how to lead a successful call center in a foreign country. 

The Core of Costa Rica’s Call Center

Tom asks Richard why he decided to open a call center in Costa Rica and how the term “Learning through the Proletariat” influenced his business model. Richard explains that as a CEO who works among people, you learn the importance of training and keeping your employees and customers. “One thing that I heard most sitting amongst people that are in a call center industry is that they feel expendable,” he tells Tom. To counteract this, he invests in his employees' careers by promoting them and teaching them English so that they have pride and security in their job. Additionally, he has several retro arcade game machines that allow the employees to meet colleagues from other departments, and to relax, “or even hang out with el jefe”. He explains that this creates a safe, enjoyable workplace culture and an atmosphere of trust and institutional fairness.

BPO Telemarketing Outsource Company

Tom asks Richard to define a BPO telemarketing outsourcing company. BPO stands for business process outsourcing, and it is done in several parts of the world, including the Philippines where it is known as offshore. However, since Costa Rica is so close to the United States, it is considered a near-shore outsourcing company. “[That] could be either a blended or mixed center where they work on multiple accounts; usually it’s for overflowing and answering service,” he explains. Every one of Costa Rica’s Call Center’s agents is assigned to and works specifically for a client. He explains why having a brick-and-mortar call center is more beneficial for them versus being completely remote: problems like Internet redundancy and electricity failure plague remote workers, while at the in-person center, there are multiple tools and resources to hedge technical difficulties.

Nearshoring and Outsourcing

Tom asks why Richard chose Costa Rica for a BPO center and what’s the difference in having a company in essentially the same time zone as the US. Richard describes Costa Rica’s ideal location, and that it’s a democratic society with no standing army. In addition, the country’s literacy rate is 95%, and it has the best infrastructure in Central America. They also have highly skilled and experienced workers, some of whom have lived in the US and have dual citizenship. Furthermore, clients like the fact that agents are attuned to the North American market. It is also a safe place to visit for tourism.

Resources 

Richard Blank | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube   

Costa Rica's Call Center | Facebook