AI, Human Empathy & Costa Rica's Call Center with Richard Blank and Donna Mitchell

Donna Mitchell

00:00:00 - 00:00:41

Thanks for checking in the pivoting to web three podcast. Go to pivotingtweb three podcast.com to download and listen or web three game plan to check out the videos. Thank you.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Well, don't we have a treat today with Richard Blank? Now, Richard Blank has moved from out of the United States to one of the places we probably dream about, far, far away, Costa Rica. And he has Costa Rica's call center and he is the CEO and the call center has been in existence since 2008. But the main part of this story is he paid it forward and he reached his dream.

Donna Mitchell

00:00:41 - 00:01:27

And with everything happening, moving abroad at 27 from Philadelphia and starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica, a vision and a quest and a journey that has been happy with the smile on his face, with everything that he has successfully achieved and shared. And I want to share it with my audience. I have him here today because it was a different story. There's technology involved, there's AI involved, but there's empathy also involved. And we haven't talked about that much when we talk about technology on pivoting to web three podcasts. So I thought this would be a treat and a special guest. Welcome. Richard Blank, Costa Ricas call center.

Donna Mitchell

00:01:27 - 00:01:38

Richard, say hello to your audience and ours and how are you doing today? And really give us the ins and outs on whats happening in Costa Rica and in your world.

Richard Blank

00:01:39 - 00:01:48

So happy to be with you today. Donna, thank you so much for having me as your guest. I love your show. I have so much to share and I know we're going to have a great time today.

Donna Mitchell

00:01:48 - 00:02:16

Yeah, we are. I'm glad to have you here. So tell us now that you're here on pivoting the web three podcast, I mean, I remember going through your background. You've got pinball machines, gamification, telemarketing, conflict management, interpersonal skills. You've got it all. You have employee motivation. But more importantly, you also are in the technology space. Can you give us a little bit of background on who you are and how you got there? Tell us your story, if you will.

Richard Blank

00:02:16 - 00:02:43

Of course, Donna I'm a long shot from northeast Philadelphia at a following in family footsteps of Harvard Law, Columbia business, and Washington and Lee undergrad. I decided when I graduated the proud Abington to go to University of Arizona and be a spanish major so I could be marketable, be versatile. I could be the only one out of my friends that could put Seabla espanol on their business. Cardinal.

Donna Mitchell

00:02:43 - 00:02:44

Okay.

Richard Blank

00:02:44 - 00:03:11

Little did I know, at 27 years old, I was given a one in a million opportunity to move to Costa Rica for a couple months to work in my friend's center. Well, a couple months turned into four years. I learned the call center business from the inside out, not at sea level. And then when I was in my mid thirties, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and test the waters. Little did I know that my run would continue to almost 17 years, grown to 150 seats.

Donna Mitchell

00:03:11 - 00:03:11

Wow.

Richard Blank

00:03:11 - 00:03:31

Wife and I actually build a business in a very competitive industry. And so, yeah, I collect pinball machines. I think it's great. Recess was the best class, and it's a wonderful place for my agents to try a machine they'll never see in their entire life and to bond with each other, because when your best friend is there, you might want to stay longer.

Donna Mitchell

00:03:32 - 00:03:43

So the call center, when you talk about the call center, what actually does your call center handle? What kind of services? What kind of business does the call center do?

Richard Blank

00:03:43 - 00:03:51

It's a great question. Well, we're not like Hollywood. I don't do sports, books, casinos, stocks, pharmacies, or sweepstakes.

Donna Mitchell

00:03:51 - 00:03:52

Okay.

Richard Blank

00:03:52 - 00:04:28

It's a strict catholic country. We want to make sure all the campaigns are clean. So I work with companies in the United States and Canada. We work with inbound customer support, back office support. We also do sales, appointment setting, lead generation, hot lead transfer. And so we have a wonderful, and, you know, this personally onboarding process structure with QA, a certain sort of supervision. We have predictive dialers, which really helps you gather that much faster. And those that have built up this skill, especially in a second language, hats off to them.

Richard Blank

00:04:28 - 00:05:01

It really bears the mark of higher education. Those that are bilingual, they have the cognitive skills, the structure and discipline. And I'm not taking any credit. I'm just polishing a little bit more of what they have. In what sense? Well, we focus on grammar. I love the thesaurus, so I can expand their vocabulary. I don't want them to be lazy in speech. They should be very attentive and take copious notes, engagement, really focusing on transitional sentences and tie downs and knowing when to say Donna makes sense.

Richard Blank

00:05:01 - 00:05:24

Right. You know, things like that. But my favorite, and, you know, this is the positive escalation. Before I get transferred to Donna, I have to tell Judy. She's amazing and she's the greatest. And so when I do get the past efficient transfer, I'm paying the compliment to you before even introducing myself. So it drops any defense from about a ten to a two. And I can prolong conversations.

Richard Blank

00:05:24 - 00:06:05

At least I'm giving myself a 32nd college try compared to the when you're thrown into the basket of telemarketers where they say, no, thank you, we're good. Don't call again. Is this a sales call? Come on, you're marked. You got to at least be a little clever when you want to get in the door. And so really pay those compliments, do some due diligence, slow down a little bit. Just don't carpet bomb your scripts. And when you speak with people, and if you can give them that old school like painting to a print, live theater to a movie, home cooked meal compared to microwave, they want that sort of interpersonal communication. They want that sort of connection.

Richard Blank

00:06:06 - 00:06:15

They'll drive an extra two blocks if they know the owner. And so I believe it's for retention, for upselling, for getting referrals, getting suggestions.

Donna Mitchell

00:06:15 - 00:07:35

Wow. So it really sounds like your call center is the impressions of excellence, that you are definitely going to make the moments of magic, not only with your employees, but also with your clientele, your partners, your strategic alliances, and some of the other employees, whether they internal or external customers. So if I'm listening to you correctly, you've included everything from the soft skills to communicating appropriately, anticipating needs, being able to diffuse a conversation, product knowledge, and really making sure someone is able to really interact at all levels with a human being. So now my question to you is, with all of this AI, all this technology taking place with web three and Defi and decentralization, when you look at what's happening in AI, either in the United States or other countries, do you see any real impact? Has it impacted your call center? I'm curious on what do you think about AI in that space of call centers and customer interaction and engagement and lead traffic?

Richard Blank

00:07:36 - 00:08:00

Yes. I don't fear the buggy whip or the steam engine. I know where this is going. AI is incredible for gathering what a wonderful way through omnichannel non voice. That they can get information through chat, email, or texting saves a lot of time. You can fill out forms, drop downs. Fantastic. But let's use a football analogy.

Richard Blank

00:08:00 - 00:08:39

Let them bring it to the ten, and then Donna and I are going to run the ball into the end zone because AI can never, ever duplicate, replace, or even try to extend empathy between two human beings. Don't tell me you know how I feel if my puppy ran away or what it feels like if I break an arm. That's not fair. It's not right. It's a very cold metal bench. That's it's functional, but it's not what you want for that time. And so for me, it may reduce my step, but it also will increase certain performances. Like for an example, think about it like this.

Richard Blank

00:08:39 - 00:09:14

People used to manual dial and I used to do 400 calls a day. I could do it without even looking. And then you could do smart dial or click the dial, you know, on your WhatsApp or Skype or another sort of program. Fine, that at least increase the productivity and reduce the fatigue and miss dial. Now we have predictive dialers. So you could load, for an example, 4000 unique numbers per agent per month on a five minute talk time. You load that up and you could have two to six lines going at one time. As long as they're in ready status, they're speaking to somebody.

Richard Blank

00:09:14 - 00:10:01

If you are not worked up to that, you're going to get exhausted. But if you can handle that, the production is through the roof and it's really great way to, you know, disposition a call. You can clean lists faster, you can do callbacks. So I thought that was a wonderful assistance to us. I mean, we really got distance on it and we made a lot more money off of it and it became very cost effective. When people are doing open source dialers or just packages, if you wanted to join certain programs, they included their telecom, so you could do great. And then QA is very interesting for our call centers and we have the luxury and it's one of the few industries, in my opinion, that really analyze their people. It's not like at old Navy.

Richard Blank

00:10:01 - 00:10:36

They're watching the people on the floor and studying their calls. They're not. They're on the floor. That's retail. And so with us, besides humans doing the QA now, AI is doing it, and that's fine. This is what we pay them to do to qualify leads, to ask the questions, use their rebuttals, fill out the forms. But I think AI is going to miss the catch of the empathy or the thing we have in common in regards to me loving dogs or my family's from New York, or the certain things, Donna, that you and I have in common that you just can't have with a computer. It just doesn't work that way.

Richard Blank

00:10:37 - 00:10:43

And that's, I don't, I don't see AI getting on your podcast. You want real people on your podcast.

Donna Mitchell

00:10:43 - 00:11:06

I want real people. Now, I do know some podcasts that do have AI or a robot and other things, but I'm still into the people side. And not to take anything away from that. But you're absolutely right. I want the real person with the culture, the influence, and the real being there, you know, the human being with all the dignity.

Richard Blank

00:11:07 - 00:11:09

So you're getting robocalls, right. And.

Donna Mitchell

00:11:13 - 00:11:39

I try to stay out of that lane, but like everyone else, yes, it does happen. Let me ask you, with your employees and the calls that are coming in, how do you actually measure the quality of the call? How is that happening today? I'm not sure what to call it now. Back in the day, you had to actually monitor each call.

Richard Blank

00:11:39 - 00:11:40

Sure.

Donna Mitchell

00:11:40 - 00:12:07

And after a couple of decades, then they came out with telephony, and that would kind of give you the quality of the call. How is technology today in the call center arena? Call centers are still really important to businesses and outsourcing and virtual assistants and everything. The way the world is going right now, I'm curious to know where you are and how you're measuring that area of performance.

Richard Blank

00:12:08 - 00:12:49

Donna, as you know, the number one goal is first call resolution. So I'm just judging to get the ball in the end zone. And then the second thing you might want to look at is talk time. Okay. Some calls, five minutes, it could be 20 minutes. But if both of them convert into a sale, average it out, and just realize one person had more questions that were a little bit slower or had a bad cell connection or something comes up. So you can, over the luxury of time and in our industry, be able to package tens of thousands of calls to see a pattern. If someone's doing 1 minute phone calls, they might be hanging up or not giving the sort of service.

Richard Blank

00:12:49 - 00:13:35

If they're on for 20 minutes, are they converting enough? Is it the kind of calls that you're talking about? Are they just wasting time or they're idle in between calls, and so you can see it quickly. If someone is pacing, you can see a general pace. Sure. There's all stars here and there, the slow ones there, and you can see them. My main goal, and this is the worst thing to do to somebody, is to rush them, because that first call resolution, if somebody wants to vent, if they want to cry, scream, if they want to use profanity, not at you, they get one warning. But if they curse this way because they're stressed, curse all you want, Donna. And then I'm going to say, you finished? You're like, yes, Richard, you sure, Donna? Okay, then we can continue. And so it's very nice that way.

Richard Blank

00:13:35 - 00:13:56

So the morale of the agent stays high so they can jump at the clouds. They don't carry the weight and as I say, it's an art of speech. We're in such a beautiful luxury trade. That's why I'm excited over it. Some people see it as monotonous. I do not. Because as I'm mentioning, more people are texting today. They get a thousand texts.

Richard Blank

00:13:56 - 00:14:21

They get 100 emails. They might get one voicemail. Let me be the voicemail. I'll leave you a great message so at least you'll listen to it. I'll sell some sizzle, and I'll keep people fresh in between calls so they don't ice out. There's a certain rhythm that people have when they're working, and the worst thing to do is to give them a bad list where they're not contacting or just overwork them so they feel they have no control and they're not giving the sort of service that they'd like to do.

Donna Mitchell

00:14:22 - 00:14:48

Thank you for that. And with the call centers, yes, I'm assuming they're still in teams, or you have teams for performance. But when handling the overall call center today, what changes are you seeing with all the advances in technology and what concerns you going forward if there's something you're not seeing that you wish you.

Richard Blank

00:14:48 - 00:15:13

Were so sweet and sour. Covid was. That pushed it a little bit faster. I was very fortunate to survive Covid because I had the ability to have virtual agents. It wasn't brick and mortar. So through a VPN and through my computers, they can still work. Might not be as comfortable or the most ideal conditions, but it worked. And then what happened came the norm.

Richard Blank

00:15:13 - 00:15:32

You know, the majority of the people today want to be virtual, and that's okay. I mean, they have the metrics, they have the background. They'll work with you, but you lose that senergy camaraderie. Donna, I'd be feeding off of your energy. High five. In you. Come on. We're having the best day, best friends.

Richard Blank

00:15:32 - 00:15:57

And so you lose that. And I think people feel isolated, but they're used to that. When I go downstairs, and we still have a fraction of our people here, about 70. But when I go downstairs in the lunchroom, you could have three full tables of people for each. But they're all staring at their phones. They're not even talking to each other. And so we're generation x. We see things differently.

Richard Blank

00:15:57 - 00:16:47

We used to chitchat, and so they don't. But who am I to change them? This is this generation. And so if they are used to that non contact, even within the proxemics of somebody else, and that's just who they are. But we try to utilize your video chats and our internal chats and just try to do certain things that people want to do to, you know, feel that sort of bonding. But, you know, technology is a blessing and a curse at the same time. But it's good for me because while I expand, I don't need to look for additional real estate. I can keep a comfy pace here just in case something happens at their home. They can jump on a turnkey station, but, you know, secondly, they, they're messing with the Internet.

Richard Blank

00:16:47 - 00:17:19

Redundancy to backup electricity and immediate it support. So there isn't that sort of uptime 100%. There could be an interruption from time to time, depending on how far away they live from corporate. But on the flip side, some people want to come here, they want to get out of their house, they want to hang out, they want to feel productive somewhere else. And so I'd like to offer both. But I tell you what, the majority of the resumes that come in, they want hybrid or purely virtual. It's almost like someone that doesn't want to be your friend.

Donna Mitchell

00:17:20 - 00:17:44

Well, I was really about to ask that, because in my mind, I'm thinking of the old call centers, hundreds, thousands in those call centers. It was the management that was remote, and we may have had our laptops and everything at home and can work either way. So today's world, you did mention you have 70 there, and then the others are virtual. So it's more hybridous.

Richard Blank

00:17:44 - 00:17:44

Yes.

Donna Mitchell

00:17:45 - 00:17:55

As you bring in employees, and I'm sure you have plans for attrition and retention and progression and advancement.

Richard Blank

00:17:55 - 00:17:55

That's right.

Donna Mitchell

00:17:56 - 00:18:18

How do you monitor or evaluate employees in today's world like that? That's one of my key questions. How does one in your position get the motivation there or get someone to feel like they are advancing and learning and still teaching. What tools do you utilize? What's in your toolbox? I guess that's my question. What's in your toolbox?

Richard Blank

00:18:18 - 00:18:51

What is in the toolbox? Well, once again, it's that sort of individual attention that we give them here so they at least have their dignity. We know their name, but what about three preventative measures before even having to get there? While I'm interviewing them and listening to their rehearsed answers and their bells and the whistles, I asked them to turn their piece of paper over and give me a coming of age moment. I want to know if you can tell Donna a really good story of when you beat up a bully or save the kitten, save the day. Why? Because that's how you get on our podcast.

Donna Mitchell

00:18:52 - 00:19:49

So this is the main time that you really, when you interview them, interview process. So for those listening that are solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, or people that are starting new brands or in corporate, there is a science or a way to have people that you really want at the table or in your business. There is a method, there is a process, there's something that you do. We used to call it a star method. It's a situation, task, action in the result. And if you had a strong star, you might be interesting and move forward. And if you wasn't a motivational fit, you failed everything altogether. So is that process still taking place today or have you your own underwriting formula when you bring in employees, I think that's something that would be helpful to the audience as they learn how to manage the different levers of technology, business, branding, pr.

Donna Mitchell

00:19:49 - 00:19:54

And there's so much one has to do and you've been very successful at it. Can you share some insights?

Richard Blank

00:19:54 - 00:20:22

Sure. Of course. I like seeing people's backgrounds and I'm even more impressed with people that learn their English through public school compared to private schools or just by movies and stuff. Secondly, I want to know their work history. And it's okay if you're taking starter jobs and you're doing certain things, there's pride in our a living. But if I see certain things that were questionable or I see a lot of jumping or short periods of time and weird excuses for it, it's a concern. You're a mercenary. You're going to leave me.

Richard Blank

00:20:22 - 00:20:48

I don't need a jumper nor a cancer. And then you'll find somebody that is wet behind the ears but is brilliant. They're a squire to a knight. They're raw. It could be their first or possibly second job. What do you do? Well, anyone can learn a CRM and a headset and what to do. I'd love to take this kid and mold them, you know, and give them the best habits. They're some of my best agents and they're the ones that are the most loyal.

Richard Blank

00:20:48 - 00:21:21

You're thinking of fidelity regardless of someone's excellent ace status. Imagine investing two months and then they leave you. You really have to think of the long term play and it's a give and a take. There's leverage on both sides. Me offering the job, but then them giving me something. But what I want to do besides competing against Amazon for a paycheck and giving them all the bells and the whistles I got to make sure. I got to get to the core of somebody, because if they're on a rainy Wednesday and they're in a bad mood, they might quit. Or if someone says Fu on the phone or a co worker just rubs them the wrong way.

Richard Blank

00:21:21 - 00:22:05

And so when they're coming in, I got to make sure that they have depth. Can they explain two or three levels of how they're thinking so I can understand them better? Are they willing to be coachable, or do they have an attitude? And can you at least master the easy stuff, like showing up on time, pin at the ready? Because if you can do those sort of things, it's not me, it's your co workers are going to respect you. So that's how I'm going to either promote you or have you as the person that people sit next to you foreshadowing or for training. And so it's, you know, through nurture, organically. Donna, since I'm a guest here, it's very easy to see their culture finding their leaders their way.

Donna Mitchell

00:22:06 - 00:22:06

Right?

Richard Blank

00:22:07 - 00:22:43

And so sometimes as a true leader, you need to step back and allow people to spread their wings and show me what you can do. And I love someone that's bold enough to knock on my door and say, hey, Donna, Richard, you guys have a minute? Absolutely. I have an idea, and it's nothing, you know, kissing up. But this is somebody that's a lieutenant thinking of strategy. And that's the above and beyond. That's the dedicated practice, that's the player. And I love people like that. And I'm not the best with technology.

Richard Blank

00:22:43 - 00:22:50

And a lot of this generation Z will come to me with apps and stuff on their phone or certain ways to communicate, use for the website.

Donna Mitchell

00:22:50 - 00:22:51

Right?

Richard Blank

00:22:51 - 00:23:41

The smart king and queen listens to everybody, and then from educated point of views, we make a decision. And so I listen to everyone, and then I have my CTO double check it with them because I might not know some of the words that they're saying, then I'm going to start googling what they say. And if it's rocking and rolling, that person gets the credit. And there we go. And so, don't expect me to be the expert on this, but I have a lot of people that have knowledge, expertise, and realizing that I have the infrastructure and the ability to implement it. So I have ideas come to me constantly in regards to performance. And even clients bring in certain programs that they have, and we just integrate what they have into our system, where we log into their system and then we learn what they're doing. And so it's a very nice shared culture in a sense, in regards to technology.

Donna Mitchell

00:23:41 - 00:24:25

You kind of walked into my next question because my next question was, your partners or some of the clients, how do you decide who you want to work with? Or how do you decide who's going to be a client? And how do people determine that they can work with you? Are there certain sectors, certain types of brands, certain industries, vertical, horizontal? I mean, anyone's listening right now and they've been thinking about, boy, I really need some help with this, or if they had the budget, what are you really looking for? How being on pivoting to web three in the audience, how can this really help your business? Support your business. Give us some understanding on how that piece of your business works in Costa Rica's call center.

Richard Blank

00:24:26 - 00:24:59

Well, we do compete offshore with India, the Philippines and Asia. So if people are expecting me because some call centers are offering half the price that I can do double the amount of work, I might not be able to do that, but through merit. And if it's a certain thing where I can offset that price through performance, then it does make sense to work with me. So if somebody calls me and the first question they have is, what's your price? I'm going to go $100 an hour. No, it's not. Of course it's not. What is your name? You know, let's have a normal conversation. I want to earn it through merit.

Richard Blank

00:24:59 - 00:25:23

Don't squeeze me. And don't make me hire people for the cheapest in town. They're not going to stay. So we need to start off a relationship where everybody has something on the table. So not saying people rub me the wrong way, they just. I don't know what they're thinking when they're calling me. And then I have other potential clients with unrealistic expectations where they only give me 300 numbers and expect a guy to call that for a whole month. It's not enough.

Richard Blank

00:25:23 - 00:25:57

And if I'm transferring a call to your office and no one's there to pick it up, we're going to lose a lead. And so these are certain things where instead of trying to sell my services, I walk backwards. And I just want to make sure that. What do you have and what do I need to add? Because, come on, Donna, it's my wheelhouse. I'm 52 years old and getting too tired for this. I don't need to sell it anymore. I'd rather make sure it's a perfect fit, and then it can't be gray area. Just like Humphrey Bogard said in the maltese falcon.

Richard Blank

00:25:57 - 00:26:13

I'm not going to be the fall guy. Don't call me up with something shady. I'll listen to you. I'm not going to do this for you. You got to be kidding me. And you're not scrubbing DNC lists. And it's this kind of thing where I don't feel comfortable. So guess what? I'm just not going to do it.

Richard Blank

00:26:13 - 00:27:17

So I turned down a lot of business. And then finally it's those that don't have the time to prospect or they're growing their real estate, insurance business, travel business, you name it. And they want us to tee up appointments for them and they want us to scrub a list or call back the 5000 people that double opted in to receive information. And so I think if there's hand holding and if we can collectively write a script that's not aggressive but assertive and use choice vocabulary to move things forward, I think it's a beautiful means to an end. I think it's exceptionally cost effective. You can scale accordingly. These agents are dedicated, which means that after a certain period of time of onboarding, they're really going to hit their pace and then you really start getting a return on your investment. And so for anybody looking to either compare apples to their home office, to offshore, if you're looking for someone's infrastructure of a predictive dialer, supervision, QA and things like that, I can take an enormous amount of weight off of somebody's back.

Richard Blank

00:27:17 - 00:28:13

And with my script writing and experience and overseeing the agents, you can build an army. And so it's a fun thing for people to do. My company is inscribed in the United States. So I do follow all us business and banking laws. And I have a company here that pays all the taxes too. So you don't have to scramble on a Wednesday to find a call center because they're not doing the right things or didn't fulfill their responsibilities. And so for me, it's really just about asking the right questions and making that content. Oh, and finally, if you have an overzealous supervisor that likes to drop f bombs or write in red or just be mean, I don't want Billy to start crying, you know? So sometimes I will politely say that we're not a good fit because as, as passionate as you are, and I understand it's high stakes, right? Your rhythm might not fit here.

Richard Blank

00:28:13 - 00:28:41

It's not, no offense to New York, but it's not the Wall street boiler room sort of thing. And I've had certain clients come down, and we have a blended floor. So there's other clients here, and people use profanity or like to eat chinese food on the floor. You can't do that, man. Oh, floor smells. And they say, well, you know, I have agents here. I understand that. But then again, you go home, and I'm still here.

Richard Blank

00:28:42 - 00:29:25

And this is my sanctuary. This is a building that I built. And so there's sometimes you need to give parameters to people, and you need to have certain expectations, because I don't like surprises. I'm not a devil's advocate, but let's be realistic on the low percentages to the top percentages of what you should be expecting. You know, I like things like that because, you know, Donna, and you know this, as a supervisor at a call center, you need to be calm during chaos. And if you can sew the heart and land the plane and calm everybody down, you can retain that client, and they'll respect you more for it because you're not guns ablazing. And so we, we try to teach that sort of composure as well.

Donna Mitchell

00:29:26 - 00:29:39

So for anyone listening, is there a certain type of company that you will or will not work with that you can share or a certain type of business that you will or will not work with? Let me rephrase that.

Richard Blank

00:29:39 - 00:29:40

Yeah.

Donna Mitchell

00:29:40 - 00:30:02

If someone has a business and they don't know if they have enough volume, what are the parameters? Is that an appropriate question? If you have some medium sized businesses or some small businesses, they're just ramping up. How do they know when they need a call center, they need support and you would welcome a call from them.

Richard Blank

00:30:02 - 00:30:49

Well, let me first answer your question on which ones I wouldn't take. I wouldn't take a campaign that I couldn't understand. If somebody asked me to hire chinese speakers, and there were a few in Costa Rica, I couldn't do it, because if some guy's rogue on the phone and start saying bad things, I just wouldn't want to do it. Remember Corey Feldman in the Goonies when he was teasing the maid about all the dead bodies in the attic? I can't have that at the call centers. I didn't want that. But, no, I tell you what, one of the arguments that I get when I speak to companies in the United States is a they can't hire people. And the people that they can hire leave them or do shoddy work. And a lot of people, no offense to my own industry, Donna, or yours, you worked in a center, call centers many decades ago.

Donna Mitchell

00:30:49 - 00:30:51

Many, many decades ago.

Richard Blank

00:30:51 - 00:31:23

Yeah, but they sometimes get a bad rapid. They're the ones that call you during dinner or they hang up on you or don't resolve your issue when you call a company. And so, you know, there's bad actors and there's also good actors out there. And so if you don't feel like when you walk the rose or you walk in that department, that it's not hot, heavy, and the board is filled, you don't have appointments. And I tell you what, don't be afraid. I'm not asking you to fire, you know, Johnny, but you have the budget. Hire somebody else. Same amount of lists.

Richard Blank

00:31:23 - 00:32:01

Maybe I might have the dialer. It might be my environment for the supervision, the training, motivation. I don't know. Sometimes there are better coaches out there. I don't know. But we're going to compare apples on a level playing field. And if I can double or triple that work, or if I can give you the recordings that he's not giving you, is he dispositioning calls? Dispositioning goals? Where's his email template? Is he leaving any voicemails? I mean, what's going on here? Where are his notes? Where's the game plan? How many? Where's his pipeline? And so, you know, Johnny, no offense, I'm just not going to hit the ball and drag you. It's just not the way we play.

Richard Blank

00:32:01 - 00:32:31

And so maybe sometimes it puts a fire underneath them that all of a sudden they start working. Secondly, it could open your eyes to say, hey, I could be making a ton of bread. I mean, I've had this guy for five years. He's telling me no one's picking up. I already got four appointments with Richard's crew. And so, you know, give it a test. And if you don't want to give the Glengarry lead, you know, the juicy, golden lead, then give us a list to clean. Or just give us some very simple lists just to get our feet wet and just to listen to the calls and to test the waters.

Richard Blank

00:32:31 - 00:33:04

And then when we get better, sprinkle in the better leads. And so, you know, it's just. How about this? Put your checkbook away. Donna and I aren't selling anything. If you got 50 questions, ask me. Just call me. I'd be more than happy just to see what you're doing, what's going on, make some suggestions on your script, and if it makes sense to you, then I could do a follow up call with the floor manager, CTO, HR director, pick their brain. You want some recordings from my people, I can do that, too for you, you know, and so I let people at their own pace, Don, and move forward.

Donna Mitchell

00:33:04 - 00:33:08

Well, I tell you what, so they can move forward. How do they connect with you?

Richard Blank

00:33:09 - 00:33:19

They can buy a first class plane ticket, which you need to do soon because you're about to retire here, and you come and visit me in Central America, Costa Rica. Oh, kidding.

Donna Mitchell

00:33:20 - 00:33:32

That sounds like a really nice trip in a dream. But realistically, as we close and keep track of your time and mine, how would you like the audience to reach out to you?

Richard Blank

00:33:32 - 00:33:47

Shoot me an email at ceoasta ricascallcenter.com. and I have a very large Facebook fan page of 140,000. It'll give you the pulse of our industry in Central America. And when this goes live, I'm going to have some more people watch Donna's show.

Donna Mitchell

00:33:48 - 00:34:24

Well, it sounds like it's going to be a beautiful time down there in Costa Rica. I would really, if I do get down there, would like to see Costa Rica's call center, and it's going to be a blast. I'm sure anyone that works with you is going to be progressive. They're going to probably be very happy with the employees because it sounds like you've got your finger on the pulse of what makes success and the moment of magic in customer service. So thank you so much for your time. And this is Donna Mitchell and Richard Blank. And good morning, good afternoon and good evening. And welcome.

Donna Mitchell

00:34:25 - 00:34:40

And thank you for listening to pivoting to Web three podcast. Thanks for checking in the pivoting to Web three podcast. Go to pivoting to Web threepodcast.com to download and listen or web three game plan to check out the videos. Thank you. We're shaping tomorrow together.