Mastering Customer Service Excellence: Richard Blank's Journey in Costa Rica

Embark with us on a journey to the heart of entrepreneurship as Richard Blank shares the vibrant tale of his rise to business success in Costa Rica. From his early days as a Spanish major, Blank's path diverged from family expectations, leading him to the lush tropics where he cultivated a top-tier bilingual call center. His story is one of embracing individuality, with a healthy dose of risk-taking, as he lays bare the trials and triumphs of building a business anchored in empathy and the genuine acknowledgment of his team's dedication.

In our dialogue, Blank unveils the crucial role of interpersonal relationships in business development and the art of fostering a customer service ethos that prizes personalized interactions over rote transactions. His approach to leadership—judging performance over a season and embedding 30-second checkpoints in conversations—reveals a philosophy that sees beyond the numbers to the people and passion that drives enduring success.

Blank discusses his philosophy of workplace dynamics, emphasizing the symbiosis of discipline and understanding in nurturing a growth-centric environment. He underscores the enduring value of human engagement in an age where automation often overshadows the personal touch. 

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Chapters

• 0:02 Building a Business in Costa Rica
• 12:18 Building Business Through Interpersonal Relationships
• 22:30 [Ad] OWNR OPS Podcast
• 23:10 (Cont.) Building Business Through Interpersonal Relationships
• 24:36 Navigating Workplace Dynamics and Growth
• 35:46 Human Interaction in Customer Service

Transcript

Erin Manning: 0:02

Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixels Society podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip. Advertek Printing and Independent Photo Imagers.

Gary Pageau: 0:18

Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. I'm your host, Gary Peugeot, and today we're joined by Richard Blank, who's coming to us from Costa Rica and he's responsible for Costa Rica's Call Center. Richard, I need to know how do I get to go to Costa Rica and live there and build a business.

Richard Blank: 0:38

First thing, I can't thank you enough for having me as a guest on your podcast. And secondly, you've got to get past your parents' guilt, Because if you can do that, my friend, you can live anywhere in the world. There you go.

Gary Pageau: 0:50

So tell us a little bit about your company and then we're going to go into why you're actually speaking on this podcast. I mean, there's some transferable skills there, but I really want to know a little bit about what made you start this business and how it became a success.

Richard Blank: 1:04

It was really built on momentum before I came to Costa Rica, but when I was here I was able to scale this company because I extended empathy. It's very easy Costa Rica's call center is a dedicated near-shore bilingual call center that deals with outbound lead generation, appointment setting and sales, inbound customer support, back office support and even non-voice support. And from February 6th, my friend, I'll be celebrating my 16th year in this extremely competitive industry where Amazon is right down the street. But why am I doing this? Because, as I say, I fell into it. I was a Spanish major at the University of Arizona and at 27, I was given a one in a million opportunity to come to Costa Rica for just a few months and work at my friend's call center. Well, those couple months turned into four years of learning the business from the inside out, not sea level.

Richard Blank: 1:59

Gary, when you sit with the proletariat, you break bread with them, you laugh and cry with them. You get all the secrets of the inside of the company. It's the people that make the engine, go and put the bricks down and give you the foundation, and they just didn't want to seem like a number or expendable, and if they did a good job, they wanted a sincere acknowledgement. Not good job champ. Well, champ what? And so I guess, growing up in Northeast Philadelphia, graduating the proud Abbington I learned some things. I learned about authenticity and following through, and you can't just be a one-trick pony because you're going to get called out on it. You need to put in the long game.

Gary Pageau: 2:41

Yeah, yeah, I mean there is no one for authenticity, right? I mean you can't fake that Philly cheese stick, right?

Richard Blank: 2:48

Well, you get caught eventually, Exactly, exactly. And then you'll get embarrassed when you say that you do speak a language or you have the experience. And so when you make yourself vulnerable, gary, it actually makes you powerful because you're willing to. It's not criticism, you're asking for guidance. I would love to know somebody who knows how to sling an hour or better than I do. And so when I was here as a guest in this country, or even in the United States or wherever you want to live, I knew my foundation of what I could do, when I could delegate and have faith in human resources, accountants, attorneys and people like that. It's the only way I could scale. It was too much, it was too big, I overextended and it wasn't fun anymore. There's right bus, right seat. I'm a goaltender. I learned at left rank but ended up in goalie, and that's why I stayed, since I was like nine years old, so I know my position on the hockey team.

Gary Pageau: 3:46

I'm just curious. Right guy from Philly decides to major in Spanish. What was that thought process like? Do you have a crew in mind, or are you just passionate about the language? The next one question, gary.

Richard Blank: 3:58

I mentioned earlier about parents' guilt. There's a lot of people that when they're growing up they might be under certain pressures and have expectations in regards to where they go to school and the friends they have and traditions that they keep. I grew up beautifully. I had a very loving family and supportive family, but it was more on their structure. My grandfather went to Harvard Law, my pops went to Columbia Business and my older brother went to Washington and Lee University. These are some serious division one schools. Now I didn't have the grades and I didn't have the maturity. I still don't have the maturity and I couldn't have the grades. But I knew this, that I was scared because I had to make a huge decision.

Richard Blank: 4:46

Could you imagine being in a box without walls for decades? It would be one of those things where you see the images of someone where their life is just getting sucked away. You know when. It really hit me when I saw the Freddie Mercury video under pressure and you watch these people getting stuffed into the subway carts or the thousands of people in suits walking down those concrete sidewalks. I understand being bold and brave and I think it's great for comparisons and strength in numbers, but I think that there needs to be some sort of individuality and dreaming and risk taking. Why do you think we read about those fables of people leaving castles to slay dragons and save a princess and then eventually become a prince, even though we're in the 21st century? Why can't we all become princes in one way or another? Sure, and follow these destinies, because you only get 100 years of this.

Richard Blank: 5:41

I had this sort of thought at 18 and I was also, I guess, a little crazy because I had no one to compare notes. But I had a Spanish teacher that saw I gravitated towards it, gave me a college recommendation letter and, fortunately for me, the late principal, norman Schmidt of Abington, offset my terrible grades. He wrote me a recommendation letter because you're looking at a kid that's just swinging for fences. I wasn't. I wasn't on a roll, but I could do this Spanish thing Right and I was the only one out of my friends that could do it. So I said wait a second, this is James Bondish, be marketable. And so my argument to my parents, because this was a very large four, in my case five year investment. And grandma and grandpa came at the turn of the 20th. They learned English. They were in the garment industry in New York and they made their mark. We're nomads, you can't take that away in our family tradition. And they bought it. Do you know why?

Gary Pageau: 6:45

they bought it Because you're a compelling salesperson.

Richard Blank: 6:48

No, no, it's quite simple, my friend Dedicated practice. Okay, I wasn't playing games, they saw the above and beyond. They know when the kid's running until the lights go out and the mom calls you home. Or let's use the karate kid for an example. One of my favorite movies, daniel's son trained with Miyagi, but there's a lot of the movie of him on that boat balancing and punching and especially being on that post on the beach doing his famous at the end of the movie kick.

Richard Blank: 7:20

And so when someone has that sort of heart to put in dedicated practice, whether they're not expected, no one's paying you. You're getting up early, staying up late, asking the additional question, and there's always naysayers and gray believers that think you're cutting corners, kissing ass or just doing the wrong thing. No, it's cause they're not willing to go the distance and make that sort of dedicated investment. And I cannot tell you how many times people told me that the mountain was too far and you can't do this. And so you have to look at yourself in the mirror, my good friend, and you have to make those life decisions. And I'm not saying it was the worst decision in the world, but my intention told me that by learning a second language and meeting Latinos that embraced me and encouraged me and told my parents this kid's got something, not just a pat on the head. Good job, skippy.

Richard Blank: 8:17

These were tell signs, and this started when I was maybe eight or nine years old, when I started repeating vocabulary, and so I saw the signs and I was willing to gamble on it. And I think most people might be a savant for something, they might have an expertise in one area and you're forced to march, but you might need to from time to time, test the waters of life just to see where you can go, and that was me. I was willing to die with my boots on. It was as scary as it was exhilarating and liberating, and I was the person people would look at and say he's interesting. Go, richard, go. And then they went back to their structured environment and so for me I really had to sail alone. But you know what? It was great, because sometimes that's the hero's journey, the one guy that leaves town to come back and explains the tall tales and wisdom.

Gary Pageau: 9:21

So you work with somebody for four years and then, at some point, you decided to start on your own. What was it about that service industry that said this is something I can make a goal of. What attracted you that? Because I mean most people like, for example, again, I'm in the US. Our experience with call centers as a customer can be good, can be bad, can be whatever, but so I'm seeing a different side of it than you are. You're seeing it as people who are interacting with people or providing a service, et cetera. So what is it about that that appealed to you?

Richard Blank: 10:20

You're bringing up good points here. What appealed to me was I was getting older, I was in my mid-30s and I realized time was a ticking and I needed to put some chips on a table somewhere. What did I know? I knew this Right. I didn't know C-level and I didn't know IT. And I started reading things online and it was very intimidating. Sure, it's almost like if you pick up a medical book you know the pictures, but you don't even understand some of this Latin and Greek language. And so I didn't want to burn myself out.

Richard Blank: 10:53

But, as I mentioned earlier about delegating and finding the right people, so this is how I started my business. I knew the business, but I knew the inside. So I was renting a turnkey station at a blended center. So I offset the overhead in the IT to some guy and I just paid premium for that turnkey station that was reliable a month. Was it comfortable? It's okay. Now, it's not like school bus cross country. It's like those double decker ones where you can relax a little bit and have a movie, but just still a bathroom right next to you you know you get the good and the bad, and so you know it's one of those things you prioritize.

Richard Blank: 11:37

I was able to pay my taxes, the overhead commission, to the agent, his salary, and make my margin, and it was exciting I mean February 6th of 2008,. I sold one seat for one week. That's not part of my business model now, but someone did buy my lemonade.

Erin Manning: 11:55

It was the greatest ever.

Richard Blank: 11:57

And so and I still keep in touch with this client and I let them know, which is kind of interesting I disclose it to them. After many years ago Do you realize you're my first client? He's like no, I go. Yeah, he goes. But you sounded like you've been in the business, I go. I've been in the business, I just didn't have my first sale, so he goes. Man, if you had told me I go, but I did, you don't believe in me, you know. Look at us now.

Richard Blank: 12:18

I did that for a couple of years and I did it so I could build capital, have stable clients and then realize it wasn't worth the premium anymore. So then I rented space and I wanted to make sure it was downtown, not in the free trade zones or yonder, so people could walk there and get to there easily, means I just couldn't build thousands, but I'm not at thousands. I rented a space for 150 seats and back in 2009 and 10, there was a tradition at some call centers, sure so I was able to pick up furniture and equipment for a fraction of the cost. What a great way to build business. That for six years and then once again building on the momentum and the cash and the stability I purchased this building. We've been in put on a third floor and it has the capacity for 300. And so you know, I wish I could give you a shortcut and that rags the riches over a weekend, but the majority of business building is equivalent to building a building.

Richard Blank: 13:22

It takes a brick at a time and you need to breathe and you need to be responsible and enjoy your sunshine and have your rest. And it's the long game. And I did it all in cash. I never overextended, I never took out mortgages or had a partner that put pressure or was under the sort of influence to make unethical decisions, and so these are the sort of things that you want to turn down, more business than you accept because there's some clients that might just keep you up at night or wake you up too early and it's just not worth the money.

Richard Blank: 13:55

Depends on your industry, because in my industry, in the call center industry, yes, there's burnout, but I also compete against Amazon, hp, intel and Oracle, plus dozens of the division one top players Me today, you tomorrow. Somebody could quit today On the phone at Amazon tomorrow. So if you want to threaten them and bend them, to break them, you'll lose them, and so there has to be the healthy balance of you doing your job and fulfilling but me also, you know engine that could and keep you going. It's very labor intensive, especially since I am from Philly and I'm in Costa Rica and it's a different culture. But I tell you what my brother and you know this.

Richard Blank: 14:38

When you call the balls in the strikes and you praise in public and you make suggestions in private, that works Right. And I've been able to adjust ties on my agents that might be off balance a little bit, or how about this, without prying there might be things outside the office that could be affecting their performance Right. So I'll judge you on a season average, not just what's going on today. Right, because we've all missed the shot before and I've had terrible rounds of golf in my time. And it doesn't mean I'm a bad golfer, it just means that I was completely thinking about something else that day, compared to hanging out with my buddies on the knife hole, you know.

Gary Pageau: 15:24

Well, I am a bad golfer so I can really put it anyway. So you've kind of naturally gotten to the actual point that I wanted to get to for this conversation, which is sort of the interpersonal management style and working with different people. So thank you for being such a natural communicator to get to that point, because we got there very, very well. So let's talk a little bit about that. You're in a because, like a lot of the photo industry production people, right, it's a very routine task. It's production. It's not a creative task. It can be for some people, but for most people you're operating a machine, you're doing something, and I can imagine in the call center business it is also much a routine right? You're dialing, you're dialing, you're taking calls, you're doing that. How do you manage various personalities when you have such a similar job that needs to be done across an organization like yours?

Richard Blank: 16:23

Well, if you think about people producing photographs at the old Kodak shop on Old York Road in Philly when I grew up, it wasn't just handing on my pictures from my Kodak disc camera. When they gave them back to me, they thanked me for the business. They asked how Graham I was doing, because they remember her from back in the day. They said it looked like you had a wonderful summer, richard, and keep it up, buddy. And it's the kind of thing you wave at them when you drive past them on the street. And it's the soft skills, it's the bedside manner. It's willing to drive four extra blocks for your favorite pizza place because Paulie makes it with extra pineapple on your Hawaiian. And so I love those sort of personal relationships. So let's go back to any sort of interpersonal contact that people have. Yes, every job is monotonous in one way or another, sure, but it's really that final presentation when you open it up and show the burger, or you put it on the table, or how you pour the drink or you smile. What I've tried to do I considered a romantic death. Follow me here. You might have 10 minute conversations on the phone or in person or whatever. I believe that the 10 minutes doesn't exist. I believe in 30 second checkpoints. So you're talking about 20, 30 second conversations on a phone call, which combines the 10 minutes Because chapters change in a book, in a movie, in there, zigg and Zag, sure. So when we start a conversation, and if it's outbound prospecting, for an example, what I like to do is do a company name spike prior to introducing myself. I'll say the name of the company better than you or the person who answers the phone, and that's only in the first couple seconds. And so what does that do? That reduces the defense of somebody that's black and blue from getting all these phone calls and people trying to sidestep to speak to Gary, and it's just not the way that it goes. And so you start off by saying something they're familiar with, and you do it in a certain way, which is a great first impression. And then usually they will be asking you who are you? And it's just saying who's this? Or we're good, or are you a salesman? You can gauge their positive reaction in their tone by saying who's this? You know we go. Hey, gary, I'm so glad that you asked. My name is Richard Blank. It's a buffer boomerang technique. You say the name of the person to buffer them, let them know it's an excellent question. You repeat the question to show active listening, which will shave time and reduce stress. And then you send back that boomerang with a positive thing. And so let's just say once again who am I in the name of my company and what I do. And I keep saying, gary, that's so glad you brought that up my company's a call center in Costa Rica. And so then finally say you know what? I'm gonna pass you to Mr Smith. I'm gonna give you the pass to pitch Richard, because you just sound very nice and we're engaged and we're in Russian. And then I'd say you know, gary, before you transfer this call, I'm just gonna let you know you did great, but I'm also gonna let Mr Smith know this. And so it's a positive escalation, so that you pass me to Smith. And the first thing I do to Smith is not the company name spike, I do the positive escalation spike.

Richard Blank: 19:41

Hello, this is angry Mr Smith, where no one ever gets through. When I'm about to hang up on you, salesman, I'm gonna go. Hey, mr Smith, gotta let you know Gary's the greatest person you ever have working for you. Really, who's this? Because Gary's my son Gary's been with me for 20 years. Gary is my most trusted confidant, so all of a sudden you get the instead of who's this. We're good thanks. How the hell did you get through?

Gary Pageau: 20:04

Right, exactly.

Richard Blank: 20:05

Oh, thank you so much. And now I'm anchoring, naturally, and then all of a sudden it goes from a 10 to a two with defense, and then that eight goes forward. So you're moving from a vertical to a horizontal in regards to momentum and pacing, and throughout the call you can use transitional sentences If things make sense and sounds good. Right For checkpoints. You can also, I like doing pauses before names and numbers. That's a trigger word and you can spike that. And these are things, site unseen, where you know people are coming back into the conversation, kind of like a shepherd with the sheep. They can wiggle, but they still gotta go back to the barn. And so I got an underwater thumbs up and checkpoints you, my brother, just to make sure we're good. And I do this constantly.

Richard Blank: 20:58

And then at the end of the call, when I do my meeting minutes and I send you an email, you know I'm gonna talk about Gary in that email. So when I call your company back to speak to Mr Smith, you answer the phone. You go hey, richie, that's not Gary. Come on, man. You know I've been working here for 20 years and no one's ever said anything about me. I wanna thank you so much I'm like it's my pleasure, buddy. Hey, listen. By the way, mr Smith's birthday is next week. By the way, it's his 50th anniversary with his wife. His little kid, billy, just hit a home run last week and we're building a second location with a loading dock. Just wanna let you know you might be busy in the next couple of weeks. Oh, I'm gonna just transfer you right away. It's all right, my main man. And then at the end of the day and I've heard this from multiple clients they can choose Indian, the Philippines for half my price or somebody knows somebody that's passing it along the lead.

Richard Blank: 21:51

But when Gary walks into Jones's office and they're having their afternoon coffee, and they need to make that decision with whom they're gonna give the business a lot of the times collectively, they'll choose me. I'll win it on merit because I can show such good faith prior to any sort of contract. So could you imagine the relationship that we have working with one another and that's how I earn the majority of my business from these guys that hear it all day long and I just don't wanna be chum in the water with the sharks. I really need to separate myself. So it's still pure, so that relationship has that sort of endurance to go the distance.

Gary Pageau: 23:00

So how do you take that philosophy, that those customer service skills, and translate that down to your rank and file people? Right, because that is your business is not only what you just did landing, you know, mr Smith, but you know you've got to have your people have the skills to do that.

Richard Blank: 23:21

Of course. Well, the first thing I do my good friend when they come into the company is they get a chance to hang out in the arcade downstairs and play pinball and Pac-Man with me. I collect pinball machines, got an air hockey table, why, why not? Let's start with dessert, let's start with recess, so these strangers become best friends. After a half an hour and instead of absorbing, now they're contributed Right, I got them in a good mood, and also even prior to that, when I'm trying to filter, naturally, people are filling out their resumes and putting in all the bells and the whistles.

Richard Blank: 23:55

Gary, you've seen it before, sure, so for me, I asked them listen, buddy, why don't you turn the piece of paper over? Give me a couple of power grass, of a coming of age moment so I can gauge your English and your grammar. And also I want to hear a time when you beat up a bully or save the kitten, or potentially did it both in one day, and so I get to see them not memorize answers and put their chest out. But I want to know if Gary is really considering three companies and he's going to choose you. And he asks you that zig and zag question. Give me a time you beat up a bully or one, are you capable of putting your script down and having a real conversation and being vulnerable with this man so you can be powerful? And so what I do because I am the owner of a company from Philly could be intimidating. It's only intimidating because of what happened to you at your last job. There's an expression in Spanish borar y cuenta nueva starting from scratch in a clean slate. So as much as I'm not going to gauge you on what happened with Billy last week when he didn't come to work, don't judge me on this supervisor with coffee breast, screaming and chill. That's not fair, it's not right, and so if you're going to play that sophomore game, then maybe it's not the right stage for your book. Trust me, we're not even there when they're sitting in the training room.

Richard Blank: 25:14

These are people that don't want to hunker down and hide behind people in the classroom not to be called on, but they're also not front row, center, waving their hand like a class pet. These are players. These are squires that are looking for a knight. They want that sort of reinforcement from a real cat that's willing to invest in them and the skills that I'm giving them.

Richard Blank: 25:38

It's not a one and a done. These are the sort of interpersonal advanced soft skills that can save marriages and make them more money and help them network, you know, gary, make them more self-reliant and self-confident. And so when they meet me for the first time and I shadow this misconception they still got to calm down a little bit after spending a couple hours with me on the first day in class. And when I share with them certain ideas that I have, where I use proper rhetoric so it does make sense, at the end of the class they look at me differently and they usually say hey, not only are you the first boss that I ever met, the only one who ever did training like this. Unfortunately, gary, my boy, I said you know what, I might be the only one that does this.

Gary Pageau: 26:23

Now I imagine you have quite a few of your employees who are actually referred to by existing employees. That must be something you see quite a bit.

Richard Blank: 26:33

Yeah, and it's humbling. I mean, people have options and, as I say before, I can compete financially and pay the taxes and be at a good location. But something does make a decision on where they invest their time, especially these bilingual agents that earn more than most vocations. A lot of my agents earn more than doctors and attorneys, if they have the skill sets.

Richard Blank: 26:59

And so when I see them and you know what, it's true when you've been on the phone, or remember when you were a freshman and now you're a senior. Now, for me, I'm a teacher. I see myself in others and it's like Francis Ford Coppola's movie the Black Stallion. You have the most incredible, beautiful stallion that's the fastest in the world. The only thing it needs is a little bit of structure to learn how to run around a track, and so I need to get rid of bad habits and still good habits, which are real habits that don't compromise ethics. I just want you to show up on time to be a straight shooter, and so I stop saying the word help on the phone, say, guide a sister, lend a hand. Stop saying excuse me to Gary. It's for my clarification.

Richard Blank: 27:44

Remember, we spoke about falling on certain swords and using your battles wisely so we can keep the tone positive. These are balance sort of things to give people. Even though the job might be monotonous, you can still be in the now. If not, you're going to cut your finger, you're going to zone out and miss the barking dog in the background that you could have anchored on and gotten the account. Or you forgot to ask somebody's name so to give them that compliment when you weren't transferred. And so it's a boxer. It's Chuck Wepner. On the 15th round against Dolly man. That guy did go the distance and if you think about it, it's round by round, minute by minute and second by second, almost like a soldier.

Gary Pageau: 28:30

I was just kind of you kind of mentioned the bad habits thing. Right, that's got to be a lot of programming, I guess, to overcome. You mentioned earlier in the conversation about you know praising publicly and correcting privately. Can you talk a little bit about that correcting privately piece, how you can handle that well?

Richard Blank: 28:51

Well, listen, the average age of the call center agent here is 24. Now I'm a little older than 24, and both you and I used to have hair at 24. But looking in the mirror with my, my Rangari, I want them to live life. I want them to date and fall in love and raise families and go to the beach. But I can't have them come in late, laggard, drunk, hungover and, just you know, not on the top of their game. Because it's not just me, champ.

Richard Blank: 29:16

We got a couple of people in the United States that are paying for this, that are depending on you and as long as they're not severely breaking the labor laws, if it's the kind of thing where I will pull you to the side and ask you to go to the bathroom to put some water on your face, I think I've made my point. That's when I'll usually get a knock on my door at the end of the day and I have an open door policy, but not like what you think People aren't coming to to angle in. Some guy after his shift will say you know, richard, yeah, you did catch me sleeping or I wasn't on top of my game. Thank you, I appreciate that I could write them up or give them a verbal warning, why there's a hardcore soldier that's been doing this for seven years. And then the next thing you're always like dude, I'm having problems at home, right? So you're like. You know, you never mess with money or kids, but in private.

Richard Blank: 30:06

Quite interesting, because, as I mentioned, there's preventative measures. First, because they'll realize their QA scores aren't up to speed or they're tardy every day. And it's not me, my man, it's your coworkers, the people that see you every day that will, like when I sat in the cubicles when I first got to Costa Rica, that's the chatter, that's the, that's the peanut gallery. Those are the ones that will call you out on it because they're like yo, man, I showed up on time, what's up with you, right? And you're gonna put the account in jeopardy. And then I don't wanna go to the other kind, I wanna stay here, come on. Each one of us has to carry the canoe and so, if it ever gets to my stage, I know what you're thinking and it's probably how we all were raised. When we had to go to the principal's office at school because you might've broken something or did something, you were chewing gum in class Exactly.

Richard Blank: 30:56

And so these people. Once again, it's the Barar, quentin and the waiver. They're judging me on all these other walks of shame, coming to my office about to get berated, insulted by the boss. Ooh man, will you walk in with pride? What sort of culture and environment do you think I've created here? And so I need to calm them down from breaking down and crying and spinning out of control. I usually offer them some delicious Costa Rican coffee. I always have cookies in my office, so you get a cookie. I have an asteroid's machine in my office. You wanna play some asteroids? Let's play some asteroids, because you need to calm down right now, and once everyone calms down, I'll pull the call. We'll listen to the time. You interrupted, gary, you cross talk. You didn't do the military alphabet when you were reviewing the email address. You were loud, you were soft, you were off, you were slicing in the woods.

Gary Pageau: 32:02

Right, You're triple bogey in your call. Hey, don't criticize my golf game. Hey, you brought it up.

Richard Blank: 32:11

Anyway, happy Gilmore. Then I'll say yo, Gary, come on, man, last week you broke a record you did 44. We're at midday today and you're at 12. You're better than this, right? Oh, you're right. I've seen you at your best you have, and I'm gonna call you out on it because we love you here and we respect you here. Am I gonna get fired? You're not gonna get fired, and it's not even about me, my brother, because I've walked in those shoes.

Richard Blank: 32:40

It's the seven people that you sit with in road, three that you have pizza with and you play air hockey with. They wanna see the champ back. It's their coworkers that need your synergy, right, they need you, your current, your electromagnetic energy, to get us out of the bed on a rainy Wednesday to come into the office and sit down and make 200 phone call. It's not for the slight of heart. I mean, if you're capable of doing this dance of speech, then it's beautiful and it cuts through butter like a hot knife.

Richard Blank: 33:16

But a lot of people, if they're not in the right frame of mind, man, it is a drag, right, exactly. And it's not the kind of thing where you're just in the shop putting something in a box and you can just zone out in your thoughts you have to perform. You have to perform A goalie can't catch the puck, they're gonna pull you out. Singer, not hitting the num, you can tell Right. As much as AI is taking over and a lot of companies prefer to invest in omnichannel, non-voice support like chat and emails, which I think assists you and I by speaking with people. Extending empathy. Really caring is something a machine could never do. That's a human connection, and so once they become a fading flower, a print, we have problems. You should always be a painting on a daily basis, even if it's repetitive. You could still put your pepperoni on that same way every day, which is beautiful.

Richard Blank: 34:18

You're supposed to do things like this. How about this? Imagine having to make 100 calls a day, but the artist, the photographer or the person would rather make 84. Why? Because he waits an extra three seconds for the butterfly. Or I wait a couple extra seconds to speak about your son, your dog and your anniversary. To talk about Gary. Do twice listening one speak, so they give the chance for that to come back. Right, you could make camp, you could stop selling steak and now it's lobster, and so give yourself the opportunity to choose that other adventure. And I think that's what sometimes people are lacking on these calls the give and the take.

Gary Pageau: 35:04

So you mentioned some just now AI, which in our industry imaging, of course, is a big deal now with all that, but it's sort of it is the question of you always hear about how it's gonna impact customer service and things like that. I think in some ways it will. Obviously, where it's a routine transaction, right, I, you know what are your store hours, you know those kinds of things. But to differentiate yourself, you know, it doesn't sound to me like you've ever that would ever be a competition for the type of business you go for.

Richard Blank: 35:35

Absolutely it is. A lot of my accounts have automated Intake. Coordination is done by filling out a form, compared to speaking to someone putting into the system. Right, okay, you have to understand something and I know, you know this. I press zero. I want to speak with somebody at my airline, at my bank, right, wherever I'm calling, if it's that IVR, where I got a punch in info and it keeps repeating and they don't get it, or transferring, or not enough, zero, zero, zero, right, zero. There will always be a certain market for people that want that real home cooked meal, not a microwave frozen Right. Is it reduced? Yes, I mean, look at buggy rides in the park. It didn't especially go away and the buggy whip industry did get reduced, right, but it's still there.

Richard Blank: 36:31

Yeah, oh yeah, it's still there and I can't stress enough to my clients Use them to generate the lead, opt in the data. Legally, you got it. But when you get somebody on the phone, compared to someone that writes something with this AI, there could be misinterpretation Sure, okay, with bold cap or how they write it, or grammar, spelling or vocabulary and miscommunication Sure. And then there's probably frustration. And for me, I think, when you get somebody on the phone, you can gauge temperature levels, you can also retain upsell, referral Right and build that sort of relationship that you wouldn't have gotten.

Richard Blank: 37:19

When someone just has to go to a kiosk to put in the burger, you know, it's the kind of thing where, even though I put in extra pickles, it's one thing, but it's the guy at the counter goes. That sounds so tasty, you know it makes you want to do a second patty, right it's. You're really avoiding any sort of natural momentum on that. It feels so cold to me. Now, an ATM machine saves me plenty of time 24, seven. You get your cash. A rune, I got you, and the dialers have really helped us out because you're not smart or manual dialing. So we can make up to 600 calls a day, depending on the drop call ratio and the amount of lines we're using so we can really be on the phone speaking and engaged for pretty much an entire hour, minus wrap up time and disposition. So it really has assisted us in gathering contact ratios and things.

Richard Blank: 38:16

But you don't want someone to get lazy or complacent. You really need to be in the moment and trying to do something, that is, at least making your bed in the morning, because if it's always made for you, I don't think it's a different sort of feel to it, because by making your bed, you're beginning and ending a day with a bow, right, and it's yours, and it's just that sort of self respect to give yourself. I'm not asking you to clean your entire house, but if any sort of business of yours, they keep automating it and shaving the spring in your step and shaving the sparkle, what the hell do you expect at the end of the night on Halloween? Right, it's the worst candy and people aren't going to want it anymore. And so and it's not even that what about the employee that's on the front line? You're going to kill the morale and you want to allow them to express themselves anymore. They'll just feel like they feel like they're working for the machine, and that would be a problem.

Gary Pageau: 39:18

Well, you've given us a lot to think about. I'm just trying to, you know, wrap my head around some of this. I'm going to definitely talk to my guy at the hamburger joint about how many pickles I'm going to have on my burger and see if he helps me a patty, see, you almost see, how that works.

Richard Blank: 39:34

But just let him know that his burger is better than McDonald's.

Gary Pageau: 39:37

Right.

Richard Blank: 39:38

I always do that, whoever their competition is, I'll say yours is better than theirs and I go. Isn't that right, maria? And then the next thing you know, when you say bastante pepanias, you see, as they say, a rascalsiello, a skyscraper. But hey, man, I've gotten bumped up the first class and given a window seat at the crowded restaurant, and I've done this prior to when they were either waiters or customer service reps.

Richard Blank: 40:01

So if you keep going to a place, like you and I we're old in it, you've been going there for years or decades you realize the shoeshine kid is now the general manager, right. And when you see my main man and it's Mother's Day and you didn't have a reservation and you show up in the lines long, he sees you with the back of the line, says give me one minute. And the next thing, you know, you're right up front, I'm paying it forward. My brother and I love doing it and writing in verbally. I love letting people supervisors and managers and owners of and I don't want a dessert in return, right, I remember when I was doing that and that's the sort of thing that can get someone over that hump that they have when they might be second guessing.

Gary Pageau: 40:44

Right, yeah, because if you're looking at it to get something out of it, you're not being motivated properly.

Richard Blank: 40:50

for that you could. I mean 10 years later I got the seat at Mother's Day. I didn't know I was going to get that back in 2014.

Gary Pageau: 40:59

Right, exactly, exactly. So where can people go to get more information about what it is your company does?

Richard Blank: 41:08

Well, they can buy a ticket. Fly here and come visit me personally and walk the roads.

Richard Blank: 41:14

I'm tackle centers different than what you see on TV or in Wall Street and boiler room. But yeah, but it's. You can go to my Facebook fan page, costa Rica's call center. Okay, and we have 127,000. Wow, and we have also Costa Ricans in the industry. That's here in the number one page for the country for employment and info.

Richard Blank: 41:34

And just real quick for your audience, we are north of Panama, south of Nicaragua. Costa Rica is the only democratic side in Central America and there's no standing army, so they put their money back into education. They have a 95% literacy rates. I got a killer labor pool and I think it's a great infrastructure known for medical and ecotourism, and I think a lot of your audience likes to surf and so now pay us and our most. So we have some of the greatest and first class surfing in the entire world and I can't thank you enough. I had the greatest time.

Richard Blank: 42:06

Gary, you do a wonderful podcast. Thank you, bring out the best in people and I hope I was able to shed some light and maybe even shatter some misconceptions on what a call center is like. It could be a death march. Make a very good living making a receiving phone calls. You just have to choose the place you work at wisely. Don't compromise your ethics for a dollar you don't have to do sweet steak scams. Use those skills for other things, because if you have those sort of skills then you're marketable and just find the right environment and then just blow it up.

Gary Pageau: 42:37

Well, thank you, Richard, great to see you and looking forward to connecting with you later.

Richard Blank: 42:42

Thank you, my friend enjoy today.

Erin Manning: 42:44

Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. Read more great stories and sign up for the newsletter at www. the dead pixels society. com.