THE BUSINESS OF MEETINGS PODCAST GUEST RICHARD BLANK COSTA RICAS CALL CENTER.pptx

The Business Of Meetings Podcast hosted by Eric Rozenberg.How to Leverage Call Centers with Richard Blank The #1 podcast for business owners in the meetings and events industry, https://youtu.be/DmEuOj1nuRQ?si=j1ozp_byHoT2tAf7 The Business Of Meetings Podcast. If you are an independent business owner in the meeting and event space, this podcast is for you! Your host, Eric Rozenberg has created this show to bring you strategies, tips, and tactics to help your business grow. With more than 20 years in the event industry and planning events for Fortune 100 companies, Eric is prepared to let you in on the insider tactics so you can be successful too! Richard has had an amazing journey! In this episode 116, he talks about call centers, sales, people retention, life, and entrepreneurship. He explains how to leverage call centers to connect better with your customers and grow your business. Dedicated to offering content to business owners in the Meetings & Events Industry, Event Business Formula features original interviews from The Business of Meetings Podcast and other videos of interest. Richard’s journey After graduating in 1991 from Abington High School in North East Philadelphia, Richard went to the University of Arizona. He majored in Spanish and Communication and focused on public speaking, non-verbal communication, and micro-expression reading. When he was 27 years old, a friend who had a call center invited him to go there to teach English, and he ended up working there for four years. Starting a call center In 2008, Richard decided to start a call center with his wife. They began with one seat and fifty hours. Today, fourteen years later, they are 150 strong. They are very selective and reject more accounts than they accept because Richard wants to ensure that he can fulfill his clients’ needs with the accounts that come in, and the agent will be comfortable enough to do the work. The agents’ experience Richard respects Costa Rican customs, culture, and native tongue. He also respects the bilingualism of his agents. He can mold brand-new agents, and with older agents, he sometimes has to get rid of bad habits. By properly preparing his agents, he feels he can put them all on a level playing field. The culture Sometimes, telemarketers and call center agents feel like numbers or robots, and they feel expendable. So before putting them on the phone, Richard gets to know their names and who they are. He also trains them to give them a base foundation to grow. Quality calls Richard likes his agents to focus on doing quality calls. About 30% of all calls come about through referrals. Much of their business happens because they do an excellent job on the first call. By working smarter rather than harder, they earn those referrals. Growing a business by working with call centers Growing a business has a lot to do with workforce management. Small business owners in the meetings and events industry can grow their businesses using omnichannel support and emails. By making phone calls, they also get the chance to do up-sales, get referrals, and answer questions. Put more effort into your communication Putting more effort into your communication, and making it warmer and more inviting, will separate you from others. If you make outbound calls, send an email, or leave a voicemail, take the time to look at the website or the CEO or business leaders’ LinkedIn profiles to get a sense of the tone or the company culture. Answering calls Have your best people answer calls. If there is an overflow, it is worth paying a little extra to work with a blended call center answering service so that you never have to miss that special call! Cold calls Doing cold calls represents half of their business. Their forte is appointment setting and lead generation, and they sometimes do surveys. Outbound calls Richard believes he has cracked a code for making outbound calls! The best approach for a phone call is to use anonymity (apart from mentioning the name of the company you represent) in the first three to five seconds of the call. The Buffer Boomerang technique If someone gives you a negative one, negative two, or a negative three-tone, reduce that tone and make it positive to reset the conversation. Then, show active listening by repeating the question. Land it back at them with a plus-two boomerang response.