Richard's Biztalk posts

Why outsourcing to a Costa Rican call center is a smart telemarketing decision?

In today’s highly competitive outsourcing market, a closer proximity to the United States , Central Time Zone and Spanish language capability as an added value are now considered almost basic requirements when making a decision on what call center to use for your important project. Leaving this to chance is not even an option anymore.

Many of the offshore call center agents are bilingual in their native Middle Eastern or Asian language which is difficult to the North American ear. Whereas Spanish is more useful and practical as a second language for potential untapped markets throughout the North, Central and South American populations as well as those countries where Spanish is either a primary or secondary language. This aspect alone has made Costa Rica a very attractive “near-shore” outsourcing solution.

Most importantly, you can take advantage of the international tax laws granted to international companies that invest in Costa Rica and its local economy. The potential savings and benefits will make your outsourcing campaign a very wise business decision.

In addition, unlike other traditional call centers, Costa Rica’s Call Center stays focused on managing no more than a hundred person call center, one outsourced or inbound customer oriented campaign at a time in order to properly control quality,performance and positive employee morale. Once capacity is reached at one of our call centers, another location will be created with the same structure and business plan in order to keep our call center results and expectations consistently higher than that of the competition.

Call center software is as important to an outsourced campaign as telemarketing training. Both areas must be secure, reliable and willing to out perform the same competition that you are currently considering. Costa Rica has a very solid infrastructure ,stable democratic government, very competitive labor costs and a call center job pool that is especially attunded to the North American culture. Call center jobs are some of the top paying career opportunities in Costa Rica. This differs greatly from other countries that consider it as a starting position in a dead end company. Turnover at these other locations are five to ten times more than in Costa Rica.

The high demand for call center services has provided our company with an abundance of respectable resumes of qualified telemarketers that want to work with and for you.

We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb a volcano or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry.

http://www.costaricascallcenter.com/why_costarica.html

Outsourcing with Costa Rica's Call Center

http://www.costaricascallcenter.com

Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art outsourcing company located in the Central American country of Costa Rica. Our focus is to personally offer key telemarketing services to small and medium sized companies looking for a proven method of expanding their business. Costa Rica’s Call Center gives any company a competitive advantage by providing our clients more than twice the number of highly trained and educated bilingual staff for the same price as they would pay within their local area.

In addition, Costa Rica’s Call Center stays focused on managing no more than a hundred seat call center, one campaign at a time, in order to properly control quality, performance and positive employee morale.Once capacity is reached, another call center will be created in order to keep our results and expectations consistently high. We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica.

Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center, a division of Cheyenne Consultants, a company incorporated in Costa Rica. At the beginning of the decade, Mr. Blank relocated to Costa Rica to train over 500 employees for one of the larger call centers in Central America. By utilizing his motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, he has successfully prepared and managed some of the finest telemarketers in the country for the past seven years. In addition, Mr. Blank has earned the reputation of running a school for telemarketing and is often sought after for private training sessions and consultation.

In anticipation of CAFTA, Mr. Blank became a strategic partner of the Pacific Rim Chamber of Commerce, Beverly Hills, California and Selway Global Communications, Tempe, Arizona to expand Costa Rica’s international telecommunications and business appeal. Mr. Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain.

The essence of call center telemarketing training.

At Costa Rica's Call Center, we are confident enough in our expertise that we are willing to disclose a sample of our training for the curious. Our advanced telemarketing course has been highly rated for our extensive knowledge of interpersonal communication, conflict management and phonetics. We invite you to discover why Costa Rica's Call Center ranks among the best in communication techniques for Costa Rican telemarketers.

From day one, our new agents go through our specialized Early System Programming (ESP) where we train agents in increasing their level of intensity and persistence of behavior. Many courageous people initially display an interest in making cold calls, but not everyone has the ability to be a professional telemarketer. A person may be highly intelligent according to a more conservative definition yet unmotivated to dedicate this intelligence to certain telemarketing campaigns.

The Psychology of selling over the phone will be the initial topic covered. The trainee’s mind is focused on how to prevail over rejection and to uncover a physical stamina to handle a minimum of 8 hours of quality phone calls a day. Each trainee’s fear of telemarketing is addressed openly and resolved with compassion. Prevention for burn out is discussed and will be closely monitored daily for each trainee. This key observation will filter out potential quitters while promoting career team members for your company. At Costa Rica's Call Center, we are not hard on our trainees, we hand pick and train them to work hard at making your campaign successful.

Phonetics is often discussed and is encouraged as an ongoing study for mastery. Tape recorded practice calls are made during every training session and will cover level one (easy close) to level five (non-stop rebuttal) types of calls. An analysis provided from a detailed checklist will judge the tone, rate, pitch, duration, pause, pregnant pause, delivery and timing of open and close-ended questions. Video taping a phone call in progress involves the same phonetics study along with non-verbal communication to understanding how body posture, facial expressions, hands as an illustrator and motion can dramatically improve a voice and projection Trainees must be a third party observer in order to make the necessary mental changes themselves. The only way anyone can make great strides in self-improvement is to be humbled by their own criticism. Self monitoring and reflection is what will make your telemarketing team rank among the most proficient sounding in the business.

The telemarketing script will be transferred on to a second sheet known as a call map for easy call navigation and training. We use a straightforward flowchart to highlight critical decision points and familiar objectives during the structured conversation. Acknowledging when they ask a good question is used methodically and is essential in promoting additional conversation. Silence can be instrumental when used tactfully on the phone. Deliberate pregnant pauses are incorporated in our pitch and highlighted on the call map as an advantage for encouraging the client’s participation.

A mandatory quiz at the end of every training program is necessary to make sure that the agents know how to handle our system and have a confident understanding of your material taught that day. The campaign information plus advanced rhetoric are a minimum of two written and oral exams that must be passed by all team members. As the training is near completion, several test calls will be made to you for final approval of the script and our team members’ ability to properly speak for your company.

Costa Rica's Call Center operates all training sessions in a low pressure environment. In the beginning it is very important to build a comfort level with our processes before they are on their own. During this stage, they have to get comfortable handling issues very quickly before they are approved to make a single call for your company. The faster the agents get on the phone and take a call will improve their learning curve, become more efficient faster and would decrease their ramp-up time.

Our Costa Rican call center covers all aspects of foundation training. We have the passion to train and mold raw talent while building the team’s self-esteem and confidence. Even if we hire agents that have been telemarketing for some time, we still need to teach our methods proprietary to your campaign. It is important to analyze the exact training sessions you need before we begin. Costa Rica's Call Center will supply you with a detailed questionnaire to be filled out prior to the preparation for your classes. Depending on the scale and complexity of your campaign, training times and lengths will vary for proficiency.

http://www.costaricascallcenter.com/advanced_telemarketing.html

Greetings from sunny Costa Rica.

After reading a few threads, I wanted to introduce myself and my company to this community.

I know that I will be able to offer free advice in the areas of telemarketing, corporate motivation and call center management. I look forward to sharing ideas with other posters. Let's learn from each other to make our profits grow.

Best regards,

Richard

http://www.costaricascallcenter.com

What is a Call Center’s secret to motivation?

If the agents value success, integrity, customer service, a personal work ethic, excellence and innovation, then we help the associate align those values with the organization's objectives. We help in creating personal long-term goals such as becoming a top producer or a more short-term goal like mastering the calling script. We reinforce their emotional state of confidence, keeping them focused on the basics, guidelines and adherence to hit for a higher standard. Rewards are common for agents with positive customer feedback so that they consider the call center a career opportunity, not a dead end job.

Money will always motivate employees. In Costa Rica, call center jobs are high-paying, highly sought-after jobs in comparison to other vocations. Most of the telemarketing jobs leaving the United States are for positions and salaries many North Americans snub. Our call center agents will make a consistent, effective contribution to the campaign’s success in order to insure that their paycheck continues.

I hope that helps.

Richard

Richard Blank CEO Costa Rica’s Call Center ceo@costaricascallcenter.com www.costaricascallcenter.com 1-888-271-6750

Suggestions on hiring management

My call center will only consider a team manager from strong references or promoted from within our call centers following an

extraordinary performance as an agent. Age or gender will not deter a promotion. We are interested in those that have shown

company loyalty, completely understand the metrics of the assigned work, the importance of reliable attendance and being

punctual. Leaders that own up to accountability will supervise the outsourcing campaign, period.

Our managers aim to increase self-esteem and contribute to an agent’s professional development. They are expected to reduce

the causes of burnout and eliminating attrition during a campaign by sincerely listening to all agents with an open mind.

Stress works in a strange way to motivate, like reverse psychology. We are aware that adversity is a challenge and should be

handled with grace and style. Every agent recognizes that our call center truly cares about them, which strengthens their

loyalty and commitment to your campaign.

I hope that helps.

Richard

Richard Blank CEO Costa Rica’s Call Center ceo@costaricascallcenter.com www.costaricascallcenter.com 1-888-271-6750

Need tips on telemarketing and cold calling?

I know it is tough to pick up the phone. If you are in need of some advice, tips or just motivation to make your calls, let

me know. I would be glad to help.

A carefully crafted script, coupled with motivational training, will mentally prepare your personality to make the maximum

number of completed sales each day. One extra lead can make all of the difference to your company’s bottom line and growth.

Only the most dedicated, quick witted and endurance driven individuals will be successful. You need the skills to

successfully handle rejection gracefully while at the same time thinking outside of the box to make a sale.

A telemarketer that rushes through a script for fear of rejection can never match up equally to a well trained sales

executive. Try to represent youself and your company in the best light when selling your product or service.

Good luck, and remember to smile when you dial.

Richard

Richard Blank CEO Costa Rica’s Call Center ceo@costaricascallcenter.com www.costaricascallcenter.com 1-888-271-6750