Downloaded from: justpaste.it/MarginBusinessDigitalEntrepreneu The Digital Entrepreneur Show. Elevate with MarginBusiness. How to start a BPO nearshore call center Leading the Way in E-commerce Localization. MarginBusiness is not just an agency but a pioneer in e-commerce localization, guiding businesses to extend their reach beyond Amazon.com into the lucrative markets of Europe and the UK.
With Omar Angri at the helm, they provide more than just translation services; they offer comprehensive market-specific strategies, ensuring their clients don’t just compete but excel in the international arena. The Crucial Role of Localization in Amazon Selling. Omar shares insights into common mistakes sellers make when expanding into new markets and the power of localization in improving conversion rates.
Omar shares valuable lessons and client success stories, illustrating how businesses have achieved significant growth and revenue milestones by investing in localization and optimization. He also offers advice to entrepreneurs on creating unique brands and products and the importance of Amazon PPC campaigns.
OMAR ANGRI Omar is a seasoned professional with diverse experience in graphic design, corporate roles, and international relocations. He pivoted his career to follow his passion for kickboxing, launching an online retail e-commerce business internationally in 2005. His entrepreneurial journey led him to co-found MarginBusiness Agency, a global consulting firm that specializes in helping brands succeed on Amazon. Omar and his team focus on Listing Optimization and Localization, assisting clients in penetrating global markets and standing out in a crowded marketplace. Omar's inspiring journey demonstrates adaptability and seizing opportunities in an ever-changing business landscape. Omar Angri: From Graphic Design to E-commerce Virtuoso Omar Angri’s journey from a graphic designer passionate about kickboxing to becoming the CEO of MarginBusiness is a story of transformation and dedication. His shift to e-commerce in 2005 marked the beginning of a path filled with corporate roles, international experiences, and entrepreneurial ventures, leading to the establishment of MarginBusiness. Elevate with MarginBusiness - The Digital Entrepreneur Show By Margin Business Digital Entrepreneurs Podcast
The MarginBusiness Podcast is your compass in the entrepreneurial wilderness. Tune in to learn from successful entrepreneurs who've blazed the trail. No need to start from scratch; simply embrace the path to success! Professional Ecommerce Listing Optimization, Translation & Localization Services Supercharge Your Business With Our Powerful Product Content Optimization & Localization Services. We help Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and all global marketplaces’ sellers to increase their sales instantly – US, UK, UAE & all European marketplaces
There Are No Borders When You Sell Online If you currently sell only on Amazon.com, you may have reached a sales plateau. Expanding your business to Europe and the UK could help you to almost double your revenue if you do it in the right way. If you travel to Amazon Europe with us you will be able to talk to your customers in any language! Stop leaving those large extra sales to your competition because you think you can’t bridge the language barrier. This is not an excuse anymore.
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At Margin Business, We Work Hard For Your Amazon Success. The vast range of professional services we offer, will allow your Amazon business to grow, your company to thrive and your income to expand! And of course, we offer free private Amazon consulting Europe sessions and advice with a personal touch, delivered on time as promised.
Content to Increase Your Listing Conversions A+ Content helps businesses showcase their Brand’s story and product features using rich text and images on the Amazon detail page to help drive conversion, and potentially increase traffic and sales. Boost your Amazon Sales in the EU & UK Markets that With Optimized & Localized Advertising Campaigns. Stop wasting money on Ads. If you’re selling on foreign markets and you haven’t localized your listing, you are throwing away your money.
While We Listen To Your Buyers, Amazon Presses The Buttons. If you already sell on Amazon, you may have experienced a high return rate and you may not even know why. As you may know, buyers are not obliged to provide a reason for returning your products, and even if they do, the default choices proposed by Amazon are very vague.
How to sell my Amazon FBA Business? You’re Not Sure Which Brand Acquirer to Choose? Tell us about your Amazon brand so that we can match your business with an Amazon Aggregator we think will serve you best. Mr. Richard 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. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level. Richard’s journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns.
When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines
and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture. Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008. Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies.
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 volcanos 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.
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/ #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #MarginBusinessDigitalEntrepreneursPodcast
welcome to the margin business digital entrepreneur podcast uh in today's episode we got a very special guest very well known in the uh in the call center World um corporate call center world I would say because every company big company actually needs a call center at some point so Richard blank is the CEO of the Costa Rica's call center a division of Chyenne Consultants a Company Incorporated in Costa Rica so when Richard was 27 years old he relocated to Costa Rica where he started training employees for one of the large call centers in San Jose so he trained over 10,000 bilingual telemarketers wow 10,000 that's um that's quite a lot I think I will have to work quite a while until I can say I T I trade TR 10,000 employees and here we come directly into what we actually do at margin business we do the localization so I'm 100% sure for you the word localization is as well very very familiar and I'm sure we're going to get um very deep into this at a later point but for now I um I cannot say more thank you thank you that you came on the show and I hope the introduction um I I think it's never enough for somebody for somebody someone of your size to introduce to the audience correctly um I did my best and I'm sure I picked like a little bit out of your professional life in order to present it to the audience but please give us a little bit more um overview of how you got there uh you don't go from you know from just one day to another to
be the CEO of uh of a large call center um in Costa Rica so what is your background where are you coming from and um yeah tell us a little bit more about that well Omar I cannot thank you enough especially for those acclimates in the beginning you really did give the bells and the whistles but I love your work I reached out to you because I know that you influence so many and you give such good advice and today I would be able to shed some light in regards to customer support lead generation appointment setting and even company culture a lot of the times you don't see what's behind the scenes in regards to customer support in call centers and contact centers and so when I was 27 I was given a one in a million opportunity to come down here and work at my friend Center and I fell in love with it I saw the artist speech especially for bilingual agents that really got engaged in the conversation had expanded vocabulary really really found the stimulation in regards to that such intense concentration to not only translate
but move Mo conversations along so I gravitated towards that now Omar in any vertical the most important thing is to extend dignity to the people that work with you and to have empathy as a boss because I don't look for people to quit or to burn out I'm always looking to promote those as well people with Vigor that can show up to work on time penti always have a suggestion and so me being a guest in this country and I've read your bio as well you've traveled the world you you know about being a guest in other countries and the most important thing is to keep an open mind and understand traditions and values and especially learning the language and if you do that I guarantee a very positive experience and a very strong reinforcement and it becomes
addicting all you want to do is now travel to different places and meet new people most definitely and this is exactly what I'm saying as well when you speak the language of um you don't have necessar to live in the country but as soon as you speak a language you understand the psychology of the person maybe not the per not the person sorry about the country or the the people who live in that country and you can understand them so deep when you speak that language um whilst when you only speak English or only speak speak another language you you you will not go in a deep conversation with them as as when you speak their real their their their mother tongue so and this is where we go as well in in in in the side of the e-commerce and everything because before it was not that deep but now because it's so sophisticated there's so many uh um so competitors you have to go so deep you know and and this is where you need not only to understand your customer's language you need simply to understand your customer so it goes It goes really deep and this is exactly what you are doing as well because for you only speaking for example I know that you speak Spanish you you're bilingual I don't know are you trilingual or bilingual H just bilingual okay okay it's it's already really good because Spanish is an amazing language and and EV you know almost half of the world is speaking it so when you when you speak to your customer to your Spanish customer obviously there is I don't know how many different Spanish speaking countries under in in the in the Southern Hemisphere and we have Spain um we have some parts of Africa speaking still some kind of Spanish um and everyone has a different culture so when you have the people on the phone
can you can can you explain a little bit to us about about this this process how how do you breathe your team for such a localization process do you speak with guatemal Guatemala you speak with Mexico you speak with Paraguay you speak with uguay and everyone has a different culture so H how do you train your staff for this yeah that's an excellent question oh and it's actually quite simple my friend you and I both know that learning a second language is 10 times harder than any other job that we would be put on yeah so you have to put fear into perspective when I do meet someone that's bilingual and you mentioning trilingual in multiple languages to me it it shows structure and discipline cognitive skills and somebody that has the capacity as you say to have that sort of depth to understand different cultures and languages so just off the bat it's looking at big muscles and instrument playing and linguistic skills and someone's bringing something to the table immediately I also did it in regards to defense my friend I'm not just going to put all the the flowers there it's I did it to protect myself a lot of the times I don't disclose the fact that I speak Spanish just to see if people are authentic in front of me and secondly once again it it enables me to have a very nice first impression prior to any sort of contracts or even business discussions it's sometimes the greatest relationships are build is when you don't talk about business you can talk about the things on the side and so it really shows the sort of personality and so those were the sort of things that I believe separated me from some of my
friends that decided just to learn languages in school as a prerequisite and not to continue using it in regards to some sort of additional skill set uh but for me my good friend I had to make a decision as a young man I did not want to follow in the footsteps of my grandparents and parents and older brother that went to Ivy League and studied economics finance and law I wanted to be a linguist I wanted to be bilingual I wanted to study communication and sometimes the stars become aligned and if you don't fall into the destiny that's predetermined for you don't be surprised if you don't make an incredible poet's life where you look in the mirror and you can't believe how you got there but it was from a lot of decisions that were done through good faith and not letting the naysayers and gray Believers hold you back and I was reading about you as well with your Athletics you you do need to have releases so you have mind body and focus and the kickboxing that's why you're my buddy man just in case I get in trouble I'm going to call you one more to help me out but um my man I I when I about
you it's just a a well balanced leveled individual that in my opinion would be welcomed anywhere in the world and so maybe that's why we gravitated towards one another Omar today great I think I think this this explains the whole thing uh very well and uh like I said I I've seen a lot of similarities um in in our work and as well in our personalities because of the um different languages um you know the structure within within the companies and uh you know the the traveling and and everything I mean you still you still like to travel I mean obviously because you have so many uh people from different cultures you you must have you must have seen the these kind of people in your company and say listen I I want to travel to Thailand I want to travel to Slovakia I want to travel somewhere where it's really like is there a lot of international that means that you as well have people from Europe in your call center or is it only for the for for for South America I have to with the agents that we have here they need to have the legal paperwork to be able to work here that's number one I I don't hire Independence but the majority of my clients are North America the United States some of Central America and I've dabbled a little bit in Europe I I prefer to take accounts Omar where a I can speak the language and B it's the skill set that my agents are able to fulfill I don't want to over this it's it's a competitive industry out there and the Agents here in Costa Rica they have options Amazon is here HP Intel and Oracle they have that's enough and so you and I we compete against the big boys but I have some Secrets I mean for the fact that I was able to last 15 years competing against these people and growing to hundreds of seats it's it's very simple there's a lot of people that are looking for a smaller company or call center I myself around 150 where they can make a name for themselves it allows me to delegate and give
additional responsibilities in knowing an owner of a company so there are some people that like to hide amongst thousands and then there's others that have the Vigor and have the desire to grow and and to me it's it's being a mentor as being a night to a squire I've had many people assist me along the way Omar so what you and I are doing my brother is just we're paying it forward that's all we're doing we're giving that information down so we can raise others to become leaders and I I would much prefer to hire somebody with zero call center experience so I can mold them and they don't have bad habits compared to a hot shot that could be a superstar but also could be a cancer it can ruin the flow of a floor and so it's a very very delicate sort of synergy that we're looking for here that's why we're very selective of the clients and especially the agents that come work at the center I mean to put all of this together wow it's um you talk about 150 employees you have in a call center that means human the human touch needs to be there all the time so then you need to think about the big calls the the big companies which need the support MH so when we have Amazon when we have HP when we have all these big boys there is they need a lot they demand a lot so I guess you have 24hour service correct we do not at my Center okay we don't because that's a very good question when you do the graveyard shift it's a limited labor pool plus there's different hours that they can work in a different pay scale plus I consider I I think they're phenomenal but they kind of reminded me of the goth kids that smoke cigarettes behind the gym at lunch you know it's a very very different that works at night and sleeps during the day yes yes yes I know they have very white skin get a lot of but um it's uh it's okay the the thing is though when you are such such such large companies there is that job stability and there is a company culture but there is a certain point where it gets too large if a part's too big you're not going to meet everybody the whole night
you can't take a picture of everyone and so I I believe in ing I I believe in happy home my man I walk the roads I know everybody's name and what you see behind me is a 61 R colaris and a candy machine I I have a I love it you know I I love both of them already you know it's a Omar I play Pacman with the agents I play Pinball with them we have recess here at the center and I believe that games and playing is a wonderful way to build that sort of Rapport between the agents so they don't quit if their best friend is working there or somebody's having a tough day you give them a Timeout on the machine and they can sure I guess de compress a little bit man these aren't robots and and you don't want to break them and we've sat in those cubicles Omar we've made those phone calls we know what it's like we so as I mentioned earlier about extending that sort of empathy especially if they're having situations outside of the office which may affect their work performance it's it's just a very natural way to be able to have that sort of real bond with the people that work with you I I agree completely and for us it's completely different because we all remote so it's even it's it's another challenge on another level you know so you have your challenges and the remote with remote we have we have our challenges you know so it's uh there is there needs to be a balance obviously and uh um the the the employees they need to be happy as well it's it's not just like a a robot as you said you switch them on and uh um they run for 24 hours and you switch them off it's it's it's the same you have to have meetings you know it's it's it's all the same just virtual and maybe even um trying to be even more personal because you're in constant contact with them you know like it's blinking everywhere it's it's it's it's it's always on so I I believe there is there is obviously a big difference because we're humans so we kind of need the human touch but on the other hand we are as well preparing for the years to come because I'm sure um when Co came last time um like you know the the the bad times of Co I'm not sure how how did it affect you over there did it affect you at all did you need it to close down or was it um bearable for
you and they could all work from home that's a lot of toppings on that pizza let me handle it one at a time I was in shock as much as everybody else and during chaos Omar is when you see someone's true character so a lot of the people that I depended on ran to the hills and other stepped up to the plate but I was very proud of myself I I really wanted to put people's families first because I understood their position and thankfully that my industry was capable enough to adjust virtually cuz there were so many mom and pop pizza parlors that couldn't stay open or or stores that required on site and so sure having that luxury that gift that Lifeline you name five other words that allowed my business to continue that way was a one in a million so I I was very humble there and so people went home and we had to make sure that they had the redundancy the internet and that the electricity wouldn't
drop too much and we gave them the computer so at least they had the Tex spec so legal they could work at home they all live a half an hour from the office so if something happened they could be on a turnkey station but if I may be forthright with you in your audience Omar that
was taken away from me I I run a call center and I have Specialists here supervisors it accountants attorneys HR you name it sure what about me besides being the salesman the marketer whatever title you want to give me me I did this for the luxury trade I did this so I could do live classes and I mentioned earlier walking the rose or or how about this let's say Omar you and I are sitting next to one another and I'm listening to my buddy have one of the best phone calls of his entire life I would probably put myself on hold in coaching so I could listen to you close that deal and when it's done high five You' be the first one to congratulate you and then I'd be standing there as the owner of the company behind the two agents and listening to that sort of camaraderie that sort of sharing ideas and energy it's the gym of getting stronger it's teaching you a better golf swing it's once you do virtual it becomes a print when you have people live like Live Theater or painting it it it's you can see the brush Strokes you can hear the breathing and you we're talking about a linguistic environment here where people feed off of that sort of energy where that sort of pick me up when they need it the most and so not saying that we're not capable of doing this job and sure it's going to become more virtual in time but when you look back at the old days of like the arcades in the 80s they don't really exist anymore there was a certain sort of time where that was the place to be and there was a golden age of call centers even before people's cell phones when people really were experts and artists of speech and when I came down here in August of 2000 it was right before those phones started coming in so maybe my friend I got to see the end of that error that's all I think I think we both will see another God willing uh another era coming in um maybe not very fast but I think we will still still see it but it it will come at some point you you know but go going back what you just mentioned the 2000s you arrive in Costa Rica you are we are working at a call center you know because because we're running this entrepreneur podcast and and trying to give the the thought process of the leaders we we interview here in this time frame because this is the crucial time for you obviously you come from somewhere you go you work somewhere and then suddenly you don't wake up overnight and say I want to open a call center as well and and how does it how did it start like with one
employee or how how was the the little process because this is this is where the thought process as well of yourself how did you identify that okay I want to be the leader I want to have 150 employees was it already for you and your head before or did you slide did you slide into it what I don't believe actually if I ever meet somebody under the age of 16 years old that wants to be a CEO of a call center I want to shake their hand that's nobody's dream when they're a child uh you fall into this and my friend fortunately gave me an opportunity to come down to teach English but I learned it not from the sea level see if anything of nothing that people really need to not get their hands dirty but they need to walk in the shoes and so by sitting in the row and seeing retention customer support support affiliate management for search engine optimization Human Resources training you name it even learning the labor
laws you were mentioning before about learning different cultures and vocabulary I I couldn't drink enough of it I was in the deep end of this pool and it was just left and right there's something more to learn but here's the skinny Denny there's sometimes when you when you have these um these chills or this sixense some sort of metaphysic pH that runs through your body and I knew that time was ticking I was in my late 20s but I also knew this Omar if you can get past your parents guilt you can live anywhere in the world so there was some sort of destiny that put me there and I wanted to give it a shot but being at that Center for four years I I learned it enough to where I know I can do the nuts and the bolts but I don't have the sort of ability to do everything and this gentleman had an accounting department he had HR he had attorney so why can't I I mean it's like the Justice League I needed other superheroes with special skills to work with me and so this is what I did a lot of entrepreneurs will overextend themselves my grandmother told me if I can't pay for it in cash you just don't do it so this is what I did I was renting a turnkey station at a blended call center it's almost like a glorified internet cafe I had an office but it really wasn't private and it was just an open floor and I'm renting a station per month couple hundred bucks turn key it's where you start and you know couple months in you know I I launched my website October 4th of 2007 landed the first account February 6 2008 one seat one week regardless of the size it began couple months later I'm at a half a dozen seats the next month I landed a whale and I went to like seven seats to 6 seats and then after a period of time paying allak cart per seat it didn't make sense and so I was looking around to see where I could rent out and what sort of used computers and furniture that I could get for pennies on the dollar and there's enough it people out there that helped me ramp up a server room and so you know I after a couple years I built out a 150 seat Center that I was renting I was there for six years and then when I saved enough money and you're saying behind me I build out 300 seat Center that I own and it's slow and steady the tortoise more than the hair there are no shortcuts you might get lucky with large clients but I was very conservative with my money because of the sort of uh responsibility I have for the job stability and paying the lights and paying the benefits you you don't want to be foot loose and fancy free I mean you need to enjoy yourself but there is some sort of maturity and impulse control that is along with being a CEO it's not all about you you are feeding families and from time to time I have the pleasure of meeting spouses and parents and grandparents and it's my pleasure to let them know how amazing Omar is you're gonna off to home and pull me away from your parents you know just to let them know how great you are and that's the sort of gift that keeps on giving knowing once again I'm doing my contributions and so for your audience if you have one seat if you have one account that spark can grow into an Inferno and money and jewels they'll lose its luster the the moment and money is great and everything but the moment you lose the passion the Fidelity for what you're doing then what are you doing it for I I have my scars and there's up and downs of the call center industry it is a grind most people burn out but I still love this art of speech and I find people that are bilingual fascinating and so um I really have lost my love for this Omar after all these years and that's why I'm a an
old Cat in this game but for your entrepreneurs out there please you you you have to hold fast and you need to go the distance and don't kid yourself the last few reps in the gym burn and so does being an entrepreneur and if you have faith in yourself then by all means shoulders back chin up chest out and go that remaining distance my man so you can fulfill your dreams that's my only advice being 50 years old Omar because I'm very happy that I made certain decisions in my younger years because if if I didn't I I don't know how I'd be able to respect being in a box having a job that I could earn a living but just knowing I wasn't being true to myself I I I think that's one of the greatest gifts somebody can give to them to oneself oh this is um you said it very very well and it's as well something I wanted to ask you actually yeah um to give an advice but the advice you gave it already so look what you're bringing out of me Omar it's all good it's it's you're next to me I would have given you a hug it's all good I'm really I'm really happy that um that we could speak about this and you know the the the it it goes on and on because you know as you already said linguistically um languages in general foreign languages fall into into something which really um is coming from the heart you know because it's passion it's something you live for and you know like our business as well we we are we are based on that we are based on traveling we are based on linguistic we are based on different languages we are based on the human touch so it's it's super important everything what you just said makes makes a lot of things and I'm I'm I'm trying as well to to to explain this to the audience all the time that it's not just about making money it's obviously you need money and money is a great tool don't get me wrong you know um but you need to have something you help people with or you and you are passionate about and then everything will be good that's um that's exactly what I pulled out what you what you just said said it's easier said than done though I know I know but still you know still we are always we're always emphasizing I believe in momentum I think there's certain signs that you're doing things the right way exactly and a lot of the times you need to do it alone because you may be a dreamer and some of your friends might not understand where you're going they'll support you you might be on that Vision Quest by yourself Omar I know I know this is this is the thing for most of the entrepreneurs they are lone wolves and they will build they will build their Entourage later on but for the for the beginning they are definitely lone wolves and need to go and fight their way through I wanted as well to ask where can anybody uh contact you because you know you know our audience we have we have a lot of CEOs we have a lot of uh um Amazon e-commerce sellers Shopify sellers agency owners and maybe there is a need at some point that they need your um call center to help them so it would be great if they can reach out to you and speak to you have a have just a talk with you anytime especially if they say they're friends of Omar then they're definitely a friend of mine but uh my suggestion is to buy a first class plane ticket and come visit me here in Costa Rica especially when it gets really cold back home we have a very large Facebook fan page of about 106,000 wow once this goes live Omar look at all the new fans you're going to have and just real quick it will give your audience a pulse of the business process Outsourcing in Central America now for your
audience we are north of nicar uh Panama south of Nicaragua we're the only Democratic Society in central America there's no standing army so all the money got put back into education and 95% literacy rate as I mentioned Amazon HP Intel and Oracle here and with our infrastructure in labor pool we Pack-a-Punch and Costa Rica is known for medical tourism and especially ecotourism so it really is a Central America paradise and Omar I can't thank you enough I really enjoyed myself today and and sharing ideas and obviously you got some really good stuff out of me I feel very comfortable with you it's like speaking to a best friend and this is the sort of conversation that gentlemen have let's say when they're having lunch we're not hardcore business cracking codes it's really about guys decompressing just talking about how beautiful life is exactly and with this we close this and I I cannot thank you enough Richard um for your wisdom today for your Insight in the industry and as well personally and I'm sure we can take a lot of value away from this thank you so much thank you one more