From BPO Agent to Client Experience Manager: Ana Rodriguez on Nicaragua's Nearshore Talent

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore Cafe podcast. I'm your host, Brian Samson. Before I introduce our guest, I want to thank our sponsor, Plug Technologies, PlugGg.tech. Great way to connect talent from all over Latin America. To US companies. This is going to be a really great episode because we're going to turn the tables. We often hear from our clients and customers what it's like to hire people from Latin America and their experience and how they found them and leading and so forth. We're flipping it today. We are going to have a real amazing guest who is from Nicaragua and is working for a client, and she's going to tell her story, how it all came to be, and, uh, we're going to learn a lot. So without further ado, uh, let me welcome Ana Rodriguez, who's got an amazing career in the world of operations for US companies. Welcome, Ana.

Thank you, Brian. Thank you for having me today. Yeah.

Well, yeah. Yeah. I'd love for you to, um, maybe to kick it off. Just give us a little bit about your background. We know you're from Nicaragua, Managua. Where did you grow up? School, and like, how did you get, get your first, uh, few jobs off the ground, like your early career?

Sure. Yeah. So born and raised in Managua, which is the capital, right, in Nicaragua. I went to an all-girls Catholic school. That was a fun experience, I must say. And then, of course, hit university, and my very first job was on an NGO or nonprofit organization, something very different to what came later. And after that, because that was like a temporary thing or like voluntary slash, right, you know, and then I, I like, this is like 14, 15 years ago, right? And in Nicaragua, we started hearing more about the BPO industry, right? Like BPOs and it was like growing. It's an industry that was growing. So I started applying to different positions, roles, companies, local companies. And I was not getting anything. I was not being called. And when I was being called at interviews or anything, the salary was not there, right? Like, I remember applying for a bank institution to a, like, a service, like, bilingual services role or something. And I think the salary was around $300,000. I was like, whoa, okay, not what I was expecting, right? But then you started hearing about the BPO and they had good salaries and they had like a nice environment. You see like a lot of people. Coming out from high school or the university, applying to these positions. And I was like, maybe I should give it a try, right? And then I heard about this place. It was like a small place at the time called Concentrix. And I said like, why not? I'm going to apply. Maybe this is going to be like a 6-month something, right? 6-month position. If it's not working, I'll do something else, right? And I apply and I got immediately hired. Right. Um, and I started from the very bottom, I would say, like an agent position. This was like a small call center at the time. I think we were like 50 people, which it was nice as well. Right. Cause the, the environment was very, very sane, right? Like everyone knew each other. The clients used to come a lot to visit us and you were able to meet them. So. Yeah, I think it started like that and then I stayed for a lot of years.

All right. What an exciting start to your career. Just for the sake of our audience, can you give some background on like what BPO is? It might mean a lot of things to a lot of people. What was Concentrix doing? The types of functions? What were they outsourcing for? The types of customers? Were they US customers? This context would be awesome.

Great. Yeah, of course. So the BPO industry basically was like offshore services that Latin American companies or people in Latin America is providing to US companies and US customers. So at that time, like it started to be a thing, right? Or a good source of work for Nicaraguans. Most of the services or roles were very linked to customer service. So anyone, let's say you had a problem with your phone, just an example, Verizon, right? You call your customer service and then someone in Nicaragua will pick up your phone and help you to troubleshoot or to improve your plan, whatever you need, right? So that was like kind of like the overall, but Concentrix was working specifically with one client that was doing recruiting for US citizens, right? So what we did was like interview people that had actually applied for a position in the US. So you would get through a resume, you will call someone and ask them like a first screening, you know, and that was very interesting. In that time, Concentrix actually was one of the companies that required their employees to have some sort of degree because the job was very oriented to professionals. So you had to have some experience. I remember that when I started working with this project, since I had kind of like a finance background, I was recruiting for finance positions, right? So you had to kind of like understand if you ask someone, right, what is a mortgage or how you treat this mortgage or anything, you need to know that the answer is actually real, right? So yeah, it was very specialized.

Yeah. And I think you said when you started, I was a little bit smaller, so maybe about 50 people. Um, and, uh, you know, entry level when you got going, what was the, um, the requirement for English and like, and how did you learn English growing up in the Catholic school or, you know, watching TV? How did you figure that out?

Yeah, I would say 50/50, right? Some I learned at the Catholic school. It was not a bilingual school, but we had a very good program, I would say. And then, you know, Yes, cultural learning through TV and movies and music. TV at that time, the '90s and 2000s, MTV was a big source of learning English and how people talk, right? Because I think if you go to school, yes, you will learn grammar, you will learn all the rules, but you don't know how people actually talk in a call or in a conversation, right? So I think by looking at movies and, and, like, real conversations, you get the flavor of it. And then the requirement, I think it was more or over B2, something like that. Even a C1, probably, because you had to not only talk to people, but also you need to, like, write emails, right? You had a project manager assigned to you, so you had to have, like, a one-on-one experience with a project manager. Um, and you need to, like, send emails all the time, so Yeah, definitely had to be like strong.

I think it's a really great point that you made about US-style English, not just formal English. I think a lot of companies, just an aside as someone who's, who's worked with Latin America, but also Asia for a number of years, I think oftentimes Asia is taught like textbook English, not the conversational English. And that can be a big turnoff or turn on, you know, for people that are on the phone. When you were, um, kind of moving up in the ranks of Concentrix? What were, what were some of the other roles that you took on?

Yeah, so, um, I think this is like really nice and it's part of the story, my success story there. Concentrix is a global company, right? So when I joined, they had like 15 offices globally, right? Um, but they had a vision, so they started acquiring some other companies. And I remember, I think it was like back in 2013, '14, um, they acquired IBM. So with that, we had like a big growth and we had to make sure that we were standard, right, with all the other countries. So that opened up an opportunity for me. Um, I remember that the first thing that we had to do was to get certified on security standards because we needed to prove that we were the same, right? No matter where you're working, no matter where you're providing services from, clients need to feel safe and that their data is safe and that their information is confidential, et cetera. So they opened a position for kind of like a certifications coordinator at that time, and I said, like, yeah, I'm going to apply. I mean, I'm going to apply. I think that this is interesting. And then I got it, right? And I was able to certify myself as an internal auditor for implementation of these security standards, which was an ISO certification. And I also got certified for an operating standard, which is called COPC. That's very specific for this industry. Like you learn how to manage all your metrics, your attrition, your hiring rates, right? Training, et cetera, right? So it opened up and I mean, it was great because I started to open myself up as well to work with other people in Latin, in the US, in India, right? IBM had a strong and very large office from India, so we got a lot of knowledge from them as well. And I was also proud because that specific position, I would say, was very male dominated. So to me, it was also like, I'm the first woman from Latin America joining to a position like this, right? And then of course, Concentrix started growing globally and locally. So we acquire more clients. Um, I remember by 2015, we opened a second office in Managua. Uh, we grew from 70 people to 250.

Wow.

Um, then we got another client and then now we were like 500 employees and I continued to grow, right? Uh, then I was no longer working only with the Nicaragua program or just with one client. I was working with several Latin American countries at the same time. And then I think one of the latest acquisitions was Convergys. Um, before we did Webhelp, So Convergys, we grew exponentially, and I moved to, from a kind of like a compliance analyst position to a senior manager position in security and operations. So I started working globally now, like with people in Germany, people in Portugal, Asia, right? Philippines, India, Malaysia. And I think that's, That's one of the most enriching experiences, right? If you work with other people from different countries, you get to learn from them as well, right? You get to learn how they think, how they present themselves to work, their experience as well, right? So yeah, it was very enriching.

Yeah. Concentrix, uh, I have to give credit where credit's due, and there's been a lot of really amazing people that have come through Concentrix. What do you think they do right? That maybe other companies don't?

A couple of things I would say. One, they partner well with their clients, right? I think when they started growing, they knew what they wanted to do with their business. So they selected those clients that were kind of like having the same vision or that had the same culture as the company or the same values, et cetera. So I think that's one. And two, it had a lot of emphasis on employees. Like, staff is your primary resource, right? If you don't have the right staff, you're not going to thrive in your business, right? So there was support to staff in developing, or if you wanted to have like additional knowledge in certain topics, they had like their own library. You could go through it. You learn on your, at your own pace, et cetera. You got motivated, right? For doing things right. And I think something that's important for me to mention is there are opportunities, but you have to work hard as well, right? Because I know that there's a lot of people that goes into this industry and they, everyone wants to grow, right? Everyone. But then you have to present yourself to do that, right? Like you have to be on time. You have to meet your metrics. You have to show that you're doing what you're doing, right? And that's when positions open or opportunities open for you, right? So yeah, I think that they had like a like they were very supportive of their staff.

Yeah. Um, the, the next place I want to go in this conversation is, you know, I, I was lucky when I started my career, you know, I go back many years and, you know, I, I took US culture and US business culture for granted, but, but I still had to kind of learn the ins and outs of how you act in an office and things like that. Maybe tell us about your journey and because you had to kind of learn two cultures and then eventually many, many more, but you, you had to, you know, just learn like what it's like to be an employee in a big company like Concentrix and navigate that from the Nicaraguan level, but then be able to perform for US companies that had different standards and, um, uh, different things that mattered to them and they were tracking different things. Maybe tell us about how you kind of adapted, adjusted, did well. What were some of the lessons learned as you, uh, figured out US a style of business culture?

Yeah, well, that's a really good question, right? So a couple of things, right? One, I remember the first time, like my induction for the very first role, right? Being an agent. This client had like really nice values. And I remember one of them was discipline freedom, right? And I was like, what is that? What do you mean with discipline freedom? And I remember them basically telling you, like, we're not going to be checking on you every single minute. Right? Or hour after hour, you know what you have to do, right? And you're a person, you have integrity, and we trust, we trust you basically, right? And I think that's a very good opportunity for a person to be trusted because then you can prove what you're made of, right? I would say that's one. And then the other one is, I think you just adapt, right? And there was a little bit of a difference culturally, I would say, is that I think people in Latin America, they tend to sugarcoat some things, right? Like, yeah, they don't want to hurt your feelings. And that's okay. It's part of how we talk and how we communicate to people. When I started working with people in US, I realized, okay, everything's straightforward. Uh, we're not going to be sugarcoating things. It's going to be direct feedback. This is good. This is not good. This is, this can get better. And I think I, I appreciated that. I think it's important that you know if things are working or not at the right time instead of letting that become something bigger or a problem that then you're not going to be able to solve. So yeah, I was like, okay, I understand. Now I have to be like very straightforward and I adopted. I think I really liked working in that environment. And you also get to learn so many other things that are like skills for life, right? Like when you're working in a BPO industry, one of the things or the rules, right, is that you have to be on time. And, and that's something that culturally for us, it's different, right? Like we tend to, especially if it's something social, right? Not work-related, but social. We're like, yeah, the invitation is at 7 and then you start showing at 7:30 or something. This, this is not like that, right? And I actually appreciate that because that starts shaping your personality and your professional attitude, right? Like, you know, you have to be on time, so you're going to guide yourself to make sure that you are on time for work or after your break or whatever. And yeah, I think you, you learn a lot from that.

Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so now you're working for, for a smaller agency, uh, happens to be up Plug client, before we even get into your, uh, your day job and responsibilities, just like, how did this all come to be? How do you remember, um, how you first heard about it? What maybe got you interested and like the recruiting process about it?

Yes. Well, everything was working at Concentrix, right? Except that I had, since I was working with so many regions or cities or countries, right? I had multiple time zones, so I. Like last year I had my second baby and, um, time zones were not, were not doing it for me. Right. So, um, I remembered that I was like, yeah, I think I need to change my job now. I'm ready for something else, for a new challenge as well. And something that aligns more with my current personal needs as well. Right. So I, I had a friend that worked with me at Concentrix and he came to me and said like, Hey, you know what? I think that there's a position open that may align with your experience. And I don't know if you're interested. I'm like, yeah, let's, let's give it a try. Right. And then I got contacted by Plug and I remember having kind of like a first screening interview, right? Like what were my interests and my experience? And I think that went really well. That was with someone at Plug. And then I was interviewed directly by the CEO. Of this client that I'm working with. And I was like, okay, this is the first time, right, that I'm interviewing with a CEO. Um, but I think we clicked, um, everything that he was talking and asking. And I was like, yeah, I've been doing this for so many years, like almost 13 years at Concentrix. And, and I felt like, okay, this is a really good opportunity, a good experience, right? This was for an operations manager position. And basically the idea was that, okay, we are going to be working with um, of course, clients or customers in the US, and we're going to be optimizing their processes, right? So how do you optimize a process? First, you have to learn from that process, what's working, what's not, and then we're going to do recommendations, right? So back to what I said, right? I had this background as well on operation standards, and I was like, yeah, I think this is something that definitely matches my, my And I was like, yeah, let me know if you're interested. I am, right? And I think it was like 1 or 2 weeks after that I got contacted by, by Blog. Um, I think Ruben directly called me and said like, can you start on Monday? I think it was a Friday and like, can you start on Monday? I'm like, okay, I need to give my 2 weeks notice, but we can manage. So yeah, it was, it was really good, a very good experience. Experience, um, the hiring process as such. And it has been a delight to work with, um, this client.

Yeah. When you were interviewed, was everything in English or was there kind of a, like a Spanish-English component?

No, everything was English. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, okay. So tell us more about, so, so how long have you been there at this client now?

So I've been working with this client for 9 or 10 months almost. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and as I said, like I started as an operations manager, um, and was immediately introduced to one of his clients, right? This was a new client for him. So we started working with them, trying to solve different operational problems. Like one of the main things that we see, right, is when you have a small firm, let's say 8 to 10 employees, usually the CEO is the person that does everything, like he knows everything. The CEO knows all the processes, the vendors, etc. Usually that becomes the bottleneck. So everyone goes to the CEO, the CEO knows everything out of his head or their head, and everything gets delayed. So how do you solve that? Right? So that was one of our main projects with this client, like working on getting everything out of his head to make sure that the company and the rest of the firm knows how to operate. And we're still working with them. And I think we have achieved that. Like we have very good feedback that, yeah, the CEO is feeling more liberated, etc. And then we started acquiring more clients as well, right? So in this process, in these 9, 10 months that I've been working with, we have also added clients to, to our agency, right? So it's also really cool to see how this company is growing, being part of that. And now my role has evolved to a client experience manager. So yeah, I'm just living the life.

That's great. What can you tell us about working for a small US company versus a massive one like Concentrix? What are some of the big differences you've seen so far?

I think when you work for a big, big company, there are a lot of rules, I would say, right? Um, there's more bureaucracy that you have to to follow, more people to get things approved or reviewed, um, because there are different layers, right? Like senior VPs, CEOs, VPs, et cetera, right? Directors, everyone needs to be aware of everything. When you're working with directly with the CEO or like a senior ops advisor, et cetera, decisions are made on the go, right? And I think that's also very interesting, right? Plus you are seeing a person growing their business. When you are working for a big company, you're working for everyone, right? For the stakeholders, for the chairman, for the CEO, et cetera, right? So in this case, like you're seeing someone, how they grow their business, you get to see the passion, the time, et cetera, which I think it's, it's really interesting. I would say that's like the main difference, right? I did have a good relationship with my manager when I was at Concentrix, which was very close too. I would say that's a similarity. I have a very good communication channel with the CEO in this company. So, um, I think that's also like a plus, right? That you're able to talk to this person, get their ideas, get their thoughts, get their feedback. So yeah.

Yeah. If you could, Ana, tell us more about just like the tool suite you're working with, like what are some of the applications and maybe even how AI might fit into everything.

I think that's a Great question. Um, because it was a big change for me, right? When I was referring to, there are a lot of rules when you're working for a big company and I was coming from a security position as well, right? So there are a lot of restrictions in terms of technology, in terms of what can you use, what clients allow, et cetera. And coming here was like, oh my God, I was missing all of these, right? So we're working with Notion, so it's like you're able to do project management through Notion. You have different tasks, reminders, calendar, et cetera. Everything is managed through that. You can record your calls through there. And then you have Notion AI, right? And I think AI is a magnificent tool if you learn how to use it, right? So for example, you get on a call with a client, you record the call, and then you use AI to produce a deliverable. So you can give them a report, you can give them a full project already built in, right? Or, or an SOP or anything that they need after having one conversation with a person. Of course, of course, I would say that you always have to ensure that there's human interaction and review, but definitely it supports your functions and, and that makes it easier to serve to clients, right? And to deliver in a faster and better way. So, yeah.

Yeah. Tell us about maybe your advice on both sides, because you've been working with the US for a long time. What would be your advice for companies like yours that might want to hire Latin America talent for the first time ever? What might be your advice for them? And then on the other side, what might be your advice for talented people in Latin America that have never worked with the US before, but they want to? Give us some guidance to both sides.

So for US companies, I would say give it a try, right? Like, I think we have a lot of talented people in Latin America, not only Nicaragua. Of course, I'm going to speak about Nicaragua. We have a lot of talented people. I think most of us have really good English, and I would say that a lot of people already have BPO experience, right? So they kind of know the mentality. They kind of know how to work with US people. And yeah, give it a try because you're, you're going to love it, right? There's a lot of people that went to university. It's not like only like, yeah, I've been working with companies in the US. Yes, that's great. But you also have people that actually went through a career. They have a degree and they have all of this knowledge, right, that you can use for your company. And then for people that wants to work with the US, be real, right? Be authentic, be real, um, and, and make sure that you are trusted, right? So I think after the pandemic, right, when everyone had to move to work at home, that was a big challenge for a lot of people and not even in Latin America, I mean worldwide, right? Um, to make sure that you were consistent, that you were delivering things on time, because you have to be, how do you say this? Like you have to be very organized, right? No one was supervising you. No one was looking at what you were doing, but you had to be real on, okay, this is the expectation. So make sure that whenever you are hired by a US company or anyone remotely, that you're actually meeting the expectations. I mean, talk to people like anyone else, right? If you need 30 minutes to go do something, then talk about it instead of being reached out, then 'Oh, well, I'm not at my computer right now.' I think that's what breaks the relationship. If you are real with the other person, if you commit to things and you actually deliver what you're expected to deliver, things go really well.

As we start to wind the show down, I just want to give a chance for you to play tour guide for Managua. For those that are listening that would love to visit, what are some things that they should do, try, eat, all that stuff?

Right. Well, I think Managua has an amazing nightlife. I would think that that's one of the biggest attractions in Managua, right? I'm going to speak about Nicaragua a bit, so bear with me, but Managua has amazing nightlife, like really good restaurants, like really good bars. If you want to go and try some beers or drinks from all over or anything, Managua is your city. But then I would definitely recommend people to if they want to experience the culture, they have to go to Granada and León. Granada is like 45 minutes away from Managua, and Granada and León have this colonial style. For people to, to be aware, right, we were colonized by the Spaniards, right? So there is this style that still remains in this, in these cities, right? So you're gonna see the architecture is different than the churches and the parks and everything is more into like that Spanish style. And they also have like food. Everything is delicious here, right? Like there are different things that are made out of corn, which was one of the basic foods back then. And there are things that are absolutely delicious, but also meat and something called fritanga. You can Google that. And that's like a big plate of rice and beans and meat and fried plantains and salad. So yeah, that's delicious. There are a lot of activities to do in Granada and León. So, and just to add, right, Nicaragua has a lot of volcanoes. I think we have over 50 volcanoes. So there are activities like you can go hike a volcano in Granada. You can do ziplining in, in near a volcano. You can go to the lake. Nicaragua Lake and have a ride on a boat for the day. You can spend a day in a little island and they will bring you beers and food and have a great time. And you can also do sandboarding in an active volcano in León. So anything you want, right? Like if you like kind of like active things, right? Or big activities, you name it. If you want to go to the beach and have like a relaxing day, you can also do that. Like the beach is very close to Managua, like 1 hour and a half. Or you can go to San Juan del Sur, which everyone loves. That's a little bit further, but totally worth it. So yeah, a lot of activities for people that want to visit.

Amazing. I'm sure we'll have to have the, uh, Nicaraguan Tourism Authority give you a commission for all the people that are now excited to go to Nicaragua. This has been a real pleasure, Ana. Thank you so much for spending time with us. Let me give a thanks to our sponsor, uh, Plug Technologies. Plugg.tech. Great way to connect talent from all over Latin America with US companies. Thanks again for listening to the Nearshore Cafe podcast. We'll see you next time.

Thank you. Next week for a new episode featuring another special guest.