Bill Osborne
Relocated Worker
On-the-Job Training Program
The Best of Both Worlds as the Clean Up Man
Bill Osborne, a 57 year-old husband and grandfather has been an expert carpenter for over 35 years and in business for himself for much of that time. He's originally from Columbus, Mississippi, but found himself in Nashville, Tennessee as his wife finished school. When he relocated to Mobile in February 2005, he decided he would like to see how it was to work for someone else and so he started looking for a job.
He found Simply Shutters and Mobile Works at virtually the same time and was hired through the efforts of Belinda Thomason for the Mobile Works On-the-Job Training Program. Simply Shutters began in 1989 and designs, creates, finishes and installs high-end custom interior shutters throughout the Gulf Coast, with sales and installation services available in Alabama in Mobile, Dothan and Huntsville, and in Florida in Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, Destin and Panama City and in Mississippi in Biloxi, Gulfport and Jackson and in Louisiana in New Orleans.
After an interview, Simply Shutters owners Bruce and Michelle Buechner decided to hire Osborne. In early March 2005, Osborne started work with Simply Shutters as a "utility" person, learning all aspects of the operations as well as learning aspects of carpentry unique to building, fitting and finishing custom shutters. With his expert knowledge of carpentry, he quickly surpassed that and was given ever-greater responsibilities. Simply Shutters knows that the best company and the best product will have customer service issues unless little problems are taken care of quickly. With the company's commitment to customer service, Osborne's major responsibility is to make unhappy customers happy with their custom shutters by solving whatever problem they might have with the shutters themselves. That might mean the shutter has to be refit or refinished, but it might also mean the window isn't square and the shutter will never fit properly.
Bruce Buechner says that Osborne's excellent public relations and customer service skills are put to the test every day on the job and that he is a "problem-solver extraordinaire." Buechner states, "Bill's ability to interact so well with anyone and everyone, on top of his superb carpentry skills, have earned him the responsibility to clean up every little mess we have so that the customer doesn't see a mess and stays happy. Bill does it better than anyone I know."
As the company continues to grow and expand, Osborne is excited about the prospect of one day taking over the plant management, in addition to his current responsibilities, and letting Buechner tend to the front office-relieving his boss of a lot of the day-to-day activities that he can do for him.
Osborne attributes his success to giving customers one-on-one attention, consistently following through and being willing to take the time to go on-site with a customer and listen to what they want, then just make it happen. Says Osborne, "I love my job because I carpentry and I love working with people and in my job I get to do both-it's the best of both worlds." Mobile Works knows that Osborne will continue to clean up-in more ways than one.