Erin Thompson Promoted to Osborne Marketing Associate
Erin Thompson, 23, started her position at Osborne Wood Products in January 2018. When Erin first began at Osborne, she had just graduated from Georgia Tech with her bachelor’s degree in marketing. When asked about her first day at Osborne Wood Products, she says shyly: “my first day was a little scary—I had a lot to learn!” Fortunately, Osborne takes special care in training their CSRs, and Erin caught on quickly. Erin was promoted to the position of marketing associate after her first three months as a CSR; promotion aside, Erin still works as a CSR and juggles the two roles seamlessly, proving herself to be a true asset to the company.
On the customer service side of Erin’s position at Osborne Wood Products, Erin really just wants to make the customers happy. Her favorite part of her CSR work is doing custom quotes, with artsy, hand-crafted corbels in particular holding a special place in her heart. Architecturally, corbels help support the weight of a structure to keep it from collapsing which is similar to the role a CSR has in a company—a CSR’s place in a company is to support the customers and distribute the weight evenly amongst their team.
Erin states that being a CSR entails catering to a customer and solving any problems they may encounter, while her part in marketing allows her to reach out to the customer before an issue has even occurred. It would appear to do well in the field of marketing, one must be experienced in customer service; Erin states “marketing is taking what you’ve been told as a CSR and showing you have improved it so it doesn’t happen again.”
Osborne, as a company, prides itself on being adaptable in the age of technology, which makes it no surprise that some of the first search results when googling “Osborne Wood Products” brings up the company’s YouTube channel. The marketing side of Thompson’s career involves using a heavy-hand on social media, and Erin regularly edits Osborne’s pictures and posts them on the social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube.
Erin is currently shuffling between two projects with Osborne’s marketing team at the moment: a YouTube video contest with her co-workers on who can finish a set of Osborne’s contemporary corbels the best, and another project close to home: an Osborne Wood Products catalogue with the theme “Made in America.” This special edition catalogue is still in its beginning phases—currently, Osborne’s marketing team is laying the foundation of it, sourcing the materials and specifying which products are made in house or acquired from other sources still located in the USA. Osborne is a close-knit, family-oriented company with a small marketing team working on the catalogue, which makes the groundwork they have already laid impressive considering the recentness of the idea.
Osborne Wood Product is excited to celebrate Erin’s movement in the company. Leon Osborne had this to say about Erin: “Erin’s willingness to take initiative and invest in strengthening customer relationships and her background education in marketing are a strength to our team. We are looking forward to continue to see Erin gain experience in marketing. Her dedication to helping customers and supporting their needs is an asset and supports our company values.”
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