KATHLEEN M. PETERSON, POWERHOUSE CONSULTING, INC.

ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE STOCK

LARRY PAGE, GOOGLE CO-FOUNDER

“ Over and out” is a signal in radio communications to indicate the end of a transmission, especially when the speaker is finished and not expecting a response. It is a way to say goodbye— clear and final.

I know this isn’ t radio, but it is the end of a transmission. This article will be my final Idiom Insights submission. I have been a proud contributor to Contact Center Pipeline since 2009 and have( I believe) 136 published articles to my name. Thank you, Pipeline, and especially Linda Harden with whom I have worked happily in varying capacities since the early 1990s.

This chapter is closing for us here at PowerHouse Consulting and this article is my signal that Idiom Insights is signing off. After 38 years, we have made the difficult decision to close PowerHouse. It has been a great run with incredible experiences. Naturally, I feel a little nostalgic, so I would like to share how I got here and what I have learned along the way. HOW I GOT HERE

Like so many of us, I did not set out to build a career in Contact Centers. But every step brought me exactly here.

My early days were rooted in telephony, which I quite literally married into. In 1979, I went to work for my husband, David, who was opening a branch office of an " interconnect " phone company. I started by handling calls and dispatching technicians, but soon found myself on the installation side. It was here that I got my start in training, system design, and project management.

The 80s and 90s brought sweeping changes: deregulation, the rise of 800 numbers, centralized services, and the digital transformation of telephony. ACDs became mainstream and the simple business phone— once a 40-pound copper-linked device with flashing line buttons and no voicemail— suddenly became a strategic asset. The Call Center emerged as the“ new alternative channel” before that term even existed.

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