Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service Operate telephone business systems equipment or switchboards to relay incoming, outgoing, and interoffice calls. May supply information to callers and record messages.
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service is Also Know as
In different settings, Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service is titled as
- CBX Operator (Computerized Branch Exchange Operator)
- Central Communications Specialist
- Communications Operator
- Communications Specialist
- Information Specialist
- PBX Operator (Private Branch Exchange Operator)
- Switchboard Operator (SB Operator)
- Switchboard Receptionist (SB Receptionist)
- Telecommunications Clerk
- Telecommunications Operator
Education and Training of Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Training Required for Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service in different industries are
- Telephone Operators
- Receptionists and Information Clerks
- Office Clerks, General
- Public Safety Telecommunicators
- Customer Service Representatives
- Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance
- Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
- Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
- Telemarketers
- Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
- Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers
- Data Entry Keyers
- Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service
- Postal Service Clerks
- First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers
- Administrative Services Managers
- Word Processors and Typists
- Telecommunications Engineering Specialists
- Billing and Posting Clerks
- Brokerage Clerks
What Do Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service do?
- Operate communication systems, such as telephone, switchboard, intercom, two-way radio, or public address.
- Answer incoming calls, greeting callers, providing information, transferring calls or taking messages as necessary.
- Page individuals to inform them of telephone calls, using paging or interoffice communication equipment.
- Relay or route written or verbal messages.
- Place telephone calls or arrange conference calls as instructed.
- Monitor alarm systems to ensure that secure conditions are maintained.
- Contact security staff members when necessary, using radio-telephones.
- Keep records of calls placed and charges incurred.
- Record messages, suggesting rewording for clarity or conciseness.
- Stamp messages with time and date and file them appropriately.
- Answer simple questions about clients' businesses, using reference files.
- Complete forms for sales orders.
- Perform various data entry or word processing tasks, such as updating phone directories, typing or proofreading documents, or creating schedules.
- Process incoming or outgoing mail, packages, or deliveries.
- Perform administrative tasks, such as accepting orders, scheduling appointments or meeting rooms, or sending and receiving faxes.
- Monitor emergency and code alarms, make emergency announcements, or route emergency calls to the appropriate location.
- Greet visitors, log them in and out of the facility, assign them security badges, and contact employee escorts.
- Perform various cash handling tasks, such as collecting payments, making bank deposits, or managing petty cash.
- Place orders, such as for equipment, supplies, or catering for meetings.
Qualities of Good Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Tools Used by Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
- Alarm system monitors
- Computer inkjet printers
- Copy machines
- Intercom equipment
- Laser facsimile machines
- Mobile radios
- Multiline telephone systems
- Paging systems
- Personal computers
- Premise branch exchange PBX equipment
- Public address PA systems
- Radiotelephones
- Telephone headsets
- Telephone switchboards
- Video surveillance monitors
Technology Skills required for Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
- IBM Notes
- M-Tech Hotel Service Optimization System HotSOS
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- SAP software
- Word processing software