What is a Central Communications Specialist?

If you've got strong communication skills and enjoy speaking on the telephone, you're best suited for the switchboard operator job. Starting a job as a switchboard operator is an excellent way to begin a career in office administration, secretarial work, or customer service. Being a switchboard operator, you'll be the first point of contact between a company and the outside world. Your core duty is to ensure the incoming telephone calls are transferred, directed to the appropriate person or department.

Being a telecommunication professional generally, your main task is to answer and direct incoming telephone calls for a company or organization. While answering a telephone call, you may evaluate and identify its nature, provide any telephone assistance, and direct the call to the requested person or department. As a switchboard operator, your other main tasks are keeping a log of calls, updating the company's internal directory, working with front desk personnel, and general administrative duties.

The minimum requirement to become a switchboard operator is a high school diploma or equivalent qualification. However, attaining a course for switchboard operator or receptionist and experience with customer service or a call center may help raise you to potential employers. To be successful, you must possess excellent telecommunications skills and a solid ability to operate a telephone switchboard.

Being a switchboard operator, you may work in the company's contact or call center, offices, public or private businesses, hospitals, schools, and other professional practices. You may work full-time, part-time, or in flexible shifts. Working as a switchboard operator, you may take advantage of a range of career development opportunities. As you gain experience, you may become an administrative assistant or secretary.

A phone operator helps clients by transferring calls, answering questions, and providing information. They attend to customer requests, using alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions. They assist people with physical disabilities or people who are in emergencies to make calls. Similarly, they help clients with special billing requests. Asides from that, they operate phone switchboards and systems to aid complete connections. Phone operators may perform clerical duties, which include typing, sorting mail, and updating directory information. They operate paging systems or other systems of bells or buzzers to notify recipients of incoming calls. They promote company products, services, and savings plans.

A high school diploma or its equivalent is the minimum academic requirement for phone operators. You can find employment in business firms, answering services, schools, hospitals, and public offices. You must possess communication, patience, and maths skills. Phone operators earn an average salary of $30,829 per year. This ranges between $21,000 and $44,000.

A PBX operator is responsible for switching calls on local lines within the internal telephone system of a large company or corporation. PBX stands for private branch exchange and is a system that enables users to have external telephone lines without having to maintain a separate line for each user.

A PBX operator is the modern-day replica of a switchboard operator who routes calls within the company, transfers information, takes and forwards messages, and deals with administrative tasks. Handling emergency calls and screening dangerous situations, and informing security in case of any suspicious activity related to the phone lines is also on the PBX operator.

Customer service skills will be your most valuable asset when applying for a PBX operator position, beating any formal education or degree. With a high school diploma, basic computer skills, experience in word processing and data entry, you will be the ideal candidate. Whatever else you need, you will pick up from your colleagues or over the course of on-the-job training.