Did you know that not even that long ago some people and businesses used answering services to take their calls and messages.
Yup, and that was my very first job at probably one of the very last answering service companies. Sometimes by myself or sometimes with one or two other people we would sit in a building and answer phone calls for business and other people. There were hundreds of phone lines and any of those could ring at any time.
Even emergency calls for ambulances came in to an answering service. We answered those too! It always sent the operator's heart racing when the LOUD alarm sounded for those calls.
Every phone line had to be answered in a different way and the operators memorized all the phrases to say for each phone line.
This was back in the day when a real person had to answer a phone if it rang. So lots of business and most doctors used an answering service.
This photo was in the earlier days of PBX operators.
PBX stands for Phone Board Exchange
Everyone had to have good handwriting because other people had to read your messages. We wrote the messages on slips of paper and put them into the cubbies of a wooden box of slots with the customer names. People would call in for their messages and we would read them off to them.
You would get to know the customers pretty well because you talked to them every day. Some doctors were not the friendlist and if an emergency call wasn't actually and emergency, Oh Boy!, we might get a big telling off.
Others doctors were fun. I remember regularly chatting with one doctor who was funny and he would tell me about things going on at the hospital or other amusing side stories.
About those ambulance calls....
Back then there was not the 911 emergency number.
When the ambulance line rang we stopped everything and took the call. Immediately a phone number of the caller was written down, then location, then type of emergency.
There were specific phrases for types of emergencies. Like "man down" "woman down" - for an unknown cause of the problem. The term "51-50 " was used to communicate a mental health issue.
The reason answering services were still around when I was young was due mainly to the doctors, ambulance calls and after hours businesses like plumbers.
This was a fun job. You could get to know a lot of people and learn all about stuff going on. Eventually I starting talking to people at the places I thought I might want to work amd I ended up getting a job at one of the local hospitals this way.
When I started working at the hospital I got to meet or see all the doctors I had been talking to ... that was really funny to put the real faces to the telephone personalities I had gotten to know. When Do You Think Ansering Services Faded Off The Scene?
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