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9bx user guide

PBX & Call Center

Switchboard

The operator console: every call and every colleague on one screen, with drag-and-drop transfer, park slots, pick up and monitoring.

Contents

What it is for

A receptionist or operator uses the Switchboard to see who is free, who is on a call and which callers are waiting, and to send calls to the right person without picking up a handset.

Who can use it

Users with the Switchboard permission. To use actions that ring your own phone (pick up, intercept, listen), your user must be linked to an extension.

Where to find it

Phone → Switchboard

The screen explained

Switchboard with the Calls tab, people list and park slots.

At the top, a status shows Live, Refreshing or Not connected, and tiles count Active calls, Ringing, Parked and In queues. Shortcuts lists the keyboard shortcuts.

Tabs

Tab What it shows
Calls Live calls with state (Ringing, Talking, On hold, Waiting, Parked, In queue), direction, the line used and whether the caller is in your phonebook. "Being monitored" marks a call a supervisor is listening to.
People Colleagues with presence (Available, Ringing, On a call, Do not disturb, Away, At lunch, Offline). Search by name, extension or department; filter by branch and department; mark Favourites; press Call.
Queues Each queue with callers waiting, Longest wait, free and busy agents, and Take next / Take to answer a caller yourself. VIP callers are marked.
Park Numbered park slots. A slot shows Free or In use and who parked the call. Take call retrieves it.
Recent Recent calls with Missed and Call back.

Call actions

Action What it does
Transfer Opens "Send call". Choose a colleague, then Transfer now (rings them straight away), Speak to them first (caller waits on hold while you talk) or Send to voicemail. For a call between two people choose which side moves.
Pick up Rings your phone with a ringing call.
Intercept Takes a talking call over on your phone.
Hold / Resume Puts the call on hold or back.
Park Puts the call in the first free park slot. Take back removes it.
Voicemail Sends the caller to the voicemail of the person called.
Hang up Ends the call after confirmation ("Both people will be disconnected").
Listen, Whisper, Barge Supervisor monitoring through your phone.

Dragging a call onto a colleague transfers it; dropping it on a park slot parks it.

Tasks

Transfer a live call from the switchboard

  1. Open Phone → Switchboard, tab Calls.
  2. Drag the ringing or talking call onto a colleague in People. Or select the call and press Transfer.
  3. Choose Transfer now. "Call transferred." confirms it.

Announce a transfer (consult first)

  1. Press Transfer on the call and pick the colleague.
  2. Choose Speak to them first. The caller hears hold music.
  3. Talk to your colleague on your phone, then press Complete transfer, or Cancel and take the caller back.

Park a call for a colleague

  1. Select the call and press Park (or drop it on a free slot in Park).
  2. Tell your colleague the slot number, for example "slot 2".
  3. They open Park and press Take call, or dial the slot number from their phone.

Example scenario

At Padma Net Support the receptionist, Farzana, sees a caller from the "Billing" queue waiting 90 seconds. She presses Take next on the queue; her phone rings with the caller. After hearing the issue she drags the call onto "Imran (ext 1007), Technical" and chooses Speak to them first, briefs Imran, then presses Complete transfer.

Tips

  • Pin the five colleagues you transfer to most as Favourites.
  • Use keyboard shortcuts (arrow keys to select a call, then the shortcut key) for fast operation.

Troubleshooting

Problem Fix
Transfer greyed out The call must be selected, and a transfer needs a colleague with an extension. Voicemail transfer is also unavailable for people without voicemail ("... has no voicemail").
"No extension is linked to your account." Ask your administrator to link you to an extension. Pick up, intercept and listen ring your own extension.
"Your role or plan does not include the switchboard." The Switchboard permission is needed.
Some actions fail or do nothing Switchboard actions depend on the phone server running a recent version. If actions fail while Live calls works, ask your administrator to run the phone server update (see Phone server). Platform-hosted servers are updated by 9bx.
"Could not read the PBX. Showing the last known state." The phone server did not answer. The screen shows the last known state and retries.
Everyone shows Offline "Who is signed in could not be read, so nobody is shown as offline." Presence will return when the server answers.