The History Of The Answering Service San Diego Citizens Have Utilized

When Alexander Graham Bell first ushered the words to Thomas Watson over the telephone line he probably did not know he was starting at least two new industries through his invention. One, of course, was the telephone, but the other was the necessity of developing an answering service San Diego citizen would come to know to answer the telephone. This new industry did not develop right away as it took many years before the telephone become a household device that people used for personal and business reasons. However, once the telephone became popular, the need to know who had been calling also grew in popularity.Margaret Smith has been recognized as the founder of the first answering service in the United States. She was an aging woman who had great difficulty moving around and spent much of her time on her bed laying next to her telephone. Her doctors would come and visit and see how she was doing from time to time as they made their calls to their patients homes. Mrs. Smith started wondering how they could be getting their phone calls if they were out traveling. This lead to her pursuing an idea.Mr. Smith started to ask the doctors if they would like someone who could answer the phone and take messages for them. A few of the doctors thought this was a god idea and decided to hire her as their official person to answer their calls. She kept abreast of where the doctors would be on any given day and made sure that the received their messages.All this happened in 1923 when Mrs. Smith formed Mrs. Smiths Doctors Exchange and it lasted under her guidance until 1925 when she passed away. Her children knew that she was on to something and kept the business going. They eventually grew the company to be a much larger outfit.Within a few years the children decided to expand the business. They offered their services to other doctors and business people who were often on the go and hard to track down. The business was expanding at the same time many others were having trouble surviving.Then the Great Depression came and created havoc for businesses and people all over the world. But the company that Mrs.Smith founded was about to experience one of its best fortunes because there were not any jobs around. Mrs. Smiths son got tired of looking elsewhere for economic opportunity and starting focusing exclusively on the operation his mother started. Within a few years they were moving the company out of the house and into a commercial building.Other companies starting to do the same type of work and the industry started to prosper. The companies often consisted of women who sat at a table with wires that plugged into holes to answer an incoming call. That would speak to the person, write down their message, and either track down the recipient or wait until they called in for their messages.There are still companies providing the answering service San Diego residents started using years ago. They work in much the same way as Mrs. Smith did as she laid on her bed. The difference now is that new technology is starting to replace the old technology and people can often leave messages directly on the telephone people carry around with them.