Telephone Operator Provide information by accessing alphabetical, geographical, or other directories. Assist customers with special billing requests, such as charges to a third party and credits or refunds for incorrectly dialed numbers or bad connections. May handle emergency calls and assist children or people with physical disabilities to make telephone calls.
Telephone Operator is Also Know as
In different settings, Telephone Operator is titled as
- 411 Directory Assistance Operator
- Directory Assistance Operator
- Information Specialist
- Live Source Operator
- Long Distance Operator (LD Operator)
- Telecommunications Operator
- Telephone Operator
- Toll Operator
Education and Training of Telephone Operator
Telephone Operator is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Telephone Operator
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 Telephone Operator
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Telephone Operator
Training Required for Telephone Operator
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 Telephone Operator in different industries are
- Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
- Telemarketers
- Customer Service Representatives
- Receptionists and Information Clerks
- Public Safety Telecommunicators
- Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers
- Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance
- Office Clerks, General
- Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
- Counter and Rental Clerks
- Order Clerks
- Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel
- Travel Agents
- Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs
- Data Entry Keyers
- Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks
- Billing and Posting Clerks
- Brokerage Clerks
- Cashiers
- Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan
What Do Telephone Operator do?
- Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information.
- Suggest and check alternate spellings, locations, or listing formats to customers lacking details or complete information.
- Offer special assistance to persons such as those who are unable to dial or who are in emergency situations.
- Observe signal lights on switchboards, and dial or press buttons to make connections.
- Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls.
- Provide assistance for customers with special billing requests.
- Calculate and quote charges for services such as long-distance connections.
- Monitor automated systems for placing collect calls and intervene for a callers needing assistance.
- Perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail.
- Consult charts to determine charges for pay-telephone calls, requesting coin deposits for calls as necessary.
- Interrupt busy lines if an emergency warrants.
- Provide relay service for hearing-impaired users.
- Promote company products, services, and savings plans when appropriate.
- Operate paging systems or other systems of bells or buzzers to notify recipients of incoming calls.
- Update directory information.
- Keep records of calls placed and received, and of related toll charges.
Qualities of Good Telephone Operator
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- 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.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- 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.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- 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).
- 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.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- 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.
- 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).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- 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.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- 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.
- 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.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- 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.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- 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.
- 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.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- 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.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Tools Used by Telephone Operator
- 10-key calculators
- Alarm system monitors
- Computer laser printers
- Copy machines
- Electric typewriters
- Laser facsimile machines
- Mobile radios
- Multiline telephone systems
- Paging systems
- Personal computers
- Premise branch exchange PBX equipment
- Secure voice equipment
- Telephone headsets
- Telephone switchboards
- Voice over internet protocol VoIP systems
Technology Skills required for Telephone Operator
- Computer aided dispatch software
- Handheld computer device software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- Operating system software
- Video conference software
- Word processing software