Perhaps there is noise or echo or music playing into the meeting, or a necessary participant hasn’t joined or has dropped off. ZipDX offers several options so you can enable participants to dial *-0-0 (STAR, Zero, Zero on the telephone keypad) to request help, and to specify what happens when they do.

There are two possible kinds of operators:

1. Already-Connected Operator

1. Already-Connected Operator

If your scenario includes one or more people connected as “host” for the duration of the meeting, and able to serve as operator(s), you can designate them as such by including the keyword “Operator” in the Company Name in their profile(s), as pictured below.

This change to the user profile is made via our web portal. It can be made by the participant themselves, or the account administrator.

How It Works

During the conference, when a participant dials *-0-0 to request operator assistance:

• ZipDX will play an audio announcement privately to each operator: “Operator requested.”
• If the requestor is in a different room than the Operator, it will also play “Room number {number}.”
• If the system has a recorded name for the requestor, it will also play “Requested by {name}.”

When the Operator hears the request, they can move to the designated room (if necessary) and announce that they are ready to help. Or, if the Operator knows which participant made the request, they can move that person into a separate room and speak to them privately.

2. Dial-Out to Operator

2. Dial-Out to Operator

In some scenarios, there may not normally be an operator connected to the meeting. If help is requested, ZipDX can notify an operator by phone and/or email.

This feature must be configured in advance by an account administrator. On the Account Settings page, there is a field for “Operator” as pictured below.

The following settings are possible:

Operator Setting	Example & ZipDX Behavior
1. An email address
	With this setting, ZipDX will use the “call-me” settings in the associated profile to contact the operator. Note that you can set up a ZipDX Virtual User (such as “operators@myco.zusers.com”) to serve as the “operator”, and you could specify up to 10 telephone numbers that ZipDX would dial, trying to reach an operator.
2. The word “Organizer”
	In this case, ZipDX will dial out to the call-me numbers associated with the meeting. Even if the Organizer was not automatically called at the start of the meeting (because their profile had call-me disabled or they were opted-out of the call-me feature), ZipDX will still follow the call-me settings of the individual phone numbers in the profile when the Operator feature is invoked.
3. The string “email-“ followed by an email address.
	When an operator is requested: ZipDX will dispatch a short email to the designated address, It will also initiate dial-out to any call-me numbers as in (1) above. If there are no call-me numbers in the designated profile, then only the email will be sent.
4. The string “email-organizer”
	This is a combination of (2) and (3) above: An email will be dispatched to whomever is designated as the Organizer of the meeting, and will also call any call-me numbers enabled for that Organizer.

When ZipDX Calls the Operator

In all the above cases, when any of the call-me numbers is answered, the system will announce: “This is a ZipDX operator request. Requester is {participant name}.”

For cases (1) and (3) the system will also announce “Organizer is {organizer name}.” And then it will say “Press 1 to connect.”

When the Operator presses 1, they’ll be immediately connected to the conference. If the  (in the sub-conference room from which the request was made, if applicable).

About Email Notifications

The email option should only be selected if the Operator’s email service is quick to deliver. A participant requesting operator help will expect a rapid response. If the email is delayed, it will likely frustrate participants and operators alike.

Note also that, in nearly all cases, it will be helpful for the Operator to log into www.ZipDX.com to access the interactive meeting Dashboard. This will allow the Operator to see what is happening in the meeting, to control muting and room assignments, and to dial out to any missing participants.

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Further…

The two modes described above (already-connected and dial-out) can be used in combination. Before dialing out, the system will check to see if there’s an already-connected operator; if not, the dial-out process will be invoked. When a dial-out operator is done with their duties, they can disconnect, or remain connected.

Participants can make multiple operator requests throughout the call. However, the system won’t dial to an operator more often than once every two minutes.