FARMINGTON, Conn. - The call comes in from an elevator in New York City.

With a tinge of panic in his voice, a man tells the hot line operator he's stuck. The doors won't close completely, so the elevator won't move. And they won't open, so he can't get out, either.

"Put your hands on the doors and try to push them together to close the door," Carolina Gieczewski, the "Otisline" operator, tells him, calmly referring to details about the elevator and its service record available on her computer. The man doesn't seem to understand.

"Sir," she says firmly, "put your hands on the doors and push them together."

Moments later, he does what he's told. The doors close, then open. The problem appears solved, and Gieczewski notes the incident in her computer. It might be minor, or it might be a sign of something more significant, but if it happens again, the people at Otisline will have a record of this call.

Otis employs operators for the United States and Canada 24 hours a day. From a maze of cubicles at company headquarters, they handle calls from riders and managers of buildings with elevators serviced by Otis.

The 96 operators fielded 1.6 million calls last year, ranging from serious problems to blown light bulbs. Staffing is heaviest - 55 people - between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., when Otisline receives about 70 percent of its calls.

With mechanics spread across the two countries, Otis Elevator Co., a division of United Technologies, can get crews to a site quickly if necessary.

More than 80 percent of Otis mechanics in North America carry Web-enabled phones. These phones allow Otis to get mechanics the information they need quickly and in turn allow the mechanics to update data in Otis computers about work completed or still outstanding.

Otisline is available to any property owner with an Otis maintenance contract. Worldwide, that amounts to 1.35 million elevators handled by Otis call centers at 325 locations around the globe.

Robert Caporale, who watches the industry as editor of Elevator World magazine, said Otis has been an innovator in using new technologies to improve elevator service.

"It's pretty impressive. It's pretty sophisticated, and it certainly is a selling point," Caporale said. The round-the-clock center has become an industry standard.

In North America, Moncini said, Otisline has become the company's "reliability database."

The computer system includes extensive operating information on 124,000 elevators, including malfunctions, repairs and routine maintenance.

And the addition of new technologies in recent years - including a service known as Remote Elevator Monitoring, or REM, and Otis eService - provides more and sometimes more-immediate information.

"The new technologies allow us to add value for our customers," said Cathy D'Onofrio, manager of the Otisline operation.

D'Onofrio said catching a problem early can mean a less-expensive fix and less time out of service.

The most frequently used Otisline service is the person-to-person contact at the call center. Last year, the call center logged about 1.6 million calls.

Operators gather as much information as possible in each call so they can dispatch a mechanic quickly if necessary and with a preliminary diagnosis of the problem.

If the call is direct from an elevator, the computer can quickly provide most of the relevant information. If it is from an office, operators get the important details quickly, often working from several screens on their computers to look at operating history and find the right mechanic.

Michael Remez is a reporter at the Hartford Courant, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.