Datatel, a leader in IVR Payments and secure payment automation, today announced the release of its Phone Payment Risk & Optimization Worksheet to help organizations assess operational friction, customer experience gaps, and PCI exposure in phone payments.

Many organizations underestimate the risk embedded in their phone payment processes by continuing to rely on live agents to manually process payments, increasing PCI scope and audit complexity. Datatel has introduced a structured Phone Payment Risk and Optimization Worksheet designed to help them quickly assess exposure, identify inefficiencies, and uncover opportunities for improvement.

The worksheet focuses on key areas including payment handling models, employee exposure to card data, operational friction, and compliance awareness, as well as highlighting common risk indicators such as employees hearing or entering card data, payments being processed on recorded lines, and lack of clarity around PCI scope.

The worksheet can be downloaded here: https://devsite.datatel-systems.com/article/why-live-agent-phone-payments-are-forcing-the-shift-to-ivr-payments/

“Phone payments are often viewed as operational details, but they are a major driver of risk and PCI compliance burden,” says Datatel Co-CEO Barnard Crespi. “Organizations need a clear, practical way to understand their exposure and take control.”

Beyond compliance, the worksheet also addresses operational and customer experience challenges. These include long call handling times, high peak volumes, payment errors, and limited availability outside business hours.

The findings point toward a growing shift away from live agent payment handling toward automated IVR payment solutions. This shift enables organizations to remove sensitive data from their environment, reduce audit scope, and deliver more consistent customer experiences.

The Phone Payment Risk and Optimization Worksheet is available as a self-guided tool and can downloaded for free here: https://devsite.datatel-systems.com/article/why-live-agent-phone-payments-are-forcing-the-shift-to-ivr-payments/

About Datatel

Datatel is a payment technology and advisory company that helps organizations modernize how they securely accept and manage payments. For more than 25 years, Datatel has specialized in secure payment infrastructure, IVR payment technology, and PCI compliance advisory services that reduce the risks associated with handling payment card data. As more organizations introduce AI technologies into customer interactions, Datatel helps ensure payment transactions remain isolated, secure, and compliant by protecting Voice AI and other automated systems from directly handling sensitive cardholder data. Datatel’s solutions are used by healthcare providers, utilities, financial services organizations, and government agencies across North America.