Datatel’s latest Insights Report, The Shift to Self Service and Automation: What Drives IVR Payment Adoption, presents multi-month real world usage data and a dual case study showing how one organization migrated from 98 percent agent assisted phone payments to 100 percent IVR Self Service in under 12 months.
(PRUnderground) January 7th, 2026
Organizations across healthcare, utilities, financial services, and government are under increasing pressure to reduce operating costs, strengthen compliance, and improve customer experience. As leaders look to automation, many have implemented some form of IVR Payments to reduce live agent dependency. But new research from Datatel shows that technology alone does not guarantee adoption. Real transformation requires intentional design, communication, and behavioral change.
Datatel’s latest Insights Report, The Shift to Self Service and Automation: What Drives IVR Payment Adoption, presents multi- month real world usage data and a dual case study showing how one organization migrated from 98 percent agent assisted phone payments to 100 percent IVR Self Service in under 12 months. The findings highlight the operational patterns, communication levers, and internal alignment required to move customers toward automated payment channels.
The report analyzes data from over ten thousand monthly pay- by-phone interactions and includes insights from frontline teams, voice script audits, and call routing reviews. Six adoption drivers consistently predicted success:
• Awareness: Customers must be told clearly that IVR Payments exist
• Call routing: IVR must be offered in the first twenty seconds or usage drops
• Voice experience: Trust rises when prompts sound friendly, clear, and branded
• Internal buy in: Agents who understand the benefits reinforce the change
• Channel promotion: SMS, billing reminders, and email must highlight IVR Payments
• Monitoring and optimization: Continuous tuning drives long term adoption
Organizations that focused on these drivers saw major operational returns including up to 85 percent reductions in agent assisted payment volumes, 50 to 75 percent cost savings per transaction once labor and overhead were factored in, higher IVR completion rates, and lower call abandonment.
The report emphasizes that IVR Payment adoption is not a technical rollout, it is a behavior change initiative. With clear messaging, purposeful routing, staff enablement, and steady reinforcement, customers shift naturally and often prefer the speed and convenience of self service.
“As organizations push to automate payments, many assume usage will follow automatically,” said a Barnard Crespi Datatel’s CO-CEO “Our research shows adoption is earned. When businesses design the experience with intention, align internal teams, and communicate clearly, customers embrace IVR Self Service quickly and confidently.”
The full report, The Shift to Self Service and Automation: What Drives IVR Payment Adoption, is now available. https://www.datatel-systems.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DATATEL-The-Shift-to-Customer-Self-Service-and-Automation-What-Drives-IVR-Payment-Adoption-11.2025-.pdf
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About Datatel Communications Inc
Working For Your Success!
At Datatel, we empower businesses to de-risk their payment processes, helping them focus on being more agile, profitable, secure and successful. By leveraging our cutting-edge payment software solutions and PCI-focused services Datatel helps businesses significantly reduce the inherent vulnerabilities of handling credit card data by ensuring efficient operations, meeting payment card industry security requirements, and enabling them to focus on growth and their customers.
As a PCI Level 1 Service Provider and PCI SSC Associate Participating Organization, we are committed to safeguarding our customers payment ecosystems and advocating for payment security standards globally.
Twenty-seven years ago, we launched Datatel with the vision of delivering innovative interactive voice response and business process automation solutions to enterprises. As we evolved and grew, our focus homed in on secure payment software and secure phone payment solutions to help our clients achieve greater efficiencies and future proof their operations.
Datatel’s IVR Payments, Payment Technology, and transaction automation solutions are employed globally by thousands of businesses, healthcare providers, academic institutions, government, software companies, and service providers.
At Datatel, we believe that a society that shortchanges its youngest and most vulnerable members is one that forfeits its own future. With that in mind, Datatel is involved with our community, working as a team to provide those who are in need with the support that will help them overcome their challenges, resulting in a brighter future for all of us and for generations to come
Our success comes from investing in our people, our customers, our partners, and technology. With a focus on innovation and security, we have arrived at a service delivery model that guarantees our customers’ satisfaction.
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