IVR Payments

For many organizations, handling payments over the phone is just part of the process. Patients and customers call in, provide their credit card details, and staff manually enter the information. On the surface, it seems like a routine task. But when you look closer, it becomes clear that this approach is creating unnecessary costs, inefficiencies, and security risks.

For rural broadband providers, the stakes are even higher. These companies aren’t just businesses—they’re part of the community. But when disconnect notices go out, staff get overwhelmed, call centers are slammed, and tensions rise. That’s where Datatel’s 24/7 IVR Phone payment solution comes in.

Today, businesses that accept payments over the phone are looking for ways to minimize risk, enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer experience. While real-time integrations are often considered the ideal solution for automating these payment processes, not all organizations have the resources or readiness to implement such systems. For these situations, stand-alone IVR Payments systems combined with batching data exchange provide a practical path to modernizing payment systems, future-proofing operations, and significantly reducing the risks associated with handling payments manually over the phone.

Broadband providers face a unique set of challenges, when accepting customer payments by phone, including managing operational costs, meeting customer expectations, and ensuring data security. Interactive Voice Response - IVR Payment technology provide a powerful solution to these challenges, enabling providers to automate payment processes, enhance efficiency, and improve customer satisfaction.

Having staff accept credit card payments over the phone can be a convenient option for businesses and organizations, but it also brings with it specific security obligations under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). For organizations that manually enter customer credit card data into a virtual terminal (VT), compliance isn’t just about using a PCI-compliant virtual terminal or PCI compliant card entry application; it begins well before the card information is keyed in. Let’s explore what the PCI DSS requires for handling these transactions, particularly under the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) C-VT, and discuss some alternatives that can reduce your PCI compliance burden.

IVR Payments are a great way for businesses to accept payments over the phone in a way that is fully automated, available 24-7, and secure. With IVR Payments Solutions you can offer your customers the convenience of easily paying by phone while you enjoy the security of knowing you are PCI compliant!

Protecting sensitive payment data accepted over the phone while managing PCI compliance can be overwhelming. That is why Datatel now offers a bundled services solution that provides a simple, powerful way to secure your payments by Phone while reducing your PCI compliance workload.

Moving from using live staff for accepting to credit cards and payments over the phone to an automated IVR Payments approach comes with several potential benefits for businesses including enhanced security and operational efficiency as well as reducing PCI scope

In this article, we discuss whether integrating an IVR Payments solution with your business systems is right for your business and key considerations for how to connect your IVR Payment application. Our intent is to help you make informed decisions about the exchange of information between your IVR Payment application and your business systems and how this can meet your specific business needs.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent throughout the pandemic that automating processes significantly helps a company’s efficiency, resiliency, and security.