Datatel Releases Free Phone Payment Risk & Optimization Worksheet to Help Businesses Assess operational friction, customer experience gaps, and PCI exposure in phone payments

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://www.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://www.datatel-systems.com/article/why-live-agent-phone-payments-are-forcing-the-shift-to-ivr-payments/