Datatel Releases Analysis on How 24/7 IVR Payments Improve Customer Payment Flow
New Payment Flow Intelligence analysis examines how expanding payment access beyond staffed hours can reduce friction
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New Payment Flow Intelligence analysis examines how expanding payment access beyond staffed hours can reduce friction in how customers make payments
Toronto, Canada (PRUnderground) September 10th, 2026
Datatel today released a new Payment Flow Intelligence analysis examining how 24/7 IVR payment capabilities can improve the flow of customer payments by allowing customers to complete transactions when staff are unavailable.
The analysis applies Datatel’s Payment Flow Intelligence Framework™ to a common operational issue: customers may be ready to make a payment, but the organization’s payment process depends on an employee being available to accept it.
When payment access is tied to business or contact center hours, a customer’s ability to pay can become dependent on when the organization is available rather than when the customer is ready to complete the transaction.
Examining Payment-Access Friction
Datatel’s analysis looks at where payment-access friction can occur within the current payment flow.
A staff-dependent payment process may look like:
Customer Ready to Pay → Contacts Organization → Employee Availability → Payment Collection → Payment Processing → Confirmation
When an employee is unavailable, the payment flow can stop before the transaction even begins.
The analysis considers several factors that can influence payment access, including:
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– business and contact center hours
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– employee availability
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– customer wait times
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– after-hours and weekend payment demand
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– repeated calls or payment attempts
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– delays between a customer’s decision to pay and the organization’s ability to accept the payment
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– the operational impact of payments accumulating for staffed periods
“The moment a customer is ready to pay is an important point in the payment flow,” said Barnard Crespi, Co-CEO of Datatel. “If the organization cannot accept that payment at that moment, friction has been introduced before the transaction has even started.”
Extending the Payment Flow Beyond Business Hours
Datatel’s analysis compares the staff-dependent process with a 24/7 automated IVR payment flow.
With IVR payments, customers can call an automated payment line, identify or authenticate themselves where required, access relevant account information, enter payment details and receive confirmation without requiring an employee to be available.
The payment flow then becomes:
Customer Ready to Pay → IVR → Account Lookup → Secure Payment Processing → Confirmation
The ability to complete this process around the clock changes an important operational constraint: payment availability is no longer limited by employee availability.
Customers can make payments in the evening, overnight, on weekends or at other times that are convenient for them.
For the organization, this can create a more continuous payment flow while reducing the need for employees to manage routine payment transactions during staffed hours.
Applying Payment Flow Intelligence
Datatel evaluates payment-access friction using its Payment Flow Intelligence Framework™, which examines payment operations across five areas:
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1. Channel Dependency Analysis
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2. Human Touchpoint Mapping
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3. Revenue Leakage Identification
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4. PCI Exposure Assessment
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5. Operational Scalability Review
In the context of payment availability, the framework helps organizations examine where the ability to collect money depends on operating hours, employee availability or other constraints within the existing workflow.
For finance, customer experience, accounts receivable and operations leaders, understanding these dependencies can help identify opportunities to make it easier for customers to complete payments while creating a more resilient payment process.
See How 24/7 IVR Payments Work
Organizations evaluating their payment operations can begin by examining a simple question:
Can customers pay when they are ready to pay, or only when the organization is available to accept the payment?
Mapping that part of the payment journey can help identify where access restrictions, employee dependency and unnecessary friction may be affecting how money moves.
To learn more about 24/7 IVR Payments and Datatel’s Payment Flow Intelligence approach, contact Datatel. (https://www.datatel-systems.com/contact/)
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.
