Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is picking up steam in the business world at a pace that has surprised most tech experts. More and more companies are turning to IVR for some kind of implementation when it comes to their contact centers. PayU India is just the latest company to adopt IVR tech. This particular implementation is in PayU’s new online payment center, which will allow enterprises to take payments from their customers using a telephone.

PayU is just the latest company to find that the IVR is a fast and effective way to get payments through other means besides online portals. Companies are finding that people are sometimes very reluctant to enter their payment information online. Those same customers feel a bit safer with their information when paying using a phone, in large part because they don’t feel as if their information is just sailing through the Internet, waiting to be plucked.

There are of course, those who are not quite as fond of IVR, mainly because customers are no longer able to talk to a live person, but rather must navigate automated responses and menus. That can lead to lower customer satisfaction. Companies are trying out even more high tech IVR solutions in order to try and stem the tide of negative opinions about the technology. 

PayU has taken steps in order to keep customer satisfaction high by sort of combining the usual contact center agent with their IVR. Once a customer calls and wants to make a payment, the agent will direct them to the IVR process.

“After the customer’s consent, the executive connects him with PayU’s IVR payment facility. At this juncture, the call is controlled by an automated interactive voice response system. This gives the customer, a much needed security to transact comfortably. Once the customer confirms the transaction amount and his/her phone number, he/she can proceed to enter the credit card information. The payment process gets over as soon as the customer punches in the one-time password (OTP) procured from the card issuing bank,” Nitin Gupta, co-founder and country head, PayU India explained.

Eventually, it is conceivable that PayU will go fully automated, from the beginning of this process to the end. One of the reasons IVR is so popular is because of the money companies like this can save using an IVR. By using sort of a hybrid system, they are indeed saving some time and money, but haven’t tapped their potential just yet.

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