Is listening to IVR recording caller friendly? or is it a hassle for the customers?

It is helpful in most of the scenarios when someone is facing common issues as it always welcomes you with that energy no matter what the time is, better than a support officer who has been pissed off under his work pressure and answers your query in a rude way. 

However it is also not possible to classify all kind of issues under few options. Sometimes people get annoyed when they cannot find any solution after following a long list of options on IVR and realize that they have been on phone for so long for a task which can be done by any agent in seconds.