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GuidesHow should your business phone get answered?
We make one of these options, so read us with that in mind. We've still tried to write the version we'd want to read if we were the one shopping — including the parts where the answer isn't us.
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What an answering service actually costs in Canada
Published 2026 pricing for the services Canadian small businesses compare most, what the overage really adds up to, and the two questions to ask before you sign anything.
Work out whether you need anything at all
Before comparing providers, get one number: how many calls are you actually missing? Everything else follows from it, and almost every owner guesses too low.
Open your phone's call log and count the inbound calls under 15 seconds over the past week. Those are the ones that rang out. Multiply by what a booked job is worth to you, and by roughly how often a caller becomes a customer. That's your monthly cost of doing nothing.
If that number is under about $100 a month, do nothing — none of this is worth your time yet. If it's several hundred or more, the only question is which option fits.
The three options, briefly
| Option | Typical Canadian cost | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | Free | Your callers are repeat customers who'll wait for you. Rare in any trade where people are shopping around. |
| Live answering service | ~C$400–1,400/mo | Calls are emotionally difficult or need real judgment — law, medical triage, funeral services. Worth the premium there. |
| AI receptionist | ~C$50–350/mo | High volume of fairly routine calls — booking, hours, prices, quotes — where speed of pickup matters more than nuance. |
By trade
Salons & barbershops
Why the calls you miss mid-service are the ones that cost you a new regular.
Plumbing, HVAC & trades
Why the first company to pick up usually wins the job, and what that's worth per year.
Where Kello fits
Kello is the AI option, built for Canadian small businesses: Canadian numbers, Canadian dollars, Canadian statutory holidays, and French when the caller switches. It answers 24/7, books against the hours you declare, takes messages, and texts you a summary after every call. You set it up and run it entirely by text — C$49/month to start, and no free trial, so nobody's building a business on a plan they were never going to pay for.
Where it's the wrong call: if a person genuinely needs to be on the line, hire people. We'd rather tell you that than sell you the wrong thing.