Every vendor demo sounds great. These ten questions — and what a good answer looks like for each — are how you tell the difference before you sign.
The short answer: before buying an AI receptionist, get specific answers on ten things — data residency, a DPA, bilingual capability, real integrations, CAD pricing, overage handling, human transfer, retention, setup time, and contract terms. Any vendor worth your money answers all ten without hedging. Here's each question, why it matters in Canada specifically, and what a good answer sounds like.
Ask each vendor where every provider in its call path processes and stores data, which copies exist, what retention applies to each, and what contractual and operational evidence supports those answers.
A Data Processing Agreement puts the vendor's obligations in writing.
Good answer: a DPA at no extra cost.
Canada-specific and decisive if any of your customers are francophone.
Good answer: automatic language detection — and a demo where you can hear it. See our full bilingual call-handling explainer.
The value of AI answering is task completion. If "booking" means an email lands in your inbox for staff to re-type, you've bought an expensive answering machine.
Good answer: named integrations you recognize — Cal.com or Google Calendar — with bookings appearing in your system in real time.
USD pricing looks fine on the website and grows every time the exchange rate moves. You shouldn't need a currency converter to know your phone bill.
Good answer: CAD pricing published openly. Mihron AI's plans: Starter $299 CAD/month, Growth $499 CAD/month, Enterprise custom. Market-wide pricing models are compared in our cost guide.
Overage terms are where flat pricing quietly stops being flat. Per-minute overage on a busy month can double a bill.
Good answer: published overage rates and a plan-upgrade path, told to you before you ask twice.
Some calls need a person — emergencies, upset callers, anything requiring judgment. The question is whether escalation is a designed feature or an afterthought.
Good answer: configurable rules for when to transfer, live handoff with the context already collected, and a fallback (detailed message + call-back) when nobody's available.
Indefinite retention of call audio is a liability, not a feature — especially for health information.
Good answer: a stated retention window, in writing, that covers the voice provider as well as the vendor's own database — plus audit logs you can pull.
"Implementation" that takes months or demands your staff become prompt engineers erases the value of the product.
Good answer: a defined onboarding process measured in days, done for you.
Long lock-ins signal that a vendor expects you to want out. Month-to-month signals the opposite.
Good answer: terms stated plainly, no multi-year lock-in required for standard plans, and your data returned or deleted on exit.
These questions aren't a trick that only Mihron AI passes; they're the ten places where AI receptionist offerings genuinely differ. Put them to every vendor on your shortlist and compare the specifics — our Canadian AI receptionist rankings are a reasonable place to start, and the FAQ answers the thirty questions that usually come next.
Hear Maya handle a real call — then run the other nine questions past us. We'll answer all of them.