AI voice agents for Canadian SMBs.
Bilingual phone agents that answer your line 24/7, hold a natural conversation, book appointments, run intake, and route the calls that need a human. Quebec French native. Sub-second latency. Shipped in 100 days. PIPEDA and Law 25 aware.
- Sounds like a competent receptionist. Sub-second response latency, natural turn-taking. Not a phone tree.
- Bilingual native. Greets in EN+FR; matches the caller's language for the rest of the call. Quebec French specifically.
- Captures the calls you miss today. After-hours, peak times, vacation gaps, mid-meeting. ROI typically in captured calls alone.
- Scopes honestly. Structured intake and booking are excellent today. Open-ended sales or sensitive calls stay with humans.
What the voice agent actually does
1. 24/7 inbound answering
Picks up your business line in EN, FR, or both. Bilingual greeting on pickup; matches the caller's language for the rest of the call. Holds a natural conversation with sub-second latency and proper turn-taking.
2. Appointment booking
Books appointments directly on your calendar. Checks availability, offers slots in the caller's language, sends the confirmation. Integrates with Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Calendly, Jane App, Cliniko, Acuity, and many others.
3. New-client intake
Captures the reason for the call, the prospect's contact details, the matter type or service requested, key facts. Drafts the intake summary into your CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce). Books the consult or schedules a callback with the right team member.
4. FAQ and structured Q&A
Answers your business's common questions (hours, location, pricing ranges, services offered, languages spoken) using your firm's actual reference content. Bilingual. Stays in scope: when the caller asks something outside the playbook, the agent transfers or takes a message.
5. Message-taking and routing
Captures structured messages for the right team member. Identifies urgent calls and routes to the on-call human via SMS / phone / Slack. Drafts the summary email so the team picks up with context.
What ships, week by week
- Wk 1-2Voice diagnostic. Listen to a sample of recent calls. Map the call mix (intake, booking, FAQ, urgent). Define the in-scope and out-of-scope flows. Pick the voice (EN voice, FR voice, or both).
- Wk 3-4Integration spike. Telephony (Twilio, Vapi, or native), calendar, CRM, optional PMS integration tested. Latency baseline measured on Canadian PSTN. Honest go/no-go.
- Wk 5-8Pilot agent built. Voice agent runs in test mode. We run scripted and unscripted calls, measure response quality, refine prompts and the conversation flow.
- Wk 9-12Production launch. Voice agent live on your number (or a secondary number first, then cut over). Eval framework on bookings completed, escalations, caller-experience scores. Bilingual coverage validated.
- Wk 13-15Operator-team handoff. Runbook, eval framework, voice tuning guide. Your team owns voice configuration tuning post-launch.
What this is, specifically
- Implementation, not advisory. Back-half invoice ties to a live voice agent answering real calls.
- Founder-delivered. Derik personally on every voice engagement.
- Bilingual EN/FR including Quebec French. The single biggest reason Canadian SMBs adopt voice in 2026.
- PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25 aware. Call data handling, retention, and consent capture scoped on day one.
- Vendor-neutral on the voice stack. Vapi, Retell, ElevenLabs, Cartesia, OpenAI Realtime, Twilio: we pick the right combination for your latency, cost, and language needs.
- Operator-trained handoff. Your team owns the voice configuration post-launch.
The voice stack we build on
- Telephony: Twilio (primary), Vapi, AWS Connect, native PSTN where required
- Voice synthesis: ElevenLabs Turbo, Cartesia, OpenAI Realtime (Quebec French voices specifically curated)
- ASR (speech-to-text): Deepgram Nova, OpenAI Whisper, AssemblyAI
- Model: Anthropic Claude (primary), GPT-4 family where the customer's stack requires
- Calendars: Google Calendar, Microsoft 365 / Outlook, Calendly, Jane App, Cliniko, Acuity, Hubspot Meetings
- CRMs: HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Close
When voice is the right call (and when it isn't)
- Strong fit: appointment booking businesses (dental, vet, medical aesthetics, legal intake, accounting), service trades, real estate inquiry lines, retail FAQ, after-hours coverage for any business losing calls overnight.
- Strong fit (Quebec): bilingual Canadian SMBs serving francophone customers without a bilingual receptionist.
- Honest scope: structured intake, booking, FAQ, message-taking are excellent today.
- Stays human: open-ended discovery sales, sensitive emotional conversations (counselling, crisis lines), complex negotiation. The voice agent gates and routes; the human takes it from there.
Common questions
What does an AI voice agent do on the phone?
Answers your line, holds a bilingual conversation, books appointments, runs intake, FAQs, takes messages, routes urgents. Sub-second latency.
Is it actually good enough yet (mid-2026)?
For structured intake, booking, FAQ, message-taking: yes. Quebec French specifically is at deploy-without-embarrassment quality. Open-ended sales and sensitive calls stay with humans.
Does it work in French?
Yes, including Quebec French. ElevenLabs Turbo, Cartesia, and OpenAI Realtime all have Quebec French voices that hold conversation naturally.
What does it cost?
Pilot: CAD 25,000 to 50,000 build + USD 0.10-0.25/minute usage. Full platform: CAD 70,000 to 150,000 build + per-minute usage. ROI typically inside 90 days on captured after-hours calls.
Will it integrate with our scheduling and CRM?
Yes. Calendars (Google, M365, Calendly, Jane, Cliniko, Acuity), CRMs (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Dynamics), telephony (Twilio primary).
Related reading
Bring last week's missed calls. We scope live.
Thirty minutes with Derik. You leave with the voice agent scoped for your business line: what it does, what it costs, what ships first inside 100 days. Bilingual EN/FR.
Book the strategy call →