What to do about missed calls: five options compared for Canadian businesses

The short answer: you have five ways to handle calls you can’t pick up: voicemail, an automatic text back to the caller, a live answering service, an AI receptionist, or hiring someone. Voicemail and text-back cost the least, but the caller waits for you. An answering service or an AI receptionist answers the call itself, and a receptionist on your payroll also handles the work in the room. The right choice depends on when you miss calls, who is calling and what they need. Prices below come from each provider’s own page, checked October 30, 2026, before tax.

When and why do you miss calls?

Before you pick a fix, look at a week of your call log and sort the missed calls into two piles: the ones you missed while open (on another call, on a job, with a customer) and the ones after closing. They need different fixes. An after-hours answering service does nothing for the 11 a.m. call you missed under a sink.

Missing calls is common, and it isn’t only an evening problem:

• In Invoca’s 2026 benchmarks of more than 70 million calls, 56% of calls to businesses were answered by a person (country not stated, mostly US) (Invoca, seen October 30, 2026).
• In ServiceTitan’s 2025 platform data, between 9.8% (October) and 14.1% (June) of calls to residential HVAC shops arrived outside Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (country not stated) (ServiceTitan, June 3, 2026).
• Zenoti’s salon and spa data found that 82% of missed calls happened during business hours (country not stated) (Zenoti, March 18, 2026).

Then mark who called. Existing customers will often leave a message and wait; a new caller can simply try the next business. To put a dollar figure on those calls, use the formula in our cost guide or the missed-call calculator.

Option 1: Is voicemail good enough?

For some businesses, yes. It’s usually already in your phone plan: Bell’s fully featured small-business line, for example, includes voicemail for C$29.43 a month on a three-year contract (Ontario price, Bell, seen October 30, 2026). Cloud phone systems often add transcripts, so you can read messages instead of listening to them.

• Good at: costing nothing extra, and existing customers who are happy to leave a message.
• Weak at: new callers, who may try someone else instead; urgent calls, which wait until someone checks; and booking anything. Your callback can go unanswered too: Hiya’s 2026 vendor survey of 12,000+ consumers in six countries found that 88% of Canadians will ignore calls from numbers they don’t recognize (Canada, survey) (Hiya, August 5, 2026).
• Setup: minutes. Record a greeting that says when you’ll call back, check messages at set times, and call back from your business number.
• Watch for: on Google Local Services Ads, Google’s help page says a call that reaches voicemail during business hours counts as connected and is charged if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds (Google, seen October 30, 2026).

Choose it when few calls come in while you can’t answer, most callers already know you, and nothing is urgent.

Option 2: What does missed-call text-back do?

It sends an automatic text to anyone whose call you miss, usually within a minute: sorry we missed you, how can we help? The caller replies by text, and you answer when you’re free.

• Cost: Quo, a business phone app, includes auto-replies to missed calls on every plan, from US$15 per user a month billed yearly or US$19 billed monthly, and lists a one-time US$19.50 carrier registration fee plus US$1.50 to US$3 a month in messaging fees (Quo). Marketing platforms such as HighLevel bundle a missed-call text-back with much more, from US$97 a month plus usage charges for phone numbers and texts (HighLevel). Both seen October 30, 2026.
• Good at: costing little, reaching callers who won’t leave voicemail, and turning phone tag into a text thread.
• Weak at: answering. Nobody talks to the caller, so someone still has to reply quickly, and nothing is booked unless the caller uses a link or you reply. Callers on a landline may never see the text, and urgent calls still wait.
• Setup: an hour or two, but check the phone side first. Most tools text from a number on their own system, so you either move (port) your number to them or start with a new one.

Choose it when you can’t pick up mid-job but can reply to texts within minutes, and your callers are happy to text.

What does CASL require for a missed-call text?

Under Canada’s anti-spam law (CASL), an electronic message that encourages someone to buy or book is a commercial electronic message, and a text to a phone counts (s. 1). A missed-call text with a booking link is very likely one. The CRTC lists three requirements for these messages: consent, identification and a way to unsubscribe (CRTC CASL FAQ, modified February 26, 2026).

Is a reply to someone who just called you exempt? Possibly. The federal regulations exempt a message “sent in response to a request, inquiry or complaint” (SOR/2013-221, s. 3), and a call is often an inquiry. But a missed call with no message could be a wrong number, and we found no CRTC guidance on automatic missed-call texts. The cautious version costs one line of text:

1. Name your business and say how to reach you. The CRTC’s regulations call for your business name, your mailing address and a phone number, email or web address. If that won’t fit in a text, a clear link to a web page with the details is allowed (SOR/2012-36, s. 2).
2. Let people opt out. The CRTC says that with SMS, people should be able to reply “STOP” or “Unsubscribe”, and CASL gives you no more than 10 business days to act on it (s. 11).
3. Keep it to their call. Send one text, not a run of offers. If the caller did make an inquiry, CASL implies their consent to commercial messages for six months (s. 10); after that, promotional texts need express consent. A text that only confirms a booking they agreed to needs no consent, but still needs your name and an opt-out (s. 6).

A text that does all three:

“Hi, it’s [your business name]. Sorry we missed your call. Reply here and we’ll get back to you, or book at [booking link]. Our contact details: [contact page link]. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Keep health, legal and money details out of the text: a phone screen isn’t private.

Option 3: What does a live answering service handle?

A person at the service answers your forwarded calls from a script you write, then takes a message, books or transfers the call, depending on the plan.

• Cost: by the minute or by the call. Posh, which publishes Canadian-dollar prices, runs from C$65 a month plus C$2.30 a minute to C$1,900 a month for 1,000 minutes, with extra minutes on its bundled plans at C$1.90 to C$2.20 (Posh, effective January 1, 2026). Ruby lists US$250 for 50 minutes to US$1,725 for 500 (Ruby). Smith.ai’s live receptionists cost US$300 for 30 calls to US$2,100 for 300 calls, then US$8.50 to US$11.50 a call (Smith.ai). All seen October 30, 2026.
• Good at: a real person on the line: sensitive conversations, callers who won’t talk to a machine, and judgement calls.
• Weak at: cost, which rises with every minute on the phone, and booking: some services only take messages, so you still call back. Agents work from your script, so unusual questions become messages.
• Setup: write the script and forward your calls. Expect a few days.

Choose it when your callers need a person: payments, distress, complex intake, or customers who won’t use an AI.

Option 4: What does an AI receptionist handle well, and badly?

An AI answers your forwarded calls, talks with the caller and acts by the rules you set: it answers questions, books, takes details, texts a confirmation or passes the call to a person.

• Cost: self-serve plans you set up yourself start at C$99 a month for 300 minutes (Ask Benny) or C$129 for 100 calls (Dialbox). Managed plans, built and tuned for you, start around C$999 a month (Dialbox Managed). All seen October 30, 2026; the cost guide compares more providers.
• Good at: answering right away at any hour you forward calls to it, booking while the caller is still on the line (where it’s connected to your calendar), routine questions and reschedules, and a flat monthly price.
• Weak at: callers who won’t talk to an AI at all, and unusual or emotional calls. It’s only as good as its setup, and speech and language models make mistakes, so it needs a quick way to a person and an honest fallback, such as a promised callback.
• Setup: self-serve tools take a few hours of your time, then ongoing tuning. Managed services start with a setup call, and the provider does the build.

Choose it when most calls are bookings, reschedules and the same few questions, and you miss them both during the day and after hours.

Option 5: When is hiring a receptionist the better choice?

When the work is in the room as well as on the phone: walk-ins, payments, paperwork and the regulars who like a familiar voice.

• Cost: Job Bank lists a national median wage of C$21.00 an hour for receptionists (NOC 14101), from 2023–2024 data updated November 19, 2025 (Job Bank, seen October 30, 2026). Full time, that’s 40 hours × 52 weeks × C$21 = C$43,680 a year. In 2026 the employer also pays 5.95% CPP and, outside Quebec, 2.282% EI (CRA): about C$3,390 more, before benefits and cover for vacations and sick days. Part time at 20 hours a week is C$21,840 in wages.
• Good at: everything a person in your office does, and knowing your business and your customers.
• Weak at: more than one call at a time, and any hour outside their shift. Recruiting and training take weeks.

Choose it when there’s a real job’s worth of front-desk work, not just phone calls. Then cover the gaps (busy lines, lunch, after hours) with one of the other options.

Which option fits your business?

The options aren’t either-or. Start with the row that sounds most like you:

What should callers be told, and where does their data go?

Text-back tools, answering services and AI receptionists all put another company between you and your callers, and you stay responsible for their personal information: number, name, message and voice.

Canada’s privacy commissioner says an organization “must inform the customer that they are recording a call, clearly state the purpose of the recording and obtain consent,” and must give callers a choice about being recorded (OPC, modified October 8, 2026). If a vendor processes callers’ information in another country, you must tell people so in clear language (OPC). Our privacy checklist lists the questions to ask any vendor.

Where does Infold fit?

Infold is option four, managed: an AI receptionist we build, test and keep tuning for your business. Calls forward to Infold when you choose: after hours, when you’re busy, or always. It tells callers it’s an AI assistant, answers from the information you approve, books into your calendar where it’s connected, texts the caller a confirmation and sends urgent calls to the person you choose. Call data is hosted in Canada by default.

• C$999/month, setup included, no contract, or C$699/month, billed yearly (C$8,388 + tax), setup included.
• Both Infold plans include 100 handled calls a month. Extra calls C$4.99 each, never more than C$499 a month without your OK.
• Prices in Canadian dollars, plus applicable taxes.
• Live in 2 business days once we have access and your approvals.

The fair verdict: if your missed calls are a few existing customers a week, voicemail or a text-back costs far less, and we’d start there. Infold makes sense when missed calls cost you bookings and you want them answered and booked without building it yourself. See Infold’s pricing, how it works or what sets Infold apart.

Work out what your missed calls cost, hear sample calls or book a demo.