You have sat through two or three of these demos and they all sounded fine. That is the problem: the demo is the one part every vendor has rehearsed.
What costs you money later is almost never the conversation. It is the paperwork underneath — whose name your phone number ends up in, what currency the invoice arrives in, how the minutes are counted, and where a recording of your customer's voice sits.
So: twelve questions to ask, not answers to trust — including when you ask us. Send them by email and keep the reply.
Earlier in the process? Start with the cost breakdown or what to test in a demo. This list assumes you are close to signing.
1. Can I call it right now, without booking a demo or giving you my email?
The fastest filter here. If the only way to hear the product is a scheduled call with a rep, you are evaluating the rep.
2. Do I forward my number or port it — and if I port and later leave, do I get it back?
Two different arrangements. With forwarding, your number stays with your carrier and points at the AI. With porting, the number itself moves.
The CRTC's consumer guidance on local phone service says you can keep your phone number when you change phone companies "as long as you stay within your local exchange area", and that this ability "is available in most, but not all, of Canada." The same page states that the CRTC "prohibits providers of telephone services from requiring customers to give 30-days notice of cancellation" — which governs your phone service, not a software subscription. That guidance is written for home phone service, so confirm the same treatment for your business line before you rely on it.
The question that matters: if the number ports into an account the vendor controls, who is the account holder of record? Get written confirmation you can port out, and ask what they need to release it.
3. Is "bilingual" a price tier, a second agent, or one agent that switches mid-call?
Plenty of vendor pages in this category say they support French. That word can cover at least three different products: a separate French agent on a separate number, a press-1-for-French menu, or one agent that hears a caller switch and switches with them. Ask which one you are buying, whether French costs extra, and whether it is European or Canadian French.
Why this is not a nice-to-have in Quebec. The Charter of the French language (CQLR c. C-11), section 5, in force since 1977, reads: "Consumers of goods and services have a right to be informed and served in French." Bill 96 — An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, 2022, c. 14 — added section 50.2, which puts the matching duty on the business: "An enterprise that offers goods or services to consumers must respect their right to be informed and served in French. An enterprise that offers goods or services to a public other than consumers must inform and serve it in French."
Read the words carefully. Neither section tells you how to answer your phone, and neither creates a French-language telephone requirement. What they do is place a duty on the enterprise — and an automated layer does not reduce that duty, it moves it into a system you configured.
In Ontario, do not assume the mirror image. The French Language Services Act sits on the government side of the line. The province's own guidance describes it as providing individuals with "certain rights to receive services in French from government agencies, as defined in the FLSA, and institutions of the Legislature" — at head or central offices, and at any office located in or serving an area designated under the Act. "Government agency" is a defined term: ministries, boards, commissions and corporations where the majority of members or directors are appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, and non-profits that apply and are designated as public service agencies by regulation. It does not reach an ordinary private business.
So for most Ottawa businesses, answering in French is today a commercial decision rather than a provincial legal duty. Two caveats worth knowing. First, if you serve consumers in Quebec — and plenty of Ottawa businesses take Gatineau calls — the Charter provisions above can still reach you. Second, Parliament has already passed the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act (enacted by S.C. 2023, c. 15, s. 54), whose long title reads "An Act respecting the use of French in federally regulated private businesses in Quebec and in regions with a strong francophone presence". The Justice Laws website still lists that Act as "[Not in force]" — it comes into force on a day to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council — but if your business is federally regulated, it is worth watching.
4. What is the all-in monthly cost, in what currency, including the phone number?
Usually three line items: the subscription, the number rental, and talk time. Vendors quote whichever is smallest. Ask for one figure with all three, at your real volume. Check the currency: if the price is in USD, what leaves your account is that day's rate plus whatever your card issuer adds.
5. How is talk time metered, and what counts as talk time?
Per second or per minute, and if per minute, rounded up. Then the part nobody volunteers: does ring time bill? Hold time? A call transferred to your cell — does the meter keep running? A dozen forty-second wrong numbers a week bill very differently under each.
6. What happens when I go over the plan?
Three honest answers exist: it charges for the extra usage, it stops answering, or it keeps going and you find out on the invoice. All three are defensible. Not knowing which is not.
7. What is the minimum term, and how exactly do I cancel?
Monthly or annual. Auto-renew or not. And the mechanical part: can you cancel in the dashboard yourself, or must you email someone who might take four business days to reply on the 29th?
8. Where is call audio processed and stored, and for how long?
Your callers say their names, phone numbers, addresses, and sometimes why they need you. That is personal information, and it now lives on somebody's server.
PIPEDA is the federal private-sector law. Per the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec have their own general private-sector laws, deemed substantially similar, which apply instead for organizations operating entirely within those provinces — but once the information crosses a provincial or national border, PIPEDA applies regardless.
Processing outside Canada is not banned. The Privacy Commissioner's Guidelines for processing personal data across borders (2009) put it plainly: "PIPEDA does not prohibit organizations in Canada from transferring personal information to an organization in another jurisdiction for processing." What the rules do instead is keep you accountable. The guidelines quote Principle 1 of the CSA Model Code, in Schedule 1 of PIPEDA, in full: "An organization is responsible for personal information in its possession or custody, including information that has been transferred to a third party for processing. The organization shall use contractual or other means to provide a comparable level of protection while the information is being processed by a third party."
The same document adds that organizations "need to make it plain to individuals that their information may be processed in a foreign country and that it may be accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction."
Quebec is heavier, and this is the part most buyers miss. Section 17 of the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (CQLR c. P-39.1), as amended by Law 25 (2021, c. 25, s. 111), opens: "Before communicating personal information outside Québec, a person carrying on an enterprise must conduct a privacy impact assessment." The same section provides that the communication of the information "must be the subject of a written agreement that takes into account, in particular, the results of the assessment", and that the same applies where the enterprise "entrusts a person or body outside Québec with the task of collecting, using, communicating or keeping such information on his behalf."
Note where that obligation sits. Section 17 puts the assessment on the enterprise communicating the information — that is you, the buyer. But it also requires the transfer to be covered by a written agreement, which means your vendor has to be willing to sign one. Ask any vendor on your shortlist whether they will.
9. Can I export the recordings, transcripts and contacts — and what happens after I cancel?
Ask for the format. "You can view them in the dashboard" is not an export. CSV, JSON, downloadable audio — something you can open without their login. Then ask how long it survives cancellation, and whether deletion is automatic or on request.
10. What does the caller hear when it cannot handle the call?
Every system in this category fails sometimes, ours included. Ask a vendor to describe the failure, not the success. Does it transfer to your cell, take a message, text you, or apologise in a loop? And what happens if you do not pick up?
11. Who does the setup, and what does a change cost later?
Ask who writes the first version of the script, and how long from signing to going live. Then ask about week three, when your hours change: self-serve edit, support ticket, or billable change request?
12. It is 8 a.m. Monday and the line is dead. Who do I reach?
Chat, email or phone. Business hours in which time zone. Whether a human is at the other end, and whether support is bilingual if your callers are.
Where we land on these
We will not claim we pass all twelve, and be wary of anyone who does. Three are worth answering out loud.
Question 8. ALMA Intelligence Inc. is a Canadian company based in Ottawa, Ontario, and our production infrastructure currently runs on US-based servers. If you are a Quebec enterprise, that is exactly the situation section 17 contemplates. Some vendors in this market advertise Canadian storage; if that is a hard requirement for you, get it from them in writing — and hold us to the same standard rather than taking our word for it.
Question 2. Our offer below includes a phone number, which cuts against our own advice, so let us say it plainly: take a vendor-issued number if it is useful, but point the number you already advertise at it rather than replacing your number with it. That applies to us the same as to anyone else. The number on your van and your invoices is the asset.
Question 1. Yes. Number below. No form, no calendar link.
One more, because you would find out anyway: public self-registration on AlmaTalk is closed at the time of writing. Try to create an account and it will be refused — registration is invite-only during early access. The only route in is the waitlist. We review businesses individually and set each one up personally, which is why not everyone is approved yet. Approved businesses get a free Pro trial with the rental on the first phone number covered.
AlmaTalk answers a business line in English and French — and 30+ more languages — with automatic language detection enabled on most agents, so it can switch mid-call when a caller does, and it books appointments while the caller is still on the phone. Whether that is any good is the point of question 1.
Two steps
- Call the demo line and judge it yourself: +1 438 800 2562. Ask something in English, then switch to French mid-sentence without warning. Then run the other eleven questions past everyone on your shortlist.
- If it holds up, request access using the waitlist form at almatalk.ca/#waitlist.
General information, not legal advice. The statutes and guidance are cited so you can check them yourself; if these obligations matter to your business, talk to a lawyer in your province.