Frequently asked questions about Gala

Pricing, cost and return

How much does an AI receptionist cost per month?
Gala La Réceptionniste is CA$129/month: 250 minutes, 3 users, 1 voice agent. Avancée is CA$249 (500 minutes, 5 users, 2 voice agents) and Entreprise is CA$439 (1,000 minutes, 7 users, 3 voice agents). Overage runs 37¢, 35¢ or 33¢ a minute depending on the plan. Annual commitment takes 15% off.
How much does a full AI administrative assistant cost?
Gala L'Assistant Administratif is CA$279/month: 250 minutes, 3 users, 5 quotes. Avancée is CA$429 (500 minutes, 5 users, 15 quotes) and Entreprise is CA$659 (1,000 minutes, 7 users, unlimited quotes). Every plan includes the full Receptionist product plus back-office work: quoting. Receivables follow-up and dispatch are coming soon, not live today. Overage runs 38¢ to 42¢ a minute. Annual takes 15% off.
What's a "user" and what's a "voice agent"?
A user is a person with a named login to the platform: administrator, manager or field resource. Plans include 3, 5 or 7. A voice agent is a separate phone personality with its own number and its own script — useful if you run two banners or two service lines. Callers are neither users nor agents: your included minutes are what set your call capacity.
What's the real cost beyond the monthly fee?
Four things sit on top of the subscription: overage minutes (33¢–42¢ depending on the plan, billed to the next full minute), extra users (CA$22/month on the Receptionist, CA$39/month on the Admin Assistant, with volume discounts), extra voice agents (CA$10/month), and taxes. There are no mandatory setup fees; onboarding help is available à la carte. Add your own time to validate the knowledge base.
Is it worth it for a business with fewer than five employees?
Run the math on your own numbers instead of an industry average. Multiply the average value of a signed job by the number of calls you don't pick up in a month — on site, driving, at supper. If that figure clears CA$129, one recovered job covers the subscription. Micro-businesses are exactly where the gap is widest, because nobody else is answering.
How long does it take to see ROI?
Payback is measured in jobs, not months. On the CA$129 Essentielle plan, a single call that turns into a job worth more than CA$129 pays for the month. On the CA$279 Assistant Administratif, add the receivables effect: one CA$1,500 invoice collected four weeks earlier changes your month. Measure over three months, not three days.
How many hours a week does it actually save?
It depends on what you're currently doing at night. Add up the real time your admin work takes in one week: returning calls, booking jobs, putting quotes together, chasing unpaid invoices, coordinating crews. That block is what Gala takes over. Time it for one week before you start and you'll have your own exact baseline.
How much can it reduce administrative costs?
For a micro-business, the main effect isn't a cost cut — it's a shift in hours. You're not eliminating a role you never had; you're getting evenings and weekends back and no longer paying the invisible cost of unreturned calls and invoices chased too late. The honest comparison is hours recovered and jobs won, not payroll removed.
What's the cost of doing nothing?
A missed call is a customer dialling the next company on their list. Run it for one month: unanswered calls × your usual close rate × average job value. Add the receivables sitting past 60 days. That number is your cost of doing nothing, and you can verify it against your own records.
AI assistant vs. a virtual assistant: which costs less?
An hourly virtual assistant usually costs more than a flat monthly plan once call volume is steady, because you pay for every hour of availability, including the quiet ones. But price isn't the real difference: a virtual assistant isn't working at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday, and won't run your receivables follow-up on its own while you're on site.
Can I change or upgrade my plan?
Yes. You can move up or down a tier at any time as your call volume and needs change, and the change applies to your next billing cycle.

What Gala actually does

Can an AI receptionist actually book appointments?
Yes. Gala qualifies the call, checks availability and books the appointment straight into your calendar with no callback from you. It accounts for your service areas, the typical duration of each job type and who's available, and can coordinate several crew calendars rather than just one.
Can it send texts and emails to customers?
Yes. Gala confirms an appointment by text, sends a quote by email, and follows up on whichever channel the customer actually answers. That's what separates an administrative assistant from a smart answering service: the follow-up doesn't stop when the call ends.
Can the AI produce a quote?
Yes — from a photo or a satellite image, in roughly 60 seconds. The customer or your crew sends a picture of the roof, the driveway, the surface to be treated; Gala reads it and generates a priced quote based on your own rate card. You review it and send it. That's the difference between quoting the same evening and quoting next week.
Can the AI chase my accounts receivable?
Coming soon, not live today. Once it ships, Gala will run an autonomous multi-channel collections loop — call, text, email — on your unpaid invoices, working from your QuickBooks data. It will follow the cadence you set, record payment commitments, and hand you a list of what's settled and what needs you personally. This is the task owners put off longest.
What share of calls can an AI handle on its own?
Mostly it depends on how good your knowledge base is. Standard calls — hours, service areas, booking, job status, triaging urgent work — are handled without you. Anything outside the norm is transferred or logged with a priority callback. A well-built knowledge base cuts transfers sharply; a thin one multiplies them.
What happens if the AI doesn't understand a caller?
It doesn't guess. Gala rephrases once, and if the request is still outside its scope it transfers to a human or logs a detailed message flagged for priority callback. The design rule is simple: a transfer beats a made-up answer. It's the same rule that stops it from quoting a firm price over the phone.
Does it work in both French and English?
Yes. Gala answers in authentic Quebec French and switches to English based on the caller. In Quebec that isn't a detail: most voice assistants on the market speak translated French, with a European accent and vocabulary, and your customers hear it within three seconds.
Does it recognize repeat customers?
Yes. Gala links the call to the customer's history: past jobs, address, installed equipment, open file. The customer doesn't have to explain everything again, and you don't have to dig through notes before calling back.
Does it filter out spam and sales calls?
Yes. Sales and spam calls are identified and dropped before they reach you; they only show up in the call log. For a contractor who gets as many ad reps as real customers, that's time back every week.
Can an AI handle an unhappy customer?
It takes the complaint seriously, records the facts, confirms follow-up and alerts you right away. It doesn't negotiate compensation or improvise a technical explanation — those calls come to you, with the context already written up. It's triage, not a substitute for human judgment.
What's the difference between an AI receptionist and call routing?
Call routing moves the call; it doesn't resolve it. A touch-tone menu sorts, it doesn't understand. Gala holds the conversation, qualifies the request, books the job and triggers the follow-up. The difference shows up in how many calls require nothing further from you afterwards.
How is an AI agent different from regular business software?
Software waits for you to click; an agent does the task. Your field-service system shows you the unpaid invoices; the agent chases them. It displays the schedule; the agent fills it. The question to ask any vendor is simple: "What does this do when I'm not at the screen?"
Does it handle my email too?
Yes, in the Assistant Administratif line. Gala sorts incoming requests, answers the routine ones, routes quotes and escalates anything that needs a decision. Nothing is deleted automatically: handled email stays visible and filed, with a record of what was answered.
Which admin tasks should you automate first?
Start with the repetitive task that has a direct dollar value: answering inbound calls and booking work. Then receivables follow-up, because the return is measurable in cash collected. Quoting comes third, once your rate card is properly codified. Never start with the most complex task.
What should you never automate?
Three things stay with you: the final price on a significant job, handling a dispute, and any decision that puts your reputation with a long-standing customer on the line. Gala is configured not to quote firm prices by phone and to escalate these situations. Automation that oversteps its mandate costs more than doing the task by hand.
Can it handle complex workflows?
Yes, provided the workflow is written down. Dispatching five crews by zone and trade, triggering a follow-up at day 7 then day 21, sending an annual service reminder — those are rules, and Gala executes them. Dispatch and invoicing follow-ups are coming soon and not live today; the rest is. What blocks an automation is almost never complexity; it's a rule nobody ever wrote down.
What are the less obvious benefits?
Three come up constantly: every call becomes data (you finally see where your leads come from), quotes go out same-day instead of next week, and your business sounds the same at 7 a.m. as at 9 p.m. Time savings are the most visible benefit, but rarely the most profitable one.
What is Gavion and what is Gala?
Gavion is a Quebec-based AI company for service businesses. Its product, Gala, is a multilingual AI assistant that comes in two roles. As the Receptionist, Gala is your 24/7 front office: it answers every inbound call, qualifies leads, recognizes returning customers from your CRM, books appointments live into your calendar, and sends automated SMS and email confirmations and follow-ups. As the Administrative Assistant, Gala also runs the office work behind the call: quotes, CRM updates, documents, and reporting. Scheduling and dispatch, and invoicing and collections, are coming soon and not live today.
How does Gala work?
A customer calls in, and Gala answers instantly in a natural voice. It holds a real conversation in the caller's language, recognizes returning callers from your CRM, qualifies the request, checks your real-time calendar, and books the appointment during the call, then logs everything, notifies the right person, and sends an automated confirmation by SMS or email.
Can Gala handle several calls at the same time?
Yes. Unlike a single receptionist or an answering service with a queue, Gala answers unlimited calls at once, so no customer ever gets a busy signal during your rush.
Does Gala sound robotic?
No. Gala uses a natural, conversational voice and responds in real time, so calls feel like talking to a sharp front-desk employee rather than an automated menu.
Can Gala transfer urgent or emergency calls to a human?
Yes. You define what counts as an emergency, and Gala routes those calls to your on-call line and notifies your team by SMS, so urgent calls reach a human without delay.
Does Gala work after hours, weekends, and holidays?
Yes, 24/7, with the same quality at 3am as at 3pm. It books non-urgent calls for the next business day and escalates real emergencies based on your rules.
Does Gala send confirmations and reminders?
Yes. After booking, Gala sends an email and SMS confirmation, then reminders before the appointment, which cuts no-shows. You control the timing and wording.
What languages does Gala support?
Gala supports 44 languages, with English and French detected automatically on every plan.
What is the Administrative Assistant, and how is it different from the Receptionist?
The Receptionist answers calls, books, and qualifies leads. The Administrative Assistant includes the full Receptionist and adds the office work after the call: photo quotes, CRM updates, documents, and analytics. Scheduling and dispatch, and finance and collections, are coming soon and not live today.
Can Gala send invoices and collect payments?
Coming soon, not live today. When it ships, invoices will sync to QuickBooks as jobs close and Stripe will collect deposits at booking and final payments at signoff.
Can Gala request Google reviews?
Yes. Gala sends a polite review request a day after signoff, when the work still feels fresh, which steadily builds your online reputation without manual effort.
Is there a dashboard?
Yes. You get a dashboard to review calls, transcripts, bookings, usage, and analytics, and to adjust settings, accessible from your computer or phone.

Setup and rollout

How long does setup take?
Most of the delay isn't technical: it's building and validating your knowledge base — services, prices, service areas, emergency rules, what Gala is allowed to say. We assemble it from your website, your listings and public registries, then you validate it line by line. Connecting the phone line itself is quick.
How do you train it to answer like your business?
You don't train it in the technical sense: you give it a validated knowledge base. Your services, your rates, your service areas, your emergency policy, the way you name things. We prepare a validation sheet flagging contradictions and gaps; you correct it once, and that document governs every answer.
Can I customize what it says?
Yes, including what it's not allowed to say. You set the greeting, the tone, the qualifying questions and the limits: no firm pricing, no delivery-date commitments, no technical advice outside scope. Those guardrails matter as much as the answers themselves.
Does it integrate with my existing tools?
Booking integrates natively with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. The receivables loop works from QuickBooks. For everything else — field-service platform, invoicing tool — name your stack before you sign: ask to see the integration running, not a checkmark on a comparison table. An advertised integration and a tested one are two different things.
What's the learning curve for my team?
For your techs there's almost none: they receive assignments the way they always did. The real effort falls on whoever validates the knowledge base and reviews the quotes in the first weeks. Name that person before you start, not after.
What are the most common implementation mistakes?
Four: connecting the AI with an incomplete knowledge base, assigning nobody to validate it, automating everything at once instead of starting with inbound calls, and never listening to the first month's recordings. The fourth is the costliest — that's where you find the five questions your customers ask that nobody anticipated.
Why do some AI admin tools fail after a few months?
Because the knowledge base goes stale. Prices change, a service is dropped, a territory is added — and nobody tells the tool. The AI keeps answering from the old reality, errors pile up, the team stops trusting it. A 30-minute quarterly review prevents the whole scenario.
Does it need an internet connection at my office?
Yes, it works. Gala is hosted: calls come in over the phone network and are handled on our servers, with no dependency on your connection or on a machine being switched on. You only need internet or mobile data to check the dashboard and your messages.
Can I cancel if it doesn't work out?
Terms depend on the plan. An annual commitment is settled in a single payment at the start of the period in exchange for a 15% discount — that's money paid upfront, worth weighing before you choose it. Monthly or annual, get the cancellation and notice terms in writing before signing, with us and with anyone else. It's the single most revealing question to put to a voice-AI vendor.
Can I keep my current business phone number?
Yes. Gala works with your existing number through simple call forwarding, so customers keep calling the number they already know. We set this up with you during onboarding.
Can I import my existing client list?
Yes. We connect Gala to your CRM or import your client list during setup, so it recognizes existing customers and keeps their records updated automatically.
Do I have to build it myself, or is it done for you?
The setup is done for you. Gavion configures, connects and manages Gala: your calendar, CRM, phone number and accounting tools. The part that stays with you is validation: you confirm the knowledge base, your services, your rates and your emergency policy, and you review the first few weeks. Name the person responsible before you start.
Do I need to install anything or buy hardware?
No. There is nothing to install and no hardware to buy. Gala works with your existing phone number and the tools you already use, and is managed entirely by Gavion.
What if my tool is not on the list?
If your tool has an API or a webhook, we can usually connect it. Custom integrations are part of every setup, so tell us what you use and we will confirm during onboarding.
Does Gala replace the tools I already use?
No. Gala plugs into your existing calendar, CRM, and accounting stack with no rip-and-replace, so bookings and call notes land in the tools your team already lives in.
What support do you offer?
You get a Quebec-based bilingual team in your timezone, 24/7 support, and ongoing optimization, so we keep tuning Gala as your business evolves rather than handing you a tool and walking away.

Reliability, security and compliance

Is my data safe?
Your data and your customers' data are hosted in Canada (ca-central-1). For a Quebec business this is worth checking with any vendor: many voice-AI platforms store call recordings in the United States, which puts you under a different legal framework.
Can you trust AI with critical tasks?
For low-consequence tasks with clear rules — answering, qualifying, scheduling, following up — yes, and you can verify it in the call log. For binding decisions, no, and Gala is built to escalate them. The right question isn't "is it reliable?" but "what happens when it's wrong?" If the answer is "it escalates and it's logged," the risk is manageable.
How do you prevent the AI from making things up?
With guardrails written into the configuration, not with after-the-fact monitoring. Gala doesn't quote firm prices by phone, doesn't confirm availability it hasn't checked, and doesn't state anything that isn't in your validated knowledge base. Outside that perimeter it transfers. Ask any vendor to show you those rules in writing.
How do you check the AI's work without spending the time you saved?
By sampling, not by checking everything. Listen to five calls a week for the first month, two a week after that. Review every quote at the start, then only those above a threshold you set. An automation that requires permanent full review hasn't automated anything.
Does it work for regulated sectors like healthcare?
Gala is designed and configured for Quebec service and construction SMEs: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, general contractors, landscaping. Sectors handling health information face additional requirements, and we don't present Gala as a compliant solution for those regimes.
How is my data protected?
All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256), and our infrastructure is hosted in Canada. You own all your data and can access or delete it at any time.
Do you use my data to train AI models?
No. We never use your data to train third-party models, and we never sell it or share it for marketing or advertising.
Is my data backed up?
Yes. Your data is backed up on Canadian infrastructure, and call records, transcripts, and bookings remain available to you in your dashboard.
Where is call audio processed, and is it kept?
Your account data, call records, and transcripts are stored in Canada. Live call audio is processed in real time by our AI voice provider under a Zero Data Retention arrangement, so it is used only to answer the caller during the call and is not retained by the provider afterward. Any recordings you turn on are stored in Canada and deleted after 90 days.
Can I control what my employees can access?
Yes. You set role-based access so each team member sees only what they need, such as their own jobs and schedule, while owners keep the full view.

Choosing a provider

How do I choose an AI receptionist or admin platform?
Five questions, in this order: what does it do when I'm not there? Is the French local or translated? Where is my data hosted? What happens when the AI doesn't know? What are the exit terms? A vendor who answers all five clearly is rare, and it's a better filter than any feature matrix.
Can I just use ChatGPT instead?
For drafting an email or tightening up a quote, yes, and that's a good use of it. But a chat assistant doesn't answer the phone at 7 p.m., doesn't know your prices, has no access to your calendar and won't chase an unpaid invoice. The difference isn't model power — it's connection to your systems and autonomous execution.
What's the best AI assistant for my industry?
Look for a vendor that already knows your vocabulary. A general-purpose AI has to learn what a service call is, what square-foot pricing means, what an RBQ licence is, what a backup emergency sounds like. Gala is configured for Quebec service and construction trades, which shortens setup and cuts down on off-target answers.
How do you spot an AI tool that oversells?
Three signals: a demo that only runs perfect scenarios, no clear answer on failure behaviour, and performance figures with no methodology behind them. Ask for a live test call using your own hard cases, not a video. And ask how many customers your size are in production, not how many have signed up.
Realistic expectations vs. hype
Realistic: answering every call, qualifying, scheduling, chasing invoices, drafting a first version of a quote. Unrealistic: replacing your judgment on a $40,000 job, resolving a dispute, or running without anyone ever writing down your business rules. The technology is ready for execution, not for decisions.
Is my business ready for AI admin?
Three signs yes: you return customer calls in the evening, you have invoices past 60 days, and you turn down or postpone quotes for lack of time. Three signs no: your prices aren't written down anywhere, nobody can spend a few hours validating a knowledge base, and your first goal is cutting a line item.
Can I try it before I buy?
Yes. You can have Gala place a live demo call to your phone so you hear it in action, and we walk you through how it would handle your specific calls before you commit.
Who is Gala for?
Gala is built for Quebec service and construction SMEs: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, landscaping, snow removal, auto repair, pest control, cleaning, painting, flooring, salons, and more. If your business runs on calls, bookings, and quotes, Gala fits.

Staff and roles

Does this replace my receptionist or my admin?
No, and most of our customers don't have one. Gala picks up what nobody is currently doing: the evening calls, the invoice follow-ups, the quotes sitting in the queue. Where an admin is already on staff, they stop spending the day on the phone and work on what needs a person — difficult customers, suppliers, coordination.
Can I reduce my admin headcount?
That isn't the case we make. In businesses under five employees — most of the sector — there's no admin team to cut: the owner does the work, after hours. The gain shows up in evenings recovered and jobs that stop going to the competitor, not in positions eliminated.
How do I get my team to actually use it?
Frame it as what it is: the one taking calls while the crew works. Show them the first appointment booked with nobody involved, then the first invoice paid after follow-up. Buy-in comes from visible results, not from training. Still, hold a short meeting to agree on who validates what.

Proof and results

What results do real businesses get?
The metrics to track are always the same: calls answered versus calls received, appointments booked with no human involved, average time to send a quote, and average days to collect receivables. Ask any vendor for those four numbers, before and after. A vendor who can't produce them doesn't have results to show.
How do I measure ROI?
Write down four numbers in the week before you start: missed calls, admin hours worked after 5 p.m., average time to send a quote, and total receivables past 60 days. Take the same four numbers again after 90 days. That's your real return, on your own data, and nobody can argue with it.

Where these answers are set out at length

The plans and what each one includes, how a launch runs, the live line you can dial and test, where your call data is stored, what Gala connects to today and what is not live yet, and an AI receptionist next to an answering service, voicemail and DIY tools.

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Contact: contact@gavion.ai · +1 (514) 534-1298 · +1 (855) 505-0607 (toll-free) · Québec, Canada · Service across Canada in English and French.