The Comparison
Elvyna/Compare/AI Receptionist vs. Hiring a Receptionist

A RECEPTIONIST COSTS
$4,000/MO
AND GOES HOME AT 5PM.

Elvyna costs $300/mo, answers 24/7 — including nights, weekends, and every storm-surge day of the year. Here's the year-one math trades businesses need to see.

Book a Free Call See Pricing
In-House Receptionist
$3,500–$5,000/mo
Salary, payroll taxes, benefits, onboarding — before a single call is answered.
  • Business hours only (9–5)
  • Sick days, vacation coverage
  • Turnover — avg 2–3 years, then rehire & retrain
  • One line at a time — surge calls still drop
  • No lead data unless they remember to log it
Smith.ai Done-for-You
$500+/mo
US-first, generic SMB product. Complex setup, not trades-specific.
  • Not built for trades call flows
  • US-headquartered and US-optimized
  • Complex dashboard to configure yourself
  • Generic scripts, not your trade's language
  • More coverage than in-house
Elvyna AI Receptionist
From $150/mo
Canadian. Trades-specific. Done-for-you. Live in under a week.
  • 24/7 — nights, weekends, holidays
  • Zero sick days, zero turnover
  • Built for electricians, HVAC, plumbers, roofers
  • Handles unlimited simultaneous calls
  • Auto-logs every lead to your CRM

A Story You Know

SHE LEFT AT 5PM.
THE STORM HIT AT 4.

Here's the thing about a good receptionist: they take two weeks to learn your business. They learn your service area, your pricing, how to triage emergencies, what questions to ask. That training is where the value is — not the phone-answering itself. Elvyna does that same 30-minute intake before the first call ever comes in. And it's available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 87% lower cost.

It's a Friday afternoon in late October. A serious storm system rolls through. Roof damage calls start coming in around 4:30pm. Your receptionist — a good one, been with you for two years — clocks out at 5 on the dot. She had plans.

Between 5pm and 8pm, 14 calls come in. Your voicemail takes them all.

11 callers hang up without leaving a message. 3 leave vague voicemails. By the time Monday arrives, you've called back 2 — both have already booked a competitor who answered on Friday night.

The remaining 3 you reach. One books. The other two are surprised it took this long and give you a lukewarm call anyway.

That's 2–10 lost jobs in a single Friday evening. At a $1,500 average roofing job, that's $3,000–$15,000 gone because a single person's shift ended.

// The problem isn't that your receptionist left at 5. The problem is that you built your lead capture around a person with a schedule.

Side by Side

WHAT YOU ACTUALLY
GET FOR YOUR MONEY.

Elvyna AI Receptionist In-House Receptionist
Answers calls after 5pm Yes — 24/7 with no overtime cost No — unless you pay overtime or hire multiple shifts
Answers on weekends Yes — automatically No — or at significant premium cost
Handles storm-surge call volume Unlimited simultaneous calls One call at a time — overflow still drops
Sick days and vacations Zero — always available 10–15 days/year covered coverage or dropped calls
Turnover and retraining None — Elvyna doesn't quit Average tenure 2–3 years; hiring + retraining costs $3K–$5K
Sounds like your business Configured with your name, scripts, and trade Depends entirely on who you hired and how well you trained them
Captures structured lead data Every call — name, number, address, urgency, job type Only if trained and disciplined — rarely consistent
Sends owner a brief after each call Yes — automatic SMS within seconds Only if they remember to write it up and pass it along
CRM integration Automatic — every lead logged Manual entry — only as good as the person doing it
Works from day 1 Live in 5–7 business days 2–4 weeks to hire + 2–4 weeks to train
Monthly cost From C$150/mo $3,500–$5,000/mo (salary, taxes, benefits)

The Four Gaps

WHAT EVEN THE BEST
RECEPTIONIST CAN'T DO.

01
They go home
The busiest call windows for trades are often outside business hours — the 6pm burst pipe, the Saturday morning no-heat call, the storm that rolls in on a Friday afternoon. A receptionist with a schedule is a gap in your coverage. Elvyna has no schedule.
02
One line at a time
Storm season hits. Ten calls come in at once. Your receptionist is on one of them. The other nine hit voicemail — and 80% of those callers hang up. Elvyna handles every simultaneous call. Your capacity doesn't depend on how many people you employ.
03
They're expensive in every dimension
Salary is just the start. Payroll tax, health benefits, vacation pay, sick coverage, employer training costs. A full-time receptionist in Ontario runs $42,000–$60,000 per year all-in. That's $3,500–$5,000/month for 9-to-5 business-hour coverage only.
04
They quit, then you start over
Average receptionist tenure is 2–3 years. When they leave, you advertise, interview, hire, and train — again. Elvyna is configured once. It learns your business in a single kickoff call and stays consistent forever. There's no replacement cycle.

Year-One Math

THE NUMBER EVERY
TRADES OWNER NEEDS TO SEE.

Let's talk year one. Not just the monthly cost — the full picture including setup, operations, and what you're getting for it.

In-House Receptionist — Year 1
$42K–$60K
Salary $36K–$50K + payroll tax ~15% + basic benefits + onboarding time cost
  • Covers business hours only
  • Sick days and vacation gaps built-in
  • Surge calls still drop
  • Won't be there for year 3 or 4 — rehire cost incoming
Elvyna AI Front Desk — Year 1
$5,400
$1,800 one-time setup + $300/mo × 12 = $5,400 all-in, first year
  • 24/7 coverage included
  • Zero sick days, zero vacation
  • Unlimited call volume
  • Stays consistent forever
You save in year one
$37K–$55K
and get better coverage, more leads captured, and zero turnover risk
Cost reduction vs. in-house
87–92%
Elvyna — from $150/mo

From the Field

TRADES BUSINESSES HAVE
ALREADY MADE THE SWITCH.

"

Your receptionists are the best we've used so far. They go above and beyond any other service we've used up to this point!

Brandon Lochridge — Armor Electric, electrical contractor

Brandon runs an electrical contracting business and is already paying a premium AI receptionist service hundreds of dollars a month — because he knows the math. He's been through multiple providers trying to solve the same problem. Elvyna delivers the same caliber of call handling, built specifically for trades, at a fraction of the price.

The company Smith.ai — the largest AI receptionist service in North America, with 5,000+ businesses and 20 million calls processed — explicitly describes their market this way:

"

Compare $500/month to the $4,000/month you'd spend on a full-time receptionist — and remember that Elvyna answers every call, not just the ones during business hours.

The market has validated this comparison at scale. The question isn't whether an AI receptionist is better than a hired one. It's whether you want to keep paying 10× the price for half the coverage.

Questions

THINGS PEOPLE
USUALLY ASK.

Will it sound like a real receptionist to my customers?

Yes — and this is the question we hear most. Elvyna is configured with your business name, your service area, your specific trade, and the exact language your customers expect. It's not a robotic call-center prompt or a generic AI voice. We build the call flow around your business, and you approve it before it goes live. We do a demo call together so you know exactly how it sounds before your first real caller hears it.

What if a caller asks something Elvyna can't answer?

Elvyna is trained on exactly the questions your customers ask most — service areas, pricing ballparks, urgency triage, appointment intake. For anything genuinely outside that scope, it tells the customer that the owner will follow up directly, captures the question and callback number, and sends you the context immediately. No caller is left without an answer or a next step.

Can I get Elvyna to use my business name?

That's the default. Every Elvyna build is custom-configured — it answers as your business, uses your name, references your service area and trade, and follows the intake flow you approved. Callers don't know they're talking to an AI unless you want them to. Most clients choose a transparent approach: "Hi, you've reached [Business Name] — I'm an AI assistant and I'm here to help." It's honest and it still captures the lead.

What if I already have a part-time person answering calls?

Elvyna complements your existing setup, it doesn't replace it. The most common configuration: Elvyna rings your team first — if someone picks up, the call stays with them. If no one answers after a couple of rings, Elvyna steps in. After hours and on weekends, Elvyna handles everything. You keep your part-time person for the stuff they're good at, and Elvyna covers the gaps they can't fill.

More questions? See the full FAQ or email us directly.

Get Started

LESS THAN 10% OF THE COST.
100% OF THE COVERAGE.

Book a Free 20-Min Call See Pricing

Or reach out directly: hello@elvyna.co