Do you have referral relationships with any of the vendors you might recommend?

With some, yes — fully disclosed on our /disclosure page. None of the referral relationships move ranks in our public methodology, and our paid recommendations are no different. If the right vendor for you is one we don't earn a fee from, we recommend that one.

What if our shortlist is bigger than 3 vendors?

We cap the recommended shortlist at 3 for clarity, but we can evaluate up to ~5 vendors in research. Above that, we quote an add-on.

Can we hire you only for the setup, not the selection?

Yes — see the AI receptionist setup engagement. That assumes you've already picked the vendor.

What if we hate your recommendation?

Then we refund the back half of the engagement, no questions. Our incentive is to make the right call, not to push you toward whatever we tested most recently.

Service · 01

Vendor selection

Updated May 2026By The CallTreo editorial teamDisclosure →

We rank your shortlist against your real call profile — and tell you which option is actually right, not the most expensive.

Picking an AI receptionist is a 1–3 week research project most teams don't have time for. We do that research for you against your actual numbers, then deliver a short written recommendation you can act on the same day. Vendor-neutral — we'll recommend whatever fits, including tools we have no commercial relationship with.

Outcomes

What changes for you.

01
Confidence in the pick
You walk into the contract knowing why this vendor and not the others — with documented reasons your team can defend later.
02
1–3 weeks saved
We compress what would be your research project into a one-week turnaround. You get the time back.
03
A baseline for setup
Our recommendation doubles as the brief for the next engagement (whether you hire us for it or run it in-house).

What's included

Scope of work.

Discovery call (60 min): current call patterns, missed-call cost, decision-makers, integrations stack
Review of your last 30 days of inbound call data (if available)
Ranked recommendation of 2–3 vendors with the trade-offs for your situation
Implementation effort + cost estimate for each option
30-minute review call to walk through it and answer questions
Written 3-page recommendation document, yours to keep

Not included this engagement

What we won't pretend to cover.

Actually building the integration (separate engagement)
Negotiating contract terms with the vendor
Ongoing managed services

Process

How it actually runs.

Step 0160 min
Kickoff call
We walk through your current setup, what's working and what isn't, who's on the buying committee, and what 'good' looks like to you.
Step 023–5 business days
Research + scoring
We test the integrations you care about, dig into pricing fine print, and check recent product changes that haven't made it to comparison pages yet.
Step 03Day 6–7
Written recommendation delivered
3 pages, no fluff: ranked picks, reasons, implementation effort, and what to ask in the demo. Sent as a PDF + editable doc.
Step 0430 min
Review call
We walk through it together, answer questions, and adjust if your context has shifted since kickoff.

Who this is for

You probably want this if…

You've narrowed it to 2–3 vendors and want a second opinion before committing.
You haven't started and need someone to run the shortlist for you.
You're skeptical of vendor sales calls and want an outside perspective.

Who this isn't for

Skip this engagement if…

You already know exactly which vendor you want — skip to the setup engagement.
You want a 50-page consultant deck. We write 3-page recommendations and answer questions live.
Your monthly call volume is under 20 — at that scale, the cost of the engagement outweighs the upside.

Pricing

From $800

Flat fee, 50% upfront, 50% on delivery. We refund the back half if you find the work wasn't useful.

What moves the price up

Multi-vertical or multi-location practices add 1–2 days of analysis
More than 5 vendors to evaluate adds incremental cost
Hybrid AI + human shortlist research is a separate scope (we'll quote it)

FAQ

Questions before you commit.

Related engagements

Often bundled with this.

Scope of work.

Discovery call (60 min): current call patterns, missed-call cost, decision-makers, integrations stack

Review of your last 30 days of inbound call data (if available)

Ranked recommendation of 2–3 vendors with the trade-offs for your situation

Implementation effort + cost estimate for each option

30-minute review call to walk through it and answer questions

Written 3-page recommendation document, yours to keep

Vendor selection

What changes for you.

Confidence in the pick

1–3 weeks saved

A baseline for setup

Scope of work.

What we won't pretend to cover.

How it actually runs.

Kickoff call

Research + scoring

Written recommendation delivered

Review call

You probably want this if…

Skip this engagement if…

From $800

Questions before you commit.

Do you have referral relationships with any of the vendors you might recommend?

What if our shortlist is bigger than 3 vendors?

Can we hire you only for the setup, not the selection?

What if we hate your recommendation?

Often bundled with this.

Vendor selection

What changes for you.

Confidence in the pick

1–3 weeks saved

A baseline for setup

Scope of work.

What we won't pretend to cover.

How it actually runs.

Kickoff call

Research + scoring

Written recommendation delivered

Review call

You probably want this if…

Skip this engagement if…

From $800

Questions before you commit.

Do you have referral relationships with any of the vendors you might recommend?

What if our shortlist is bigger than 3 vendors?

Can we hire you only for the setup, not the selection?

What if we hate your recommendation?

Often bundled with this.