Forgive the expression, but I usually take a multithreaded approach in those situations. For example, you could (probably) easily rattle off a meaningful but neutral initial response and, while you're doing so, run whatever filters you need to before you arrive at the meat of your response.
Almost, I failed to mention the reply should contribute something and not just be words for the sake of words though. Purely my personal opinion. Basic example of a borderline canned reply while I think:
Q: "Where should we host our service?"
A[instant]: "Well, you have X, Y, and Z."
A[afterwards]: "X has these features, but Y might be a better fit for you because..."
An easy one is just acknowledging that you heard the person. Mix and match: oh, ok, huh!, (rephrase what the person just said), I had/hadn't thought of that, cool, interesting, that's an option.
