RingPilot

What this does for you

It answers your phone. Day, night, weekends. It speaks in your business's voice, answers questions about your business, takes messages, books appointments into your real calendar, and passes urgent callers to a human. A receptionist costs around $3,000 a month; this costs a few cents a minute.

What you need first

• An Anthropic API key (5 min)
• A Vapi account — Vapi is the company that handles the actual phone line and the voice. You sign up yourself and pay them directly. (10 min. About 5–15 cents per minute of calls, plus about $2/month for the phone number. Hi5Agents takes none of this.)
• ConciergeSched already working — only if you want it to book appointments (see guide 5)
• A phone number to transfer urgent calls to — yours or a colleague's
• This agent needs the Ultimate plan

Flowchart

Step by step

1. 1

   Anthropic key (5 min)

   Settings → API Keys → paste → Test.

2. 2

   Sign up with Vapi (10 min)

   Go to vapi.ai and create an account. They give you free credits to start. Find "API Keys" and copy the private key (not the public one). Paste it into Hi5Agents → RingPilot → Requirements → Vapi. Click Test. Be clear on cost: every minute your phone agent talks, Vapi bills your card. A business getting 300 minutes of calls a month pays roughly $15–45.

3. 3

   Tell it how to behave (10 min)

   In RingPilot → Settings: - Greeting: exactly what it says when it picks up. ("Thank you for calling [your business], how can I help?") - Voice: pick one and listen to the sample. - Never discuss: list the things it must refuse — prices you negotiate, legal questions, medical advice. It will politely offer to take a message instead. - Transfer number: where urgent callers go. - Maximum call length: a safety cap so a stuck call can't run up a bill. Click Save & push — this sends your settings to Vapi. Nothing takes effect until you do.

4. 4

   Get a phone number (3 min)

   In RingPilot → Settings → phone number → choose an area code → buy. It's about $2/month on your Vapi account.

5. 5

   CALL IT. This is the most important step. (10 min)

   Ring the number from your own phone and try four things: 1. Ask something your business obviously answers ("What time do you close?") — it should answer correctly. 2. Ask something it can't know ("What's your best price on a bulk order?") — it should honestly say it doesn't have that and offer to take a message. If it makes up an answer, stop and fix your Knowledge before going live. 3. Say "Can I leave a message?" — check the message appears in Hi5Agents with your name and number correct. 4. Say "I need to speak to a human" — check it tries to transfer.

6. 6

   Send your real calls to it (5 min)

   You don't need to change your business number. Call your phone provider (or use their app) and set up call forwarding from your real number to your RingPilot number — either always, or only when you don't answer, or only after hours. Most providers let you choose.

• →Start with after-hours forwarding only. Let it prove itself on the calls you'd otherwise miss entirely, then widen it.
• →Read the transcripts for the first two weeks. You'll hear exactly which questions it fumbles, and adding those to Knowledge fixes them.
• →Keep the "never discuss" list honest — anything involving money you negotiate, or promises, belongs with a human.
• →Connect ConciergeSched. A receptionist that books appointments is worth far more than one that takes messages.
• →Watch the review flags — RingPilot checks its own calls and marks any where it might have said something it couldn't back up.
• →Don't leave the maximum call length off. It's your protection against a surprise bill.

If something goes wrong