H
    Hestur
    Vapi Platform · Expert Development

    Expert Vapi Development

    We build production voice AI agents on Vapi — inbound receptionists, outbound SDRs, and appointment setters. BYOK stack, sub-400ms latency, and a fixed-scope deploy in 2–3 weeks.

    Sub-400msresponse latency
    2–3 weeksto production
    $0.23–0.33per minute BYOK

    What We Build on Vapi

    Four Proven Agent Types

    We've built each of these in production. Each has its own prompt architecture, integration pattern, and latency budget — and we ship them as fixed-scope builds.

    Inbound AI Receptionist

    24/7 inbound call handling — answers FAQs, qualifies callers, routes to the right department, and books appointments directly into your calendar. Zero hold time, zero missed calls.

    Common in: Medical, dental, legal, real estate, home services

    55–75% call containment rate

    Outbound SDR Agent

    Automated first-touch outbound calls at scale — qualification questions, CRM field population, and meeting booking with your sales team. Warm handoffs only; the agent qualifies before it transfers.

    Common in: SaaS, insurance, mortgage, staffing

    3–5× more first-touch coverage per SDR

    Appointment Setter

    Outbound confirmation and re-engagement calls — schedule new appointments, confirm existing ones, handle cancellations and rescheduling with real calendar availability. Connects to Google Calendar, Calendly, and most EHR systems.

    Common in: Healthcare, medspas, automotive, home services

    40–60% reduction in no-shows

    Support Deflection Agent

    Handles tier-1 inbound support calls — account status, order tracking, billing questions, basic troubleshooting. Escalates to a human only when the issue requires it, with full context passed on.

    Common in: E-commerce, SaaS, financial services, utilities

    60–70% fewer escalations to human agents

    BYOK Economics

    Our Custom LLM Backend Approach

    Vapi is BYOK-first — you bring your own LLM, STT, and TTS keys and pay provider rates directly. We go a step further: we build a custom LLM backend that sits between Vapi and your models, giving you prompt routing, context management, and knowledge base integration that Vapi's native setup cannot do.

    Typical all-in cost per minute

    ComponentCost
    Vapi platform fee
    Required on all plans
    $0.05 / min
    STT — Deepgram Nova-2 (BYOK)
    Fast, accurate transcription
    ~$0.008 / min
    LLM — GPT-4o mini (BYOK)
    Ideal for structured call flows
    ~$0.02–0.05 / min
    TTS — ElevenLabs Flash (BYOK)
    Sub-200ms generation
    ~$0.10–0.15 / min
    Telephony — Twilio inbound
    ~$0.009 / min
    Total all-in$0.23–0.33 / min

    What our custom LLM backend adds

    • Prompt routing by turn complexity

      Simple FAQ turns use GPT-4o mini. Complex reasoning or multi-step decisions escalate to GPT-4o. Same quality, 60–70% lower LLM cost on average.

    • RAG on your knowledge base

      Before every LLM call, we retrieve relevant chunks from your product docs, FAQs, or pricing — injected as context. The agent always has the right information without bloating the system prompt.

    • Conversation summarisation

      Every N turns, we summarise the conversation history and replace it with a compact summary. Long calls stay fast — response latency doesn't degrade at minute 10.

    • Tool call handling

      CRM lookups, calendar availability, account status — all routed through your webhook server, not Vapi's native tool layer. You own the integration logic.

    Sub-400ms

    Response latency

    end-to-end target

    2–3 wks

    Deploy timeline

    fixed scope, firm quote

    55–75%

    Call containment

    without human agents

    $0.23–0.33

    Per minute

    all-in BYOK cost

    Common Vapi Pitfalls

    The Problems We Solve Before They Reach Production

    Most Vapi builds hit the same five walls. We know where they are and how to get around them before they become your users' problem.

    01

    Pitfall

    Latency creep

    Impact

    Default Vapi setups often sit at 800ms–1.5s response latency. Conversations feel robotic and users start interrupting.

    Our fix

    We profile the full STT → LLM → TTS chain. We use GPT-4o mini with streaming for low-latency turns, reduce system prompt size, and choose ElevenLabs Flash for sub-200ms TTS generation. Target: sub-400ms end-to-end.

    02

    Pitfall

    Interrupt collision

    Impact

    Wrong interruptionThreshold settings cause the agent to cut off users mid-sentence or talk over them — the two most common reasons users hang up.

    Our fix

    We calibrate interruptionThreshold through real call testing across speaker types and environments, not just against synthetic test data. The result sounds like a natural human conversation.

    03

    Pitfall

    Voicemail misdetection

    Impact

    Outbound agents that cannot reliably distinguish a live answer from a voicemail waste calls, leave confused partial messages, and burn through your contact list.

    Our fix

    We configure Vapi's voicemail detection model and write separate voicemail scripts optimised for message completeness — the agent leaves a clear, professional message and logs the attempt in your CRM.

    04

    Pitfall

    Context window bloat

    Impact

    Long conversations accumulate tokens. At 10+ minutes, LLM response time degrades noticeably — the exact calls where conversion is highest.

    Our fix

    We implement rolling conversation summarisation — the agent compresses earlier turns into a compact summary before they exceed the budget, keeping the active context tight without losing conversational continuity.

    05

    Pitfall

    Failed SIP transfers

    Impact

    Misconfigured SIP transfer settings drop calls or leave the human agent without context. This destroys the handoff experience.

    Our fix

    We build structured transfer payloads — the SIP REFER carries caller name, reason for transfer, and a JSON summary of the conversation — so your human agent picks up already briefed.

    How We Work

    From Brief to Live in 2–3 Weeks

    Fixed scope, firm quote before work starts. Here is exactly what happens during a Vapi engagement.

    Week 1

    Discovery & Script Architecture

    • ·Map call flows, edge cases, and escalation triggers
    • ·Write and test LLM system prompts against recorded calls
    • ·Define BYOK provider selection (LLM, STT, TTS)
    • ·Spec integrations: CRM, calendar, webhooks
    Week 1–2

    Infrastructure & BYOK Setup

    • ·Vapi assistant configuration and phone number provisioning
    • ·BYOK key setup — OpenAI, Deepgram, ElevenLabs
    • ·Custom LLM backend wiring (if applicable)
    • ·Webhook server for tool calls and CRM writes
    Week 2

    Build & Integration

    • ·Full agent build with all call flow branches
    • ·CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, or custom)
    • ·Calendar integration for appointment booking
    • ·Voicemail detection and message scripts (outbound)
    Week 2–3

    Tuning & Go-Live

    • ·Live call testing across real phone numbers
    • ·Latency profiling and interrupt threshold calibration
    • ·Edge case hardening from real call transcripts
    • ·Production deployment with monitoring and alerting

    Deliverable at the end

    A fully deployed Vapi voice agent on your phone number, integrated with your systems, with monitoring and runbook documentation. Not a prototype — production-ready.

    Scope This Build

    Ready to Build on Vapi?

    Book a 30-minute call. We'll scope your use case, define the agent architecture, and give you a fixed price and timeline before any work starts.