24/7 AI Receptionist — Bail Bonds Build & Cost

What Replyee's voice receptionist must do for a bail-bond agency (using Big Mike's Bail Bonds as the live case), how each capability is delivered through Replyee + Retell, what's ready vs. what to build, and the real cost to run + what to charge.

Created 2026-07-22 · Engine: Retell (swappable adapter) · Live agent: Big Mike's Bail Bonds — AI Receptionist · Voice code deployed to Replyee production

The pitch that sells itself: ~85% of missed calls never call back, and for a bail agency every unanswered call at 2 AM is a lost bond. One recovered bond (premium ≈ 10% of bail — often $500–$2,000) pays for months of the service. This is the highest-ROI product in the suite for this vertical.

1 What it must do

Straight from the client spec — the receptionist has to:

Answer every call, 24/7; explain the bond process, qualification, and rates; route accordingly
Recognize repeat clients and reference their case
Handle "what do I need to get someone out?" questions
Filter spam/robocalls — the team only sees real calls
Text a lead the intake link when they're ready to start bonding
Log full transcripts for follow-up
Instant alert if a forwarded call goes unanswered
Spanish support, custom voice (gender/accent/tone), setup in ~10 min
On/off toggle from the client's portal (BMBB portal)

2 How Replyee + Retell delivers each — ready vs. build

Capability	How it's delivered	Status
24/7 pickup + bond/rate Q&A + routing	Retell always-on voice + Replyee shared knowledge base (same RAG the chatbot uses). Routing = Retell `transfer_call`.	Config + KB
"What do I need to get someone out?"	Answered from the knowledge base (bond process, docs, collateral).	KB content
Spanish support	Retell multi-language; agent answers in caller's language from the same KB.	Ready
Custom voice (gender/accent/tone)	Retell voice selection in the agent config (adapter already maps this).	Ready
Full call transcripts	Retell posts transcripts to Replyee's `/api/voice/webhook` → stored per bot for follow-up.	Wire webhook store
Spam/robocall filtering	Retell call screening + agent guardrails; only qualified calls forwarded.	Config
Custom voice + setup ~10 min	Create Retell agent from the bot (adapter does this) + assign a phone number.	Ready
Text intake link to ready leads	Retell function-call → Replyee sends SMS via the shared `@boom/sms` rail with the agency's intake URL.	Build
Recognize repeat clients + case	Retell function-call on inbound number → Replyee looks up the caller in the agency's client/case data → primes the prompt.	Build
Alert if forwarded call unanswered	Watch the transfer result from the webhook; if unanswered, fire an SMS/email alert to the team.	Build
Portal on/off toggle	BMBB portal calls Replyee's internal API (Bearer-authed) to activate/deactivate the agent.	Wire endpoint

Read: the whole core (pickup, Q&A, transcripts, voice, language, spam) is Ready/config — Retell + Replyee's shared knowledge already do it. The 4 build items (SMS intake, repeat-client lookup, unanswered-alert, portal toggle) are small, well-scoped additions — and SMS reuses the @boom/sms rail you already planned.

3 Cost to run (per client / month)

Costs are dominated by talk minutes. Retell is pass-through COGS you mark up. Rough all-in per-minute stack:

Component	Rate	Notes
Retell voice engine	~$0.07–0.10 / min	STT + turn-taking + orchestration
Telephony (Twilio via Retell)	~$0.01–0.02 / min	inbound minutes
LLM (Claude Haiku)	~fractions of a ¢ / min	cheap; your ANTHROPIC key already set
Premium voice (optional, ElevenLabs)	~$0.07 / min	only if using a premium custom voice
Phone number	~$2 / mo	fixed, per number

Monthly cost by call volume (≈3 min avg call, standard voice)

Volume	Calls/mo	Minutes	~Cost/mo
Light	150	450	~$45–55
Typical bail agency	300	900	~$90–110
Busy	600	1,800	~$180–220

Figures are estimates — verify against current Retell pricing before quoting. Premium custom voice roughly doubles the per-minute engine cost.

4 What to charge & the margin

Setup: ~$297–497 one-time (agent build, KB load, number, voice, portal wiring).
Monthly: $299–$499/mo including a minute allowance (e.g. 750–1,000 min), overage at ~$0.20/min.
Margin: at ~$100 COGS on a $399 plan, that's ~75% gross margin, before overage.
ROI framing for the client: one recovered after-hours bond ($500–$2,000 premium) = several months of the plan. Sell the lost-bond math, not the minutes.

5 Wiring it into the BMBB portal

Replyee already exposes what the portal needs:

Internal API (/api/internal/bots, Bearer-authed) — the portal creates/reads/updates the bot and gets the embed snippet. Extend it with an activate/deactivate voice action to power the portal's "Deactivate AI Receptionist" toggle.
Chat widget — <script src="https://replyee.online/widget.js" data-bot-id="…" async></script> drops the AI chat onto the site.
Voice webhook — /api/voice/webhook receives Retell events (transcripts, call status) to log + trigger alerts.

So the BMBB portal shows one card ("24/7 AI Receptionist") with the on/off toggle → calls Replyee's internal API → Replyee manages the Retell agent. Chat + voice share the same bot + knowledge, so they answer identically.

6 Build order to go live for Big Mike's

Load the knowledge base: bond process, rates, required docs/collateral, service area, FAQs.
Confirm the Retell agent (already exists) is linked to the Replyee bot + a phone number.
Build the 4 gap items: SMS intake link, repeat-client lookup, unanswered-call alert, portal on/off endpoint.
Wire the BMBB portal card (toggle + status + transcript view).
Test end-to-end (English + Spanish), then flip live.