The receptionist that picks up while you're in court

Court. Mediation. A client in the room. The hours a solicitor can't answer the phone are exactly the hours new clients ring. Most callers who hit voicemail don't leave one — they ring the next firm. A will that needs updating, a contract that exchanges on Friday, a separation that has just become real: those are the calls that build a practice, and they land when nobody is near the phone.

Giday picks up the calls you send it, day or night, at the same price — no after-hours surcharge. It works out what the caller needs, then does one of three things: books them in, takes a message, or puts them through to you.

No script read off a card, no hold music. A realistic first-contact call, the way Giday runs them:

Giday: Giday, you've reached Harbour Street Lawyers — Verity speaking, on a recorded line. How can I help you?

Caller: Hi — Dad passed away last month and I think I'm the executor. I don't really know where to start.

Giday: I'm sorry for your loss. That's something one of our estates lawyers can walk you through properly. Would you like a phone appointment or to come in?

Caller: Phone's easier. Is it expensive?

Giday: The first consultation is a fixed $220, and the lawyer will explain anything beyond that. I've got Tuesday at 10 or Wednesday at 2:30 — which suits?

Caller: Tuesday.

Giday: Locked in — Tuesday at 10, by phone. I'll text you a confirmation now. Can I take your name and the best number for the call?

Then the firm gets a text and an email: name, number, the one-line reason they rang, and the appointment in the calendar. The fee was stated because the firm had published it; nothing was said about the estate, the law or the outcome. Those conversations are the lawyer's.

When a firm signs up as a law firm, its receptionist carries a set of rules it cannot be talked out of:

Every Giday call opens with the greeting you just read: on a recorded line. That notice is inside the greeting itself and cannot be switched off, by us or by you. A law firm, of all businesses, should not have a phone service that records people quietly.

What reaches you: a summary of every call by SMS and email on every plan, and the full transcript in your dashboard on the Steady plan and up, kept for 12 months and then deleted. Those records go to your phone, your inbox and your dashboard, and nowhere else. The voice provider's own copy is held for 90 days under a retention setting we control. If you want the longer version, it's in the recording-law guide and the data handling page.

Your obligations under the Legal Profession Uniform Law and your practising rules stay yours, as they would with a human receptionist or a call centre. Our part is making exactly what the service does legible enough that you can make that call properly.

Three ways firms use it. All three are the same product with different diversion settings, and switching is one dial code each way.

Bookings land in your calendar through a subscription feed any calendar app reads. There is no link into practice-management software yet — if you run LEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep, bookings reach you by calendar and by text, not inside those systems.

Every plan answers 24/7, books into your calendar and takes messages. The difference is minutes and machinery.

All prices AUD, GST included. Month to month, no lock-in. A one-off big month is billed as the cheapest plan that covers it, never as runaway overage.

Sixty minutes of call time on us, for a week. Card up front, nothing charged, and the clock doesn't start until your receptionist answers its first call. Keep it at the end of the week or don't — nothing is charged unless you choose to keep it.

Setup takes minutes: tell us the firm's name, what you do and your hours, paste in your fixed fees if you publish any, and your receptionist is live on its own Australian number. Divert is one dial code.