Virtual receptionist in Brisbane: an AI receptionist built here, answering here

Most virtual reception pages open with big promises. This one opens with a measured window of real numbers, because the first business Giday ever answered for is a locksmith right here in Brisbane — live since late July 2026, quoting from the price book and booking jobs into a live calendar while the owners are out on the tools.

Here's what that one Brisbane phone line did between 30 July and 22 August 2026:

Jobs booked mid-call, priced quotes given over the phone from the price book, messages relayed to the owner by text — and every booking in that measured window synced to the owner's job system and was confirmed to the customer by SMS. That's not a demo reel — it's a working Brisbane trade business getting its phone answered properly while the owner's on the tools. The same engine is what's on offer here, on plans from $19 a month — booking from Starter ($49), quoting and the job-system link from Busy ($149).

Giday is a Launchr product, and Launchr is a Brisbane company. We didn't pick this city to open a sales office — we built the thing here, tested it here, and put it to work on a Brisbane phone number first.

That matters, because Brisbane is a tradie town. Plumbers, sparkies, locksmiths, pest controllers, air-con techs, roofers — a huge slice of this city's economy is one person in a ute whose office is the passenger seat. When you're elbow-deep in a job at Chermside, the caller from Carindale doesn't wait around. A caller who hits voicemail often just rings the next name on the list. Giday exists to make sure your phone gets answered instead.

It's built for the whole southeast sprawl, too. Whether your run covers the northside, the southside, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay or the Redlands, Giday answers the same way — your number, your greeting, your prices, wherever the ute happens to be. If you're on the tools, the Giday for tradies page walks through the trade call flows in detail.

And then there's storm season. When a summer cell rolls across the southeast, every roofer, arborist and sparkie's phone lights up at once — usually while those same roofers, arborists and sparkies are up ladders. Giday keeps answering through the surge and, from Starter, books what can be booked and texts you the urgent ones; on Essentials, the lot is emailed to you, urgent ones flagged. If a wild month blows past your plan's minutes, the phone keeps answering and extra minutes are 50c each; if a bigger plan would have cost less, we email you the figures. The arithmetic is on our pricing page.

Most Brisbane businesses looking for a telephone answering service are weighing up a per-call human service against doing it themselves. Giday sits in between: an answering service that picks up straight away, in your business's name, at any hour, for a monthly plan instead of a fee per call.

On the one Brisbane line we measured — a locksmith's, 30 July to 22 August 2026 — one call in five came in outside business hours and one in ten on a weekend. Those are the calls voicemail loses and per-call services surcharge. Giday answers them at the same price as a Tuesday morning, with no after-hours surcharge on any plan.

A sparky in Chermside, a salon in Paddington, a pest controller in Wynnum or a property manager in Newstead: it works the same way. Divert the calls you miss, and Giday takes the message (emailed, on Essentials at $19 a month) or books the job into your calendar and texts the customer (Starter, $49). Every plan is on the pricing page, and if all you need is calls answered and messages emailed, see the pay-as-you-go answering service.

Queensland famously doesn't do daylight saving, and Giday doesn't ask you to think about it. Our home clock is Brisbane's clock. Your bookings land in your calendar in your time, your business hours mean what you think they mean, and nothing shifts an hour sideways twice a year.

Same-city support is the quieter benefit. The people who built Giday live where you work. When you want a tweak — a new price on the list, a different greeting, a change to the after-hours rule — you're dealing with a Brisbane outfit on Brisbane time, not a support queue on the other side of the world.

The after-hours side matters here more than most places, too: think of every February night an air-con dies in a Queenslander at 9pm. Those calls get answered like every other call, with no after-hours surcharge — ever. From Starter, the caller is offered your next business-hours time against your real availability and, if you've chosen to have emergencies put through after hours, they go straight to the number you chose. On Essentials, the details come to you by email, urgent ones flagged, for you to book yourself. There's a whole page on how after-hours answering works.

No new number, no new hardware, no lock-in. Diversion works from any Australian carrier — Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, or the VoIP system your office runs — and it's one dial code to switch on, one to switch off.

Five monthly plans — Essentials at $19, Starter at $49, Steady at $99, Busy at $149 and Flat Out at $299 a month, all AUD with GST included. Booking is included from Starter up, not sold as an extra. No setup fee, month to month, cancel any time. The published minute and SMS allowances, the overage rate and the full feature list live on the pricing page.

Go over your minutes and it's 50c a minute past your allowance, on every plan. If a bigger plan would have cost less for the month, we email you the figures — moving is your choice.

Ask and it tells you straight away it's a virtual receptionist, not a person. No pretending, no uncanny games. Callers who want a human can be put through to you (Starter and up) or leave a message.

We think the honesty is a feature. Your customers get a straight answer — and from Starter, a real booking and a text confirmation. You get the call log, with the full transcript on Steady and up. Everyone knows where they stand.

Diversion doesn't care about geography — Giday can answer any Australian number, anywhere. There are pages for Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin and Hobart, each on its own clock. For the full picture of what a Giday receptionist does, start at the virtual receptionist page — or see how we stack up as a phone answering service against the per-call incumbents.