Meet Your Smokeball Team: Onboarding + Client Quality Assurance

When you join the Smokeball family as a client, you start a journey toward running your firm like a business. And your Smokeball relationship includes more than great legal practice management software. At every step, Smokeballers (our dedicated team of experts) support you with hands-on training, expertise and troubleshooting. 

In this blog series, we’ll introduce you to the various Smokeball teams you’ll encounter. First up: Onboarding and Client Quality Assurance.  

Onboarding 

Your Smokeball sales rep introduces your onboarding specialist, and you’re off to the races! During an introduction call, your specialist details every step of the onboarding process, from configuration to scheduling your training sessions to learning about your Smokeball adoption journey — the final onboarding.  

“This first call is really important for setting client expectations and positioning them for the next trainings,” says Ruby Burshem, manager of client onboarding. She’s passionate about building processes to keep up with the client onboarding journey, making sure each firm is on track for success.  

While the client onboarding journey lasts anywhere from 90-120 days, Ruby says, “once [new clients] get to the adoption journey — within 30 days — they’re up and running on the Smokeball platform.” Entering those first client matters into Smokeball’s legal practice management software is crucial for success at this early stage, and Ruby acknowledges it can be tough for solo practitioners to balance onboarding with running a full firm. Smokeball’s onboarding team focuses on providing the support to stay on track.  

“We push early on, ‘let’s get this up and running for you!’” she says. “The team takes our time explaining how to enter a matter and setting up the expectation that onboarding takes work — but as soon as it’s up and running, you can start rolling ASAP.” 

Introducing new technology to your firm can feel daunting. That’s why Smokeball’s team puts detail and care into each step of the onboarding process, so each member of your firm uses your new tools consistently and confidently. 

“That’s a huge value Smokeball offers,” Ruby says. 

Client quality assurance 

No two Smokeball firms use our legal practice management software exactly the same way — and sometimes they’re seeking features or processes that don’t yet exist. And as with any technology, clients will sometimes hit a bump in the road. 

That’s where Alison Lupel comes in. As Smokeball director of client quality assurance, she acts as an advocate and liaison, escalating client issues with Smokeball teams like product or client services.  

“I’m always looking for opportunities to improve internal processes, services to our clients and our product,” she says. Alison is in near-constant communication with clients, building an overarching view of their needs and perspective. She previously worked as a Smokeball senior account manager and retains a few accounts to keep her connection to that world.  

Alison’s role is a first for Smokeball, created with our commitment to exemplary customer service in mind. Her work is a tangible example of one of our core values: Caring is not optional. 

“Smokeball is customer service-oriented, so much so that we have a dedicated person who is a client advocate, who is always taking the client’s point of view and looking for opportunities to improve their experience,” she says. “We don’t just say, ‘this is good enough.’ We’re always there, looking for ways to improve it.” 

Next up: Learn how Smokeball’s Training + Support teams make us different.