Smokeball + NextPhone: every caller becomes a lead, not a voicemail
NextPhone answers your firm's phone 24/7 and runs your intake. Callers are matched against your Smokeball contacts by phone number, new inquiries land as a contact and a lead, and the consultation is booked onto the right fee earner's calendar.
Get Started Free
NextPhone integration with Smokeball
Overview
Smokeball runs the firm — contacts, matters, calendars, automatic time capture — and keeps leads deliberately separate from live matters so a first inquiry does not clutter your matter list. NextPhone answers the phone in front of it. A caller is matched against your contacts by phone number; a new caller becomes a contact and a lead with your intake attached; and a consultation is booked onto the right fee earner's calendar. The lawyer's job stays what it was: decide whether to take the case, without anyone typing a phone message into Smokeball by hand.
How it works
Someone calls your firm at 9pm. NextPhone answers on the first ring and asks the questions your firm asks — what happened, when, who else is involved, how urgent it is. If their number is already in Smokeball the AI knows and treats them as an existing client. If it is not, they become a contact and a lead, and the consultation is booked onto the calendar of whoever should take it. By the morning the lead is sitting in Smokeball with the intake, the summary and the recording attached.
Capabilities
- Know who is calling before you do - Smokeball can be searched by phone number, so a caller already in your system is recognized on the first ring and greeted as an existing client
- New callers land as a contact and a lead - Smokeball keeps leads separate from live matters, and a first-time caller belongs on the lead side until you decide otherwise
- Run your intake, not a generic script - practice area, opposing parties, incident date, urgency, conflict-check details — whatever your firm asks, in the order you ask it
- Book onto the right calendar - the appointment is created against the fee earner who should take it, with the caller attached and the time zone handled properly
- The intake arrives with the lead - every answer, the call summary and the recording travel with the record, so nobody opens a lead with only a name and a number
- Know which ad produced the inquiry - each synced call carries the channel that drove it, so you can see which Local Services Ads or directory listing is producing matters
- After hours, weekends and while you are in court - the phone is answered every hour of the year and the work reaches Smokeball either way
Leads and matters stay separate — the way Smokeball intends
Smokeball treats a lead as a distinct thing from a matter, and firms that use it properly rely on that separation. A first-time caller at 10pm is not a case yet. They are an inquiry a lawyer has to look at.
So a new caller is created as a contact and a lead, against the lead types your firm already uses. Your matter list stays clean, your lead pipeline fills up overnight on its own, and converting a lead into a matter remains a decision a person makes rather than something an answering service did for you.
What the AI asks depends on the practice area
A family law inquiry and a personal injury inquiry need different first calls. The AI runs the intake you define per practice area — dates, parties, jurisdiction, insurer, urgency — so what lands in Smokeball is what a fee earner needs to decide.
It also handles the calls that are not new business: existing clients chasing an update, opposing counsel, process servers, and the salespeople who ring every firm in town. Those get handled without opening a lead.
Frequently asked questions
Will a new caller create a matter in Smokeball?
No, and deliberately. New callers are created as a contact and a lead. Converting a lead into a matter stays your decision — the AI doesn't open cases on your behalf.
Does it recognize clients we already act for?
Yes. Smokeball can be searched by phone number, so an existing contact is recognized when they call and treated as a client rather than taken through new-client intake again.
Which calendar does the consultation land on?
The fee earner who should take it. The appointment is created with them as the attendee and the caller attached, in the correct time zone.
What happens to the recording and the transcript?
Both travel with the record, along with the call summary and every answer the caller gave.
