Feb 21, 2017
ASD understands how important it is for you to
remain connected to families in need. Our company is dedicated to seeking out
solutions to help enhance the level of service you offer to families while also
providing you with more convenience and personal freedom. We are always looking
ahead at the latest trends affecting the profession in order to anticipate your
needs. Over the past several years, we have worked to develop solutions specifically
to help you achieve your business goals and increase your market share. We
encourage you to take advantage of these features and explore the different
ways they can empower you to grow your business.
“ASD’s
use of technology is amazing,”
says Funeral Director, Frank Falk of Falk
Funeral Home
in Hellertown, PA. “We are always available and well represented
no matter if we are in or out. The ability to interact with customers via our
smart phones through the ASD Mobile app has helped us to look more professional
and yet more personal. The fact that we can call someone and have it look like
we are calling from our facility makes us look like we’re ‘always in’. Our goal
is always to look as professional, responsive, and personal as possible. ASD
helps us to meet that goal. Our business has definitely increased with the help
of their professionalism. The more professional they help us to look, the more
referrals we receive and the more our business grows.”
Here are our Top 10 Recommended Features for Funeral Home Growth
1. Shopper
Patching: Connect With At-Need Callers Before They Call A Competitor
ASD has created solutions
to help you capture more shopper calls. We have noticed a steady increase in
these calls over the past several years. Families contact multiple funeral
homes to compare packages, research available options and evaluate customer
service. ASD knows that First Calls are the lifeblood of any funeral home.
We’ve created our Shopper Patching feature to give you more options for
protecting these urgent at-need calls. With ASD’s
Shopper Patching feature, any time our Call Specialists handle a First Call
from someone needing prices or other pertinent information, we will connect you
to the caller so you can provide assistance without delay. Shopper Patching
ensures that the person calling won’t hang up and call a different funeral
home. Callers are immediately reassured that director will be on the line
momentarily.
When can Shopper Patching save your funeral home
business?
- A caller would like to
discuss funeral packages and costs before providing any personal information. - A family knows your staff
personally and only wants to talk to a specific person about a recent passing. - Someone calls to report a
passing from a payphone, hospital room, or a borrowed phone and cannot be
called back.
2. MobileFH®: Keep your Caller ID Private and Your
Communications Secure
There are quite a few unfortunate
drawbacks to using a cell phone for funeral home business. Caller ID, as
helpful as it is, can also cause a lot of headaches. From the risk of a missed
call to the frustration of being contacted while off duty, these problems
can make it difficult for directors separate their personal and professional
lives. ASD developed
MobileFH® to help resolve these issues for on-call funeral
professionals. This innovative solution allows funeral professionals to call
any number from their cell phones and display the funeral homes’ number as the
outgoing Caller ID. Families always know the right number to call back,
ensuring the funeral home never loses a call, and directors can keep their
personal phone numbers private.
Below are some of the benefits of using this new,
patent-pending technology:
- Avoid missing
time-sensitive funeral home calls on your cell phone when off duty. - Families will
always recognize your number when you call them and will call the correct
number when reaching out to you. - Keep your cell
phone number private without unintentionally insulting a family member by
blocking your Caller ID. - Hear a recording
of every call that is connected through MobileFH®
3. First
Call Connect®: Join At-Need Calls Live
ASD’s exclusive First Call Connect® feature can give
funeral directors a competitive advantage by helping them connect with at-need
callers in less time. This patented feature is the only tool that allows you to
serve families in real time, regardless of your location. When a First Call is
reported, an alert will be sent to notify you of the call in progress. The
alert will contain a phone number you can call to join in on first calls, just
as if you are picking up a second line at the funeral home. You can even listen
in to the call in a stealth monitor mode or request more details before taking
over the call. This range of options gives directors the ability to decide how
to handle a First Call based upon their situation at the time. First Call
Connect® helps directors reduce the time it takes to connect with callers in
need, allowing funeral homes to provide a more personal level of service to
families.
When can First
Call Connect® save your funeral home business?
- A person passes
away unexpectedly at a residence and the family calls, unsure what steps should
be taken next. Your on-call director intercepts the call so their questions can
be answered without delay - A first call comes
in while you are handling a funeral service. You listen in to the call in
stealth monitoring mode to gather the information needed before calling the
family back from a more private environment. - A family reports a
passing from outside the funeral home after business hours and asks to be let
in to make arrangements. You intercept the call to let the family know when
someone can meet with them. - A death is reported
by a facility while you are in transit handling another first call. You listen
in to the call in stealth monitoring mode to determine if you need to alert
someone to handle the call.
4. Use
Patched Call Recordings as Training Tools
ASD provides our clients with a Price
Shopper Patching option to be directly connected to at-need callers who are
calling different funeral homes to obtain prices. Many funeral home owners
struggle to evaluate their staff’s telephone skills because they have no way of
knowing how these sensitive calls are handled. With ASD’s enhanced
call patching capabilities, clients now have access to recordings of calls after
they are patched to the on-call director. This allows Funeral Home Owners and
Managers to monitor how their employees handle challenging pricing calls. Call
recordings can be used as staff training tools to help employees improve their
communication skills and reach goals.
Below are some of the benefits of using this technology
solution:
- Evaluate the performance
of your on-call employees with ease - Listen to patched call
recordings to verify information from the call such as names, phone numbers, addresses,
case numbers, and other important call details. - Use patched call
recordings as training tools for your staff to review customer service
techniques.
5. Message
Archive Search Tool:
Easily locate, track and categorize your preneed, price shopper and
at-need calls
Many funeral professionals sacrifice
valuable business opportunities due to difficulties staying organized and
following up on important calls. With ASD Mobile and myASD.com, directors have
access to a helpful
Message Archive Search Tool that allows them to find old messages, call
recordings and dispatch logs. With this option, ASD clients can easily locate
messages by searching for a name, phone number or any other detail from the
call. In addition to searching through all of the messages, directors can
also narrow their search to specific types of calls such as preneed or price
shopper calls. This time-saving feature helps funeral home owners grow their
business by making it simple for them to keep track of their most important
messages and ensure their staff is maximizing every opportunity.
Below are just a few scenarios where ASD’s new Deep Archive
& Search Tool can help directors manage their funeral home communications
- Quickly look up a detail for a form or document from a
First Call handled by ASD. - Review price shopper and preneed calls with ease and use
these call recordings as training tools for the entire staff. - Look up the date of a death from several years ago without
having to sort through a pile of funeral records.
6. Pre-Need Solutions: Customize Your Pre-Need Contact Preferences
Many funeral professionals are increasing
their investment in pre-need marketing and on capturing more pre-need
leads. ASD has developed solutions to help you stay on top of these important
calls. Our Call Specialists are trained to recognize preplanning inquiries as
potential new business opportunities. When a prearrangement question is asked,
ASD can directly transfer the call to your designated pre-need
counselor. Patching these calls allows you to answer pre-need questions
when families are in the right frame of mind to discuss end-of-life decisions.
This gives directors the opportunity to talk to families interested in
prearrangements when it is convenient for them. It also eliminates
the risk of the family being unreachable or not in the mood for the discussion
anymore.
When can ASD’s
Pre-Need Solutions save your funeral home business?
- A caller states
that they want to make an appointment, but will call back another time. ASD
inquires if the call is regarding making pre-plans and assures the caller that
someone would be happy to return the call. - A pre-need message
is taken by ASD, but the on-call person does not respond. The Funeral Home
owner then checks the pre-need report to determine that a follow-up call still
needs to be made. - A caller responds
to the question “has someone passed away” with “not yet.” ASD Call Specialists
immediately recognize this as an urgent pre-need call.
7. Custom
Report Tracking: Keep Your Thumb On the Pulse Of Your Funeral Home Business At
All Times
When it comes to pre-need, at-need and pricing calls, funeral
home owners need to be able to track and organize their time-sensitive messages
to ensure the on-call staff handled these calls properly and no further follow
ups are required. ASD’s real-time dispatch reports enable owners and managers
to see the complete message details, call recordings and dispatch log even when
others are on-call. Custom features can be added to any ASD account allowing
you to organize your messages into pre-need, at-need and pricing categories
online to make message tracking easier than ever. Additionally, ASD provides a
First Call Report that gives funeral home owners and
managers a simple way to track first calls their staff is handling via ASD
Mobile or myASD.com This solution keeps you informed of all new First Calls,
even when others are on-call. This can be especially beneficial if you need to
supervise a new employee, or if a family you know personally is expecting a
loved one to pass.
When can ASD’s
Custom Report Tracking save your funeral home business?
- A high number of first
calls are reported in a short timeframe. ASD’s First Call Report lets you keep
track of the status of each call. The report displays the complete message
details, call recordings and every step taken to reach your on call. - It’s the end of the
month and you need to track your funeral home’s growth and evaluate your
staff’s customer service. ASD makes it easy to review how every pre-need,
at-need and pricing call was handled. Our custom reports give you a breakdown
of this information anytime you need it on myASD.com. - You’re on vacation,
but still want to keep track of new First Calls. ASD can send you a First Call
Report for every at-need call so you always know which one of your employees is
handling it.
8. Transport
Company Solutions: Customize Your Removal Preferences
Today, many funeral homes rely on a Transport Company to handle
removals from a hospital, nursing home or residence when a death occurs after
hours. Every funeral home and removal service has its own specific procedures
that must be followed depending on the nature of the death and where it occurs.
ASD has developed
customizable solutions to assist funeral
homes and transport companies with coordinating removals. We can notify
multiple employees of a passing, contact a specific on-call person depending on
the time or date and copy central dispatch so you always know the status of
every call.
When can ASD’s
Transport Company Solutions save your funeral home business?
- A death is reported
overnight by a facility that has no holding facility. ASD can contact your
transport company team and dispatch the call so that your rest is not
interrupted. - An upset family
member calls to report a passing. ASD can dispatch the call to your removal
team and then contact the on-call director. This allows the director to focus
on the needs of the family without having to worry about coordinating the
removal. - You work with
multiple transport representatives who are on call at different times. ASD can
work with you to create a complex schedule so our Call Specialists always know
the proper protocol to follow.
10. No Answer Call Forwarding: Automatically
Forward Calls to ASD When You’re Unable to Answer
Have you ever missed a call at your
funeral home because the phone wasn’t answered in time? This issue could be costing
you new business in addition to damaging your funeral home’s reputation for
excellence. Did you know you can program your phone lines so that if your phone
line is not answered at the funeral home by a predetermined number of rings,
the call will then automatically forward to ASD? This feature empowers funeral
professionals to speak directly to families as often as possible without
risking a lost call. Many funeral homes enable this feature 24/7 so that if an
emergency or unforeseeable event occurs, they have peace of mind knowing that
ASD will answer the call. This option guarantees that if the funeral home staff
can’t get to the phone in time or if they forget to forward their lines, calls
will still be protected.
When can No Answer
Call Forwarding save your funeral home business?
- You miss a new first call because you couldn’t get to the phone
in time. The call automatically diverts to ASD, ensuring that you can reconnect
with the family in need. - You leave for the day and forget to call forward your phone
lines. Overnight calls are connected to ASD rather than being lost. - You are having a busier day than normal due to a high profile
service. Your receptionist is overwhelmed but has peace of mind knowing calls
that can’t be answered in time will automatically forward to ASD.
Want to learn more about
how ASD’s exclusive features can help you grow your funeral home business?
Contact us at 800-868-9950 or email
Sales@myASD.com
to learn about our 30-Day Free Trail Offer and how you can test drive all of
the features mentioned in this blog absolutely free.
Already an ASD client?
Learn more about how utilize all of the features and technology available to
you. Contact our Account Solutions Team at 800-868-9950 ext. 5 or email
Solutions@myASD.com for a tutorial of all
of our advanced features.
About The Author
Jess Farren (Fowler)
Jess Farren (Fowler) is a Public Relations Specialist and Staff Writer who has been a part of the ASD team since 2003. Jess manages ASD’s company blog and has been published in several funeral trade magazines. She has written articles on a variety of subjects including communication, business planning, technology, marketing and funeral trends. You can contact Jess directly at Jess@myASD.com
