ASD Feature Spotlight: Reply to Messages via Text or Email

Feb 08, 2012

How many times in your career have you had to leave a meeting or a service to answer an urgent phone call? This scenario occurs in funeral homes nearly everyday, and ASD – Answering Service for Directors was the first to create a solution. We custom-designed our text and email-messaging systems, allowing you to reply to messages without being called by ASD. This feature has already saved thousands of funeral homes time while reducing their billable phone calls.

Replying to messages via text and email frees you from unnecessary phone disruptions. ASD will send you a text and/or email and wait a predetermined number of minutes before dialing any number on your account to dispatch the message. Instead of being called while you are with a family or on the road, you are you can respond via ASD’s website, voicemail system, mobile application, or by replying to the text. This will prevent us from reaching you through a phone call, which can save you money by reducing your billable calls.

Using this optional feature, you can reply to a message with a command to save or delete the message. Simply reply with the unique 3 letter code word located at the beginning of the message (the 3 letter code word will vary for each message) with the command “SAVE” or “DELETE.” This will mark the message in the voicemail automatically. It is important that you do not change or exclude the unique 3 letter code word, as this allows ASD to track your reply to the original message. We created these safety nets to ensure that you are always notified of urgent calls. If you don’t have an opportunity to look at your phone, ASD will follow up with a phone call to make sure you got the message.

“The Text Reply feature is a great help for us. If the on-call person isn’t able to handle the c all, he can forward the text with all the details to another director who can,” says Funeral Director Joseph Kenny with Kenny Funeral Home in New York. “It is very helpful to be able to reply to messages with a text response because we don’t get interrupted while assisting families and aren’t charged for a call from ASD notifying us of the message. This gives us a chance to take care of things without being disturbed.”

ASD was the first funeral home answering service that allowed their clients to respond to messages via text and email. This option combines the immediacy of an instant, automatic message containing all of the information obtained during a call with the convenience of time to respond without interruption. As technology has expanded in the last decade, so have the options ASD offers to their clients, giving them more control over how they receive, prioritize and respond to their callers’ needs.

Text/Email Reply is available through ASD’s Freedom Plus Plan. For more information, please email or call us at 800-868-9950.