Aug 15, 2019
Imagine a solution that allows families to send a text message to the funeral home’s main business number and funeral directors to respond without using their personal cell phone number. Developed in-house by ASD, MobileFH® Texting makes this possible by allowing funeral homes to send and receive text messages from anywhere using the funeral home phone number as the sending number.
One of the things we have learned from working exclusively with funeral professionals for more than 45 years is that it is nearly impossible for our clients to set boundaries between their professional and personal lives. For years, funeral professionals have needed a solution for the problems they experience when using cell phones for business text messaging. After hearing about these problems from so many of our clients, ASD set out create our own solution. MobileFH® Texting finally puts an end to so many on-call dilemmas funeral professionals experience, giving ASD clients more control, better privacy, enhanced communication, improved organization and so much more!
Watch our videos below to see just how many everyday challenges MobileFH® Texting can eliminate for you!
Problem #1: On-call directors cannot keep their personal cell phone number private
MobileFH® Texting connects the funeral home’s business line or any other funeral home number to the ASD Mobile app, giving funeral professionals the flexibility to send text messages without disclosing their personal cell phone number. Instead of on-call directors being forced to continually give out their cell phone numbers, sometimes to people who will abuse it (such as in the example above), they can protect and maintain their privacy. Over the years, we have heard from so many directors who shared with us that they purchased a second cell phone because they so badly needed to separate their personal and business communications. Now, funeral professionals no longer have to be faced with this frustrating decision.
Problem #2: Families and other contacts are likely to text information to wrong person
For funeral homes with an alternating on-call schedule, the use of text messaging can lead to other headaches when a family texts a director who is no longer on-call and has stopped monitoring their phone. There are so many time-sensitive aspects to a funeral service: caskets need to be ordered on time, obituaries need to be sent before deadlines, clergy members need advance notice. A single missed text message can have quite a snowball effect.
MobileFH® Texting allows multiple on-call directors and funeral home staff to seamlessly collaborate with messages, documents or photos that are sent or received via text message, ensuring that nothing is ever overlooked. Text messages sent to the funeral home number can be dispatched to multiple funeral directors simultaneously, ensuring coordinated client interactions. On-call directors are able to customize how and when they receive funeral home text messages using the ASD Mobile app, which logs all text communications and safely stores photos or other attachments.
MobileFH Texting® is not only great for funeral home teams, but it’s a wonderful customer service tool as well. Families and other contacts can easily recognize incoming text messages from the funeral home and have added peace of mind, never having to doubt if they are using the correct number when sending sensitive information to the funeral home via text.
Problem #3: On-call directors are often unable to relax on their days off
Is a vacation really a vacation if you are responding to funeral-related texts the entire time? We think not! Funeral professionals work hard and their personal time is so limited, which is why we created MobileFH® Texting to help our clients to relax and recharge during those rare days off. Burnout is a major issue in this profession and ASD is committed to helping funeral directors overcome it. So, no more worrying about overlooking an urgent text when you are taking a dip or going on a bike ride. In fact, you can leave your phone on airplane mode for your entire vacation without fear of missing any important communication.
Problem #4: Difficulty of locating important information communicated via text
In the past, when a funeral director needed to find a piece of data that was communicated by a family member or other contact via text message, it often proved to be quite a hassle. With multiple on-call directors using separate phones, tracking down a simple piece of information can become a full-scale treasure hunt. With MobileFH® Texting, funeral home teams have access to a shared text message log that every employee can access 24/7. You can even label messages to make it easier to locate specific communications. With an increasing number of families sending over important documents and photos via text attachments, having a centralized location for all of these important messages will only become more crucial over time.
Problems #5: Managers have no way to monitor their staff’s text communications
When vital information is being communicated in a text message that only one employee has access to, it can make funeral home staff, and particularly owners and managers, a little nervous. With no way to monitor what is being said or to obtain information sent, owners and managers may even come to view text messaging in a negative light because of the lack of control they feel when it comes to monitoring their teams. MobileFH® Texting provides much needed oversight by storing all text communication within the ASD Mobile app. This ensures owners and managers are no longer left in the dark and can easily review their staff’s handling of questions or requests sent via text message.
MobileFH® Texting is the first and only text message solution that helps facilitate mobile communications for on-call funeral directors. Today, there are more than 600 funeral directors regularly using MobileFH® Texting and that number grows every day as more directors discover just how many problems this mobile tool can solve. We are very eager to give every ASD client access to this feature and look forward to releasing MobileFH™ Texting to our Android user clients by the end of 2019. Our Tech Team is currently in the process of finalizing the latest version of our Android app and it will be ready for internal testing within the next several weeks. For those directors who have assisted us with beta testing in the past, be on the lookout for invitation to join our MobileFH™ Texting beta program in the coming months.
For more information about MobileFH® Texting or for assistance with enabling this feature, please email support@myASD.com or call 800-868-9950 ext 5.
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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
