From everyone here at ASD, we wish you and your family a happy and relaxing Labor Day weekend! On Labor Day, it is especially important for ASD to provide support to the funeral service community, which works so hard all year round. In addition to carrying an inner strength to guide families through such difficult times, funeral professionals must also possess robust physical strength in order to handle more labor-intensive tasks. Most people aren’t aware that a high percentage of funeral directors suffer from back issues. Too often, directors will put the needs of the family above their own safety. As a result, funeral professionals sometimes injure their backs when moving or repositioning the deceased all in an effort to alleviate some of the stress family members are feeling.
Labor Day was created to acknowledge hard work and sacrifice—two qualities that are exemplified by funeral directors. We hope you take time today to enjoy the fruits of your labor and the accomplishments you have achieved during your career as a funeral professional. Staying connected to the community 24/7, 365 days a year requires a selfless attitude that should be commended and recognized. We salute you for the unwavering dedication and commitment to service that you demonstrate every day.
At ASD, we support and share many values with our clients. Our back up staffing solutions, powerful forecasting tools and unmatched tracking features were created to give funeral directors peace of mind when entrusting us with their sensitive calls. We understand that sensitive calls from families must be answered without any delay, as a few seconds can feel like an eternity after a major loss. For this reason, our Call Specialists will never put callers on hold and always handle one call at a time. Enjoy the holiday weekend knowing that your phone lines are covered and fully protected by our experienced Call Specialist team.
Last year on Labor Day, ASD answered 98 percent of all calls by the fourth ring, and 88 percent on the first ring! This is because every major holiday, ASD creates a special schedule that includes all of our employees. While our call specialists work shorter shifts, scheduling all of our operators increases the overlap of employees to guarantee the office is never short staffed. It also aligns with ASD’s all-hands-on-deck approach of the office working as a collective whole to ensure the highest quality of service for our directors. We want you to enjoy those rare days off with confidence that your phone lines are always protected.
ASD is the only answering service that offers a RingTracker™ feature that lets you know exactly how many times the phone rang before it was answered by one of our Call Specialist. Clients are informed what ring the call was answered on for every call without exception. This is accessible via ASD Mobile, myASD.com and ASD’s voicemail system. Without ASD’s RingTracker™, directors would have no way of knowing if their callers were waiting on hold for long periods of time. This feature empowers funeral professionals by providing full transparency, offering a level of disclosure still unmatched by other companies. They say you can’t wear white after Labor Day, but clear is our favorite color here at ASD because transparent business practices are always in fashion.
ASD’s Supervision team is available 24/7, 365 days a year so if you need to create a special on-call schedule for the holiday or during a vacation, you can contact us anytime at 800-868-9950 ext 2. You can also fill out our Holiday form to give your extended on-call status. To assess our Holiday form online, log on to myASD.com and click ‘Forms’ in the Information section of the navigation toolbar. Select ‘Holiday’ and fax the completed form to 1-800-306-0363 or email solutions@myasd.com.
With the ASD Mobile App, you’ll never have to answer the phone during a BBQ again! We can send you the details of every message and our systems are flexible enough to allow you to respond to all urgent messages with a quick tap, giving you more time to yourself and off the phone without sacrificing the quality of service you provide to families. Stay in control of all incoming first calls with the First Call Report, which will send the owner or manager the details on all incoming first calls via text, email or push notification, even when other employees are on call. You can also quickly and efficiently change your on-call status, send us service details or re-dispatch a message to a different employee through our mobile app or on myASD.com. You can also ensure that you don’t receive business calls on your day off by using our MobileFH™ and MobileFH™ Texting features to display the funeral home number on your outgoing Caller ID, keeping your personal cell number private.
To recognize and acknowledge the hard work and dedication of funeral professionals, especially around the holidays, we wanted to share this important Funeral Director Fact with you. Thank you for all that you do to support the families in your community!
