Not Just for Angry Birds™ Anymore – How Funeral Directors are Serving Families with their Mobile Devices

I am going to take a trip down memory lane…

Does anyone remember the day they purchased their first cell phone? I can remember mine like it was yesterday; a Nokia 5110 that my mother purchased for me. At the time, it was the perfect device for a mother like mine and a tech geek like me. For her, it was a way to keep tabs on me 24/7 but for me, it was the coolest thing since Nintendo.

At that time, my cell phone was just that, a phone. Now we have handheld devices that I personally use for everything but a phone. Today alone, I have used my device as an alarm clock, a weatherman, a phone book, a radio, and a camera.

Mobile devices have come a long way in the past 15 years but then again, so has funeral service.

I can remember spending weekends at my uncle’s funeral home admiring the Cadillac in the garage and the spotless main floor in the old Victorian home. Back in those days, cell phones were not common, but I can just imagine how glorious it would have been if my uncle had one. With a small staff and every phone call being important, I can remember how he was glued to the phone. It’s hard to imagine the freedom he would have felt if he could have taken that phone with him.

With that small example, I can appreciate how a simple device like a cell phone has changed funeral service since that time. Now, of course, the average funeral director is not just taking calls; they are answering emails and viewing their service schedule using a mobile device.

But it doesn’t stop there.

There was a lot of buzz about mobile websites leading up to this year’s NFDA show. Personally, I am a big fan of anything that helps funeral professionals ‘wow’ families and provide added convenience for the public. With a mobile funeral home website, families and online visitors receive quick access to key information when they need it most.

At the NFDA show, I had a chance to talk ‘mobile’ with a number of funeral professionals who approached our booth. Most of them carry mobile devices and understand the ‘theory’ of how mobile technology can assist them in connecting with their families.

This is the premise of one of our new releases, the Mobile Optimized Case Management System. Designed with the mobile funeral director in mind, it allows for access to information at the click of a button even when not at the office. Our goal was to design a fast and efficient tool that would allow our customers to better serve theirs.

When determining what we wanted to develop in the mobile space, our goal was to create a system that combined the most practical day-to-day operations. With the Mobile Optimized Case Management System, funeral professionals have the ability to:

• add new deceased records
• edit existing records
• un-publish or publish records to the website
• change their memorial tribute page theme
• modify condolence messages and other tributes, and
• view today’s service schedule.

I am sure every funeral director has faced a situation when a spelling mistake was made in the obituary, or a condolence has been left that the family would like removed, or maybe the deceased record should not have been published to the website at all. Now imagine the flexibility of correcting any of these situations while you are at the grocery store or watching the football game on Sunday!

Mobile technology has come a long way – are you ready to embrace the benefits? Leave your comments below or contact us to learn more.