Tools For Helping Families Arrange Funerals In 2020
At this point in the year, you’ve likely heard the phrase “these are unprecedented times” an unprecedented amount of times. 2020 has been a “challenging” year to say the least. The disruptions caused by Covid-19 has drastically altered businesses and how they interact with customers. Funeral service has been no exception. With stay at home orders, restrictions on gathering size, and more, serving families today is quite different than back in January.
Depending on where you live, health and safety measures have been in place for 3-5 months. During this time, it hasn’t just been businesses that have had to adapt. How families and consumers in general buy products and services has changed. While ecommerce and online shopping has already been an emerging trend for the past decade or so, we’ve seen these drastically ramped up. Amazon just reported record earnings for Q2 which is being equated directly to the impact caused by Covid-19.
Changing Consumer Preferences
In recent blog post, we looked at some of the findings in the Foresight Companies recent study on changing consumer preferences. Click here if you want to read it.
One stat that really stood out was related to online pricing. This is something that has been a bit of debate for funeral professionals. During our Wednesdays With FrontRunner webinars, we have several conversations with different funeral professionals expressing why they’re for or against putting pricing on their website. But, after reviewing the results of the Foresight survey, it’s clear that this needs to be visible on your website. According to the survey…
52% of consumers say they won’t work with a company that doesn’t have their pricing online.
As you can see, the majority of consumers want to see that information when they visit your website. It makes sense though, 88% of consumers research a product (or service) online that they plan to purchase in the store. By providing this information, you make it easier to compare their options and make a decision.
Use Quote Builder to Create More Leads
It’s one thing to have packages and information available for families to check out. But, adding our Quote Builder tool to your website can generate more quality leads for your funeral home.
Adding this tool to your website lets visitors browse through your different offerings and even select funeral products like an urn or casket that they wish to purchase. The tool is easily customized to match the branding on your website. Best of all, you get to control what information you need to collect. Once a quote has been generated, it can easily be transferred into a full arrangement within our software. To take things even further, the family pay online too. It’s a complete online solution to serve families throughout the entire arrangement.
200+ Leads In 4 Months
If there’s one funeral home that can attest to the success of Quote Builder, it’s Aaron’s Low Cost Cremation and Funeral in Fort Lauderdale FL. Since adding this tool back at the start of 2020, they generated 200+ leads between January and the end of April.
By having a strictly online based approach, they’re able to save hundreds of hours annually. Don’t just take my word for it, check out this clip from when Sean appeared on one of our webinars to talk about Quote Builder.
Download the Case Study
If you would like to learn more about the success Sean’s firm has had with Quote Builder, click here to download our case study.
Work With Families From Anywhere
While Quote Builder is great for families that are researching and getting ready to start an arrangement, what about those in immediate need?
Our solution for that is Arrangement Aide.
With this tool, we’ve made it easy for funeral professionals to complete an arrangement from anywhere, on any device. In the Foresight survey mentioned earlier, they found that 46% of consumers say they like completing arrangements virtually.
With Arrangement Aide, you can easily access records when you’re away from your desk, help families complete paperwork, and work from anywhere on any device. You can also give families a venue with which to work together, regardless of physical location — so that everyone can have their say and make a contribution to the process.
Check out this video to see a walk through of how it works and some of the other benefits.
Need Online Solutions? We Can Help.
In 2020, families are starting their research online, which means they’re visiting your website. Plus with people being more cautious about traveling during the pandemic, this tool just makes things easier for everyone.
Likewise, Arrangement Aide lets you work with families at a distance so they don’t have to worry about travelling. If you need a signature on some documents, you can send them and have the family sign them electronically instead. It’s all about simplicity and making it possible to work without restrictions.
If you want to learn more about Quote Builder, Arrangement Aide, or our Management Software, please contact us today. A member of our team would be happy to walk you through our different solutions and how we’re making it easier for you to save time, save money, and serve more families. 2020 has created many challenges for funeral service but we’ve got the solutions to help you overcome them!
Let’s make 2020 your best year yet. Click here to schedule a call!
Tommy holds a Communications degree from Laurentian University and an Integrated Marketing Communications Graduate Certificate from St. Lawrence College. He is a Content Marketing Specialist at FrontRunner and focuses on producing engaging content that funeral homes can use to connect with families. In addition, Tommy crafts SEO content for clients and specializes in helping the general public connect with the death care industry as a whole.