Blog Layout
Preneed Appointment Setting During COVID-19
Caden Rhoton • Apr 20, 2020
We are living in an unprecedented time. During this COVID-19 pandemic, the most important thing and number one priority should be the health and safety of your funeral home staff and the families you serve.
During this time of social distancing and self-quarantine, your preneed efforts may have slowed down. Understandably, families may be less willing to meet with someone face-to-face or come into the funeral home to prearrange during this time.
While social distancing does present some operational challenges, it doesn't mean that families aren't willing to discuss their final wishes and prearrange their funeral. It just means that as a funeral home, you need to get more creative with how to meet the needs of the families in your community.
In addition to helping families get their final wishes in writing, another reason to keep your preneed efforts going during this pandemic is to continue to provide income opportunities for your family service counselors.
At Domani, we pride ourselves in helping funeral homes grow their preneed programs by providing appointment setting assistance for family service counselors. Our team of highly trained planners follows up with your families on behalf of your funeral home to schedule appointments with families to prearrange.
We have found that families are more willing than ever to discuss their funeral plans as our planning center has set nearly 30% more appointments in the last month than average.
Our team of highly trained planners take pride in the work they do and share the value of funeral service. With Domani Appointment Setting, your preneed counselors can spend their time doing what they do best, prearranging families!
In closing, we'd like to highlight one of our newest appointment setting clients, Service Group of Oklahoma. They started with Domani Appointment Setting in mid-March, during the COVID-19 pandemic. John Davenport shares some of his experience so far,
"Domani Appointment Setting has been fabulous for us at Service Group of Oklahoma. We started in the middle of March 2020, yes, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have had tremendous success with over 56 appointments set and over $60,000 in closed business as a direct result from Domani."
"I was initially concerned about someone calling from out of town, but this has been no issue whatsoever because they use a local number and relate to our families very well. The follow-up calls have been great and allowed for any adjustments or tweaks. I highly recommend Domani and utilizing this service. For the value they bring, you will see a return."
Funeral Home Articles
If there's one thing we've learned in 2020, it's that it's difficult to predict the future, and there will all be surprises that lie ahead. Businesses and individuals need to stay agile and adaptable to be ready for whatever life throws at them. 2020 has been a challenging year for the funeral profession and others as well. Still, we've seen that those funeral homes and funeral professionals who have focused on making their consumer experience as comforting and easy as possible are those that are winning. At Domani, we exist to help funeral homes help their families have a better experience. Through the power of text messaging, we follow up with families and give them the support and resources they need following a loss. That great experience then leads to a positive online review and helps others looking for a positive experience to find that funeral home. It's a virtuous cycle that helps grow a funeral home's at-need business. When it comes to preneed, the same principle holds. If funeral homes can provide the experience a family is looking for, that will be the funeral home that wins. During 2020, our preneed appointment setting team has found great success in scheduling remote appointments. Funeral homes that have been willing to adapt and find new ways to do business have grown even during difficult circumstances. We firmly believe that technology will help us as a funeral profession provide those better experiences for families, but simply using technology for technology's sake is not the answer. We need to leverage technology to help provide personal, engaging experiences with families. We shouldn't use technology as a crutch or an excuse. It's another way to help the ones we serve and provide them the support they need during a difficult time. As we approach the end of the year and look forward to 2020, take some time to think about how your funeral home is providing meaningful experiences for families and how/what you can do to improve that in the coming year. If you're interested in learning more about Domanicare or Domani Appoinment Setting, please schedule a demo by clicking the link below.
By far the most effective way to create a sense of loyalty to your funeral home is to perform an exceptional service for that family. However, there’s more that you can be doing to establish credibility with families. Here’s three easy steps on how to develop loyalty to your company and ensure your customers come back for your services when a loved one passes.
The vast majority of people in the US and Canada use smartphones. Almost everyone has a smartphone nowadays. Remember when the first “smartphone” came out in 1992 and cell phones like the BlackBerry and iPhone were considered luxuries when they were first created? Now it’s a common sight to see an iPhone. Most funeral homes and cemeteries haven’t even scratched the surface of text-based aftercare, but with 80% of the U.S. population owning a smartphone, and that number expected to rapidly grow.