Nov 14, 2011
To retain a competitive advantage, funeral directors must live their jobs 24/7, remaining available at all times to families. In order to capture new business and secure future referrals, it is imperative for funeral professionals to protect their phone lines. ASD realizes how valuable every incoming call could be for your firm. By building our own state of the art systems, ASD has designed unique preventative measures to protect your firm’s fragile phone calls.
Working with a quarter of funeral homes in America, ASD assisted with roughly 10 percent of all First Calls reported in the United States in 2010. Our experienced team of programmers have designed and custom-built software solutions from the ground up. This allows ASD to retain complete control over our own systems rather than being left at the mercy of an outside vendor with no real stake in our success. Using proprietary software, ASD can update systems immediately, run internal diagnostics tests anytime, and carefully monitor our programs to consistently provide the highest caliber of service.
ASD’s systems were built solely to meet the needs of funeral professionals. A majority of the features were created specifically to decrease the possibility of a lost business opportunity. Supervisors oversee calls 24/7 to handle any situation that might fall into a gray area. When one of our call specialists handles a First Call, an alert will appear on the screen to notify a supervisor if the call is not dispatched within a short time frame. Creating safety mechanisms within our system eliminates the possibility of a client ever losing a business opportunity due to an operator’s error. This combination of funeral expertise and state of the art technology offers a level of unmatched oversight for funeral professionals. Statistically, ASD clients will go their entire careers without ever losing a death call while their lines are forwarded.
Unlike many answering services, all of ASD’s messages are dispatched by the same operator who spoke to the caller. Allowing our employees to manage and track their own calls means clients receive messages without delay. Unless other instructions are listed on the account, First Calls are always dispatched immediately. Every attempt to reach the on-call person is logged and operators are able to view on their screens when a director is in the voicemail or on another line retrieving the information. ASD’s sophisticated message tracking system automatically generates digital reminders when it is time to reach the next person on call. This prevents an overflow of urgent calls from delaying the dispatch of your First Call—the same operator who talked to the family and understands the importance of the call is responsible for making sure you receive the message immediately.
Founded in 1972, ASD is believed to be the first answering service to offer recorded messages, promoting a transparent business approach that was largely absent within the telecommunication industry until that point. Since then, we have worked to expand the options available to you when you are unable to answer the phones at your firm, creating safety nets within our system to secure your critical calls. These internal solutions were created to provide you with peace of mind knowing that your calls are protected 24/7.
To learn more about ASD’s behind-the-scenes redundancies, check out our Virtual Tour on Google.
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
