Jan 23, 2020
This is Part I of a series that will outline the different ways we can adjust and tailor our answering service system to meet the needs of funeral and death care related organizations. In Part I, we will examine how ASD supports casket and vault companies.
“I’m just a vendor, so I don’t think I can use your services.”
Believe it or not, the sentence above has resulted in countless invaluable conversations and relationships between ASD and other funeral-related businesses. At conventions around the country, the ASD team is often given the opportunity to meet fellow exhibitors and learn about different organizations that contribute to funeral service. Many are very surprised to learn about the numerous ways our answering service can be customized to meet their specific needs. This is part of our company’s commitment to providing communication options and solutions to the entire death care profession. We can adjust and tailor our answering service system to meet the needs of funeral and death care related organizations.
In addition to funeral homes, ASD also serves funeral-related businesses and organizations such as casket suppliers, mortuary science colleges and transport companies. If you work in any field related to death care and receive phone calls, ASD has a solution in place for you. Recently, we introduced an enhanced version of our message system that gives our clients the ability to fully customize how information is obtained from callers. Drop down lists, conditional information fields, and special instructions can now easily be added to our message templates. This unrivaled functionality allows you to control the entire trajectory of any call we handle for you and oversee how message details are organized.
Casket and Vault Companies
ASD has extensive experience handling after hours orders for many casket and vault companies. We also work with several companies that sell equipment and supplies to funeral homes. Our drop down lists make it simple for our Call Specialists to easily identify the product the caller is inquiring about and document their order specifications for the office. This is an important concern in today’s age where people will often call at all hours of the day to inquire about products after looking at options online.
Example of a Message Template ASD has in place for a casket company
For casket and vault companies, you can provide us with a list of your casket and vault names to be added to the drop-down menu, making it easier for our Call Specialists to accurately gather the information needed on casket orders. We can confirm not only the name of the casket, but the model number, finish, color, style and gather name plate information. For vault companies, we can also pre-program a list of your local cemeteries, allowing our Call Specialists easily verify location information on where the vault must be installed.
Our message templates also allow us to include special instructions. For instance, if taking a new casket or vault order, you can ensure our Call Specialists see how the order should be dispatched. For example: “Contact us for next day orders only.” In addition to securing after-hours orders, ASD can also give your company back up protection by covering your phone lines when things are busier or multiple calls are coming in. With call forwarding, you can program the business phone lines so they ring over to ASD only if they are not picked up in the business office after a predetermined number of rings.
Using ASD for your funeral-related business can also greatly decrease the chances of a problem occurring with any order. Most of the casket and vault companies we work with specify that messages should be emailed to the office for the next day unless an urgent or time-sensitive request is received, in which case a designated on-call person would be contacted. This gives business owners more peace of mind knowing they won’t lose a client or an order as a result of an important message not being communicated in time. In addition, all casket and vault orders are made available for you and your staff to review 24/7 via our user-friendly ASD Mobile app and secure website.
An example of a casket order displayed on the ASD Mobile app
Using an answering service for your funeral-related business is a simple solution that can prevent missed calls, overlooked orders and lost clients. As we all know, the funeral profession is unlike any other. The 24/7 demands coupled with the short timeframe to plan a service and final disposition require directors to work only with the most responsive organizations. Automated systems are no longer enough to meet the needs of this profession as they so often cause frustration, unnecessary delays and misunderstandings. As the answering service trusted by more than 7,000 funeral homes across the United States, ASD is the only company with the training and technology solutions in place to help funeral related businesses of all kinds enhance their communications to better serve the funeral profession.
Still not convinced? We offer a 30-Day no-risk FREE TRIAL for all of our new clients so you can test out all of our technology, including our Custom Messaging Templates, to decide if we are a good fit for your business. To learn more, email Sales@myASD.com or call 800-868-9950 and ask for Craig.
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
