ASD’s First Call Connect Feature Receives Patent from U.S. Patent Office

Funeral Industry News Funeral Industry Press Releases June 20, 2013
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ASD’s First Call Connect Feature Receives Patent from U.S. Patent Office

Media, PA—On Tuesday, June 18, the United States Patent Office issued ASD – Answering Service for Directors a patent for the company’s First Call Connect feature.  First Call Connect is the only answering service tool that allows funeral directors to serve clients in “real-time”, regardless of location or time of day.

 

ASD invented the First Call Connect feature so directors could be available instantly to serve loved ones in their time of need. Funeral Directors receive a text message or a push notification through the ASD Mobile app alerting them that an ASD Call Specialist just began to gather First Call information. This provides directors with time to find an appropriate location to handle the new First Call. Clients can choose to listen in to the call or join in, just as if they were picking up a second line at the funeral home.

“As use of “real-time” technology grows, communication between families and funeral directors must be seamless. We created First Call Connect while brainstorming ways we could help make that possible with the technical resources we have available here at ASD,” says ASD Vice President Kevin Czachor. “This is just another example of the ways ASD helps provide our clients with a market advantage.”

 

Funeral professionals can activate First Call Connect by dialing the number sent to their mobile phone and selecting among these options: press 3 to enter the call immediately, press 1 to listen to the call in a muted mode, press 0 to speak with the call specialist prior to joining the call, or wait to obtain call details and call the family back. This range of options gives directors the ability to decide how to handle a first call based upon the situation at hand. First Call Connect delivers control to the director, proving business can be conducted anywhere without sacrificing quality.

 

“First Call Connect makes it seem to the family that we’re right there because we can connect right in to the call, no matter what time of day it is,” says Funeral Director John Paletski at Frank J. Bonin Funeral Home. “This feature also allows you to hear what the caller is saying and gives you a sense of their emotional state first so you can better react with them.”

 

First Call Connect is registered under Patent No. 8,467,515. For more information, visit patft.uspto.gov.

 

About ASD

 

ASD – Answering Service for Directors has created a new class of answering service exclusively for funeral professionals. Family Owned and Operated, ASD has been helping funeral homes manage their calls and their lives since 1972. With a visionary approach to business, ASD has redefined the way Funeral Directors serve families through combining unparalleled levels of training and advanced technology.  For more information, visit www.myASD.com or call 1-800-868-9950.

 

 

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