Mobit℠: The New Channel for Calls

Mobile phones are rapidly changing all our lives and have now reached into the funeral home industry.

A Michigan-based company, the VirtualVIP, has now launched “Mobits℠” or mobile-obituaries for short.

A Mobit℠ is actually a mobile-app with all of the information regarding a deceased’s final arrangements. It uses several features of smartphones such as navigation, tap-to-call and internet search to make it much easier on the family to communicate the loss to those concerned as well as directions, date, time and location information of the final arrangements.

But the Mobit℠ doesn’t just help the family, it also helps the director in many more ways.

“Mobits℠ were designed to do three things: ease the pain of the notification process for the family, generate more calls for the funeral director and create new revenues for the funeral director,” says Steven Holland, Managing Director for VirtualVIP.

“Newspapers don’t pay funeral homes a dime for obituaries. But they charge the family $200 to $600. So why do it? Especially since their readership is on a rapid decline,” explains Mr. Holland.

A much better option is to do a mobile obituary, or Mobit℠, and get the same information out in a much more effective manner while making money doing so.

“Our funeral homes earn at least $100 to $150 on each Mobit℠. Since the funeral home often does the work for the obituary, at least they ought to get paid to do it,” he says.

Yet the real value in the Mobit℠ for the funeral home is not just the new revenue, it’s the free advertising that comes with it!

Each Mobit℠ is branded with the funeral home’s name and contact information, with links to the funeral home’s phone number, website and mobile website (if they have one).

“If a funeral home does 100 calls a year with Mobits℠ and each of those calls have 100 people use the Mobit℠, that’s 10,000 mobile phones the funeral home has just branded! If only a half of one percent of those gives the funeral home a call, that’s 50 more calls a year!” Mr. Holland emphasizes.

Given that there are two times as many mobile phones than people and five times as many mobile phones than computers, it’s clear the time has come for funeral homes to start using mobile phones for more than just voice calls.

For more information on Mobits℠, call 313-400-9110. For a demo, text the word “Mobit” to the phone number 72727. You will receive a text with a link to the demo.