Help More Families With FuneralDecisionsCRM and NowDeck

Not long ago, Mike Regina found himself in an interesting situation. His Funeral Decisions marketing tool was flourishing. The system he created in 2008 to drum up interest in his family’s cemetery was now producing results for death care businesses across the country. Funeral Decisions was generating tons of quality leads for his funeral home and cemetery clients. 

Unfortunately, though, this success had created a problem. Leads were flowing in, but they weren’t being managed as well as they could be. The customer relationship management systems on the market weren’t cutting it, and the Funeral Decisions team knew this wasn’t the way their clients wanted to do business. They needed a customer relationship management system with features customized for the death care profession. It was time for Funeral Decisions to transition from lead generation to lead management.  

Not a one-size-fits-all CRM

The business world offers plenty of generic customer relationship management, or CRM, options. However, many of these CRM systems came with exorbitant price tags and extremely-steep learning curves. The platforms and their respective “bells and whistles” were more than the typical funeral home or cemetery agent would ever need, let alone want to pay for.

Another problem with the majority of CRMs was that they were built for business-to-business sales, not business-to-consumer. 

“In those systems, a sale or opportunity is the main thing that exists,” Regina explains. “But in our world, we’re not selling a huge order of merchandise to a big corporation. We’re selling personal preneed plans to Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

Funeral Decisions’ alternative to these largely unsuitable systems was FuneralDecisionsCRM. Built from the ground up especially for funeral home and cemetery sales and marketing, FuneralDecisionsCRM is easy to learn and even easier to use. It’s also proven to save valuable time and, best of all, increase sales and customer satisfaction.

Meet Anne

Anne, a seasoned preneed agent, is always looking for ways to get better at what she does. Even though she was averaging more than $1 million in preneed sales each year, she wanted to do more — and in a much more organized way. 

“I was using manual systems that were not very thorough,” Anne recalls. “Things were slipping through the cracks and not followed up on in a timely manner.” 

A 35-plus-year veteran of preneed sales, Anne was slightly concerned about the technology learning curve of a new computer-based system. She was also hesitant about transferring all of her clients’ information from paper to the CRM might be overwhelming.

“I can tell you, for those of you who haven’t tried something like this, it is certainly worth the patience and baby steps to get to where you need to go with it,” Anne says. “It has dramatically improved my sales.I am here to attest that you can teach an old dog new tricks and it will change your life. ”

How FuneralDecisionsCRM boosts sales

Since 2017, when she first started using FuneralDecisionsCRM, Anne has nearly doubled her annual volume. 

“I have gone from $1 million to $1.2, and to $1.6 million the following year,” Anne says. “Last year I wrote just shy of $2 million. And why? Because I am now calling people back in a timely manner. I have all of the previous contacts, whether they told me to call them two weeks later, whether to follow up from a funeral, whether they had attended one of my lunch-and-learns. It has dramatically improved my bottom line for production.”

Unlike many other investments you make in technology, FuneralDecisionsCRM will actually produce a positive return. 

“You benefit financially from FuneralDecisionsCRM in two ways,” explains Regina. “Directly from sales, and indirectly by not losing as many leads from misplacing pieces of paper.”

The CRM offers other quantifiable benefits, such as time you save by automating some of your manual tasks.

“I was explaining to a group that FuneralDecisionsCRM can generate preneed letters and envelopes for mailings in 90 seconds,” he recalls. “One guy turned to me and said I had just saved him five days!”

 

The “R” in “CRM”

It’s difficult to put a price on some of the other benefits of using FuneralDecisionsCRM to manage your prospects and clients. Responding to calls and following up at an appropriate time increases trust and credibility in you and your firm. Plus, the CRM’s organizational tools allow you to spend more time making calls and less time tracking down paper.

“Every morning an agent gets an email listing all of their to-do’s and things they didn’t get to yesterday,” Regina says. “These reminders will keep showing up in these daily emails until they’re completed. This really maps out your day and lets you get more accomplished at a quicker pace. The CRM has helped a lot of counselors to go to the next level because they don’t forget to do things.”

Many FuneralDecisionsCRM clients are also using the platform to manage their aftercare calls in addition to their preneed prospects. They’ll go through the database and make calls to get re-engaged with someone they haven’t spoken with in a while.

Introducing NowDeck

The Funeral Decisions team has continued developing technology to enhance customer relationships and facilitate successful interactions. One of those tools, NowDeck, couldn’t have launched at a more fitting time. In this time of social distancing, NowDeck, a platform that allows document co-browsing by phone or email, lets you connect and engage like never before.

Originally created for use with phone shoppers, NowDeck co-browser technology lets you and the person you’re speaking with look at the same PDF document or presentation in real-time. You simply send a link to the person via text or email and they see on their phone, tablet, or laptop screen what you see. Unlike screen-sharing technology, NowDeck doesn’t require you or your client to install any new software or download an app.

In addition to sharing images of products in inventory, some directors are using NowDeck to explain their forms to families. 

“They can upload a standard form to NowDeck then send a link,” explained Regina. “They can  go over each line item with the family and complete the form as they talk. When they hang up, they can send the actual completed document to the family to be signed.”

Decided to check out FuneralDecisionsCRM and NowDeck?

During the coronavirus crisis, Funeral Decisions is offering NowDeck to death care professionals at no cost. To create a free account, visit nowdeck.com/signup.

If you’re ready to streamline, organize, and amplify your preneed business or aftercare program, visit helpmorefamilies.com to set up a free demo of FuneralDecisionsCRM.