Preneed Builders, a subsidiary of Directors Advantage, Inc., today announced the launch of their Aftercare Card Program, a program that enables funeral homes to automatically stay in touch with their families during the first year following a loss.
“Most funeral home owners want to provide some kind of aftercare but it’s nearly impossible to have a consistent program when you wear so many hats. Funeral homes can be slow one day and super busy the next,” stated Ellery Bowker, CEO of Directors Advantage.
If a funeral home is not large enough to have a full time aftercare person then most likely nothing is being done to follow up with families. Even with the best intentions, most in-house programs stall or are discontinued when the funeral home gets busy.
The Aftercare Card Program gives funeral home owners a consistent, worry free program which ensures that each family will receive the follow up they deserve.
The fully automated program works by sending out a follow up survey plus four cards to the family during the first year following a loss. The program includes a sympathy card, birthday remembrance card, holiday card and lastly, a card on the first anniversary of the death.
Even though today marks the official launch, the program has been serving funeral homes since the start of the year. Thousands of families have been enrolled and funeral homes are starting to see tangible benefits. While aftercare is considered primarily altruistic, some funeral homes are also seeing an increase in preneed leads via the follow up survey. Holman-Headland Mortuary in Alabama enrolled 45 families and has already written nine preneed contracts off the follow up surveys. John Cawley, funeral director at Holman-Headland, recently stated, “Up to now we had no aftercare program. We are having good results and strongly recommend this to any funeral home.”
Bowker states that the idea is not new and other really good companies have similar offerings through their insurance company or marketing partners. “What makes ours unique is that it is a stand-alone program and not tied in with other products. The cost is only $20 per family and funeral homes like the fact that they can sign up today and start enrolling families immediately,” Ellery said.
“We have received great feedback on our easy process that lets a funeral director enroll a family in less than a minute and go back to focusing their time on at-need families and operating their funeral home,” concluded Bowker.
More information can be found on the program website at www.aftercarecardprogram.com or by stopping by Booth 3428 at the NFDA Convention in Philadelphia on October 24-26.
Preneed Builders is a subsidiary of Directors Advantage, Inc., a marketing and technology partner to funeral homes for over ten years.
