Think about a process in your funeral home that has changed repeatedly. Maybe it was your scheduling process, how you take payments, or how you conduct arrangement conferences.
When you finally perfected your process and successfully implemented it with your staff, did you want to make changes to it?
Probably not. Why? Because creating processes and establishing them as part of your routine requires extra time and effort.
But here's the truth (sorry, this might hurt): As technology improves, you must update your processes to stay efficient.
When it comes to your at-need planning process, Passare's Planning Center has features to help you stay organized, simplify communication with families, and add convenience.
In this article, learn about 11 smart Planning Center features you need in your routine, plus how they'll benefit you and your families.
During the planning process, you have to clearly define what everyone needs to do to get everything done. These first features will help you divide the work and organize tasks so no one has to stress.
In Planning Center, you can set roles for family members so they know who is responsible for each part of the planning process. Plus, you know who to go to for specific tasks.
When you first assign a role, you can send families a personalized message letting them know what they are responsible for. Here's a little bit about each role:
Viewers can review obituaries and upload files.
Contributors can edit the obituary, view merchandise, and check off tasks.
Editors have the most access, with the ability to make payments, view personal information, and invite other collaborators.
When there are so many tasks, to-do lists are everyone's friend. In Planning Center, you can create custom checklists for families so they can keep track of tasks they've completed and what items are still needed.
You can also create checklists for yourself. This will provide an easy way for you to stay on top of your tasks and add transparency to your processes, giving families peace of mind that everything is taken care of.
Sifting through email threads, text messages, and Dropbox links to find all the right family photos is time-consuming. To improve organization and make files easily accessible, keep photos in one place in the Planning Center.
In Planning Center, families can easily upload documents, PDFs, photos, videos, and even music.
If you're like most funeral directors, you're always looking for ways to make things more personalized to the family. These next few features can help!
Allow families to add preferences like burial type, service type, or other personal details into the Planning Center. Then, families can see what personalized elements they can add to the service, like hymns or a poem reading, that they may not have thought of before.
Plus, before families come in for an arrangement conference, you can better understand their preferences and suggest options that best meet their needs.
Whether you have 5 caskets for families to choose from or 20, families can get overwhelmed when making the right selection.
You can add your merchandise (along with your price list) to Planning Center to give families an opportunity to browse ahead of time. That way, they feel prepared to make the best selection at the arrangement conference. Plus, you get a feel for what they want ahead of time! With Merchandise, families can:
Preview and pin their favorite caskets, urns, flowers, keepsakes, and more
Make selections from your full price list
Feel confident and unpressured in their decisions
With all the service times, meeting updates, or schedule changes floating around during the planning process, it's easy for something to get missed. These next few features centralize your calendar and communication with the family to avoid miscommunications.
Google calendars and paper planners are great - but when you move your schedule into the software you use daily, keeping up with details gets easier for everyone! In Passare, you can schedule and share events with the family. This way, everyone can see upcoming meetings and events in one place. And if any scheduling changes occur, everyone will see the updates in real time.
Have you ever heard the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen?" Obituary writing can sometimes feel like that. Some family members try to get a word in, while others try to take words out.
With all the updates, it can be hard to collaborate and keep up with incoming edits and revisions.
In Planning Center, you can assign family members as editors and contributors so they can work with you to write the obituary in the Planning Center. Any edits or additions show up right away, so everyone is aware of updates. This will encourage collaboration between you and the family to eliminate confusion.
If you want an easy way to get families started with a personalized first draft, check out our AI Obituary Writer.
When families have a question for you, they might text, email, or call. And between all the notifications you get each day, it can be hard to keep up. With Planning Center Messages, you can have conversations with staff and families on a single platform, ensuring everyone is on the same page throughout the planning process. Designed for instant conversation, your staff and your families will stay on the same page throughout the entire planning process.
With Messages, you can easily keep families informed through direct messaging, review past discussions and decisions, and offer timely assistance when needed.
The payment process doesn't have to be stressful for you or your families. These last two features make payments easier.
Whether families are paying with life insurance assignments, credit cards, or preneed policies, they can make payments and view their remaining balances directly in the Planning Center.
When families pay in Planning Center, you can increase efficiency by taking payments directly into your software. See more about that in our article 3 Payment Integrations Every Funeral Home Should Use.
Sometimes, families need a little extra help with payment. This means they might have people assist with funeral costs who aren't involved in the planning process.
Make gathering funds easy when families can send a direct payment link for anyone to make a payment in the Planning Center for cash sales, at-need, pet, and trade cases. No Planning Center account needed!
With Planning Center, you get access to all the features listed above. And all the information from families ties back to Passare for maximum efficiency.
All information entered in Planning Center syncs back to Passare. When you schedule and share events with a family in Planning Center, you can then view upcoming events at the top of a case in Passare to see reminders at a glance. The ability to sync information from Planning Center will keep you from doing any unnecessary data entry!
The best part? You and your families get a central place to collaborate.
Get ready to elevate your routine
Making changes to your routine can sound like it's more work than it's worth. But by adding in a few of these small features we've mentioned, you can make small tweaks to your at-need planning process that will make a huge difference for you and your families.
See all that Planning Center has to offer by taking a virtual tour here.
With Passare, you and your staff can increase efficiency in more ways than just your at-need planning process. Our all-in-one platform allows you to tie together your tools by providing access to reporting, case management, tracking, eSignatures, and more. Check it out in a demo with our team.