June 16, 2023
Written by Peyton Sanders, Marketing Strategist at Passare
I just spent 3 days in Lancaster for the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association Annual Convention.
Did I bring Amish Whoopie Pies back with me?
You bet I did. 😀
I always enjoy attending conventions in Pennsylvania - and it’s not just because of the tasty treats. It’s because I get to visit with our customers and learn how Passare helps them perform daily operations in their funeral homes.
Now that I’m back in Abilene, I was reflecting on all the software tips that have been shared with me from tech-savvy Pennsylvania funeral directors over the years.
Keep reading to discover the top 3 tips that you can use in your funeral home today!
Me, Sharaie, and one of our Passare BBQ legends Chris Calvey from Jennings-Calvey Funeral Home.
#1: Automation is your friend.
Picture this: after dozens of emails back and forth with a family, you finally finish the obituary just to have to re-enter it to your website or print service.
Or maybe you finished entering vitals with a family and then had to go back and enter that same information elsewhere?
These situations can be frustrating and time-consuming.
With software that can automatically re-enter information for you, you can focus less on administrative tasks and more on providing care to families. See how Matthew Deal, President, Supervisor and Funeral Director at Morrison Funeral Home in Oil City uses automated features in Passare to save time:
“The Electronic Death Registration System integration has provided incredible time-saving benefits for us! Now, I don’t even have to leave the building to have a death record produced! The EDRS integration has provided intangible time and mental savings because I only have to enter information once, and fewer errors are introduced that way!”
Sound easy? That’s because it is! With automated features like Passare’s EDRS integration, you can save time and speed up your processes.
Here’s how you can use Passare to sync individual cases to the Pennsylvania Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS) in a few short steps:
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Enter as much first call, vitals, and disposition information into Passare.
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Select your correct EDRS facility.
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Type in your EDRS credentials.
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Press send!
Learn more about how you can get started with this integration here.
Ben, Sharaie, and Brett Schwartz from Goldsteins' Rosenberg's-Raphael Sack's Funeral Home.
#2: You do more than manage cases. Your software should too.
Keeping your case files organized will help you find the right information when you need it and look more professional in front of your families.
A good funeral home software can help you keep all files, documents, and case details organized, and easily searchable when you need them.
A great funeral home software can help you manage cases, get documents signed, evaluate your business reports, and provide an easy way to connect with the families you serve.
Take it from Kris Sellers, funeral director at William F. Sellers Funeral Home in Chambersburg:
“I really appreciate that Passare has everything in one place. I can work from home, answer questions on the fly, and review a family’s case anytime day or night.”
Our user-friendly platform helps funeral directors like Kris stay organized and serve her families on a new level. Listen to her experience using Passare’s online family collaboration tool, Planning Center:
“A family can go back into the Planning Center at any time to add additional information. If they find a new photo, they can upload it. If they find the DD-214, they can add it. There’s so much flexibility there.
None of our families have had anything negative to say about the Planning Center. In fact, after seeing how simple it was to complete everything online, I’ve even had a few families decide to preplan!”
How's that for efficiency?
Some of the Passare team members with TC Cartwright from G. Choice Funeral Chapel Inc.
#3: Software increases your ability to serve more families.
On average, how much of your arrangement conferences are you spending collecting vitals and basic information?
An hour? Maybe sometimes more?
When you spend the majority of your arrangement conference recording date of birth, social security number, and other details, you’re losing time you could use to plan the most personal service.
TC Cartwright with G. Choice Funeral Chapel Inc. in Philadelphia shares how Planning Center in Passare cut his arrangement time in half and gave him the opportunity to serve more families:
“Passare has been a step above the rest because that whole process of entering information once and having it transfer everywhere saves a mess of time. You’re talking about going from a 3-hour arrangement to a 1-hour arrangement. And in that hour, we can talk about more meaningful details. It saves us time, so we can now serve 6 families in a day, versus 3 families.”
Additionally, family collaboration tools can help you and your staff keep all the details, requests, and photos organized when planning the service. Listen to how TC has been able to use Planning Center to reduce the risk of error when helping families plan the service:
“The Planning Center is also great for writing obituaries and things. Recently, I met with a family that had 100 pictures. Those pictures can easily get lost if I’m having to go through emails to find all of them. But with Planning Center it was easy! The family can upload all of them and I don’t have to worry about fishing through all of those emails.”
Us and some of the staff at Charles F. Snyder Funeral Homes & Crematory. 😎
The biggest benefit of using software
Matthew, Kris, and TC all hit on different ways they have used technology in the funeral home to improve their processes. But all of them emphasized this - funeral home software saves them time.
Saving time is important in the life of a funeral director because it means you get more time back in your day to serve families, work on your business, and even spend time at home with your own family.
If you’re looking for funeral home software that can help you save time and improve every area of your business, check out Passare. You can request a demo by filling out the form below!