Flanner Buchanan is a large operation that serves approximately 3,500 families a year across their 17 locations in Indiana. A business of that size needs specialized attention and service - two things Jan Smith, Vice President of Funeral Operations, realized they weren’t receiving with their former software company.

That’s when their team decided to sign up with Passare. Not only are they receiving training and support at a premium level, but they also have the customization they need to make the software work for their business.

What challenges were you facing in your business before using Passare?

We were initially with a family-based company, but they sold to another company. After that, their service and attention to our business decreased. We were not getting responses quickly. We would ask for changes or things that needed to be fixed in our system, and the turnaround would be up to 4 weeks. When you have a business our size, you cannot wait that long to implement changes. We had so many people using our system and so many families being affected.

Even though we were one of the larger accounts for them, the partnership felt strictly like a vendor relationship.

It ultimately became challenging to get anything done. We also were limited on our end because we couldn’t generate reports or make any changes to pre-existing reports. Our business was dependent on the speed and promptness of their end, which was lacking. So, we decided to find a better fit.

How did Passare help you address those challenges?

We have been working primarily with the Premium Launch team, and they have been absolutely amazing with communication. They are always quick to follow up, which we appreciate. Also, it feels like we are working with other funeral directors because they are all knowledgeable in the field and know all the lingo. When I ask questions, they know exactly what I'm asking. I don’t have to spend time explaining how our business operates.

Passare is also very user-friendly and allows us all the access we need right in our hands, which means I can create a lot of my reports.

Plus, with 17 locations, we need customization in our software. Passare always listens to us to make the software work for our business.

Our experience with Passare has been excellent so far. It truly feels like we are working with a partner who views the working relationship like a team.

It sounds like Passare has been able to handle a large number of cases from your funeral home. How was the process of transferring all of the information over?

Moving information over from our old database to Passare was no small task. Fortunately, Passare has been equipped to help us work through that part of things and make sure everything is correct.

There is a lot of room for error with the amount of information we have in our files, and Passare has thought through all of the logistics for us. The team takes every precaution before they move a file to make sure it will all pull correctly.

The Passare team does their due diligence to make sure things are going to be smooth and accurate. I've been licensed for about 25 years and have helped lead at least 5 database transitions, and this has by far been the smoothest I’ve ever encountered.

How has Passare helped you in the past few months of being live? 

Passare has mainly helped us with the efficiency of the whole production.

We have about 100 staff members on our funeral team, which means we have a lot of people to integrate and train. The training process was thorough and organized. The training included methods that catered to multiple different learning styles. We felt confident that each employee was learning the software in the best way that suited them. The confidence in the training made the switch easier, and the jump felt less intimidating. We all felt ready to go.

What would you say your favorite feature has been so far?

We love the ease of filtering cases. On our end, we can filter out details so that we are only viewing the cases that we need. It makes searching the database a lot more streamlined.

Plus, the preneed-to-at-need case conversion saves us a ton of time. Instead of having to re-enter all of the case information again, we can push a button, and all of the information transfers to an at-need case. It seems like such a simple feature, but it has reduced so much time on our processes.

Do you have any favorite integrations in Passare?

We are in the process of moving forward on integrating with Messenger, Tukios, and Answering Service for Directors. We can’t wait to see how much time those integrations save us.

We’ve had to take baby steps, but Passare and the team have been extremely patient with us. When you are trying to move a big ship, you can’t just take a hard right turn and expect everything to fall in place. There is a lot of routing and mapping out that has to happen for us to change course completely.

That said, we hope to be fully integrated and utilize all the features in a year. We decided to take things slow and implement them in phases based on importance and our immediate needs. We are excited to see the progress even in the next 6 months. Hopefully, the software will continue to get better and better the more we discover and implement.

The future looks exciting.

Would you recommend Passare to a colleague, and why?

My experience working with Premium Support has been awesome. Like I’ve previously mentioned, reliable support was a huge concern of mine, but the Passare team has been so helpful and thorough when we have questions.

Any time you implement something new, especially software, you need some extra support in the beginning because it’s such a big change. But Premium Support at Passare was there for us every step of the way and still is. It’s been great.

Would you recommend Passare to another funeral home? 

Yes, absolutely! We already have, and we will continue to do so. We come in contact with a lot of other funeral homes. We always talk about our operations and what a wonderful experience we have had with Passare. It seems many other funeral homes have had similar experiences, so I feel confident recommending Passare.

Moving to Passare has been the easiest transition we’ve ever done.

That’s amazing to hear. Was there anything else you would like to add?

Anytime we have had more significant issues, the Support team is always on top of it. They feel our urgency and understand how quickly things need to be resolved if there is an issue.

Everybody works as a team, and the experience has been a breath of fresh air. We trust that it's a true partnership

About the funeral home:

Jan Smith is the Vice President of Funeral Operations of Flanner Buchanan. Each year they serve around 3,500 families across their 17 different locations in Indiana.

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