In 2012, Gaylord Community Funeral Home & Cremation Service handled 26 calls in five months. Today, they’re serving nearly 400 families a year, a 540% increase! That kind of growth can break paper-based processes fast.

For Administrative Assistant Kelly Schoch and her team, keeping up meant rethinking how they managed cases, paperwork, and family communication.

In this Q&A, Kelly shares how her team digitized case files, simplified gathering signatures, and reduced duplicate data entry using Passare.

Can you share a little context about your firm's growth?

I keep track of the numbers in our funeral home, and when you look at them over time, the growth is really clear.

Our funeral home opened in August of 2012, and in those first five months, we only handled 26 calls. Things steadily grew over the years, and when I started here in 2021, we had 326 calls that year.

And now in 2025, we were just four calls shy of 400.

How would you describe your overall experience with Passare?

Our experience has been nothing short of amazing.

I’ve worked a lot of different jobs, and I can confidently say Passare’s customer service is unmatched. There’s really no other way to describe it.

From the start, our experience was excellent. The sales process was very thorough. We had multiple Zoom calls, asked a lot of questions, and really felt supported. Our initial training was great, too.

When did you decide it was time to use Passare?

I started here in November of 2021, right in the middle of our three busiest months of the year. On top of that, I was brand new to the funeral profession. Even with that, I knew that we had to make changes if we were going to keep up with our growth.

The real turning point came in 2023, when I was arranging preneed services for my own parents. I learned more about preneed providers through that process. I brought it up internally, and when we started talking with Passare, we realized that Passare integrated with preneed providers. That immediately caught our attention.

I looked at some other funeral home software companies, but ultimately, they were hard to navigate. The second I opened Passare, I knew it would be easy to use. I loved the look, the layout, and the overall functionality.

What challenges were you facing before Passare?

Like a lot of firms, we were very traditional.

At first, I tried to make things easier for our directors with spreadsheets and Excel statements. The firm had also briefly tried another software system before I arrived, but they didn't stick with it. Later, we worked with a company that handled online direct cremations, which helped, but only for that specific type of case. We still weren't putting all of our cases into one system.

We were doing paper statements and adding everything up on calculators. I remember thinking, "There has to be a better way." Excel helped temporarily, but Passare is what finally brought everything together.

What changed day to day once you implemented Passare?

We still use folders, and I still handwrite some things, but now all of our files are being digitized in Passare. Our trips to the basement to dig through drawers are becoming few and far between.

We can build a package, add a few line items, and it’s done. We send it to the family for signatures, and everything is in the right place and incredibly accessible.

We’re also scanning paper documents and attaching them directly to cases in Passare. So if I need to find a handwritten note or something specific, I can often find it digitally without ever opening a physical file. That organization alone has been a game-changer.

For us, the biggest benefit was entering information once and using it everywhere. Before, you’d enter the same details on a cremation authorization, a death certificate, EDRS…over and over again. Every time you reenter information, there’s a chance for mistakes.

With Passare, you put it in once, and it goes everywhere. That alone saves time and reduces stress.

What was your role in implementing Passare?

I’m the point person for Passare at our firm!

I attend the trainings with the Passare team and then train the rest of our staff. The extended training with Premium Support has been so beneficial. That’s why I’m so thankful we chose Premium Support. I needed to feel fully equipped before teaching everyone on our staff.

We’re a small team, so we couldn’t all sit down at the same time for every training. I knew I’d be the one learning the system inside and out, and without Premium, I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done.

I’d strongly encourage anyone considering Passare not to skip training. The system is powerful, and there’s no way one person could stumble upon all of its features without guidance.

What features do you use every day?

We use eSignatures and Planning Center every single day. These two features alone have changed how we collaborate with families.

Families rarely live close together anymore. Trying to gather signatures the old-fashioned way just isn’t realistic anymore. So, eSignatures make it so easy to get forms signed quickly and securely.

When we receive an imminent call, I start families in Planning Center right away. I explain that it’s much easier to enter information ahead of time, and they really appreciate that. It allows us to spend more meaningful time with families who want to come in, while still supporting those who prefer phone calls, messaging, or online arrangements through Messages.

Does your team use Passare Mobile?

Yes, and it has been really helpful!

We mostly use it to mark cremated remains as they are released to families. And our removal team uses Passare Mobile heavily for tracking purposes. If a call comes in while we’re out, we can quickly check whether there’s a preneed on file, which is huge.

Having access on the go makes a big difference.

Would you recommend Passare to a colleague?

I absolutely would recommend Passare, even to smaller firms!

I don't want smaller funeral homes to think, "Oh, we only do 200 calls, we don't need something like Passare." I'd actually encourage them to get on board sooner rather than later, because growth has a way of sneaking up on you.

Early on, I spoke with other firms that said, “The software is good, but I don’t use it to its full extent.” My goal was always to be able to say, “We really do use everything Passare offers.”

There are still features we want to try, and that’s okay because we have a plan. You have to give yourself grace and time to learn. We are in it for the long haul.

The time savings, the accessibility, the organization…it’s all invaluable. I truly don’t think there’s a stone left unturned in this software.

About the funeral home:

Gaylord Community Funeral Home & Cremation Service is located in Gaylord, Michigan, and serves around 400 families each year.

Want to scale without the paper chaos?

See how Passare helps funeral homes digitize case files, simplify forms and signatures, and keep everyone on the same page even as call volume grows.