Skip Phelps, Director of Funeral Operations at Spring Grove Funeral Homes, was no stranger to funeral home software, but he needed one that was more user-friendly. From reporting capabilities and customizations to the updated Planning Center, Passare has met Skip’s needs time and time again.

Were you using a case management system before Passare? And if so, how did you hear about Passare?

We were using a different program, but we wanted something that was more user-friendly and had more components to it.

And you likely won’t get this answer from anybody else, but I’ve been with Passare since the beginning! I sat on a focus group in San Francisco when Passare was initially a dream and worked with the developers on testing. We’re very happy with Passare and are thrilled to be a part of the continued evolution of the platform.

Wow, that's amazing! So, you've seen Passare grow and develop over the years. What is a feature that you can't live without?

I can’t live without some of the customization features, such as the fact that I can set up my own case tags, custom fields, and custom reports. And I definitely couldn’t do without Decedent Tracking! And the new version of the Planning Center is excellent – 100% more awesome than it was before! Families find the platform very easy to use, and they like the resources that are available to them. It’s great that Passare allows for resource customization, too.

How does Passare help you manage multiple locations and rooftops?

Well, for management, Passare gives me all the data for all the locations all the time, at my fingertips. As far as a funeral director goes, they can make arrangements for any location from wherever they’re at, which is really nice. During the pandemic, we did a lot of virtual arrangements. The management team made sure to provide laptops to funeral directors who didn’t have computers at home so that they had Passare at their fingertips. And they walked through the arrangement process with families just like they would have if the meeting was in person.

How have your employees responded to Passare?

When we switched from SRS to Passare, our staff was a bit hesitant at first.

Even though SRS wasn’t capable of doing everything we needed it to, it was what our staff was used to. So of course, they would resist something totally new and different at first!

Thankfully, we had amazing help from the Passare Implementation Team. They did several training sessions with us, and we were able to learn not just the basics, but how to use several larger Passare features like the Planning Center. Having a dedicated team to help us with the implementation process was great, and we couldn’t have done it without them.

Now, a year later, the whole staff loves Passare.

What's one of your favorite features in Passare?

That’s a hard question. There are a lot of things I like!

My favorite aspect of Passare is the way the software is built and laid out for the funeral directors who use it. The step-by-step transitions to fill out case information make things simple for even a novice user to understand.

My all-time favorite feature is Planning Center. We offer Planning Center to every single family. I mean, some families will say “I’m not good on the computer,” and in that case, we won’t use Planning Center with them (we want them to be comfortable with the planning process). But I would say about 80-85% of the time, the families who do use Planning Center will log on and work on at least a portion of the vital statistics, the obituary, and service details.

What's your favorite integration in Passare?

We use several integrations in Passare and have had great experiences with all of them. We use the first call integration with Answering Service for Directors and the Batesville website integration. Recently, we started using Encore for livestreaming. So, in all honesty, I don’t know if I can pick a favorite. They’re all really useful!

What has your experience been with Passare support?

Passare support has been great. I’ll call them to help me update, add, or change a form. And anytime I send a request in to support, they get back to me right away.

The reaction time has always been outstanding, and even when I submit a more complex request, their turnaround time is always great for those too.

What would you tell a funeral director about Passare?

I would say absolutely give Passare a shot and try it out. Of all the software solutions I've used, I'm in love with Passare. As long as it's up to me, I'll never change to anything else.

Want a success story like Skip's? It all starts with a demo.