The team at James A. McAlister Funerals & Cremation had been using funeral home software for years. But over time, they realized their current software was causing them to do double work on many tasks.

That's when Rodney J. Pendell, funeral director and embalmer, started researching Passare to see if it would solve their problems.

He wondered:

• Would learning new software be too challenging?

• Could it make work easier and more efficient?

• Could it help them enhance service to families?

Find out in Rodney's full interview, where he shares the successes his team has experienced since implementing Passare.

How long have you been with Passare?

We started implementation with the Passare Launch team in November and December of 2024, aiming for a go-live date of January 1. Kristin, our implementation manager, helped us meet that goal

What challenges did you face before getting Passare?

We were early adopters of our previous software and helped lead much of its development. However, over time, we realized it had limitations.

For example, the built-in checklists weren’t useful, so we decided to create our own through Adobe. We also recreated all of our handwritten paper folders with information about a funeral in Adobe. We were so used to doing things like this that we didn’t even notice we were doing double work a lot of the time.

After 7 or 8 years with our previous software, I looked online to learn more about what Passare had to offer.

What led you to switch to Passare? 

I liked that Passare would be able to improve team communication and give us the ability to communicate online with families.

Plus, all of the tasks in our current process that were creating double work could be simplified in Passare. We would be able to work on a case from start to finish in Passare without ever switching platforms.

Those were just a few of the major deciding factors for us.

What was your experience working with our Launch Team?

Our implementation experience with Passare was positive. The team was very easy to work with.

They were patient with us and helped us get things exactly how we wanted within the platform. For example, when it came time to upload our documents and forms, we wanted them done in a certain way. We created those forms and sent them over to the Passare team, and that was that. They made it easy.

How did you approach getting the whole team to learn and use Passare?

Our team is like a small family, and we treat each other as such. That being said, for those on our team who aren’t as comfortable with technology, we took the time to show them how to use certain features in Passare in a way that made sense to them.

Outside our sessions with the Launch Team, I’ve personally shown team members how we can use the Planning Center with families. That way, they can see the benefits but also get comfortable with how the feature works.

What successes have you seen using Passare's Planning Center? 

Within the last month, I've been using Planning Center extensively. My coworkers are starting to catch on, and they're seeing firsthand how helpful it can be. The ability to communicate in real-time with families has been a game-changer.

One of our success stories involves a family who decided to stay with us because of Planning Center. I started working with a daughter who was planning her father’s funeral. During our first phone call, we set an appointment to meet the next day. After we set the appointment, I immediately sent her an invitation to the Planning Center, and within 5 minutes, she was logged in and uploading information.

Before our meeting, a family member who was paying for the service stepped in and told the daughter they had wanted to use a different funeral home. But the daughter told them she was already invested in our process, had uploaded a lot of information about her dad, and didn’t understand why they should start over with a new funeral home.

If all I had done was set an appointment with her, we would have lost that family’s business. But because she was already invested in the Planning Center, she and her family decided to stay with us.

After that, I've been telling my team to get families set up in Planning Center as soon as possible because it could be the difference between keeping or losing a call.

Are there any specific features in Planning Center that your team loves? 

Our team loves the obituary writing feature. Our obituary writing process has changed over time. We used to write it while we sat with the family in the arrangement conference. Then, we transitioned to sending families home to work on the obituary on their own time and had them send it back to us when they had a draft ready, which we thought was more convenient.

But with Planning Center, the writing process is easier for everyone. Our staff can collaborate with a family to write the obituary in real time. We can literally watch a family's keystrokes as they’re typing. It’s as though they are sitting at your desk, at your computer, typing the obituary. And we don’t have a trail of 30 emails and 19 revisions to sort through when trying to find the final version - it’s right there in Passare.

What other features in Passare have you found helpful? 

I love the Passare mobile features. The app is amazing.

I had someone call me recently. I was walking around the building, and he said, “I have this obituary done. Would you mind looking at it now while we’re on the phone?” I was able to put him on speaker phone, read through the obituary in Passare mobile, and say, “Sounds great!” without hanging up or stopping what I was doing.

We're also using the tracking feature religiously. I have it set up on my phone, and I can look at any time to make sure every item and body is where it needs to be.

Looking forward, what are you most excited about using in Passare? 

We're looking forward to expanding our use of Passare in general. But we are also excited about integrating preneed services and online payments. Additionally, we just decided to partner with Funeral Directors Life to revamp our website, and we’re excited to integrate that with Passare to centralize all our processes and save time on data entry!

What's your advice to someone on the fence about switching to Passare?

To any funeral home hesitant about implementing new software, I would say that Passare is the best software out there. It's robust, and once you are fully implemented, it will completely change the way you run your business for the better.

And in today’s world, real-time communication with families is key. Passare allows you to stay in constant communication no matter where you are.

About the funeral home: 

Rodney J. Pendell is a licensed funeral director and embalmer at James A. McAlister Funerals & Cremation in Charleston, South Carolina. The funeral home serves about 175 families each year.

Want to experience the benefits of great software like Rodney? Get a demo today.