Jeff Nichols, Funeral Director and Owner at Nichols Bewley Funeral Home & Cremation Services, has been in funeral service for more than 40 years. And while he’s seen all the “old-fashioned way” of doing things in the funeral home, his outlook on technology is cutting-edge.
In this article, Jeff shares why embracing technology, no matter your call volume, is essential. Jeff also shares how tools like eSignatures, barcode tracking, and Planning Center have helped him better serve families.
Our experience with Passare has been very positive. We’ve used other software over the years, but with Passare, we finally feel like we’re at home with a software. Passare is logically laid out, and it’s easy to use.
We first started using funeral home software in 2003. For a time, it was good. We knew the system, and we were comfortable with it.
But when the company was acquired, things changed. The new system was less user-friendly, harder to learn, and the support wasn’t great.
That was a turning point. We realized we needed software that was more user‑friendly. We talked with a friend in funeral service who had been using Passare for years, and he highly recommended it, so we decided to take a closer look.
We looked at other systems for about a year before making our decision, and Passare stood out as the most logically laid out and easy to use. During our software search, the Passare sales team was patient with us, explained the software well, and answered all of our questions.
The transition to Passare was easy for us. When we decided we needed new software, we were concerned about the learning curve that would accompany a switch. But with Passare, there really wasn’t much of a learning curve.
And if we do ever have a question, support is fantastic. We hear back in minutes, whereas with other support teams we might wait days.
Planning Center has been great and has cut down on a lot of our paperwork. It’s also helped us communicate with families. We use the messaging feature, and it’s been huge.
The first time we interact with a family, we invite them to collaborate by letting them know to watch their phone or email for a link to get started in Planning Center. If we don’t catch them in person, we mention it during the first phone call.
For our last several calls, we’ve used Planning Center with every family, and they’ve all been comfortable with it.
eSignatures has been another big help, especially when we work with families who are out of town.
Before eSignatures, we’d scan forms, email them, ask families to print them, sign, scan, and send back. But then we started learning just how many people don’t even have a printer at home. Some families had even talked about going to FedEx just to print a form.
Now, getting signatures is so much easier for everyone involved. For example, we recently had family members out of state who needed to sign a cremation authorization form but weren’t going to be here for a week. We didn’t have time to wait, and eSignatures came to the rescue.
We pulled up our form in Passare, formatted it, and sent it off for the family to sign.
Before we used Passare for tracking, my co‑owner and I knew everyone who came through our funeral home.
But then we started asking: What if something happened and one of us wasn’t there? What if we had several decedents in the prep room, and I was out sick? How would anyone know which individual belonged to which family?
That’s when we started to realize we needed a better system. Then, the state of Illinois eventually required more formal tracking, so we started with paper. That quickly became a pain.
Now, we use Passare Barcode tracking, and we can make tracking updates or check details on our phones. A couple of taps, and everything is logged in the system, no stacks of paper to manage and no scrambling if the state wants to review records. All of our tracking information is organized in Passare.
Yes, we integrate Passare with Tukios and Messenger. Those integrations save us a ton of time. Instead of manually entering the same information over and over into different systems, all the information automatically goes where it needs to when adding things to our website or creating print materials.
I would absolutely recommend Passare to a colleague. If you aren’t already using technology, it’s time to get there. Even small firms need tools that keep them current, organized, and ready to meet families’ expectations.
Whether you’re 5 calls or 500 calls, it’s important to stay ahead in the area of technology. I’ve been in the funeral business for about 40 years, so I remember all the old ways of doing things.
Being a smaller firm, we’ve continued some processes on paper. But the reality is, younger folks have different expectations, and the old way just isn’t working for them. That’s why it’s important to move ahead.
About the funeral home:
Jeff Nichols serves as Owner and Funeral Director at Nichols Bewley Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Aledo, Illinois.
See how Passare can cut paperwork, simplify tracking, and make it easier to connect with every family you serve. Get a demo below.