Funeral Home Technology?

With all the buzz about “social media” like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the average family has found themselves, like it or not, in the technology fast lane. When families come to you for funeral services, now, more than ever, these families will look to the funeral home they’ve chosen to have some of the newest technology services available. This means that funeral homes (including those who wouldn’t classify themselves as progressive) have to seriously consider technology upgrades as a priority.

The average cell phone now employs several times the technology found in older sound systems. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you have to turn your funeral home into “mission control,” but I am suggesting that Joe Consumer is now Joe Consumer with a computer for a phone. For example, the newest cell phones can shoot edit and publish a high definition video with background music inside the phone and share it with the world wirelessly, in a matter of minutes.

So, why does that matter to me as a funeral director?

People are becoming dependant on amazing new technologies, even in their day to day life. When your families come to you for services, you can be sure that the average family will be able to produce their own video and will want to show a video tribute of some kind during the memorial services process. The days of “we don’t offer that kind of service” are behind us, no matter what that service may be. When the average consumer decides they want a certain service or capability in their day to day life, they know they can go out and get it, because someone else has already discovered a need for that service. A forward thinking company has already recognized the potential in making that service available.

I’m not necessarily saying that the “technology takeover” in our lives is the greatest thing in the world, we are simply stating a fact. The world will never be less “hi-tech” than it is today. Take a look at the last 2,000 years. In the last hundred years, there have been more contributions to improving an individual’s daily life, than there were in the previous 1900 years combined. By the 1950’s, the same number of technological advances that came about in a certain time, would begin to come to the public in half the time. Of course, the discovery fire, the invention of the wheel and lunar navigation changed people’s lives in early days, but today, if you search the internet, you’ll find significant breakthroughs in technology every single day.

So how do I keep up?

Have you ever gone out to purchase a new computer, only to find that by the time you get it home, it’s completely outdated? All kidding aside, it can seem to be an endless, frustrating and expensive cycle trying to keep up with the new capabilities and services that a funeral home can provide for its families. The best advice I can give you is to keep up with repairs on existing equipment and the services that you do provide, and  ask yourself and your families, what services they would like to be able to utilize in their memorial experience.

For example, many funeral homes are nursing along 30+ year old sound systems and all the ‘glory’ that comes with them. When it works like it’s supposed to, your audio system should be a transparent aspect of a family’s experience at your facility. In other words, you turn it on, the music plays, the speaker speaks, people emote and they go home. Interference from a wireless mic, scratchy pops and clicks from an old volume control etc., make the family painfully aware of your sound system, at a time when being painfully aware is the last thing they need to be. The thought of upgrading your system can be easily dismissed, right up till your next service when it happens again. If technology isn’t your first love, you’re not alone. Most people (even those who consider themselves ‘techies’) have found themselves having to deal with the frustrations of aging technologies in an increasingly tech-dependent world.

So, where do I go from here?

Even though it seems that the world is evolving at an ever-increasing pace, there are some things that incorporating new technologies should never change.

•  The level of service that you provide

•  The quality of those services

•  The perceived value of those services

No matter which of the new and improved services that you decide to provide for your families, the most important factor in this decision is that it meets the needs of the families that you serve, and that the quality of those services continue to meet the high standards that you have in place for the rest of your business.   FBA

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Chris Runnels is the owner of Advanced Audio Systems. He can be reached at 513.314.8793, or by email at chrisrunnels@roadrunner.com, or visit www.advancedaudiosystems.org.