Can You Successfully Adopt Funeral Service Technology? Yes!

Company Spotlight: Neil Bardal Funeral, Inc. Funeral Centre

How successfully does your firm incorporate technology? A few months ago, we connected with Richard Rosin, of the Neil Bardal, Inc. Funeral Centre in Manitoba, Canada, to see what he had to say about the real value of technological innovations—like webcasting, for example—to their firm. Why did we choose them?

Because the founder of the firm, Neil Bardal, was always looking for new, better ways of doing things, they are a very unusual firm—always ready to embrace new technology whenever they discover it. And they discovered webcasting early.

In fact, they recorded their very first service in the late 1980s, on behalf of the family of the deceased who were living in Australia. Since that time they continued to refine their webcasting services as technological advances and innovations were made. And all that effort has paid off. “Demand really started to pick up four years ago,” Richard confided, and the funeral home officially added webcasting to its list of services last summer.

Controlling Your Domain Name

Picture this scenario: Just as you go to register your firms Internet address—or “domain name”—you quickly realize it’s gone! It’s been taken by another firm with the same name, a disgruntled former employee, or your competitor down the street!

Those who had the foresight and were proactive enough to properly register their firms Internet address some 7-8 years ago, know what a sound investment it has been for their firms future. For others who “thought” they did everything right in purchasing their firms domain, often they quickly find out that the domain is registered owner of the website developer they hired, the large vendor they trusted or in the legal name of the website hosting firm they chose.

The Power of 30+ Funeral Directors in One Room

If there is one thing that can be said about 30+
eager-to-learn funeral directors in a single room, it is that great ideas flow. As one of the presenters on this year’s Funeral Business & Technology Workshop Cruise, I have to say that I am thrilled with the amount of excellent ideas that came from such a great group of funeral directors. They joined us from all over North America – from Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts; and all parts of Canada and some even further afield. So much was learned—I want to share just a few things that our great group came up with!