Can Technological Innovation Help Reclaim Your Potential? Yes!

My thesis argument is a simple one. Innovations in funeral service have created a wealth of potential for business and personal success. So much so that funeral professionals simply cannot afford to be disconnected from the awareness of their positive personal and professional potential. That awareness is central to the pursuit of bigger and better things; if you don’t have it, you can slip quietly into apathy and a victim mentality. If you find the assertion credible, read on; if not, turn the page. (It’s okay; I’ll never know.)

There’s a lot happening in funeral service today. You have the really big (and big ticket) technological innovations like water resomation, the advent of online marketing tools, ancillary sales opportunities, and web-based memorialization (interactive funeral home websites with built-in e-commerce features), and the continued growth of the pet loss services profession. Let’s not forget the elephant in the room: cremation. The rise in cremation arrangements was long seen as tolling the death knell for our profession yet, when you see it through the eyes of someone confident in their potential for success, cremation becomes a not-to-be-missed opportunity.

FrontRunner Announces New $1.6-Million Dollar Training Facility to Help Funeral Professionals Learn, Grow and Better Their Businesses

As the technological demands on funeral professionals continue to evolve, FrontRunner Professional is creating an opportunity to jump ahead of the curve. Clients will have the opportunity to strategically position themselves to conquer new challenges and meet their communities’ expectations.

FrontRunner has acquired a new 6,500 square foot, $1.6-million dollar facility that will house the new Technology and Training Center. The center represents Frontrunner’s ongoing commitment to set a higher standard, and provides all the tools and resources to help clients truly excel in today’s market.

12 Ways the Book of Memories™ Connects Your Firm to Your Community

It takes more than just a website to successfully compete in today’s changing market. As families and communities continue to expect more for less, funeral professionals are searching for meaningful and affordable ways to make lasting connections.

How can you reach out to potential families without spending thousands of dollars on advertising and marketing initiatives? How can you get your funeral firm name out there in the community as the ‘go-to’ place for all things funeral-related? How can you ensure your company’s professionalism and integrity are showcased?

The answer is simple: the Book of Memories™.

Stop Guessing & Start Seeing Results: Bring More Visitors to Your Website by Using the Words They Google

Keywords are a must for any website but it definitely takes time and energy to figure out what keywords will work best for your website in your community. In our last blog post, we talked about 4 Steps to Knowing What Your Community Types into Google. Once you determine your list of keywords, you then have to use them effectively so they have an actual impact. Pasting them in willy-nilly defeats the purpose; you need a strategy that targets specific keywords to specific pages that incorporate specific content related to the keywords.

4 Steps to Knowing What Your Community Types into Google

Search engines love keywords. In fact, keywords are critical to any Search Engine Optimization campaign. If you don’t take the time to figure out what words and phrases work best, any plans to attract more visitors won’t get very far. And, all the work you’ve put in to your website will be a waste of time and money if no one is actually finding your site online.

To Post or Not to Post Prices Online: That is the Question

In the state of California, any funeral establishment maintaining a website must post the General Price List (GPL), pursuant to the Funeral Rule. There must also be a statement that the GPL is available upon request via a link from the home page unless the words “price information” or a similar phrase that includes the word “price” links to the GPL.

As a California funeral director, I’m well aware of Senate Bill 658, which took effect in January 2013. This requirement may give me a skewed perspective on the necessity of online pricing. Couple that with the fact that I’m a website content writer who needs to keep up-to-date with consumer trends and you’ve got a woman who honestly believes that putting your funeral home prices on your website is a smart thing to do.

The Top 5 Reasons Your Firm Needs a Responsive Website Design

Responsive website designs are growing in popularity – and necessity – simply because of the increasing number of people accessing websites from mobile devices. Responsive technology is different than mobile technology though because it provides one site for every screen and creates an optimal viewing experience on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and full-screen computer monitors.

Note to XP Users: It’s Time…

If you’re still using Windows XP on your computer, you’re not alone. Despite the fact that Microsoft stopped supporting the operating system earlier this month, it’s estimated that it’s still running on 300-million or approximately 20 percent of all PCs worldwide. While change is difficult for many, there is little doubt that upgrading will be the easiest way to protect your system from security threats.

Embracing Technology Any Where, Any Time and at Any Age

Each of us has our own very personal reasons for becoming a funeral service professional. For me, it was my love of ritual. My anthropological training allowed me to spend decades studying the multitude of cultural rituals surrounding death. This love turned my strictly academic career into funeral service where I could work with families to create meaningful funeral and memorial services. Add to that my recent certification as a grief counselor and I think it’s easy to see where my heart lies.

It’s also easy to see that my heart does not lie with the seemingly mundane tasks of case management! Chances are you feel much the same as I do. We came to this profession as a way of expressing our desire to care for others not because we wanted to get buried in the minutia of case management (pun intended). Yet, how many times during the week do you find yourself stuck in your office, feeling overwhelmed by your management and operational responsibilities?

Fortunately, today’s technology can free you from the shackles of your office chair and allow you the mobility needed to serve today’s families.

Password Strategies and How to Keep Your Data Secure

Most everyone by now has heard of Heartbleed and we all recognize that’s it’s not a good thing. But for many of us, we don’t have a clue about what it is and what we should be doing about it. Even when Heartbleed became the top news story, there were conflicting reports on what the average person should do to protect their personal information that is stored online.

It doesn’t help that when you ask a more technically-inclined person to explain this worldwide phenomenon, they tend to roll their eyes at you when you stare blankly at their answer. And, if you look at all the tech websites and blogs out there, their cartoon depictions that were created to explain everything to us ‘dummies’, make me feel even dumber!

So, I’ve gone to the programmers at FrontRunner and asked them to explain this so everyone understands. Thankfully, they are patient and keep the eye-rolling to a minimum or they at least wait until I’ve left the room.