October 2020

Page B8 OCTOBER 2020 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on B www. vischerfuneralsupplies. com For funeral and cemetery suppliers, business has never been more isolating. Often ideas are done in a vacuum. What you know is only what you know, which limits how far you can go. IMSA membership can change that. We’ve brought together some of the top industry experts to offer our members free one-on-one advice on marketing, business planning, legal issues and more. We also bring to our members insightful business-boosting webinars, meaningful trade resources and networking with other IMSA members. All this for just $175 a year. We’re the only association serving all funeral and cemetery suppliers. Because what’s good for the suppliers is good for the providers and that’s good for the families. IMSA. Supplying opportunity. Who Supplies the Suppliers? IMSA members now get free consultation with Dan Katz & Rolf Gutknecht of LA ads, Jake Johnson of Johnson Consulting, Ryan Thogmartin of Disrupt Media and Poul Lemasters of Lemasters Consulting. www.IMSA-Online.com eCondolence.com and Shiva.com Introduce a Virtual Pre-planning Tool for Funeral Homes and Cemeteries MIAMI,FL— eCondolence.com an d shiva.com have released an enhanced Viewneral™ seminar and lead prospecting Pre-Planning tool. These updates provide funeral homes and cemeteries a simple way to invite prospects to attend a Pre-Planning Seminar, stream the seminar and use the automated email system to fol- low-up and close leads. “Meeting with families and in-person seminars will re- turn when Covid-19 is under control, but the advance- ments and acceptance of online tools have expanded the opportunities and reach for the sales professionals in the industry,” says Michael Schimmel, CEO of shiva.com and eCondolence.com. “Our new Pre-Need Planning Tool offers an online service for prospecting; inviting, presenting and following-up that will help support the death care industry. By helping to expand the reach of the sales team, it dramatically improves time efficiency, reduces costs and increases sales, while building brand equity in the community.” Funeral homes and cemeteries that use the Viewneral™ platform also can curate a list of prospects from guests who attend virtual services, memorials, and gatherings. Viewn- eral™ helps families memorialize and join together, while serving as a built-in lead generating tool for sales teams. ABILENE,TX— Passare, Inc is excited to announce the arrival of two new features. eSignatures, an online signature solution for funeral homes, allows funeral profes- sionals to select multiple forms that need signatures and send each form to the ap- propriate signer, all with one click. The brand new calendar feature, available on the Passare platform, allows users to add events to their Passare calendar and auto- matically push those events to their pre- ferred calendar app (Outlook, iCal, or Google calendar), without having to man- ually retype the same event information. “eSignatures is a much-anticipated fea- ture that we are excited to offer to our clients at this crucial time,” said Josh McQueen, vice president of product at Passare. “With many families wanting to work with funeral homes remotely due to the pandemic or simply being out of town, we wanted to provide our users with a simple online signature solution that was easy for both funeral profession- als and the families they serve. I believe we achieved that with eSignatures.” Rather than use a third-party signature software that requires forms to be set up, downloaded and re-uploaded into a fu- neral home’s case management software, Passare offers a seamless, built-in signa- ture option. With eSignatures, the funer- al home’s most commonly used forms are already set up for signatures, making it easy to begin using the feature right away. Once the forms are signed, they are auto- matically added to the case, so they can al- ways be easily accessed when needed. “To get signatures, all you need to do is select the forms you want signed, choose who you will send each form to, and then hit send,” said McQueen. “Then, the fam- ily will simply click to add their signature. There’s no need for the family to print, sign, scan, and email a document. There’s no need to download and upload forms on the funeral home’s end. It’s so simple.” Passare has also built a robust notifica- tion system that will keep everyone in the loop on signed forms. With text and email notifications, the right people will be no- tified of a signature every time a form is Passare ® Inc. announces New eSignatures and Calendar Features signed. Extra security measures will ensure that the fu- neral home’s important documents are protected. “eSignatures is safe and secure because it is login and password protected and accessible only from the Passare platform,” McQueen continued. “Ultimately, we hope this new feature reduces stress that often comes when gathering signatures remotely.” “Funeral professionals are constantly setting arrange- ment appointments with families, planning services and memorials, and scheduling their own personal appoint- ments,” said McQueen. “And oftentimes, they are manu- ally adding individual services and events from Passare to their personal calendar app. We wanted to make it easier for our users to view their Passare events on the go, from the calendar app they use every day, and the calendar fea- ture makes it possible.” For funeral homes and cemeteries, the Pre-Plan- ning Tool includes online pre-planning seminars, registration and prospect- ing, automated email fol- low up to new leads, enhanced profile and ar- rangement center on shi- va.com and eCondolence. com with online appoint- ment requests, personal- ized training, CRM inte- gration and more. Recently, the companies introduced Virtual Unveil- ing and Virtual Dedication, the first of its kind online commemorative tool that can be used during the cere- monial dedication of a me- morial marker or headstone at a loved one’s grave. This is the only Virtual Unveil- ing and Virtual Dedication tool on the market. The eCondolence.com and shiva.com Viewner- al™ Platform is a proprie- tary platform powered by Zoom. The easy-to-use plat- form contains enhanced fea- tures including a personal- ized web page displaying all the gathering and service details, a private link to the unveiling or dedication that can be shared, aftercare pref- erences and a virtual guest book of attendees with their condolence messages for the grieving family, among oth- er unique components.  To help families and their supporters, eCondolence. com and shiva.com offer complimentary access to in depth critical informa- tion, educational guidance about religious and cul- tural customs, appropriate verbal and written condo- lence messages, and curate sympathy and commemo- rative meals and gifts. As part of the extensive Sympathy Brands portfo- lio, eCondolence.com and shiva.com connect fam- ilies and funeral homes through the stages of plan- ning, service, and aftercare with its consumer brands, proprietary Viewneral™ technology, and nation- wide concierge services. The companies provide a modern approach to end- of-life matters. Sympa- thy Brands’ strategic part- ners include best-in-class funeral homes, cemeter- ies, insurance companies, non-profits, bakeries and caterers to make planning and fulfillment supportive, convenient and seamless. For more information, vis- i t www.eCondolence.com, www.shiva.com a n d www. sympathybrands.com. The feature has many different uses, including the op- tion to connect an entire team’s calendar or export in- dividual events as they arise. Passare users can add case- related events as well as non-case-related events, such as personal medical appointments, trainings, vacations days, etc. And different types of events are represented by different colors in the calendar feature, which makes for a convenient at-a-glance viewing experience. “This calendar idea was actually submitted through our ideas page by Jim, a Passare customer,” said Chris Go- mez, director of product marketing. “The ideas page is a way for us to receive feedback about how we can im- prove the platform and a way for our customers to sug- gest ideas that would improve their daily operations. We review these ideas, and customers vote for their favorites. The calendar integration is just one of the many ideas we have implemented based on suggestions from our users.” “The calendar integration is a convenient way for our customers to see everything in one place,” said McQueen. “Not only that, our users save time by manually entering information once, reducing the chance for errors. It’s a win-win for Passare and our customers.” Passare offers the funeral profession’s only funeral home collaboration software with integrated business manage- ment tools. Through Passare, funeral directors can con- nect and communicate with families and access case information anytime, anywhere, using any internet- connected device. Offering unlimited users, devices, and updates, Passare is helping funeral staff to stream- line processes, save time, and spend more quality time with the families they serve and with their own families at home. Call 800-692-5111 or email support@passare. com to learn more about these features. For more infor- mation about Passare’s cloud-based collaboration soft- ware with built-in business management tools, go to www.passare.com to request a demo. ONE STOP SHOPPING for new and used professional coaches and limousines