November 2020

Page A4 NOVEMBER 2020 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A The Hallmark of Life & Death www.thebenevolenceurn.com $97 .95 plus tax 919-638-9177 Hal V. Miles, Sr. Inventor XL industries inc. Call: 406-449-4100 • Visit: www.XLIndustries.com Available Through Quality Suppliers Ladder Racks with adjustable shelves Basket Stands Portable Folding Register Stands Made in USA Quality & Value - Built Just for Funeral Homes! Providing the Best-Designed Tools for Your Services Since 1926. Dozens of products that give you years of service and store compactly when not in use. Lightweight and easy to take to gravesides or churches. Nesting Stands By Nancy Weil When was the last time you took a look at your google reviews? Have you ever taken a look? Have you even claimed your business so that you can respond to reviews as they are made?What about asking happy clients to post a review for your funeral home or cemetery? Based on what I have seen, most funeral homes and cemeteries are not making google reviews a part of their business plan. As part of my job with OGR, I spend quite a bit of time looking up funeral homes and going to their web- site. Most businesses have under ten google reviews. Even fewer respond to the posted reviews. The funer- al home where I worked, Veterans Funeral Care, de- veloped a plan to increase our google reviews and in a matter of months, we went from 6 to over 60! What did we do? We asked. We responded. We worked our plan. Best of all, the reviews that are posted are person- al and filled with staff names and details. This is what you want to have for your reviews as well. Here is a recent example of a review and “branded” response: Random Musings Staff names, client name, military references, compas- sion, acknowledgement of the challenges that the pan- demic has created and even an invitation to stop by for coffee! If you were looking for a funeral home and read this review, I doubt you would look any farther, especially if you came from a military family. There is, however, the other side of this and that is the poor reviews that occur. When I see one and ask the owner of the funeral home what happened, most often the com- plaint was not founded, but it is out in the public domain anyway. This is where responding is imperative. Not to ar- gue or defend, but to tactfully post your side of what hap- pened and assure anyone reading the review that this is not how you do business. I read one that complained about er- rors with the funeral service and the owner responded by acknowledging their disappointment at this family’s expe- rience and mentioning that the staff member who created the situation was no longer with the company. Finally, there is a side to google reviews that you may not have considered and that is the “spam” reviews that have nothing to do with your company, but just someone using an open platform to share conspiracy theories, political plat- forms or “work from home and make mil- lions of dollars” types of posts. This is what happened to one company who had a very low google rating, which I could not under- stand as they provided outstanding service to their families. Upon closer inspection it became clear that none of the ratings had to do with the company, but just opportunists finding an unmonitored spot to share their nonsense and give 1- or 2-star ratings. Here is a sample of what was written: “The master plan has been in the works for many decades. To pull off something this huge, it cannot be done overnight. Currently we are in a psy ops drill… this is all mass deception in order to implement their plan.” And another one on the same site: “Each continent have these harps and also have satellites, they are interconnected here on earth, with satellites in the skies. haarp has the power to do whatever they want with nature, winds, rains, heat, cold, earthquakes and tsunami.” If you don’t want your business associated with con- spiracy theorists, check your google reviews regularly. Take control of what is posted about your company or someone else will. If you want a copy of what Veterans Funeral Care sends to the families they serve to request a google re- view, send me an e-mail at nweil@ogr.org. Ignore at Your Own Risk Serving as Member Resources Director at the International Order of the Golden Rule, Nancy Weil brings her years of experience work- ing in the funeral industry to funeral directors across the globe. Her professional experience includes serving as Director of Grief Support and Community Outreach at Veterans Funeral Care in Clearwater, FL and at eleven cemeteries in Western New York. Nancy travels throughout the country offering presentations on how to reduce stress, combat compassion fatigue and offer support for those who are grieving through her company, The Laugh Academy. With certifications as a Grief Services Provider and Grief Management Specialist, Funeral Celebrant, Soul Injury Ambassador and Laughter Leader, Nancy is uniquely qualified to bring new perspectives into how to best meet the needs of the families you serve. For more information on how Nancy can help you and your company grow, visit her website: www.TheLaughAcademy.com or e-mail Nancy@TheLaughAcademy.com. FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS www.nomispublications.com Monthly Columns online at Ecorial™ makes it simple and easy for family and friends to per- manently record the time, date, and GPS coordinates of any fi - nal resting place outdoors, whether it’s in the mountains, a for- est, an ocean, a yard…anywhere. Biolife, LLC Launches Nationwide Ash Scattering Service GREENWOOD VILLAGE,CO— Biolife, LLC, the developer of The Living Urn® is excited to announce the launch of its nationwide ash scattering services. With Ecorial™ Scattering Services, families can choose from some of the most beautiful places in the United States to be the final resting place for a loved one. Once a location is selected, a family can select a scattering urn to be used, a date to scatter, and work with trained Ecorial™ staff to de- sign a meaningful and memorable scattering event and ex- perience. As part of this service, permits and approvals are obtained as needed and the time, date, GPS coordinates, and photos and videos of the scattering event are record- ed and uploaded to Biolife’s proprietary Ecorial™ app and website. The scattering event and memorials on Ecorial™ can then be easily viewed and shared by family and friends. Mark Brewer, Biolife’s CEO, commented, “We’re ex- cited to launch the Ecorial™ Scattering Services and be a trusted source for the hundreds of thousands of families who scatter their loved one’s cremated remains each year. This service is designed for families who would like to participate in the scattering event and also for those who are unable to attend and would like to participate virtu- ally. It gives families peace of mind that they’re giving a loved one a beautiful and dignified memorial and that they have a final resting place in nature.” Brewer continues, “The more than 30 locations we chose to start with were selected not only because they are beau- tiful but also because many families have a special con- nection with them. Our plan is to increase this to over a Based in Colorado, Biolife is committed to develop- ing and providing unique cremation urns serving fami- lies looking for eco-friendly afterlife options that can be more meaningful and personal. Its growing market leading product offering includes the patented Living Urn®, the leading bio urn and planting system designed to grow a tree with cremated remains, The Living Urn® Indoors, the Eco Scattering Urn, a unique bamboo urn for scattering ashes, the Eco Water Urn, a proprietary urn that floats and gracefully frees ashes in water, the Eco Burial Urn, a spe- cial bamboo burial or traditional decorative urn, and Flow the Ice Urn, a patented urn made from a block of ice. The company is developing additional eco-friendly cremation urns that it will be introducing in 2020 and 2021. Ecorial™ is the leading new way to memorialize and honor a loved one as they Rest in Nature™. When scat- tering cremated remains on land or in the water, bury- ing remains at a special place, or planting cremated re- mains with a tree, use the Ecorial™ App to “mark the spot” by recording the exact GPS coordinates plus the time and date of the event. It can also upload photos and videos of your loved one’s forever resting place and create a beautiful interactive online memorial with ease. This special location can be found forever on the Mem- ory Map™ and shared with family, friends, and, if you choose, the world to see! The Ecorial app can be found in Apple’s App Store (for iOS), Google Play (for An- droid), and on the web at www.ecorial.org. hundred locations over the next year as we expand this service throughout North America. We believe this special service fills an im- portant need in the funeral industry and fits very well with our experience gained as the leading developer of eco-friendly scattering urns and other specialty urns designed to help fam- ilies memorialize a loved one in more personal and meaningful ways.” L ike Us On Facebook! www.PremiumQualityUmbrellas.com Buy a Dozen Get a Dozen FREE! Plus FREE 1 Color 1 Panel Print on all 24. No Setup Fee! Large variety of styles, sizes and colors available