Over 2,500 people per month search the phrase, “funeral home near me.” If someone searches for a funeral home in your market, will yours be the one they call?
In this article, we’re going to show you how to beat your competition through funeral home review generation in three easy steps.
Step 1: Provide Effective Aftercare
To start off, if you’re not keeping in contact with your families after the funeral through aftercare, you’re likely not going to good reviews. Even if your funeral home does receive some good reviews, you likely aren’t going to get many.
Staying in touch with families through aftercare allows you to maintain the relationship your funeral home has with the family, build brand loyalty, and if done correctly, can provide the families with a way to ask questions and tie up any loose ends that may exist after the funeral service.
If your funeral home is not doing any sort of aftercare, we suggest you start. Some examples of ways that funeral homes keep in touch with their families after the funeral service include:
- Sending cards
- Making personal phone calls
- Sending personal text messages
- Hiring an in-house aftercare specialist
- Choosing an effective third-party aftercare program
No matter what you choose when it comes to aftercare, the important thing is that you choose to do aftercare. You will strengthen the relationships with your families and build brand loyalty by maintaining open communication.
In addition to building and strengthening the relationship, one of the benefits for funeral homes of running an aftercare program is the ability to maintain the conversation.
Step 2: Identify Brand Champions
Through conversations with your families after the funeral service, you’re able to identify your brand champions. In other words, those who had a great experience with your funeral home and would be willing to share that experience in the form of an online review.
We understand that not everything goes exactly according to plan all the time. But by maintaining the conversation with your families, you can also identify those who may not be as satisfied initially and turn them into brand champions through your aftercare efforts.
Step 3: Ask For the Review
The last part of funeral home review generation is simply, “Ask for the review.” Though seemingly simple, it can be the hardest step for funeral homes if not done correctly.
Funeral directors often feel uncomfortable asking the question during the at-need arrangement conference or immediately following the funeral service. This awkwardness is yet another reason to implement an effective aftercare program.
For those that don’t provide effective aftercare, can you imagine the response when asking for a review? To the families, it seems abrupt and self-serving. But when it’s simply a part of the larger aftercare dialogue and conversation, the results are incredible.
Your funeral home has fans in your community. Your job as a funeral home owner or funeral director is to turn those fans into ambassadors by inviting them to leave reviews for your funeral home.
To ensure the best results with your review generation efforts, you should only ask for reviews from those who meet the following requirements:
- Those who expressed gratitude for your services.
- Those to whom you have provided with aftercare communication, whether it’s grief support, additional death certificates, miscellaneous questions/support.
That’s all there is to it!
- Communicate with and help your families,
- Identify your brand champions, and
- Ask for the review.
Domanicare has helped funeral homes across the country generate thousands of five-star reviews.
If you’re interested in learning how Domanicare can help your funeral home run an effective aftercare program as well as generate 5-star reviews for your business, schedule your free demo.
