COVID-19 has created unique challenges for funeral professionals. When a family loses a loved one, it’s heartbreaking. Not being able to celebrate the life of that loved one only adds to the gravity of their loss.
With PlanHero™, funeral professionals can help families and friends celebrate their loved ones, while still conforming to local, state, and/or federal COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Organizing Visitations / Calling Hours and Funerals During COVID-19
For memorial visitations during COVID-19, the keyword is safe. Funeral professionals need to:
- Keep the mourning family safe.
- Keep visiting mourners safe.
- Make it clear to people contemplating a visit, that they will be safe.
- Keep your business safe.
By using PlanHero’s Signup Tool or Club Tool, visitations and services can be quickly organized into time spots with a limited number of visitors for each time spot. In this manner, the mourning family will feel confident that only a specific number of people will be present at any given time. This also keeps visitors safe.
When visitors sign up, they can clearly see that each time spot is restricted to a specified number of people, so they know that their health will not be imperiled by a large group.
Click here to view an example of a signup with 20-minute time spots and a 10-minute spacer in-between each 20-minute interval. We’ve limited each 20-minute interval to 25 visitors. In addition, we set the signup list to Private. This means that people signing up cannot see other people’s names. This is completely optional.
In this example, we used a 10-minute visitation time spot, with no spacer in-between intervals. We’ve limited each 10-minute time spot to eight visitors. If you have an easy way to establish an entrance and a separate exit, this flow may work well for you and your clients. We also did not make this signup list Private. This allows people signing up to see who has signed up for the various time spots.
Video Tutorial of How to Create a Visitation Signup
And finally, as an organization, it’s important that you follow CDC and local regulations with respect to COVID-19. By using a PlanHero signup to restrict the size of the gathering in your facility at any given time, you can meet those standards. In fact, you’ll have a record of how you handled it.
Additional Benefits of Organizing Funerals During COVID-19 with PlanHero.
When a person signs up on a PlanHero signup, s/he must enter a name and email address in order to confirm the signup (you may also require a phone number by checking the box in your Event Settings).
Just prior to the visitation and/or service, you can download a PDF that you and the family can use to know who is coming at what time. You can also download a CSV file that includes the names and contact information for those who attended the service. The CSV file can then be uploaded into your marketing database for future communications. Click here for more details on downloading reports on PlanHero. In addition, you can send out a thank-you email directly via our MESSAGE INVITEES feature to all those who attended the service.
Always Professional – No Banner Ads. Ever.
You can rest assured that your signups will always look professional on PlanHero. We do not allow advertising on our Event Pages (signups) nor on our email confirmations or email reminder notifications. The last thing mourners need to see when signing up to pay their last respects are flashing ads blaring messages that are at odds with the solemnity of the event.
Should I use the Signup Tool or the Club Tool?
Both Tools will satisfy your needs for organizing visitations for funerals during COVID-19. The main reason to select the Club Tool over the Signup Tool would be for its branding offerings. When using the Club Tool, your company logo will be showcased on both signup email confirmations and email reminder notifications (see examples below). In addition, you will have the benefit of a comprehensive calendar of all of your signups which can be synced to your calendar (Outlook, iCal, or Google). The price difference between the two Tools is negligible.
Kind Words from Keyser Funeral & Cremation Service
We are honored by the testimonial given by Eric Keyser of Keyser Funeral & Cremation Service during his interview with Funeral Innovations. We are featured at minute 17:30 through 22:00.
Funeral Innovations Interviews PlanHero™ Founder Julie Farrell
