HOW THE RIGHT FUNERAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM CAN REDUCE BURNOUT

Burnout is real. Compassion fatigue is real. In a recent survey from Indeed, more than 50% of the respondents revealed that they’re feeling burned out.

That is no exception for last responders and funeral professionals.

Work schedule and the work environment are some of the biggest culprits – but the situation is not all dire. This is something that we can work on if we commit to it.

As deathcare professionals, it’s important to prioritize our own mental health. While it’s not necessarily the “solve-all” answer, we have one idea to help address burnout: utilizing an efficient funeral management system.
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Learn about some of the ways that the right funeral management system can help your team prevent burnout and achieve a greater work-life balance.

​1. YOU CAN SAVE TIME ON TEDIOUS TASKS

There are many required tasks that both you and your families must complete in order to properly plan an arrangement or service.

Let’s be honest – task management is tedious within itself.

One report from Smartsheet found that nearly 60% of workers surveyed estimate that they could save 6 hours per week if their tedious and monotonous work tasks were automated.
Instead of mapping out tasks that need to be completed every time a new case opens up, you can automate that process with the right funeral management system.
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Some funeral management system options allow you to create a template of action items (both standard and aftercare) that automatically generate for every unique case, such as:

• Scheduling the arrangement conference
• Specifying and recording service details
• Collecting photos of the decedent for the service and slideshow
• Helping the family complete the obituary
• Collecting signatures for required documentation

By saving time on these normally tedious tasks, you can:

• Prevent tasks from being missed or forgotten
• Allow your team to spend more time on higher-value projects for the business
• Reduce stress and headaches related to ensuring that your team is completing required tasks

2. YOU CAN BETTER SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM THE WORKPLACE

You may be hearing the buzzword “cloud-based software” more and more nowadays. But you may also be wondering – what does that even mean?

There are essentially two types of funeral management software available to businesses:

• On-Premise Software: popular for several decades, this is software that is locally installed on your computer, tablet, and phone. On-premise software is usually only allowed to be installed on a limited number of devices, and data is not shared and updated in real-time across all the devices.
• Cloud-Based Software: more popular nowadays, this is software that is hosted by a third-party platform and doesn’t necessarily need to be installed to be used. Cloud-based software can be used on any of your devices, as long as you have a stable internet connection and a secure login. Plus, data is shared and updated in real-time across all devices.

So what makes the most sense for funeral homes nowadays? Cloud-based software – and here is why.

Instead of having to run to the office to access your local desktop computer every time you get a death call or a question from a client, you can access your funeral management system directly from any mobile device, at any time of the day, from anywhere.
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As a result, you gain the freedom to change up your daily routine. If you are in a bind with other life events going on, you can easily work from home, access your crucial business info, and still get all of your work done.

​3. YOU CAN HOLD FAMILIES ACCOUNTABLE

Sure, you have weekly team meetings to get an up-to-date report from your team and hold each other accountable.

But you need to make sure that (to a degree) you’re holding your families accountable too.
One study from ASTD found that if you schedule recurring appointments with a partner who holds you accountable, you can increase your chances of success by 95%.
While that study doesn’t pertain directly to customers or clients, it still shows one important finding: holding people accountable (respectfully, of course) usually ends up being a win-win for everyone.

If you find the funeral management system that aligns best with your business, you can use it to hold your families accountable and ultimately take the stress off of your shoulders.

YOU CAN OBTAIN DOCUMENT SIGNATURES QUICKER
Stop playing cat and mouse with your clients and families. Instead of building enormous email threads and scanning documents one by one, you can use a funeral management system to:

• Quickly create a digital bundle of documents that the family needs to sign
• Autofill or auto-populate those documents with unique, identifying information
• In one click, send the documents to the family to sign electronically
• Save the finalized documentation to the cloud-based system for your records

When you collaborate with families directly through a funeral management system, their signed contract and any interactions they’ve completed will be digitally recorded for you.

As a result, they know that they are committed to you. Instead of running the risk of getting a bad review when you send payment reminders, you’re able to communicate with families through a third-party medium.

Not only can you save on printing and paper costs, but you also reduce the chances of error in your service documentation.

​4. YOU CAN LET YOUR TEAM MANAGE THEMSELVES

At the end of the day, what’s the most important asset to your business?

Your people.

Think about it – when you’re able to effectively manage your team and provide tools to them that make everyone's lives easier, you will likely:

• Offer new development and learning opportunities
• Reduce the number of employee complaints
• Increase productivity and quality of work
• Improve employee retention within your business

Employee retention is no joke for businesses of any size. It’s important to give your employees reasons (and tools like a funeral management system) to keep them happy and make their lives easier.

And as research from Legaljobs shows, the implicit risk or reward for funeral homes to lose even a single employee is jaw-dropping:

• The cost of replacing a trained employee can be more than 200% of their salary
• On average, a higher retention rate can maximize a company’s profits up to 4 times

The more you’re able to empower your team to manage themselves, the more you can focus on other strategic aspects of the business.

Most importantly, you can feel less burnout from dealing with employee situations.

SIMPLIFY EVERYTHING WITH SMARTER FUNERAL HOME MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Burnout and compassion fatigue are very real things in the funeral and deathcare industry, but finding a smart funeral management system can help.

At Gather, we’ve truly designed our funeral management system with you in mind. Our goal is to help you increase productivity, boost your funeral home’s reputation, and simplify your life.
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Start streamlining your team’s workflow, and give yourself the time to breathe again. Book an online demo with our team, our mission is to get you the tools and help you need.

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This post originally appeared in the Gather Blog on May 16, 2022, reprinted with permission.

CANA Members can read more about Gather as well as eFuneral, GoodTrust, Halcyon Deathcare Management Solutions, In Lieu of Flowers (ILOF), MorTrack, and Parting Pro and how their tech-related products and services can enhance efficiency and ease employee stress and burnout in the article “Tech Tools: Easing the Burden on Deathcare Employees” published in Volume 58, Issue 4 of The Cremationist magazine.
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Not a member yet? See why CANA keeps growing.

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Chase Downs is a funeral home advocate with a depth of experience in various realms of digital marketing and business coaching across a range of industries, including his most recent experience at one of the top digital marketing agencies in Idaho. Chase knew he had to join Gather because it’s a very cool opportunity to ultimately help provide better experiences for families during the most intimate and sometimes difficult life moments they will ever go through.