Funeral Home Answering Service

24/7 answering service that supports your families with compassion, discretion, and professionalism.

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In the delicate hours following the passing of a loved one, when emotions run high and the need for guidance is overwhelming, the ability to contact a funeral home becomes a great resource to help put customers’ loved ones to rest. In the funeral industry, phone calls are often the first point of contact for grieving families. They call looking for guidance and support during an emotionally difficult time. They also call in need of empathy and kindness, seeking comfort and help while making the necessary arrangements to take care of their deceased loved one. The expectation from your callers and their families is that you will be open and available 24/7/365, without exception. For these and other reasons, many funeral and funeral-related businesses are choosing to outsource their answering needs to the professionals. Outsourcing answering services for funeral homes ensures you will deliver exceptional customer service and always answer the phone. Some of the funeral-related businesses are:

  • Funeral Homes
  • Mortuary Services
  • Crematory Services
  • Cemeteries
  • Religious Services

Here at Answering Service Care, we know how sensitive and crucial these calls are for your funeral home. We’ve put together this guide to help you understand how an answering service can provide constant support for your clients and staff with the highest level of professionalism and sensitivity. 

Funeral Home Answering Service
Personable customer service rep.

What Is a Funeral Home Answering Service?

A funeral home answering service is a way for those in the bereavement industry to ensure that no phone call goes unanswered. Someone might be in the planning process, and wants to discuss what a funeral typically entails and has a series of questions to go through. These calls take time and require a person on the other end to be attentive and respectful. Not only do our funeral home receptionists have the temperament for such a role, but your clients will feel appreciative.

In these moments, your clients want to feel like they are being heard. They want to feel like they are the most important person at that moment. With a talented and professional funeral home answering service on your side, they will. Because with the right answering solutions for funeral services, nothing slips through the cracks, and no one is left unheard. 

This technology offers seamless communication between funeral homes and families, providing 24/7 support and information. In general, a live answering service for a funeral home is a compassionate and efficient extension of your business, ensuring that families receive personalized care and funeral home staff are enabled to provide high quality service.

What Does a Live Answering Service Do for a Funeral Home?

First and foremost, a live answering service provides solace and support to those dealing with loss. Specific functions that a live answering service can provide for the deathcare industry include: 

  • 24/7 Phone Coverage. As a mortuary professional, you know that there is no such thing as “off hours.” Families deal with loss at 2 am or on Christmas Day—there is no predictability for service providers. Due to the sensitive nature of deathcare, it’s vital for your phones to be answered quickly no matter what time it is. Using a provider like Answering Service Care can give you peace of mind that calls will be covered and ensure that you are able to rest and recharge when you’re not at work. 
  • Compassionate and Consistent Customer Service. At Answering Service Care, our agents are specially trained for your industry. They approach each call with empathy and sensitivity, understanding the delicate nature of funeral-related inquiries. With a pool of skilled agents dedicated to answering your phone calls, you can rest assured that every call will receive the same high-quality, individualized customer service.
  • Funeral Arrangement Scheduling. A live answering service can handle scheduling funeral consultations, visitations, services, and other logistical details. This frees up your time to focus on caring for your families and providing the important services they are seeking.
  • First-Call Dispatch and Scheduling. After a death, your funeral home is often the first call that people make. Our agents will quickly and compassionately handle this call, recording all the necessary details and then dispatching the appropriate staff for the recovery process.  
  • Information Sharing. There are a lot of important details to keep track of when planning a funeral, and families often need assistance. Answering service agents provide logistical information like memorial dates and times, obituaries, death certificate completion, care of the body, and more to help grieving friends and family members through this difficult process. 
  • Call Screening and Routing. In addition to assisting your families, operators can filter calls, prioritizing urgent matters to reduce the burden on funeral home staff. 
  • Message Relay. Efficient, seamless communication is vital for a funeral home to run smoothly. Live answering service agents can accurately take and relay messages to the appropriate staff member so that no details are missed.

Over 50 Years of Experience in the Funeral Home Industry

24/7 Live Coverage

Our live funeral answering service will cover your phone lines day and night, weekends, and holidays.

Specialized Training

Our funeral call answering service will treat your families as if they were our own.

Good Financial Sense

The ROI on your funeral answering service investment can be significant.

Whatever Your Caller Needs

Our answering service for funeral directors is here to answer questions, make appointments, and give directions.

Can AI Answer Phone Calls for Funeral Homes?

Yes, it is possible to use AI or automated technology like interactive voice response (IVR) to answer the phone at your funeral home. Some funeral homes choose one of these options for the cost-savings, since artificial intelligence or an automated menu can be less expensive than a live answering service. However, here at Answering Service Care, we recommend using AI and/or automated phone technology sparingly, if at all, for your funeral home. 

Keep in mind that these aren’t ordinary customer service calls that come in—you are meeting people during an extremely difficult time. They are often upset, stressed, and overwhelmed. The last thing they need is to navigate a cold, impersonal AI operator or an automated menu. This technology, especially AI, is also still new and often struggles to properly connect people to the right resources. A real person picking up the phone provides families with the compassionate care they need, with the highest level of accuracy and efficiency. If you’re still interested in exploring automated options, we can help you find the right answering service solution for your funeral home—contact us today and we can go over your options. 

Funeral Home Answering Service Operator
24/7 Live Call and Chat Support Agent

Why Do People Use Answering Services in the Deathcare Industry?

An answering service provides directors with benefits like improved work/life balance, greater efficiencies, increased revenue, and reduced costs. Let’s explore these reasons why a 24/7 answering service is often a director’s choice:

  • Improved Work/Life Balance. Working in the mortuary industry can take a toll on your health due to long hours and the intense emotional nature of the job. Using an answering service for directors can help you and your staff achieve a more traditional working schedule and actually be able to rest and recharge. 
    • Greater Efficiencies. There is a lot that happens behind the scenes of a funeral home, and phone calls can easily interrupt and distract staff from critical tasks. An answering service creates efficient workflows for staff by handling the low-level administrative tasks like scheduling appointments or providing directions, freeing up staff time for other responsibilities. 
  • Increased Revenue. While a funeral home is an important service, it is also your business and livelihood. The truth is that any missed call could mean thousands of dollars lost to a competitor who does answer the phone. A mortuary answering service ensures that every call is captured so you can build new relationships and bring in revenue. 
  • Reduced Costs. Hiring staff to answer calls around the clock is extremely cost-prohibitive. With salaries, health insurance, training costs, overhead…the expenses quickly add up. With an answering service, you’ll find a cost-effective solution to cover your phones and reduce your administrative costs (when compared to the cost of hiring a full time staff). 

Since calls are being taken care of, and disruptions will decrease, your employees will be able to focus on their jobs. This means more productivity on the daily workflow, and more efficiency overall. And then, when it comes time for someone to take or return a call, it is more designated and allows for your staff’s full attention.

How Do I Set up a Call Answering Service for My Funeral Home?

With Answering Service Care, we can help you get your live answering service online quickly. We will work with you to find the right package for your funeral home, including any add-ons that you would like, ensure that our agents are trained in the specifics of your business, and get your calls covered as soon as possible. The best part? When you partner with us, you don’t have to purchase expensive equipment or software and there’s no need to adjust the way your business operates—we integrate effortlessly with your company from day one. 

It’s simple to get started with an experienced answering service provider like Answering Service Care. Sign up through our easy, self-guided process and our team will follow up within one business day to finalize with you. If you have any questions, you can call us directly at (800) 430-6511. We’re here to guide you through this process and make your call answering service set up seamless and efficient.

Funeral Home Answering Service Operators
Funeral Home Answering Service Agent

How Much Does a Mortuary Answering Service Cost?

It depends on the pricing model of the answering service provider you select. Pricing models you’ll often encounter include: 

  • Per-Call
  • Per-Minute 
  • Flat-Rate
  • Pay-As-You-Go

Here at Answering Service Care, we use a per-minute model with monthly billing. This provides our customers with transparency into exactly what they’re paying for as well as a predictable monthly bill. We offer different monthly packages, like the Pro Plan at $289 per month or the Enterprise Plan at $599 per month (at the time this page was published). For more details about our packages, explore our pricing guide.

How Much Does an Automated Phone Answering Service Cost for a Funeral Home?

Automated phone services or Interactive Voice Response (IVRs) can start as low as $20 per month. IVRs can be used for funeral homes, but the cost-savings may not be worth it when you consider the customer service implications of an automated answer to sensitive calls. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can properly incorporate IVR into your business, feel free to connect with us.

What Makes a Successful Funeral Home Answering Service?

When evaluating answering service companies for your funeral home, here are a few questions to consider before signing on the dotted line: 

Funeral Answering Service Checklist

Does this service offer 24/7 coverage?

While it may seem basic, the truth is that some answering services don’t provide the around-the-clock coverage you need. Here at Answering Service Care, we’re available for you 24/7/365 for each and every call that comes in.

Is this service established and experienced?

With Answering Service Care, you’ll have access to decades of experience garnered from working with over 4,000 customers. We are committed to learning and growing year after year so we can provide you with top notch service.

Does this service provide specially trained agents?

Our professional call agents are trained for your industry as well as for your specific business—we work closely with you to understand how your funeral home operates so we can seamlessly integrate into your operations.

Does this service offer a reasonable refund?

Answering Service Care provides a 21-day money-back guarantee for our services.

Are the agents effective communicators?

Here at Answering Service Care, our agents are 100% U.S.-based, as well as bilingual. With our skilled agents, you can be sure that all of your families will receive compassionate and effective communication.

What Is the Best Voice Answering Service for the Deathcare Industry? Answering Service Care.

At a funeral home, every call that comes in is the most important call. With Answering Service Care, you’ll find a partner who understands the difference that empathy and compassion make with your families. As an industry leader for over four decades, Answering Service Care’s funeral directors answering service knows what it takes to help your funeral home better serve your families and their callers by improving telephone answering support.

If you’re the director or on staff at a funeral home or cemetery, you are associated with the cremation business. If you sell plots and caskets, we know you are busy and that every call you receive requires careful attention and the human touch. Our funeral home answering services will ensure every single call is answered and every customer is given full and undivided attention.

Our funeral home answering service is a partner, not a call center. It is best to think of us as an extension of your business. This is because we do things your way, as opposed to making you adapt to ours. You already have a workflow, as well as a staff of full time and perhaps additional part time employees. These all have respective jobs to do, and constantly keeping an eye on the phone can be burdensome, and get in the way of regular workflow.

Additionally, these employees (as well as you) have lives, and cannot be expected to answer the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It just isn’t feasible. This is where we come in! Our skilled agents are standing by to provide exceptional service for your funeral home. Visit our site to get started for as little as $25 per month.

No Long-Term Contract

Our clients stay with our funeral answering service because we meet their needs and exceed their expectations. Our funeral call answering service calls for no obligation and no hard sell.

Same Day Setup

When you are ready, our funeral call answering service can get you up and running in one day. We will make the entire process easy and efficient!

Free Mobile App

As an answering service for funeral homes, we believe in empowering our clients to manage their services in the most user-friendly way possible.

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