How Online Tools Can Help Your Memorial Business
In today’s increasingly virtual world, online tools can offer significant benefits to the families you serve and to your memorial business. Whether you’re working with families face-to-face or via web conference, an online design and ordering system can provide many advantages.
An online design and ordering tool, such as Coldspring’s free Personal Reflections® web application, consolidates the memorial or marker selection and ordering process into a single, seamless experience. Users can guide families through an interactive selection process that displays full-color photographic renderings of how a customized memorial will look, in real-time, as options are chosen.
Some key benefits of using an online design and ordering tool include:
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- Families can see the memorial being designed – in full color, with photo-realistic renderings.
- Changes can be made on the fly.
- Back-and-forth exchanges are dramatically reduced.
- If a family isn’t able to meet face-to-face for selection, they can follow along in real time through Zoom or other video-conferencing applications.
- Family members who aren’t able to be present at the memorial selection can also participate via web conferencing and/or receive a copy of the memorial via email.
- Memorial providers can set their pricing in the back-end and can customize the tool and offerings to their location.
When compared to other methods of selection and design, perhaps even just sketching a design by hand, a tool like Personal Reflections helps drive up the close rate, too. When families participate in the design and can see their ideas come to life, they’re more likely ready to make their decision at the end of the process. We recently had a customer share the following about Personal Reflections,
“We are able to have the customer approve the design at the time of order. No waiting for the proof to be sent. Personal Reflections gives the families a color image of the memorial before it’s casted. It lets them see exactly what they are getting.”
– Lily Thorn | New Jersey Marble & Granite Works
Online selection tools typically drive an increase in the average memorial sale. Unlike traditional point-of-sale merchandising methods that may limit the options a family might select from, consumers engaged in the design process are more likely to include upgrades to complete their memorial that may not have been considered. The hands-on opportunity helps customers choose more items such as cameos or personal inscriptions describing how they feel about their loved ones. There is an increased sense of freedom and confidence in selecting greater personalization, and having a visual of the memorial ensures all parties are in agreement with the design and allows for the approval and purchase decisions to be made in a single visit.
An online tool can also simplify the pre-need sales process. By utilizing a trouble-free tool now, loved ones make it easier on their families by selecting their memorial and making their arrangements ahead of time. Their families have peace of mind knowing their loved one designed the memorial to their liking and what they feel tells their story. This statement from a loyal Personal Reflections customer shares just that:
“I feel that the marker tells a story of who that person is and it’s important that it gets done the way the family wants it. Personal Reflections allows us to capture that vision and quickly portray it back to them for approval.”
– Dan Krueger | Beaverdale Memorial Park
Personal Reflections, Coldspring’s trusted, free, web-based memorial design and ordering system, has been providing our customers with an easy button to design and share memorials with the families they serve both in person and virtually. Our dedicated team has helped hundreds of customers discover a better way to run their business more efficiently, so they have time to focus on the family. To learn more about Personal Reflections, or our other online tools, contact us.