Funeral Wire named their Top 50 Funeral Home Evolutionaries for 2002. These are the funeral homes across North America recognized for their leading-edge use of the Internet and technology to develop, market, and conduct business online

Funeral Wire Names Top 50 Funeral Home Evolutionaries

–    For Immediate Release –
Date: November 19, 2002
Attn: Lifestyle and Business Editors
Re:     Funeral Wire Top 50 Funeral Home Evolutionaries.

Dallas, Texas - Funeral Wire has named their Top 50 Funeral Home Evolutionaries for 2002. These are the funeral homes across North America recognized for their leading-edge use of the Internet and technology to develop, market, and conduct business online. Todd Abrams, President and Chief Editor of the online publication says, "These funeral homes are truly pioneers and evolutionaries in the way they are implementing technology and utilizing it in the funeral industry."

The 2002 Top 50 list is comprised of the funeral homes in North America who are incorporating the latest that technology has to offer into their services to provide the most up-to-date funeral service offerings and streamlined business practices. Those homes chosen represent a cross section of homes selected from over 28,000 North American funeral homes. Those chosen for their use of technology represent a complete range from small, rural family-owned homes to the large multi-location establishments.

Included in the list was the Bradshaw Funeral Group of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jason Bradshaw, Director of Operations for the Bradshaw Group said, "Through the internet and digital mediums of recording and broadcast, we are now able to offer services that a generation ago would have seemed to be science fiction. We can do so much more for the families and the loved ones now, it is unbelievable. We would not be fair to our families if we did not offer them every option that is available today. As much as implementing new technologies is a market edge, I also see it as a part of our responsibility to them as much as anything else we do."

Technology gives these homes the opportunity to make offerings above and beyond the traditional services you would expect from a funeral home. They now have the ability to offer their families online tributes and condolences, online floral services for family and friends, broadcast of funeral services over the Internet and personal memorialization options as well.

While technology is changing the way the funeral service industry conducts business in almost every aspect, it can be seen most strikingly at the funeral home level. With funeral directors servicing a wide variety of ethnicities and generations, (i.e. the baby boomers, Gen Y), the challenge becomes to meet the needs and the expectations of all families they serve. Many are coming to the realization that technology is their best option for getting the job done.

David Rill serves as the past-president of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association in Port Orchard, Washington. Rill is also the co-owner of Pendelton-Gilchrist Funeral Home and Rill Chapel, which was named among the top 50 firms. He remarks of technology, "You can't do business the way they did it 50 years ago and expect to be competitive in any industry. When times change, that is merely a reflection of the change that is taking place among the people. We must be ready and willing to change with them to keep up. The times demand it."

Though only a few years old, the online funeral industry has begun to show itself to be an integral part of the funeral services industry. These new Internet and technology-based services have the detrimental potential of being able to reduce the amount of direct interaction between funeral home directors and families they serve. However, most funeral directors have positioned their new technologies in such a way as to compliment and add value to their traditional products and services. This is done with the understanding that there still needs to be an element of the personal relationship present in the funeral service transaction.

Blair Overton, the president of Overton Family Funeral Homes of Iowa, echoed that same sentiment. He commented that, "The technology that we have implemented has enabled our firms to go beyond the traditional casket and flower offerings of the past. At the same time, we have not lost touch with those traditions that people hold most dear. We are now more versatile. We can give a family everything from the simplest, most traditional of services to the latest web casting and online memorials. Just because we have funeral homes in small towns does not preclude the importance of technology to small towns and rural areas. In actuality, our smaller communities more heavily use our web site. Primarily due to the fact they receive information regarding funerals times and places so much quicker via the web than our local and regional newspapers. It is their choice—that is what we are trying to give them. Implementing technology does not mean that you lose that personal touch and caring. It shows just how important giving those families options is to you."

Funeral directors putting new technology and the internet to use in their funeral homes are empowering consumers to make their own choices and provide them with the resources and tools that enable them to deal with this unique event on their own terms from wherever and whenever. Funeral Wire wants to commend these firms and the hundreds of others who are finding ways to use technology to improve services and business practices.


Funeral Wire (www.funeralwire.com) is the funeral industry's largest daily news portal and real-time daily newsletter with over 8000 subscribers and readership in over 20 countries and 50 states. www.funeralwire.com

To view the list the top 50 http://www.funeralwire.com/top50/top50.html






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