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Let’s work on this together, locally

Local business

We had a wonderful reaction to our blog post about traditional funeral homes from Tim at Final Embrace. I spent the weekend thinking about his input and realized how invaluable it is in generating discussion in this forum.

One of the strengths of the internet is that it allows new ideas and new perspectives to be shared so effectively. It’s so easy to collaborate with people and come up with even better ideas. Tim’s point of view is really invaluable - it helps to connect us to the funeral home industry. I hope that we are helping him connect to the world of online social networking in general, and specifically to online memorials.

Tim’s emphasis - that people want local service. We can’t agree more with that. This is exactly why we contacted hundreds of funeral homes and attended the NFDA Conference last fall. We hoped that funeral homes would use our site to create profile pages that their clients could visit to find information on deaths in their communities. We were disheartened that interest on the funeral home side wasn’t what we thought it could be.

Do you have any ideas how to make our service more ‘local’ or how to bring people on board to form partnerships that benefits the clients of both services? We are eager to hear what you have to say, and eager to learn more about what you are thinking.

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Posted by Richard Derks

17 Jun

One Response

  1. Comment by Bruce H. Conley at 3:01 am, July 4th, 2008

    Dear Richard,
    I am a funeral director and owner of a 4 generation funeral home in Illinois, USA. I came to Respectance at the suggestion of a bereaved father and former IT specialist, with whose assistance, I have been working to create more and better avenues for those we serve to share memories, participate in services and find ongoing comfort, courage and inspiration. Together, Tom and I are working on re-designing our current website, http://www.conleycare.com.

    He suggested that there might be a way for us to create pages on Respectance using the photos, videos and obituary text we already provide. Through Respectance, our families and friends could add more pictures, more stories etc. Reading Tom’s post “Lets Work on this, locally..” and your response, I’d be interested in working at how “local” works with “global”

    Simplistically, I wonder, for instance: is there a way I can offer the Respectance experience that is “localized” to the extent that the pages seen first by visitos, reflect perhaps only those I have served?; or, perhaps only those whose obituaries have appeared in local or regional media?; -whatever “local” means to me. However, it is the family’s choice, not mine, if they wish to click on a larger circle to the full-frame of the Respectance Community.

    My thought is that an approach like this gives people like me, and those I serve, a path from local to global. Anyone can then choose their comfort level and focus while I retain some identity and control within the local/proprietary zone.

    As I have thought about this, my concerns for myself and those I serve include many things but perhaps three are on top:

    Protection of privacy,
    If I do something that inadvertantly releases personal information about the deceased or my families or exposes them to unwanted spam-mail etc., that naturally is a detriment to me.

    Competition control
    Avoidance of sales pop-ups from other companies or service providers.

    Product quality and reliability.

    Thanks for your imagination, ingenuity and global efforts to connect grieving people. Thirty-five years ago, when I began, I started local grief-support groups and connected us to national and international groups. I also helped to found two hospices. In those days, funeral service and the healthcare community reacted in a manner very similar to the response you received. As Tom pointed out, people/consumers drove the development of support groups and hospice and today they are essential and powerful components of both the healthcare and griefcare establishment.

    I look forward to hearing from you.
    Bruce H. Conley
    Conley Funeral Home

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