By Rourke Mace
[salesforce form=”10″]Document management software has the potential to enhance any organizational structure. But exactly how does document management help funeral homes with their top 3 areas of concern? Areas of reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and improving customer service? How secure are your critical files? How quickly and easily can you access documents, especially old files, when a document request is made? These are some important questions to consider when running your business.
Like all Funeral Homes three major areas of concern you face as a business are:
- Reducing Costs
- Increasing Efficiencies
- Improving Service
Let’s explore these three areas and consider their impact.
Reducing Costs
Many funeral homes have been in business for decades. Over time your physical files have increased to the point of overflowing. With the amount of paperwork you are required to keep and maintain, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage and access. The cost of filing cabinets, paper, and supplies is a constant. Not to mention the time your employees spend going back and forth to your filing cabinets to store and retrieve documents. Over a year, the average cost of a single file cabinet is over $3,000.
When funeral homes implement an electronic Document Management System (DMS), files are stored electronically and accessed within seconds from a web-enabled device such as smartphone, tablet, or computer. Documents can be instantly shared via email, which saves both time and money.
Increasing Efficiencies
If you find yourself like most funeral homes, you are keeping records like contracts, insurance information, copies of military records, as well as purchase orders, invoices, and employee files. Time spent shuffling these documents, keeping them organized, and finding them when needed mounts up quickly.
When document management software is used, your important documents only have to be handled once, then filed away in an organized and easily accessible way. When a document is needed after it has been filed, it can be accessed within seconds.
Improving Service
As you know, funeral homes keep records about the individuals that they care for, making them a valuable and often overlooked resource for family historians. Funeral home records vary greatly by location and time period, but they generally contain basic information about where a person died, the names of surviving relatives, the dates of birth and death, and the place of burial. Some funeral homes maintain more in-depth information and may have details on parentage, occupation, military service, organizational memberships, the clergyman’s name and church, and even the name of the deceased’s insurance company.
Let’s be honest. How were you able to respond the last time someone called asking for this type of information? Did someone in your office have to interrupt what they were doing, get up, go downstairs and rummage through old file cabinets, pull the document, climb back upstairs, and make a copy of the document so that it could be faxed or attached to an email? Of course, when this was completed, someone had to refile the document, wasting more precious time.
With a document management system in place, records can be accessed, attached to an email, and delivered even before the initial phone call has ended. Not only is this outstanding customer service, but the time saved rolls right into our next area of concern.
In all, a document management system offers many benefits. Aside from the advantages already discussed, a DMS also insures the safety and security of your documents. Your files are stored and backed up on redundant servers, which protect you from data loss due to a crashed hard drive or even natural disasters such as floods or fires. A good DMS allows you to access your documents from anywhere on a mobile device, frees up tons of time, and relieves many of the headaches you face in the funeral home business.
By implementing a document management system in your funeral home, you will reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve service. Installing a DMS into your business processes is easier than you may expect!