The meeting, and everything after it
The family sits with your arranger for over an hour. They talk about their father: he was a keen gardener, he wanted a cremation, a humanist celebrant rather than a minister, a wicker coffin if possible, his grandchildren would like to carry in a photograph, and the family want donations to the hospice instead of flowers. They are unsure about the date because a grandson is travelling from Canada.
Your arranger writes it all on the arrangement form, carefully. After the family leave, it is typed into the funeral management system, then the estimate is built, then the crematorium and the celebrant are contacted, then the flowers note goes to the florist and the donation details to the website. Each time, something is copied by hand. The spelling of the grandson's name differs between two documents.
Why the notes get retyped
The arrangement meeting is where everything is decided, but the paper form it is written on cannot feed anything else. So the arranger, or the office, becomes the connection between the form and every system and supplier.
- The arrangement form is paper, or a Word document, not structured data.
- The funeral management system needs the same details typed again.
- The estimate is built separately and checked against the notes by eye.
- Supplier and third-party requests are written by email from the notes.
- Changes made by phone after the meeting go on a sticky note or into an email thread.
Where retyping shows
Each copy is a chance for a small error: a misspelt name, a wrong date, a missed request. In most businesses small errors are an irritation. In funerals, a misspelt name on an order of service or a forgotten request is felt deeply by the family and remembered.
Retyping also takes time your arrangers would rather spend with families. After a long meeting, the next hour is spent at a keyboard rather than returning calls from other families waiting for news.
An arrangement form that feeds everything
What we build is an arrangement form used during the meeting on a tablet or laptop, arranged in the order your arrangers talk, which becomes the source for everything else.
- The form follows your arrangement conversation: the person who has died, the family contacts, the type of funeral, the service, coffin, cars, flowers, donations, music, notices and any special wishes.
- Names are entered once and used everywhere, with a clear display of spelling for the family to confirm before they leave.
- Choices are linked to your price list, so the estimate builds as the meeting goes, and the family can see it or receive it afterwards.
- When the meeting ends, the case in your funeral management system is updated through its API, or held in a system we build.
- Tasks are created from the choices: contact the crematorium, book the celebrant, order the coffin, request the notice, set up the donation page, each assigned and dated.
- Changes after the meeting are made on the same record, with who made them and when, and the affected tasks and documents update.
| Decided in the meeting | Where it goes without retyping |
|---|---|
| Names and relationships | Case record, estimate, notices, order of service request |
| Cremation, date preferences | Task to contact the crematorium and celebrant |
| Coffin and cars | Estimate and supplier order |
| Donations to the hospice | Notice wording and online donation page |
The form is your form, in your wording. Anything that involves legal or regulatory steps follows your procedures and the relevant authorities. The system records and organises. It does not advise.
After the family leave
The family confirm the spelling of every name on screen before they go. The estimate is emailed to them that afternoon. The arranger's task list shows six items, each already drafted: the crematorium enquiry, the celebrant enquiry with the family's wishes, the coffin order, the notice, the donation page and the flowers note. She spends the next hour on the phone with families rather than at the keyboard.
Could your arrangements be simpler?
- Arrangement meetings are written on paper and typed up later.
- The same details are entered into several places.
- Names have been spelt differently across documents.
- Estimates are built separately after the meeting.
- Changes after the meeting are tracked in emails and notes.