Five diaries and a family waiting
The family would like the funeral on a Thursday or Friday in two weeks, a service at their parish church followed by cremation. Your arranger rings the crematorium: Thursday 11.30 or Friday 2pm. She rings the vicar's office, who will check and call back. She emails the organist. She checks your own diary for a hearse, a limousine and four bearers. The family, meanwhile, want to tell relatives the date as soon as possible.
The vicar calls back with Friday only, but by then the crematorium's Friday 2pm has been offered to another funeral director. The chain starts again.
Why dates take so many calls
A funeral date depends on several independent diaries, most of which do not have an online booking system, or have one you cannot see.
- Crematoria and cemeteries have their own booking processes, some online, some by phone.
- Churches, ministers and celebrants work from their own diaries and reply when they can.
- Organists, venues for the wake and caterers have to fit around the same time.
- Your own hearse, cars and bearers are shared across funerals.
- The family may need to wait for relatives travelling from abroad.
The arranger holds all of this in their head and on the file, often for several funerals at once.
The cost of the chase
The main cost is time and the pressure on your arrangers, who can spend much of a morning on the phone to fix one date. The second is the family's wait. They want to tell people, and every extra day of uncertainty is hard.
Mistakes follow from the complexity: a provisional crematorium slot not released, a celebrant told the wrong time, a limousine double booked. Each needs putting right, sometimes at short notice.
A date coordination board
What we build is a board for each funeral that shows who needs to agree the date and where each one has got to.
- From the arrangement, the board lists the parties needed: crematorium or cemetery, church or venue, minister or celebrant, organist, your fleet and staff, the wake venue.
- Your arranger enters provisional options, such as Thursday 11.30 or Friday 2pm, and the board shows each party's status against each option.
- Emails to ministers, celebrants and organists are sent from the board with the options, and their replies are recorded against the funeral, by the arranger or by reading the reply email.
- Your own fleet and bearers are checked automatically against your diary for each option.
- When all parties confirm one option, the board marks it confirmed, releases the other provisional holds and creates the confirmations to send.
- Holds that have not been confirmed by a time you set are flagged, so a crematorium slot is not kept longer than it should be.
| Party | Thursday 11.30 | Friday 2pm |
|---|---|---|
| Crematorium | Held | Held |
| Parish church and vicar | Not available | Confirmed |
| Organist | Awaiting reply | Confirmed |
| Hearse, car and bearers | Available | Available |
Where a crematorium or cemetery offers online booking or an API, we can connect to it. Where it does not, the board records what your arranger has booked by phone.
A calmer morning for the arranger
The arranger enters the two options after the meeting. The emails to the vicar and the organist go at once. By lunchtime the board shows Friday confirmed by everyone. She confirms the crematorium, releases Thursday, and the family get a message with the date and time that afternoon. The limousine and bearers are already in the diary.
Is fixing a date taking too long?
- Setting a date means rounds of phone calls and emails.
- Provisional holds are tracked in the arranger's head.
- Slots have been lost while waiting for another party.
- Your fleet has been double booked for two funerals.
- Families wait days to hear a date.