If you think that iPads are good for nothing more than browsing your favourite online stores and making you feel old when you can’t quite figure out how to ‘snap’ your favorite nephew, well, you’re not alone!
But with Apple having sold more than 43 million iPads, generating nearly 19 billion US dollars in revenue in 2018 alone (statista.com), this is a device that’s not going away any time soon.
Here, we consider six exciting ways that an iPad could help streamline your cemetery services and help you stand out over the competition...
1. Improved Sales
Paired with the right software, here’s what an iPad can do to help improve your cemetery sales:
- It gives you remote access to plot availability using an availability heat map - leaving you confident that you’re selling the right location, and that someone doesn’t already own that plot.
- Whether you’re selling in-home, or the weather’s too miserable to take the customer out on-site, the PlotBox app can give you a 360° view virtual tour so the customer can see what plot they’re getting and exactly what’s surrounding it, all instantly! Because let’s face it -- having to go back and forth from customer, to consulting paper maps, to digging out records is often a great way to help you lose sales.
- Allows you to bring marketing material with you wherever you are, so you can consider bringing an iPad to easily show customers your website, sign them up to emails, send them information, etc.
- Instantly close the sale - simply lift the iPad to view or write a sales contract and take payment.
2. Better Work Order Management
Using the PlotBox cemetery software with your iPad, your work order management process can be made much more simple, and here’s how:
- Work orders can be automated based off of certain workflows or ‘rules’, for example, if your plots are subject to a 12-week post-burial inspection, using a workflow, the work order will automatically be generated from a burial scheduled into the cemetery’s calendar!
The work order can even be signed off while on the field.
- Work can be prioritised and pushed out to specific members of staff remotely, for completion.
- Grounds crew can submit updated headstone images for review, and input pictures of work done while on the field.
- It allows for effective communication across teams with real-time job status visibility, and email and text notifications for staff working remotely.
- A live status of work orders can be viewed and updated using the iPad, with recorded due dates and times, ensuring deadlines aren't missed.
3. Improved Data Quality
Using the PlotBox data verification service, you can use your iPad app and a digital map of your cemetery to instantly verify or flag information on headstones, and link to deeds and documents - cleansing your data for more accurate use in the future.
Grounds crew can also use the iPad to submit updated headstone images for review after work orders have been completed, meaning data and map quality remain sound.
4. Improved Customer Service
Your iPad can also be used to help to improve customer service in your cemetery:
- With the PlotBox ‘walk to grave’ feature, cemetery staff can quickly and easily point a visitor in the direction of the grave they’re looking for, and even print out the map if required. This simple feature improves the overall customer experience and saves so much time!
- Why not even consider installing a static iPad in your cemetery’s reception area? Visitors will be able to help themselves to maps, directions and even some genealogical information! You can also pre-load it with brochures, marketing materials and enquiry forms, to help support pre-need sales!
5. Better Communication
Paired with the PlotBox software, your iPad has the potential to help your internal communications become much smoother...
- Using an iPad allows for real-time sharing of information between office and field staff.
- Work orders can be marked as complete while on the field and instantly shared with office staff.
- Organize and schedule your work better - For example, you've just dug 3 graves and have a truckload of dirt to get rid of. Use your map to see if there are any sunken graves it could be despatched to - this saves you trips transporting dirt and unnecessary work in the long run.
6. Improved Risk Assessment Process and Mitigated Risk of Lawsuits
Used correctly, having your cemetery system mobile on an iPad can drastically improve your risk assessment process, and crucially, decrease your risk of a lawsuit...
- During a site risk assessment inspection, an iPad can be used to instantly generate work orders related to the risk and prioritised accordingly (a bonus is a digital audit log of who’s done what).
- Having live inventory available from anywhere at any time can assist to mitigate the risk of double-selling plots and burying a person in the wrong plot.
Whether used alone or paired with PlotBox software, using an iPad in your cemetery has the potential to really help polish your cemetery’s processes and improve your customer service and sales!
So before condemning your iPad to a millennial life of Netflix in coffee shops, why not test its full power, and give it a new lease of life in your cemetery?
Learn more about the full capabilities of using PlotBox on an iPad…