By Joey Haas
Transcription: Interview with Starlyn Orit and Jason Harrell from Harrell Funeral Homes
Megan:
Welcome and thank you, everyone, for joining us at funeral innovation. In these videos, we are going to chat with industry leaders and discuss marketing trends, technology innovation, and really just discuss how digital marketing helps you better serve your families. I’m Megan and I’m a client success manager here at funeral innovations.
Heather:
And my name’s Heather and I am the director of marketing.
Megan:
So today we have our first very special guests here with us. Today we have Starlyn Orit and Jason Harrell from Harrel Funeral Homes in Austin, Texas. So we’re going to talk about really cool things that they’ve been doing to help serve families during this pandemic. So all of us know that with the growing the virus pandemic, it’s really reshaped how we interact with one another and how it’s changed our business recently. But it hasn’t changed the fact that we have, yeah, basic human needs to grieve a lost loved one. But since we work with so many different funeral homes, we have the opportunity to see what firms across the country are doing, how they’re adapting, and serving their communities during this current crisis. So that’s why we asked. Jason and Starlyn here today to join us cause we’ve seen them come up with lots of creative ways to meet their mission of helping families, during one of the hardest times when they’re grieving a lost loved one. So again, if you Jason and Starlyn for joining us today.
Jason:
Thank you for having us.
Starlyn:
Thanks. Thanks.
Starlyn:
So we’ve been doing grief share for a while. It’s one of the many programs that we offer from a grieving perspective. Some of the other programs that we offer that, or not necessarily something we’ll cover in detail, but we partner with the Dominic Care Group and they have a grief line grief platform that’s online that offers grief courses and also access to counselors for ’em at any time of day. And I think that it’s an incredible tool that if you’re not using that you should maybe look into because they’re expanding their online courses and the way the courses are set up, you can actually go through them and, and search by topic and, and really just dive in deep where you want. But, grief share, I think you want to talk about grief share, cause we’ve been doing it for a while.
Jason:
Yeah. It’s great shares. It’s so wonderful program that has steps that you go through and meetings. And so with our, with our environment changing, and needing a way to two for people to go through the grief process in a virtual manner since the way that interacts with people, it’s different today than it has been in the past. So, so I think virtually allowing people to just still grieve very important to our, our mission, and how we walk with families, through the time of grief. And to not let these barriers and restrictions you’re gonna make us. Um, just step back and wait. Grief can’t wait. I mean, it needs to continue. People need it to continue to go down that pathway. Grief Share has been a wonderful program, uh, to do that.
Starlyn:
Yeah, so what we’ve seen in the past is, um, we’ve offered grief share and we partnered with churches and organizations around the community. So that, that people can go attend a session and a session consists of being hooked up with a pastor or a counselor and they host a time where people watched a video and then they have a lot of discussion and time to connect. And then we also host some in addition to that where, uh, some of our staff lead them. And so what we found recently is that people were finishing up some of the great share sessions and with all the uncertainty and the environment that we’re in, there was a really a lot of anxiety. And we even sell people that were normally going to counseling in addition to these sessions, they were really crying out and asking, can you keep, keep going cause I really need this. And so yeah, that’s why we, we said, okay, we’re going to take an online finish up. And I don’t know how familiar you are with grease share, but normally people go through them more than one time. So there’s 12 sessions and a lot of times by the time people get through the 12 sessions, they’re just now opening up and connecting with the people around them and they’re at a different point in the grief cycle. So they really can go through it again and I can get a lot more out of it because, they’re in a different process, you know, as going through the grief. And so by going online and it just allows those same communities to stay connected and to go through, you know, one or two times, as many times as they need. And then by partnering with other organizations throughout the community that host groups share, we can then get the news out and people can and go to multiple programs. So it just depends on which one they want to, when it’s starting and when it’s available.
Heather:
So you’ve basically moved your in-person grief shares online to a virtual meeting. And how is that working for people?
Starlyn:
So it’s just starting really in rolling out. They’ve only had ’em, we’ve got one group that is finishing up, so they had already established relationships in a physical realm. And then we’ve got another group that’s just starting and so far it’s going well. And then we have another group that’s going to start in a couple of weeks. So we’re kind of at the beginning. But I know grief to share, the organization as a whole, their willingness out all over the United States to try to provide an environment that can be online. Yeah, we are in Austin. There’s only a couple so far. So we’re, we’re just in the beginning stages of it. But I can’t tell you from hosting another small group online. We had only met three times in person, face to face. And then we took the meetings online over the last couple of weeks and they’ve been fantastic. I mean, just because you’re in an online environment versus the physical environment where you’ve not really seen any barriers to being able to connect and go to a deep level.
Jason:
And I do think that by taking it virtually, it does, it does give an opportunity to engage. I think that maybe, maybe more comfortable in their home setting. There is a little bit of the hill of technology that, you know, an elderly person might need it to get over, but once set up, you’re able to engage more competently. Yeah. And so just having that, that ability, I think that’s some of the silver linings that we see through through this is, um, people can still connect that I may be able to open up then share a little better to show. So those are some positives.
Starlyn:
Yeah. I mean, we’ve seen in the past where some people may be hindered from coming because they can’t drive at dark. It’s dark and they can’t see in night. And so they can’t drive and come. And so now as long as I think that we provide them the information ahead of time and they can get a family member to help set it up and it’s super easy, all I have to do is click on a link and it opens up then and it’s going to enable more people to join. And especially as we move into the fall, right? Because we don’t know, we’re just starting to open back up in the Austin market back tomorrow was the day that the governor’s allowed us to start holding more people with funerals. And so, um, but there’s all this talk about in the fall with the flu and COVID-19 may be coming back. And so yeah, we want to really try to provide a stable option so that people can, I have a way to continue the grieving process, you know, through the fall in case something does happen. And it started limiting because that would be horrible if they started going through the process and then all of a sudden it was cut off and they didn’t have any way to connect.
Heather:
So yeah. So it sounds like it’s worked as a, like a temporary situation for right now, but you’re finding it might be useful to carry into the future.
Starlyn:
The whole entire industry is changing. I mean, we all know that through us now starting to live stream services like that, that’s not going to just stop in the future. People expect to be able to have that capability. We are starting to see the same thing play out in the grief realm and also in the pre-need planning realm and where we’re now gearing up to hold our first free planning seminar and that’s going to happen not next to week, but the next one. So in two weeks. And um, and what we’ve seen in the test piloting of getting ready for that is that okay, online and live is really important. People want to wait to engage, they want to wait to interact, to talk and to me in a safe environment while they stay at home. So, we’re about to start rolling those out. And I think that you’ll continue to see those things moving forward. You’re not just going to stop when people start going back to, you know, attending events.
Heather:
That’s terrific. Megan, do you have any other questions about the grief share program?
Megan:
Yeah. So like you mentioned Starlyn and Jason as people are going to continue moving their events to online, whether, you know, we had this pandemic. Very good. I’m a little bit more back to normal. Can you talk about some tips that you would have for different funeral homes and directors as they move any of their events onto an online platform? What are some of the best practices that you seeing that have helped you guys so far?
Jason:
I guess with best practices that we’ve seen in this ever, ever-changing days that we live in right now, it’s just a, there’s a transition to just being online. Just every day. Yeah. It’s virtual and just are our arrangement process, with families. From the initial onset of us coming in contact with the family, it moves from telephone to possible video conferencing. And then when you’re talking about the visitation or the service, we’ve seen, zoom is helpful and Facebook live for, for streaming. Two to the public, uh, family and friends when were reduced to only having 10 people. And I’m on a funeral service. You do have to look for those options for others to because the grieving doesn’t stop and, just because our society does this, this allows us, um, the video conferencing does allow us to, to utilize technology to, to allow folks to continue to go down that path okay. Of healing and then, and other things that were our conversations are, are a lot more, I guess, team meetings, Mmm. Or staff where we’re having to I’ve seen an improvement in our communication with our staff, so we’ve got it. So it’s everything continually changing. We had to read to be in front of that. So, more frequent huddles with the staff and, and that communication. So, so we can better, better serve our families. Those are some things.
Starlyn:
I would also throw in like anticipating change and problems like, so it’s a learning process for everyone. And sometimes we get comfortable in our environment because they’re like, okay, we finally mastered how, you know, what we need to do to set up and how the technological make this technology work like it’s supposed to, but then just keeping in mind the customer and the demographic of a lot of the customers that we serve. I mean, we face streaming service live the other night and I spent an hour on the phone with this gentleman just trying to get him in because he wanted to be in so bad. And my heart was just breaking. Like we tried everything: FaceTime, like anyway, we tried a lot of different options and so, but I think that that kind of, that problem could have been alleviated if we are proactive to make sure the family took steps to have him set up in advance. And so, you know, the families are grieving. So we can’t assume that they’re thinking, you know, and all cylinders and that they’re making sure everybody has access to what they need. So providing the directors with instructions and trying to help people, it gets set up from a technology perspective in advance and being very clear on how the communicate and how we, when you link people to the technology, we found that through Facebook that it was hard because you know, just cause you have a hyperlink, you assume everybody knows to click that, you know, go to as Facebook page, but a lot of people don’t know that, especially elderly folks. And so yeah, we had to end up like creating a button with Funeral Innovations that took them directly to the place on the Facebook page because many of them had never done that before. So just being proactive and kind of thinking through the steps so that as many people are able to access what they need when they need it.
Heather:
So some of the tips and best practices I heard you guys say was be proactive, be flexible, increase your communication, be sure that you let people know ahead of time how they need to use the technology, and then use your technological resources to support both your families and ask your vendors to help you with what you need to make that process easier for your families. Is there anything else you want to add about that before we move on?
Starlyn:
Yeah, I think partnering with the vendors is critical. And we’re all connectors here. We’re trying to connect the families to what they need and in order to do that, sometimes we’re crossing platforms and partnering with, whether it’s people in our community or vendors that we work with, but being proactive and if we see a need like going after and trying to connect people.
Heather:
Those are great tips. I know you mentioned change several times. Um, one of the things we’ve seen a change in since the pandemic started with a change in flower sales. Shifting topics a little bit, can you tell us about any problems you were encountering or the changes you were seeing with flower sales and what you’ve been doing to remedy that
Jason:
I do know that without a funeral home, families don’t have a place to send flowers, so that does, that does affect where the restrictions there were put. Hmm. A lot of families decided not to even hold a funeral. So, um, yes, there’s going to be a dip and a flower sales for that. Okay.
Starlyn:
Yeah. So what we were brainstorming with Zack and Greg and trying to figure out how can people, I feel like they’re connecting with the family and feel like they’re helping because, or one that you’d have all these layers of people being isolated, right. With the restrictions is staying at home. A lot of times people weren’t even with their loved ones when they die. And um, and then they want to know how they can help, but that there’s no pathway for them to even come up here and grieve. We all know how important a funeral service is in beginning of the grieving process and also helping the family feel loved and supported. So we were brainstorming what can we do? And that’s when they were talking about, well what if we did a donation tool? And so we ran it by a couple of people in the community and they thought it was a fantastic idea. And so we’ve got the donation tool up and running. So far we’re not seeing that. At first we were like, well, is this going to impact flower sales, right? Because people would normally buy flowers, but what we’re seeing is no, it actually compliments the flower sales tool because not everybody wanted to purchase flowers to begin with. And so if you think back to maybe when you had a baby, or you had a need in your family and, and you know, people would come around you and they would create a care calendar or they would create a sign up genius and they would go around and they were like, okay, we want to help this family. Do you want to donate a meal? Do you want to help run an errand for him? Do you want to go get groceries for? And so we were trying to think of, well how can we bring that to an environment that helps everyone? Like everybody has access to this tool, whether they have a friend that’s going to set it up or not. And so this donation tool that has been put in place. It’s really been, um, very helpful. We’ve been very surprised how many people are using it. But, and it allows all families to have access for people to come along beside them and to love them and support them and just show them that they care and to even leave them all very heartfelt message in there. And whereas otherwise they might not have had that opportunity. Because how many times have you had somebody say, and you know, when you’re talking about a loss and then they’re like, oh, well let me know if you need anything. Oh, well we would love to help you. But a grieving family is not in a position to try to plan a whole pathway for, uh, of the community to come along and help them. I mean they’re already trying to process through the grief, trying to process all the plans that have to take likes to set up a funeral. And so having this donation tool is just a simple way that funeral homes can come along beside them and say, hey, we’re here to help you. We’ve already set up a tool that, you know, all you need to do is tell your family about it. And so one thing that we’ve really been surprised at is the tool has been right for helping people collect money for funerals. Normally like when a person was in need, they would have to go try to figure out how to set up a GoFundMe pager or something else. But I think having this tool set up, it’s not, they don’t feel like that they’re asking for money per se. It’s just that they’re able to tell somebody that it says they want to help. Oh, well the funeral home has this wait for you to donate money towards a funeral or to donate towards other things. And so we, what we’ve seen is we’ve seen some large donations go towards funeral expenses and it’s really come at a time on the family. I was in a hardship, you know, position financially and so it was a way to benefit them greatly.
Heather:
Excellent. And so the donation tool that Zack and Greg worked on, you with Zack and Greg are Funeral Innovations co-founders by the way, for anybody who doesn’t know. Okay. It can let, it allows people to contribute to the funerals. What other types of things are you seeing people make donations to?
Starlyn:
So the tool was set up so that you could make it in a couple of different categories. One was like the seven if you want it. We were trying to support local businesses and restaurants so that people could go and I’m just donate, say hey, I want to give you $50 for this restaurant and then the family could use it. Okay. However they want to do. Okay. The other way with like purchasing groceries and then we had a section or there is a section for keep site item and I thought that more people would donate towards that where we haven’t seen a lot of use of that equity area. Charity is a piece that’s critical and in fact we see a lot of opportunity with this moving forward. We think that moving forward, if we can connect that charity button directly to charities so that when people donate, they’re donating directly online to the charity organization and they can receive a deduction tax deduction for it and that that would be, and a huge benefit. But some people are donating to charities and then there was an other button so that people can really be creative and saying whatever they want. And we’ve seen a lot of people use the other button.
Jason:
Yeah, I would like to add to that a little bit. I was, I was really surprised week one when we rolled it out and those donations started coming in. I’m just really excited to see that interaction. There’s a place there too, where the families can leave a leave a message. So there’s an area where they can leave a message and families can see, see that personal touch to that donation attached to that and folks that are giving to two funerals and to that family, and when that check comes in and we’re able to give that back to the family after the service is over, it builds greater trust. And the fact that you’re giving money back to the family. There was a sense of building that trust with the family. Okay.
Starlyn:
And yeah, this is a learning process for us for sure. And, um, and so one thing that we have learned along the way is that, you know, we should tell a family, they should be able to see as we’re going, who’s donating, because that can be so encouraging when you get an email and you’re like, oh, so and so thought of this and look, they don’t need a $50 for or whatever. And so, um, Zack and Greg were just awesome. They went back and they changed the tool. So now as soon as somebody donates an email goes to the family as well so that they can be sending all along in case somebody calls them at home and they’re like, oh, did she see, you know, they want to be able to recognize that they got the donation from them. And so the donations are really, uh, we, we wait. We did learn too through this process that people usually donate up until around the day after a service happens. And so, now we’re actually, we’re just collecting those donations and getting them back to the family and within a couple of days after the service, because initially we were thinking we would leave it open for about 14 days, but we’re learning that really the high traffic time for people wanting to help us around the time that a funeral service is going to be. And most of the services, a lot of them that we’ve been doing or have been private services just because only, you know, 10 people can be present at the service. But it’ll be interesting to see what happens when as things open back up tomorrow we can have 40 people under service here in Texas. So it’ll be interesting to see if the donation tool or the support tool even increases more when people had their eyes on the tool more looking at the surfaces.
Heather:
Right. Megan, did you have any more questions?
Megan:
Yeah. So Starlyn and Jason, you’ve talked a lot about um, how this tool has helped you. What would you say would be the number one reason why you would recommend other firms to utilize an option like this donation gift-giving tool.
Jason:
Yeah. Keeps you connected with your family. Um, especially in this, in this time of distancing where you, it’s hard to, it’s one way that keeps you connected with your family. It shows that you’re sure putting an effort towards trying to connect as well, to help others. That was through this time. So, so that connection. Yeah.
Starlyn:
And I would echo that because our motto here, our tagline is where love lives on and, and we just want to be there to love on the family and, and whatever way that is. And that looks different for every family. And so yeah, I think that this donation tool is a way for us to provide love and support for them. And it helps come along beside them, which is how our business was founded on Jason’s dad. That’s why I started the whole business was the have a brand to lean upon and to come along beside you. And so if we can come along beside them and help them financially to raise money for a funeral or do, you know, get money for groceries and whatever it is, we want to just be able to have a pathway to connect with them and to help. Okay. And so this tool, this tool provides that way. And it also provides a way for people grieving. I mean we, we know from the data that is so important for the people in the community that are grieving to like they’re connected and helping the family. And so if we can help them to be able to help the family, then that’s great.
Megan:
Great. Thank you both. Was there anything else that you two wanted to add?
Starlyn:
No, I think that’s about it.
Megan:
Awesome. So, okay. Anyone else is interested in learning more about, um, the donation tool, you can contact us through our Facebook messenger page or Facebook page or the website through our contact form or our email info@funeralinnovations.com and we can give you more information about that giving tool. So we do have one more question for both of you for Jason and Starlyn, just to end it here. What is the most important thing you’ve learned while serving in this industry? So whether that’s just in the past few months having to deal, um, in adapting to the pandemic or just your time overall while serving in the industry?
Jason:
I would say that, um, yeah, just the importance of, uh, continuing the relationship with the family. Making sure that it doesn’t just end with the funeral. Or relationship should continue on. There’s several things that we do throughout the year to keep family is engaged. Of course the, we talked about the grief share already, uh, being, being one avenue that that continues on with the family afterwards. At the end of the year we have a remembrance service as well. Oh, all of the families of loved ones that have best all, they, they come together at the end of the year and like, um, and just have that time of remembering. Mmm. Probably the need for that is probably greater than any other time is this year. Mmm. Because there’s, there’s been a lot of, um, distancing that has not been allowed for people to grieve properly. Mmm. And that, and just coming together, um, coming together to, to love on one together. That, that is one way that just that remembrance service and allowing folks to continue to degrade and continue our connection and relationship with those families.
Starlyn:
Yeah. And I think another opportunity to tag onto that is you aren’t having a remembrance service that maybe consider having something jointly in the community with, um, hospitals or churches or all right. First responders and other people to bring the community together to celebrate the people who have lost loved ones this year for COVID-19. So yeah. Uh, we may consider doing something like that. Um, just we’ve seen it with our remembrance services. A lot of families that have come in just to cremations and they didn’t do a service and how meaningful, I mean, they were in tears like, because this was their service. Right. And so, um, because of all the distancing and people not being able to say goodbye, whether you are a COVID-19 patient, family or not, I mean, there’s been so many that have a nursing house and loved ones haven’t even been allowed in. So these kinds of services are really gonna be important towards the end of the year.
Heather:
Well, thank you guys so much. Starlyn and Jason, we really appreciate your time and thanks for joining us for the interview. We’ll be posting this interview on our blog, on our Facebook page. If anybody who watches this has ideas for topics in the future, let us know. We will address those, or if you know people that would like to be interviewed, submit their names and we’ll check them out. We really appreciate your time and I hope you guys stay well. Hope your family stay well. Alright, thank you.
