Answering Service for Directors recently launched NEXT STEP Text, which allows funeral homes to immediately provide important resources to families via text messaging. When handling a first call from a family member, ASD will now offer to send the caller a text message from the funeral home that includes the next steps families can expect during the funeral planning process. Texts can be customized to include a link to any page on the funeral home’s website and allow firms to immediately position themselves as a resource to families while providing multiple ways to interact.

In addition, ASD’s complementary MobileFH Texting feature makes it possible for funeral professionals to send and receive text messages on their cellphones using the funeral home’s main phone number. This means that any replies from a family to a NEXT STEP Text will be logged within the ASD Mobile app and sent directly to the on-call funeral director.

ASD is providing its NEXT STEP Text feature at no cost to help funeral professionals better serve families and their communities. The company is also developing several complementary features because there are numerous ways this technology can be utilized, such as texting the funeral home’s GPL to callers who need prices or sending a link to an FAQ page when family members have general questions. In the future, ASD also hopes to develop a solution for texting the funeral home’s preneed literature to callers who express an interest in prearrangements. myasd.com