Funerals can be challenging for anyone: family, friends, funeral directors, and even florists. The best case is always making the experience as easy and painless as possible for the family, and that is something that we have found that Strelitzia has really helped us in Flowers by Nattrass (FBN) out with over the years.
Before a family enters the shop to discuss placing a funeral order there are a few things we have already set up in place that can give us a head start and make things as simple and easy as possible for our customers. The first of all being a good relationship with a few of our Funeral Directors, they have access to our products and our costings and are able to take orders directly from the family. They pass on the information and place the orders with us and the transaction is seamless and simple for everyone.
Our website is also something we have worked hard on to link with Strelitzia, but also give our customers a good idea of everything we can offer, including details such as price per for for coffin sprays and price per letter should they have a browse before they arrive at the shop. We have products matched between both the website and Strelitzia so anything they have seen is easily ordered once they are in the shop all labeled with size option and corrosponding prices. Simple for the team so they can remain confident & professional thorughout giving the customer that personalised service.
Our website:
Our Strelitzia:
With Pricing inbuilt. (if we need a custom price, we can override the price Strelitzia is just a guide!)
Once the customer is in front of us in the shop then that is when Strelitzia really comes into its own. We have already got all the Funeral Directors we work with pre-loaded into the system, so we don’t have to faff around looking for addresses or details for the Funeral Directors, we can simply click on the correct one and it will populate the boxes with all the information we need.
Once you have selected the Funeral Director, Strelitzia will display any Funerals that the Funeral Director has on that day. That means you can easily select the same Funeral, and Strelitzia will populate the Deceased name and the Funeral Time etc, automatically – handy if the customer isn’t sure of the details of the funeral!
Another part of the order taking I don’t need to worry about when I’m speaking with the family is the Delivery Charge, we can either pre set all of the delivery charges in the background of the system so once the address is added the system will automatically apply the charge, or if we have a deal with any of the Funeral Directors for Free Delivery that is also already pre set so that would be applied immediately without me having to think about it.
So many parts of putting the Funeral Order into the system are little time saving and helpful ideas that it really makes what could be a stressful situation for everyone easier and with at least stress as possible. My personal favourite, Strelitzia, automatically popping in the delivery time 2 hours before the funeral giving our team plenty of time to get everything delivered well before the funeral.
Plus, Once we’ve got the deceased details and we’re adding the item, the system will allow us to add as much description as we need and to take any card messages. As you will have come across before, with funerals the family often like to take cards away and write them in private and we will often use the card message box to keep us updated with where the cards are and if they have been returned to the shop.
Many of our Funeral Directors are also account customers, which means when we’re taking an order, or after the family have left if that proves easier, we can also add Purchase Order numbers, references or any other details that the Funeral Directors like on each order to distinguish between orders. This information will then automatically be attached to any invoices we create for the Funeral Director without any extra work.
Hopefully this has given you a little flavour of what its like to use Strelitzia through what can be an awkward time and how there are so many little things that can help save time, make things as easy as possible for you and your customer and exactly how we go about taking Funeral Orders in our shop.