For more than 37 years, Terrybear® Urns & Memorials has been one of the most trusted names in deathcare, offering quality products to funeral professionals who are supported by a network of dedicated distributors. Several years ago, Terrybear introduced to its distributors a new online tool that streamlined their ability to select and order products — and the feedback was immediate and phenomenal.
“So many of our distributors were excited about the speed and efficiency it brought to their businesses, we wanted to find additional ways to help their funeral home customers as well. Since then, we have been adding features and enhancements to continue to improve everyone’s experiences – our distributors, the funeral directors, and even the families they serve,” explains Nikki Nordeen, Terrybear Executive Director of Client Success & Brand Growth. “All of the feedback from our customers encouraged us to take this further.”
Introducing Memory of a Lifetime Digital Portal
The result was Terrybear’s exclusive Memory of a Lifetime® digital portal, an online ordering tool that now serves funeral homes and families in addition to distributors. The Memory of a Lifetime® digital portal allows funeral homes to provide families a link to a customized retail site from which they can order urns and cremation products on their own time from the comfort of their own home.
“People order things online; when we go to bed at night, we open our phones and we shop and get what we need sent to our door,” says Brent Thorson, Manager of Client Success & Growth at Terrybear. “That’s not been the case for cremation or memorial products. We’re hearing from funeral homes that families have ordered urns from Amazon, or brought in an urn from Etsy. But Amazon doesn’t care about that urn. We do, and so does the funeral home, so we’re giving them the opportunity to sell to their families just like Amazon does. And it’s free!”
Above: An example of an urn product page, complete with suggested additional products.
Unlike most onsite selection rooms, the customizable Memory of a Lifetime®portal can give families the opportunity to browse Terrybear’s full product line of cremation and memorial products. Using the portal’s filtering, search, and availability tools, families can easily identify items by function, theme, color, and more options.
More Than Convenience
In addition to the clear convenience to the families you serve, the Memory of a Lifetime® portal offers incredible benefits for you and your team, the most important of those being the flexibility to use the digital portal when and where you choose. Easily share your Terrybear options on your computer screen or tablet in-person during the arrangement meeting, or provide a link they can use access on their own.
“Families can shop online away from the pressure and all the millions of decisions you have to make during an arrangement,” adds Aaron Opp, Terrybear Marketing Manager. “That way funeral homes aren’t losing those sales. Instead, they’re helping to capture them.”
Funeral homes have full control of the pricing displayed on the portal; you can also choose whether or not to display those prices on the site as shown here:
Above: A fictional funeral home’s digital portal with Retail Price Mode enabled.
Above: A digital portal with Retail Price Mode disabled.
Logo and pricing selections can be customized up-front when your site is created. Later, you can easily make changes to your portal on your own or with a quick call to Terrybear or your distributor. And did we mention that this amazing resource is FREE?
Customer Benefits
Along with the freedom to order urns and other products from home, families also have more time to consider more options, potentially placing orders for more products than they would have in the arrangement room.
“Oftentimes the urn and the jewelry and other ways to memorialize your loved one aren’t even thought of; they’re an afterthought,” adds Nordeen. “The family usually has no idea of all the cremation products they can order. That’s because they just went to the wall and saw the display and it stopped there. This allows families to understand all the options that are available.”
Another great option for families is the ability to personalize the products they order with names, dates, art, and personal messages. The Memory of a Lifetime®digital portal utilizes Terrybear’s exclusive QuickProofs™ technology. QuickProofs™ displays what they type in real time so they can see exactly what it will look like on the selected product. Families can save multiple drafts with different fonts, art, or words to share with others for additional feedback, as well. This is just one more time-consuming task that Terrybear’s portal removes from the funeral home’s list of responsibilities.
Above: Families can use Terrybear’s Quick Proof™ tool to see real-time engraving and personalization options on their product selections
Eliminate Worries and Delays
Once a family has completed their product selection and designed their personalized message all they need to do is click “Submit your Order”. All of the other details — whether products should be shipped to the funeral home or crematory, when and where services are being held, what shipping service they prefer, etc. — are handled in the program behind the scenes with help from the funeral home.
As with all interactions with Terrybear, families and deathcare professionals alike can trust that their products will be delivered on time, every time.
“We’ve been around for 37 years, and we’ve offered urns for nearly 30 years,” adds Nordeen. “We certainly understand the urgency in which memorial products need to be delivered to funeral homes. Our standard turnaround to ship small orders is within one business day, but with the technology on our site, we can make next-day delivery happen.”
Another worry that the Memory of a Lifetime® digital portal eliminates is compliance with price-posting requirements. By setting up your retail prices through the site (Terrybear also offers to help with this during the account set up), and then enabling the Retail Price Mode, compliance with the General Price List guidelines are assisted by showcasing your clear and transparent urn & memorial item pricing.
You can try out Terrybear’s Memory of a Lifetime digital portal at absolutely no cost, and trust that Terrybear will deliver the quality, service, and support you’ve come to expect. To get started, simply visit Terrybear.com/join to register. If you need additional assistance do not hesitate to call Terrybear directly at 1.888.588.8767, they will ensure you get set up to begin using this free tool.
Written by: Patricia Hartley
