How Funeral Directors Can Facilitate an Online Memorial Gathering

We had a funeral director ask us an interesting question the other day. "What are you doing to make sure I can stay open?"

First off, we really can’t keep another company in business - but we can share what we are seeing and provide some suggestions to adapt to our crazy world right now. That being said, here are a few things that are pretty simple with today's technology.

1. Create An Online Gathering Place

The online obituary is the best place to direct your families. Whether this is on your funeral home's website or Legacy.com it is important to establish the place where loved ones can share memories.

2. Enhance the Online Obituary with Video

Make sure the obituary has reasons for people to come, spend time, and then return to the website again. Adding tribute videos, photos, service recordings, live streams, and encouraging the family to write in the guestbook are a few ways to get the job done.

This is where Tukios provides a lot of value. With the family upload feature, you can produce a memorial video without ever meeting with the family in person. You can also upload recordings of the memorial services that have taken place.

Create a Memorial Video with the Help of the Family (Virtually)

With the Tukios Tribute Video software being completely web-based, you can easily have multiple people contributing to the video without having to meet in person. They can upload photos and home videos, put the slides in the order they would like them, and even select themes and music if you would like to open up more capabilities.

Here's a tutorial video detailing the entire process.

You can learn more about this feature on the Tukios Helpdesk as well.

Record or Live Stream any Physical Services

This has become a very hot topic over the past few weeks. There are several live streaming solutions you can use within the funeral profession like FuneralVue, OneRoom, SympathyNet, or TribuCast. There are also some consumer options including YouTube Live and Facebook Live.

At Tukios we don't offer live streaming, but we have had many funeral homes uploading the recordings of the memorial services after the service is complete. This allows the service to be online and for family members to watch from their computers or mobile devices. They can also purchase a keepsake of the recording.

These videos can and should also be embedded in the obituary if the family desires.

Here is a tutorial showing how to upload video clips into Tukios.

3. Facilitate a Virtual Gathering

The last suggestion here is to facilitate a memorial service entirely online. I'm talking without any physical gathering at all. I believe it is the responsibility of the funeral director to help the family through the grief journey. You have the training, experience, and knowledge to do this. If you're not the one connecting the dots, they will figure it out on their own.

You can use Zoom to this virtual gathering with the family. You can then moderate a discussion to get family members to share memories. Use the Have a Talk of a Lifetime questions to keep the conversation going.

Record the meeting and you can then upload the video file to Tukios and embed it on the obituary as well.

What have your experiences been like over the past 2 weeks? How have you adapted your funeral services to meet the needs of a quarantined community? Please share in the comments!

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I'm looking forward to the day when things get back to normal, but in the meantime, while our world is changing every day, let's do what we can to help families properly honor their loved ones who are passing on.

Curtis Funk | Founder/Dreamer | Tukios.com