Is there something to learn here?
I’ll admit that I’m not the most tech savvy person when it comes to knowing how the internet and artificial intelligence might benefit my funeral home. But, I’m also a business person who is looking for every advantage possible when it comes to finding customers and building market share for my business.
So, this article from Tech Crunch and brought to us by Yahoo Finance titled “AI traffic to US retailers rose 393% in Q1 and it’s boosting their revenue too” was of interest to me. The article pointed out to me that shoppers led to a website via an artificial intelligence source converted to a sale 42% more often than a customer who went directly to the site. In addition, shoppers led to the site via AI spent 48% more time on the site and also browsed 13% more pages than if they had went their directly of their choosing.
A thought that I have on this phenomena: Let’s say that I enjoy buying golf apparel. And, let’s also suppose that my favorite golf store is Golf Galaxy of which I am very familiar with. On a normal internet shopping trip I go to “Golf Galaxy” and look at what they have in stock. Maybe I buy, maybe I don’t.
Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily
However, in our demonstration, instead of just clicking into Golf Galaxy I ask my Gemini Artificial Intelligence to find me “Golf Apparel” in my area or while looking at the Golf Galaxy website a proactive pop-up for another store popped up. Now, let’s say that that command brought me to the website of the “PGA Tour Store”. My take is that this Tech Crunch article is telling me that I will spend 48% more time on the site and the other statistics cited.
If that is the case, I can understand that because the company is new to me and I’m interested in seeing what they have. . . so I dig into the site. In comparison, I generally know what “Golf Galaxy” has because I’m a regular customer – so I spend less time there.
If that is what this story is telling me I think it is an interesting situation for funeral homes. Many of your “legacy or heritage clientele” will just go to your funeral home’s website because they know you. However, if family members of the legacy/heritage clientele have moved from your area they may just ask AI to find them a funeral home near their parents address.
If that is the case and they are brought to an unfamiliar funeral home, the statistics say that they will spend time perusing the website. And, in the retail environment, the statistics seem to say that they have no hesitation about making a purchase.
The result of this exercise: Even if I’m wrong on what the statistics of the artificial intelligence experience is telling me in the Tech Crunch article this article is a good reminder that simply landing on a vendor’s website can lead to a sale. In my opinion, it is a great reminder to have a website that is consumer friendly and can answer all the questions that a potential client family member needs to know — including pricing.
Does your website include a Live Chat feature that could help that person that landed on your website via a search? Again, in my opinion, it is more and more important to potential clientele that they get all of their answers when they land on your website. Live Chat is one way to move closer to that resolution.
Here’s some interesting information on Live Chat from Berkshire Receptionists.
Websites and how we get customers to them is getting pretty complicated. For most of us building them is too complicated for the situations that we need help in facilitatating our business. We are lucky though that two of the best in the business are involved in Death Care — Tukios and Tribute Technology.
More news from the world of Death Care:
- How New Jerseyans are choosing to go green, even in death. New Jersey Monthly (NJ)
- A Tampa couple paid $1,800 for burial lots 20 years ago — now someone else in in their graves. Yahoo Finance
- “The Life We Leave”: Documentary shows third option to burial and cremation. On Milwaukee (WI)
- Family funeral firm expands again with latest acquisition in Nottinghamshire. The Business Desk (Gret Britain)
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Tom – great insight here. You are right, this is changing and I think that it will be at a quicker pace than the funeral profession has adopted other change.
As AI quickly matures, we are seeing a clear separation between AI for operations and AI for marketing.
Companies like Tukios are doing an excellent job on the operational side. Where the opportunity is wide open is on the marketing and the “winning families” side. AI is changing how families find funeral homes and, more importantly, which firms even get considered.
At Funeral Futurist, our focus is helping funeral homes and cremation providers:
* Show up when client families ask AI who to call
* Guide client families through the marketing and sales funnel with the assistance of AI and automation
* Respond to them immediately through AI and automation
Unlike in decades past, where we would wait a certain period of time before calling a client family back because we didn’t want to look aggressive, it’s changed in today’s environment – the firm that responds first and best usually wins the call.
Today it is less about how long a firm has been in business and more about the information and attention that the prospective family receives, including how quickly they receive it. This is less about having a website now, and more about having a conversion system designed for AI-driven discovery.
I appreciate you putting this out there, Tom.