Cornerstone Series
Posted in Uncategorized on 07/04/2010 08:12 am by admin
Cornerstone Series
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 Walthers Cornerstone Series® N Scales Background Buildi  US $42.33
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Cremation 24Hr Hotlines Attract More Calls
Mary hangs up her phone and sits down exhausted. She had just broken the news to her brothers and sisters that their mother had passed away. After the initial shock, everyone had asked the same question: “When is the service?” Arranging family events had always fallen on Mary’s shoulders. Normally she enjoyed the task, but this time she felt completely overwhelmed with her own grief. However, she knew that her family was counting on her. She needed to call a funeral home and start the process, but which one should she call? She had attended services at a few of the local funeral homes and didn’t have a favorite. She was concerned about spending too much and was even more concerned about making a bad choice for her family. Mary didn’t feel like starting at Websites so she pulled out the Yellow Pages hoping that the ads would give her some insight into which funeral home she should call. Sadly, the ads all looked the same. Everyone said they were “caring” and they all seemed to offer the same things. But one ad stood out. Big letters across the top of the ad said “are you concerned about paying too much for an unfulfilling funeral?” This attracted her attention. The rest of the ad said “call the area’s only 24-hour prerecorded information hotline and learn the four key issues related to a funeral before talking to a funeral director.” Mary hated feeling unprepared so she liked the idea of learning more before she had to talk to someone. Mary called the toll-free number and spent the next 10 minutes listening to a message prepared by one of the local funeral homes. She learned more in those 10 minutes than she had in years of attending funeral services. More importantly, she learned that at least one funeral home in the area really was “caring” because it took the time to give her information that would help her regardless of which funeral home she selected. They really seemed to be trying to help her, and she appreciated that. Armed with new information, Mary felt a little self confidence and decided that she was ready to make the call that she had dreaded. She picked up the phone and called the funeral home that had created the information hotline. She hadn’t committed to using them yet, but she felt confident that they were a good starting point.
Hotline Marketing
Scenes similar to this play out across America every day. Loved ones pass away and the burden falls on the family members to make the dreaded phone calls, select a funeral home and plan the service. Since the majority of funeral home ads are basically identical, the prospective family usually can’t tell the difference. These ads break one of the basic rules of marketing: when a consumer cannot tell the difference between choice A and choice B, the deciding factor is always price. However, forward-thinking funeral home owners are adopting a powerful marketing tool that has proved to be effective in hundreds of other industries: information hotline marketing. In 2003 I worked with a local funeral home to implement what we believe to be the first information hotline in the funeral home industry. Our primary goal in creating the hotline was to give families information that would help them make a good choice regardless of which funeral home they selected. Our secondary goal was to make sure that the entire community knew how we were different from our competitors. The hotline became the cornerstone of all our marketing efforts. We created a whole series of ads to get as many people as possible in our local community to call our hotline. Every communication we sent to the local clergy and hospice reminded them that we created the hotline to help their families. In the first three years, 6,327 people called our hotline. Our market share increased by more than 40 percent, and out competitors were struggling needless to say, the hotline far exceeded our expectations.
Hotline Benefits
A hotline benefits families in the following ways: educates prospective families on the value of a funeral service, helps them to understand that price is not the only issue they should consider when choosing a funeral home, helps to clarify the process so that they are more comfortable working with you to design a meaningful memorial service, allows them to learn from the privacy and comfort of their own home, positions you as the person who is willing to educate the family and guide them through this difficult time.
Hotline Benefits For Funeral Home Owners
Separates you from the local competition, builds a relationship with prospective families earlier in their buying process, customizing the message allows you to directly target the weaknesses of your competitors, turns price shoppers into educated prospective families, creates a stronger and more professional image within your community, helps create an excellent relationship with clergy and hospice workers.
How A Hotline Works
The concept is fairly simple. First you sign up with a specialized service company that provides you with a telephone number. It’s usually toll-free, but not always. Next, you record a message just like you would record a greeting message on your voice mail, only longer. You then use traditional advertising methods to influence people to call your toll-free number and listen to your message. Typically, the message is broken up into different topics and the caller selects what he or she wants to learn about. This gives the caller begins to trust you. As opposed to a Web site, which appeals to the computer savvy crowd, the information hotline is for everyone else. It’s aimed toward senior citizens who may not be comfortable on the computer but still need the information. An information hotline has two main components: technology and content. Five years ago, the technology was the hardest part of the project, but that is no longer the case. Today you can outsource the entire technology part of the hotline and pay just a modest monthly fee, typically $60 to $100 per month. If you do a google search for “prerecorded message service providers” you’ll find a handful of companies that can provide this service. Check them out carefully and never go with the lowest price provider. Just like in the funeral business a discount hotline service provider is rarely going to meet your true needs. The “make or break” part of the project is the content. In other words, exactly what are you going to say on your hotline? You’ve promoted the hotline’s toll-free number and people called—now what? What are you going to say to them? How are you going to hold their attention? How are you going to educate them? Start out with a copyrighted baseline script that covers four key topics related to a funeral. Then customize the script based on your business and your competitive situation. Then create a series of audio recordings using the script. After editing, these recordings will be uploaded to the technology company that assembles the new hotline.
Hotline Pricing
Consumers don’t just want to know your prices, and they definitely don’t want to hear you read off your General Price List. Instead, they want to know how pricing works when buying a funeral service. What are the components? What should they expect to pay? They want to know the normal price range for a service. They want to know how to interpret this price. Is it too high or too low? What are they going to get for their money? This is also a great time to take a shot at the pesky discount service provider that’s always taking your calls. Simply come up with a list of questions that a family should ask any discount provider before trusting them with their loved one’s remains. Don’t say the competitors name, just give the person the right information and trust that they’ll connect the dots. Creating a good information hotline is not easy, cheap or quick, but it is an effective way to educate potential families, and it can become the cornerstone of a marketing campaign that positions you head and shoulders above your competitors. One of the great benefits for you is that it gives a way to measure the effectiveness of your advertising. Just by checking the logs on your hotline you’ll be able to tell whether the campaign you are running is generating any calls. Thanks to today’s caller ID technology, you will even know the phone number from which they called inevitably, the day will come when your local competitor calls your hotline, and for some reasons every business owner seems to enjoy that moment.
About the Author
Cremation Options is proud to be a family owned and operated company dedicated to providing dignified cremation services at an affordable price. Established in 2002; we are a non-denominational firm providing a variety of Cremation, merchandise, and services to families of all ages, creeds, and ethnic backgrounds.Call us toll free @ 1-877-989-9090.
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Cornerstone $1.85 By Lari Goss. Arranged by Hugh S Livingston Jr.. For SATB choir. Exaltation Series. Sacred Anthem. Octavo. Published by Lorenz Publishing Company |
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Britains Imperial Cornerstone in China $283.58 This is an indepth account of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, a uniquely cosmopolitan institution established in the wake of Chinas defeat in the Opium Wars (1842 to 43), and a central feature of the Treaty Port system. The Britishdominated service was headed by the famous Robert Hart who founded a farreaching customs administration that also encompassed other responsibilities such as marine and harbour maintenance, quarantine, antipiracy patrols and postal services. This institution sat at a crucial juncture between Chinese and foreign interests, and was intimately linked to British interests and fortunes in the Far East. Following the establishment of the Republic in 1911 there were grave misgivings as to whether the foreign element of the Service would survive. Yet the Service grew in influence and strength, ensuring the foreign inspectorate a continued role in Chinas affairs. Delivering an overview of the Service, its bureaucracy, fiscal responsibilities and life for foreigners in its employ, focusing especially on the later years of the Service, Donna Brunero draws on the experiences of the foreign administration of the Service as it attempted to negotiate between Chinese and foreign expectations and interests. Author: Brunero, Donna Series Title: Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia Binding Type: Hardcover Number of Pages: 216 Publication Date: 2006/04/01 Language: English Dimensions: 9.28 x 6.36 x 0.68 inches |
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The Cornerstone $29.24 No Synopsis Available |
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Laying the Cornerstone For the Lincoln Memorial $19.99 Laying the Cornerstone For the Lincoln Memorial - Premium Poster |
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Cornerstone of Liberty $5.99 The Supreme Court's decision in the Kelo case created a firestorm of interest in protecting property rights. Through real-life stories and solid legal analysis, this book shows why property rights are the cornerstone of liberty, how they are protected in the U.S. Constitution, and it critically examines how courts and legislatures have diminished property rights, and then lays out an agenda for protecting property rights in the future. |
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Cornerstone (Software) $82.85 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Cornerstone is a relational database for DOS by Infocom in 1985. It was widely hailed upon its release for its ease of use, but is generally considered one of the leading factors that led to the demise of the company. In the 1980s, Infocom was widelyknown as a computer game developer and publisher. It developed the most popular works of interactive fiction available at the time and, in fact, can be considered a pioneer of the genre. Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 108 Publication Date: 2010/12/13 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.26 inches |
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CORNERSTONE LODGE $80.99 LIMITED SERVICEYEAR BUILT 1998ADDITIONAL PROPERTY DESCRIPTION CORNERSTONE LODGE OF FOLEY IS CONVENIENTLY LOCATED IN FOLEY, ALABAMA WITHIN MINUTES OF THE GULF BEACHES AND TANGER OUTLET FACTORY STORES. WHEN LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT BLEND OF QUALITY, SERVICE AND VALUE LOOK NO FURTHER THAN CORNERSTONE LODGE OF AMERICA. SO WHETHER YOU ARE STAYING A NIGHT, WEEK, OR A MONTH, OUR FRIENDLY AND COURTEOUS STAFF IS HERE TO MAKE YOUR STAY AN ENJOYABLE ONE. WE ARE PET FRIENDLY. PETS ARE ALLOWED UNDER 25LBS FOR A NON REFUNDABLE FEE OF 75.00. HOURS OF OPERATION ARE MON SAT 8AM 10PM AND ON SUNDAY FROM 8AM 8PM. NBR OF NON SMOKING ROOMS 55ROOM AMENITIES FOR ALL ROOMS ROOM AMENITIES 120 AC / AIR CONDITIONING / CABLE/SATELLITE TV / COFFEE/TEA MAKER / FREE LOCAL TELEPHONE CALLS / KITCHEN / MICROWAVE / PLATES AND SILVERWARE / REFRIGERATOR / SHOWER / SMOKE DETECTOR / TELEPHONE TECHNOLOGY VOICE MAILB1K MAX OCCUPANCY 3 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 1 ROOM DESCRIPTION ONE KING BED. ROOM AMENITIES EASY CHAIR / NO SMOKING ROOMC1K MAX OCCUPANCY 3 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 1 ROOM DESCRIPTION ONE EXECUTIVE KING BED. ROOM AMENITIES EASY CHAIRC2D MAX OCCUPANCY 5 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 1 ROOM DESCRIPTION TWO DOUBLE BEDS. ROOM AMENITIES AIR CONDITIONINGD1K MAX OCCUPANCY 3 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 1 ROOM DESCRIPTION ONE KING BED ROOM AMENITIES AIR CONDITIONING / CABLE/SATELLITE TV / COLOR TV / KITCHEN / MICROWAVE / TELEVISIONH1D MAX OCCUPANCY 2 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 0 ROOM DESCRIPTION ONE DOUBLE BED HANDICAP WITH KITCHEN, MICROWAVE, AND REFRIGERATOR. ROOM AMENITIES 120 AC / AIR CONDITIONING / CABLE/SATELLITE TV / COFFEE/TEA MAKER / FREE LOCAL TELEPHONE CALLS / HANDICAPPED ROOM/FACILITIES / KITCHEN / MICROWAVE / PLATES AND SILVERWARE / REFRIGERATOR / SHOWER / SMOKE DETECTOR / TELEPHONE TECHNOLOGY VOICE MAILN1D MAX OCCUPANCY 3 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 1 ROOM DESCRIPTION ONE DOUBLE BED. ROOM AMENITIES EASY CHAIR / NO SMOKING ROOMN1K MAX OCCUPANCY 3 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 1 ROOM DESCRIPTION ONE EXECUTIVE KING BED. ROOM AMENITIES EASY CHAIR / NO SMOKING ROOMN2D MAX OCCUPANCY 5 MAX NBR OF ROLLAWAYS 1 ROOM DESCRIPTION TWO DOUBLE BEDS. ROOM AMENITIES NO SMOKING ROOM |
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Cornerstone (Paperback) $124.19 The sixth edition helps students focus on practical strategies for CHANGE. Those who can master change with a positive attitude take calculated risks and maintain an open mind will succeed. Filled with inspiring stories and powerful activities, this motivating book teaches success through discovery, goal-setting and determination. Cornerstone utilizes SQ3R and Bloom's Taxonomy throughout, employing the reading and critical thinking strategies necessary for student achievement. Thoroughly updated, it includes a new chapter on Interpersonal Communication, and now extensively covers Information Literacy. Also provides updated and expanded information on money and debt management and a stronger focus on self-engagement. The chapter on Critical Thinking is brand new, empowering students to advance in the classroom and beyond. |
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The Cornerstone (Unabridged) $13.09 In this coming-of-age novel set in 1944, Ian McKenzie is a bright 15-year-old street kid who's been sent to a Washington State summer camp to be straightened out.... |
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The Knights of the Cornerstone $7.99 When Calvin Bryson decides to visit his aunt and uncle, he learns that their small town is harboring some strange secrets-including a modern- day incarnation of the legendary Knights Templar. |
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Styx - Cornerstone $10.27 Disc 1:LightsWhy MeBabeNever Say NeverBoat on the RiverBorrowed TimeFirst TimeEddieLove in the Midnight |
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The Cornerstone Anthology $78.88 No Synopsis Available |
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A Cornerstone Inheritance $29.2 No Synopsis Available |
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Cornerstone Ranch $17.54 No Synopsis Available |
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Chief Cornerstone $1.71 No Synopsis Available |
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The Cornerstone; A Novel $22.82 No Synopsis Available |
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Laying Cornerstone to Dwight D. Eisenhower Foundation $79.99 Laying Cornerstone to Dwight D. Eisenhower Foundation - Premium Photographic Print |
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A Cornerstone from the Original 1923 Yankee Stadium $34.99 A Cornerstone from the Original 1923 Yankee Stadium - Giclee Print |
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The Cornerstone of Franklin Court, The Home of Benjamin Franklin $34.99 Tim Laman The Cornerstone of Franklin Court, The Home of Benjamin Franklin - Photographic Print |
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Rubbing of a Cornerstone Depicting Masonic Symbols, Dated 1738 $49.99 Rubbing of a Cornerstone Depicting Masonic Symbols, Dated 1738 - Giclee Print |
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American Fighter Cornerstone T-Shirt $31.95 The American Fighter Cornerstone T-Shirt offers a strong design in stark colors for a direct hit. With front, back, sleeve and hip graphics, you'll be noticed from every direction. The back reads, American Fighter Training Division World Wide Athletics since 1974 in distressed screen print. The American Fighter Cornerstone T-Shirt will is the foundation a great look is built on. |