Navigating funerals with the FuneralNav app
Friday, January 5, 2018
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Richard Harris |
A conversation with the founder of the FuneralNav app about the creation of the product, and the passion behind helping people.
Funerals are emotional roller coasters of grieving and planning, and the last thing you want to worry about is how to get to the final resting place of a loved one. That’s where a passionate founder named Joseph M. Bernaudo comes in. He has been in the funeral business for a long time, and knows how difficult it can all be. So to help make things a little easier, he created a product named “FuneralNav” that installs onto a mobile device, and allows funeral professionals to send a signal out to everyone’s device attending the funeral service, so they can easily follow the hearse to the grave site.
While it sounds simple enough, there is some heavy hitting tech behind it, so we recently had a conversation with Joseph about his passion, his app, and the future of funerals in general.
Bernaudo: Funerals are as old as time and so are many of the industries traditional ways of doing things. If we can do better, we should do better, because people are counting on us for that. A funeral firm who uses FuneralNav should stand out and bring comfort to the bereaved, it is more than just an app it is a statement "We give a darn!".
Bernaudo: My responsibility over funeral processions lead me to its development. My focus to do the best possible job I could lead me to a difficult realization. As good as I could ever be without it I still am at the mercy of many situations beyond my control. Each funeral after was a call to make the lives of the bereaved a little easier.
Bernaudo: The app is free to use. For those those tracking a procession at a funeral, just download the app from the app store, select the funeral in your area you want to follow, and choose either map tracking, or turn by turn voice promoted navigation.
If you are a funeral professional and want to create a funeral procession you must first create an account, then you can create a procession by logging in and name the procession for others to find, then just tap broadcast.
If funeral homes wish to brand the app with their logo, website, phone number and more, so their procession broadcasts with their own information, there is a monthly subscription fee.
As for making things better there are so many advantages for the bereaved, such as: Need to stop for gas, late to the service, exact cemetery location
For funeral homes to name a few: Keeping the funeral line intact, broadcast messages to all cars (remain in your cars), Alert drivers ticketing camera at intersection
Bernaudo: After our presence at National Funeral Directors Association Conference 2017 at Boston Massachusetts we had many interested funeral homes. A follow up to a customer who took advantage of our promotional no sign up fee advertising yielded positive feedback. The funeral home operates in Chicago, IL in the city where traffic can get out of hand. The owner said it is a relief, he no longer needs to worry about whether the cars in his line have taken wrong turns. Its great, he said.
Bernaudo: From idea, to design, to development the FuneralNav project has taken about two years. However as many tech types know living breathing apps such as this one are always in development so I can't say everything has been created yet. As for revisions we do have plans to count the number of cars tuned in as well as getting the app built into the major Hearse auto companies such as Lincoln and Cadillac. If they won't play ball we would have to consider something like CarPlay & Android Auto.
Bernaudo: We try to "stay in our lane" but our funeral home friends and customers can see we do offer very simple resources to take home from our blog. Today's tech world allows a plethora of free tools funeral professionals can benefit from and get ahead and make their day to day easier. Of course usually there is some daunting up front labor involved and to those that aren't tech savvy risk vs reward turns them away. Work has never stopped us before and our customers know that, they should expect some free forms and tools from us from time to time.
FuneralNav is leading the way, literally. It is the purpose our app serves to lead the way for all of the bereaved. From the technology standpoint there is nothing else out there. We are only helping our funeral home partners lead the way for others to follow. To bring the ceremonial funeral processional, a cornerstone to traditional american funerals, to the 21st century.
Read more: http://www.funeralnav.com
While it sounds simple enough, there is some heavy hitting tech behind it, so we recently had a conversation with Joseph about his passion, his app, and the future of funerals in general.
ADM: Can you give us some history about the funeral industry, and how FuneralNav aims to be a disrupter?
Bernaudo: Funerals are as old as time and so are many of the industries traditional ways of doing things. If we can do better, we should do better, because people are counting on us for that. A funeral firm who uses FuneralNav should stand out and bring comfort to the bereaved, it is more than just an app it is a statement "We give a darn!".
ADM: Tell us about yourself, and your passion for this product.
Bernaudo: My responsibility over funeral processions lead me to its development. My focus to do the best possible job I could lead me to a difficult realization. As good as I could ever be without it I still am at the mercy of many situations beyond my control. Each funeral after was a call to make the lives of the bereaved a little easier.
ADM: How does the service and app work, and how does it make the overall funeral process better?
Bernaudo: The app is free to use. For those those tracking a procession at a funeral, just download the app from the app store, select the funeral in your area you want to follow, and choose either map tracking, or turn by turn voice promoted navigation.
If you are a funeral professional and want to create a funeral procession you must first create an account, then you can create a procession by logging in and name the procession for others to find, then just tap broadcast.
If funeral homes wish to brand the app with their logo, website, phone number and more, so their procession broadcasts with their own information, there is a monthly subscription fee.
As for making things better there are so many advantages for the bereaved, such as: Need to stop for gas, late to the service, exact cemetery location
For funeral homes to name a few: Keeping the funeral line intact, broadcast messages to all cars (remain in your cars), Alert drivers ticketing camera at intersection
ADM: Can you give us some success stories of the app in use?
Bernaudo: After our presence at National Funeral Directors Association Conference 2017 at Boston Massachusetts we had many interested funeral homes. A follow up to a customer who took advantage of our promotional no sign up fee advertising yielded positive feedback. The funeral home operates in Chicago, IL in the city where traffic can get out of hand. The owner said it is a relief, he no longer needs to worry about whether the cars in his line have taken wrong turns. Its great, he said.
ADM: How long did it take to create everything, and what future revisions are in store?
Bernaudo: From idea, to design, to development the FuneralNav project has taken about two years. However as many tech types know living breathing apps such as this one are always in development so I can't say everything has been created yet. As for revisions we do have plans to count the number of cars tuned in as well as getting the app built into the major Hearse auto companies such as Lincoln and Cadillac. If they won't play ball we would have to consider something like CarPlay & Android Auto.
ADM: What about tech and the future of funerals overall? Do you see FuneralNav as a leading the way?
Bernaudo: We try to "stay in our lane" but our funeral home friends and customers can see we do offer very simple resources to take home from our blog. Today's tech world allows a plethora of free tools funeral professionals can benefit from and get ahead and make their day to day easier. Of course usually there is some daunting up front labor involved and to those that aren't tech savvy risk vs reward turns them away. Work has never stopped us before and our customers know that, they should expect some free forms and tools from us from time to time.
FuneralNav is leading the way, literally. It is the purpose our app serves to lead the way for all of the bereaved. From the technology standpoint there is nothing else out there. We are only helping our funeral home partners lead the way for others to follow. To bring the ceremonial funeral processional, a cornerstone to traditional american funerals, to the 21st century.
Read more: http://www.funeralnav.com
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