Answers to Your Most Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why should our funeral home offer your VisitationDVD and TributeDVD products?
2. What is the difference between your VisitationDVD and TributeDVD products?
3. How much effort is involved for our staff to present and explain this service?
4. What is your definition of a turnkey marketing program?
5. Is our funeral home name or logo used in the DVD video or in the packaging?
6. Do you offer support? What are your business hours?
7. What makes the VisitationDVD and TributeDVD different?
8. Can we customize the packaging, labels and DVD artwork to differentiate our DVD from others?
9. How would we display the Visitation DVD in the funeral home?
10. What is the turn around time for producing the VisitationDVD and TributeDVD?
11. How will I be billed for the videos?
12. What images should the customer provide?
13. How many photos or items should the customer provide?
14. Can you scan the non-digital photos that a customer provides?
15. Can you fix damaged, faded or scratched photos provided by the customer?
16. Will all of the customers’ original materials be returned to them?
17. How difficult will it be for the customer to personalize their DVD?
18. Who produces the Life Summary?
19. How much are re-orders and can our customers have the video on VHS?
"Innovation mixed with the right mix of technology becomes the enabler for traditional businesses to create new wealth."
Q: Is our Funeral Home name or logo used in the DVD video or in the packaging?
A turnkey All funeral homes are provided the option to have their name and logo appear on the packaging for gathering the personalization details, DVD Jacket Cover (Front and Back), DVD Disc label and on the introduction screen for the DVD.
Investing in custom artwork that differentiates you from other local funeral homes is definitely an option. Our on-staff graphic artist can creatively design your logo or theme based upon your requirements.
Q: Why should our funeral home offer your VisitationDVD and TributeDVD products?
Through the blending of media into your services your organization can uniquely support the family in remembering, honoring and celebrating the life of the deceased. Our media presentation approach is an elegant, yet simple expression of the individual’s life, which the family can share during the visitation process, funeral service and with friends and family through the years to come.
Our holistic approach to the visitation and tribute video experience will emotionally attach your funeral home to friends and families who not only visit your location but who watch the DVD over the years to come. We achieve this through the blending of your brand (image, key phrases, and customer promise) into each DVD, strengthening the relationship you have with families who are loyal to you today and increasing the opportunity to bring in new business, and new potential customers.
Our VisitationDVD can be played during the Visitation service or during the funeral to pay tribute to the deceased. With the customers content safely stored within our Content Management System you then have the flexibility to create copies of the DVD for distribution to those who were unable to attend the service.
Our Content Management System also allows you to position the VisitationDVD and TributeDVDs products during the pre-planning stage for families as well. Enabling family members to tell their LifeStory, on their terms, is a key differentiator by choosing WhiteFern Studios as your preferred partner.
Q: What is the difference between our VisitationDVD and TributeDVD products?
VisitationDVD is a streamlined photo montage DVD that is meant for use at the Visitation or Funeral service. It becomes a key focal point for friends, family and acquaintances to view as they are waiting to give their condolences to the family of the deceased. The process to create the VisitationDVD is streamlined to ensure that the product your client wants to have available for their visitation service is there on time.
TributeDVD is the final DVD that is personalized the way the customer indicates in the Personalization handbook and will be available 7-business days after the Funeral service.
Q: How much effort is involved for our staff to present and explain this service?
Minimal. We have spent months developing and testing our post-production processes so that we have a complete turnkey solution that enables your organization to offer a compelling video product while minimizing the distraction to your staff.
The sales opportunity for the products blends in to the same time that you are meeting with the family regarding their other preparations. Once the family has decided which package then you provide them with the Personalization Kit and basic instructions. The customer completes the Personalization Guide, chooses their media and returns the package to your office. We do the rest.
Our Personalization Key is a simple, easy to use and clearly labeled kit that the family take home to complete. It asks for basic information regarding the deceased’s life and allows the family to jot down key points and let us worry about writing.
We deliver the final products directly to the Funeral Home and if the family at any time would like additional copies made then they contact you and we will take card of the production and artwork printing. No need for you to invest and support technology that don’t require.
Q: What is our definition of a turnkey marketing program?
A turnkey business is a business that includes everything you need to immediately start running the business. With our marketing, sales and demonstration tools you can implement the VisitationDVD and TributeDVD products with no additional work or investment by your Funeral Home. The only upfront cost to you is the time to become comfortable with the positioning.
Q: Do you offer support? What are your business hours?
Recognizing that your customers may drop off their completed personalized DVD information anytime between 9am and 9pm any day of the week means that you have to be there to support you. We will coordinate pickup of your clients’ content up to 18-hours prior to the Visitation service and have the content delivered to our premises. We will then have the VisitationDVD available for the Visitation service.
Q: What makes the VisitationDVD and TributeDVD different?
Any ambitious, do-it-yourselfer can certainly use a low-end scanner, and their PC to create a slideshow of photos. However, the quality you as a funeral home operator want to see consistently presented within your Funeral Home should be different then what a consumer will create. We will work with you to ensure each VisitationDVD we create is consistent and of the same quality time and time again.
We incorporate your brand throughout the entire experience, from the initial discussion with your client to the final DVD packaging. We’ve researched, tested and integrated the best possible presentational styles, graphical artwork, image scanning techniques and custom transitions, that when blend together, create the best possible DVD product.
We also restore or enhance the color to each of the photos and digitally fix any minor flaws. The TributeDVD becomes a family keepsake to be cherished for years to come.
Q: Can we customize the packaging, labels and DVD artwork to differentiate our DVD from others?
Absolutely. The key benefit of a turnkey marketing and DVD development program is that you gain speed to market with introducing two new products, VistiationDVD and TributeDVD, into your organization with no development costs. We’ve developed the marketing and sales templates so that you can promote your organization through placement of your logo, tagline and other descriptive text.
However, we also recognize that your organization has unique requirements and prides itself on differentiation from other local Funeral Home operators. Through a detailed interviewing process we can gather the necessary requirements to produce a ‘unique to you’ marketing and sales program. You then set your budget and we determine what can be developed within that budget.
Q: How would we display the VisitationDVD in the Funeral Home?
With today’s media technologies there are several high-quality options available but which one to choose is dependent upon the physical layout of your facility and your budget.
For the Widescreen TVs and LCD projector you will require a DVD player to broadcast the content. If you are using a digital photo frame then we can provide you with a memory cardstick that contains the same photos being presented on the TV.
You also have the option to select one of our pre-packaged landscapes, historic landmarks or video sets to display on your digital photo frames or Widescreen LCD TVs when they are not in use by a family.
Q: What is the turnaround time for creating the VisitationDVD and TributeDVD?
With our VisitationDVD product you can have peace of mind in knowing that the DVD containing the photo montage for the Visitation service will be there on time. We will need the customers’ photos a minimum of 18-hours prior to the beginning of the visitation services to ensure that you are receiving a VisitationDVD product that is fully tested.
The TributeDVD, which will be the completed product, personalized to the customer instructions that were provided in the Personalization Guide will be delivered to the Funeral Home 7-business days after the Funeral Service. This is also a great opportunity to support the family with additional after-care services when they arrive to pickup their TributeDVD product.
Q: How will I be billed for the video?
When the final TributeDVD product is delivered to your office we also include a detailed, easy to read invoice indicating the items that were created as part of the package with the total cost. We will also deliver a monthly statement detailing all video or media products that were created for your customers during the previous month with the total costs for that month.
Our billing terms are flexible where you have the option to pay per customer invoice or once a month with the delivery of the detailed monthly invoice.
Q: What images should the customer provide?
Your customer should consider providing photos that include head shots, special events, family photos or ‘unique to them’ photos that included the deceased or had a significant importance in the deceased’s life. Proving multiple viewpoints of the deceased will allow for the creation of a well rounded narrative of the deceased.
For those customers who will be providing digital images the best format to incorporate into the VisitationDVD or TributeDVD would be JPEGJPG.
Q: How many photos or items should the customer provide?
Within our Funeral Home package we have allotted for your customer to provide us with 50 to 150 photos, or other items, to be placed on the TributeDVD. With 50 to 150 items being presented in a photographic montage approach the customer will have DVD running time between 7-minutes and 22-minutes of content to view, before it loops back to the beginning.
Q: Can you can non-digital items that the customer provides?
Yes. We can scan photo prints up to 8.5”x11”, 35mm slides, 35mm film strips, medium format strips 2-1/4”, 120220 APS, 6x20cm and 4”x5” film. If the customer also has old letters, post cards, etc that they want on the TributeDVD then they can include those as well. Each item provided by the customer is considered 1 photo in our package features.
Q: Can you fix damaged, faded or scratched photos?
Absolutely! Our digital editing studio allows us to apply many corrections to the photos of your client.. We strongly advise your customer to choose photos that are free from damage as these photos, depending on the severity of damage, could take away from the experience you want to create during the Visitation service.
Q: Will all of the customers original materials be returned to them?
Yes. Once we have completed the scanning process to convert the original photos, slides or negatives into a digital format, we seal the original media in a protected envelope and will deliver it back to the funeral home at the same time we deliver the TributeDVD.
Q: How difficult is it for the customer to personalize their DVD?
Personalization of the TributeDVD is very important and is at the core of our value proposition to you and your customer. We provide the customer with a simple, easy to follow personalization guide where they choose their artwork, musical selections while providing key information about the deceased and their life which is then used to personalize many aspects of the DVD.
Q: Who produces the Life Story?
Using the information provided by your customer in the personalization guide, our staff writer then transcribes that information into a narrative that is blended with the photos, video clips and other content the customer provided.
Q: How much are reorders and can the customer have the movie in VHS format?
We maintain your customers’ digital media in our Content Management System, from 1 to 6-months from the day of the Funeral Service, and during this time you have the option to request as many copies of the TributeDVD as your customer desires. We will quickly reproduce duplicates of the TributeDVD video and have them available at your office within 2-business days
