By Welton Hong, founder and CEO, Ring Ring Marketing
In an earlier article, I went into some detail the steps funeral homes should take before initiating a Google Local Services Ads campaign, which can be a great way to protect and boost market share.
Now let’s get to what I consider one of the most valuable — and overlooked — benefits of Local Services Ads.
Most funeral home owners look at incoming calls and ask one question: Did these become customers?
That isn’t enough.
Every first call tells you something about your business.
Each one tells you what prospective families are asking, how staff communicate and whether people are confused about your services. These calls also reveal what prices callers are asking about, whether employees sound confident and compassionate, or if they seem rushed.
And if you’re not listening to those calls, you’re guessing.
In the United States, businesses can listen to phone lead recordings through the Local Services lead inbox. Inbound calls generated through Google’s forwarding number are recorded, with callers notified through a prerecorded message.
That is a remarkably powerful training resource.
Think about a hypothetical funeral home that receives 20 LSA calls in a month. The owner may know that four of those calls resulted in arrangements. But what about the other 16?
What happened?
Maybe eight were legitimate price shoppers. Maybe three were people outside your service area. Maybe two were looking for a service your funeral home doesn’t provide. Maybe a few were families who simply weren’t ready to make a decision.
But you might also discover that whoever answers your phone is making mistakes that lead families to call someone else.
My point is: You can’t fix what you don’t hear.
I recommend that funeral home owners and managers regularly listen to a sample of their LSA calls with their team. This shouldn’t be a disciplinary exercise. It should be a coaching exercise.
Bear in mind this is a very manageable task given that many of the firms we work with at Ring Ring Marketing may receive an average of about one Local Services Ad phone call per day
Start by identifying what the employee did well: Maybe they conveyed empathy or asked excellent questions. Maybe they explained the cremation process clearly or never fell into the trap of becoming defensive when a caller challenged the price. Reinforce those behaviors.
But also look for opportunities to improve.
Maybe staff members sound rushed or are interrupting callers. Did someone say, “That’s our price,” instead of explaining what the price includes? Are staff members using phrases like, “That’s not something we do” without offering an alternative?
These little moments can have enormous consequences.
Consider a hypothetical call in which a consumer says, “I’m just looking for the cheapest cremation you offer.”
An inexperienced response might be: “Our direct cremation is $1,495.”
A stronger response would be: “Absolutely. I can help you with that. Our direct cremation starts at $1,495, and I’d be happy to explain exactly what that includes. May I ask a couple of questions so I can make sure I’m giving you the right information?”
The second response doesn’t hide the price. It doesn’t manipulate the consumer. It simply creates an opportunity to understand the family’s situation and explain the value of the service.
That’s the kind of difference you can hear in a recording.
What Should Owners Listen For?
I would focus on several themes.
First, listen for speed: Is the employee talking so quickly that a grieving family can’t process what is being said? Funeral service conversations are not ordinary sales calls. Silence isn’t necessarily a problem. Sometimes giving someone a moment is exactly what good communication requires.
Second, listen for empathy without sounding scripted: Families don’t need a canned speech. They need to know they’re talking to a human being who understands the seriousness of the situation.
Third, listen to what happens when price comes up: Does the employee become defensive? Do they provide a price with no explanation of what is included? Do they understand the funeral home’s pricing well enough to answer confidently?
Fourth, listen for questions: Great phone conversations aren’t interrogations, but staff should be learning enough about the caller’s situation to provide a useful answer. Who died? Where is the deceased? What does the family believe they need? Is there a time-sensitive issue? What services are they considering? What questions haven’t they asked?
Fifth, listen for missed opportunities: Sometimes the biggest problem isn’t something an employee says. It’s something the employee fails to say.
Maybe the caller mentions that she has never arranged a funeral before, and nobody offers to walk her through the process. Maybe the caller asks about cremation, and nobody explains the options available. Maybe the caller says, “I’ll call you back,” and the employee doesn’t establish a logical next step or get their contact information.
Finally, families should always know what happens next: Be sure your staff provides a clear next step. Not every call may end with a sale, but it should end up with a clear understanding about what happens from here.
The Calls Can Tell You More Than You Think
There is an even bigger opportunity here.
When you listen to enough calls, you’re no longer just evaluating employees. You’re conducting market research.
Suppose you hear the same question repeatedly: “Do you have a private family viewing if we choose cremation?”
That might tell you something about what families want—and perhaps something about what your website isn’t explaining clearly.
Or suppose 40% of your calls begin with consumers asking for your cremation prices. That tells you something about the market. If callers repeatedly ask whether you offer payment plans, that tells you something else. If they consistently misunderstand what is included in a particular package, perhaps your marketing materials need to be rewritten.
You may also discover that a large percentage of callers are asking for services you don’t advertise heavily, which may indicate you’re missing an opportunity.
All of these insights can play a role in how you position website content, FAQs, advertising and even how you package and price services.
In other words, the phone recordings can become a feedback loop between your marketing and your operation.
Marketing generates conversations, which generates data, which tells you what to improve, what to stop or what to start.
That’s a much more valuable way to think about Local Services Ads.
The funeral homes that get the most out of LSA aren’t necessarily the ones that simply figure out how to get their profile approved or how to increase their visibility. Approval is just the beginning. Google itself makes clear that profile quality, reviews, responsiveness, relevance and other factors influence ranking.
The real opportunity is to build a system around the leads.
Get your reviews in order, make your profile credible and then be sure your staff knows the campaign will be active. Then, once the campaign is running, listen.
Because if you’re paying Google to put your funeral home in front of when families are looking for help, you have been given something far more valuable than another source of phone calls.
You’ve been given a window into what happens when your marketing meets a real person, which is a powerful training and business-improvement tool.
The team at Ring Ring Marketing stands ready to help you get your Local Services Ads up and running and to get a strategy in place before the first call comes in.
Welton Hong is the founder & CEO of Ring Ring Marketing, which has helped over 600 small businesses grow their revenue through online marketing strategies. He is also the author of “Making Your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes.” Visit ringringmarketing.com and follow the company on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X.
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