How Norco Family Funeral Home Connects with Families

Jonathan Acosta
Owner & Funeral Director
Norco Family Funeral Home
Norco, CA
Average call volume: 230 calls/year

Jonathan Acosta’s funeral home faced a dilemma; he found it challenging to connect with new families in his small, tight-knit town in Southern California.

He knew his funeral home had to find a way to connect with more families and improve its aftercare program, but he wasn’t sure where to find answers. That’s when he found Funeral Directors Life (FDL).

Since signing up with FDL’s social media marketing and digital aftercare services, Norco Family Funeral Home has increased brand awareness and helped more families during their grief journeys.

Keep reading to learn more about Jonathan’s experience.

How did you first learn about FDL?

FDL invited us to visit their Home Office last year, and we were blown away by everything we saw and everyone we talked to. Seeing FDL’s facility and staff and hearing about their Christian principles was a turning point for me. I love that FDL has the same values as I do and that they believe in caring for their customers just as I believe in caring for families. When I walked into the FDL lobby and saw their huge statue of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, I knew I was in a good place.

What FDL services grabbed your attention?

I knew at the time that we needed to improve our social media. So many families are online nowadays, and if you’re not active on social media, you’re missing out on a large group of your community. I had been looking for a solution but hadn’t gotten anywhere. I found out that FDL could offer social media management services for my funeral home during our visit and expressed my interest.

We had an Instagram page that I created and updated, but that was it. We didn’t have any custom content, branded photos, or videos. Our social media was me spending a few hours every night after working at my funeral home trying to figure out what families wanted to see. I considered hiring someone to our staff to run our social media, but it didn’t really make much sense financially at the time. Once we started using FDL’s social media management, we saw a clear change in our posts from when I was posting content to when they started doing it.

Managing our Instagram account was stressful and frustrating. There were so many questions I had to consider: What would a grieving family want to see? What are families looking for? Is this picture offensive? Can I get sued for using this? Everything I had to think about made managing our Instagram account a dread. I started to feel like a funeral director who was also a part-time social media manager, which is something I never wanted. I’m not interested in social media, and I’m not good at it. That’s why we signed up right away when FDL offered us their social media management service. Since then, our results have been night and day.

What results have you seen?

For starters, I don’t have to worry about our social media anymore. I used to spend hours each night wondering what to post – now, I may spend 10-15 minutes a week approving a few posts that FDL wants to send out for us. And 95% of the time, there’s nothing I need to change in those posts because they look great. When we were in Abilene, one of the things FDL told us was that we didn’t go to school to be social media managers or marketers. We went to school to be funeral directors and embalmers. Hearing that made me realize that FDL really does understand today’s funeral directors.

“The amount of time FDL saves me by handling all our social media now is priceless.”

Plus, people in our community have noticed our improved social media! We went from not having a Facebook page to having more than 100 followers in less than a year. We also have almost 200 followers on Instagram, which might not seem like a lot, but we’re a small town, so it’s pretty impressive. Before we started using FDL’s social media management, I can’t tell you how many times I heard someone say that they didn’t even know our funeral home was in town. FDL has helped us reach more families and become a more recognizable part of our community.

What have you thought about FDL’s video service?

It’s been outstanding. We have a friend who saw our funeral home’s videos, and he was so impressed with the quality that he asked if FDL would make videos for his business. The videos have really been a game-changer. The fact that FDL would fly someone across the country out to our funeral home and spend a couple of days filming our facilities, interviewing our staff, and talking to families for testimonials is incredible. The custom videos are about as custom marketing as you can get, and FDL has helped put faces with our business and get our name out in our community.

You’re also enrolled in FDL’s digital aftercare service. What has that experience been like for your funeral home?

The digital aftercare has been unbelievably helpful for our families, especially the text messaging feature. Families receive text messages on their birthdays, anniversaries, and other special days, letting them know that they’re in our thoughts and that we’re here for them. I’m so glad we can offer this for our families because we didn’t really have much of an aftercare program before FDL. Families deserve continued care after the service, so our funeral home had some grief pamphlets and books we’d offer families, but that was it. Since using FDL’s digital aftercare service, I’ve had tons of families tell me how much it meant to them to get a text message saying our funeral home was thinking about them and that we really do care for them beyond the graveside.

I would love to take FDL’s entire digital aftercare team to a nice dinner and hug them all! And I would sacrifice a lot of things in my funeral home before I sacrificed this program. That’s how valuable I think that service is to families.

Has digital aftercare helped with your online reviews?

We’ve seen a big improvement in the amount of Google reviews we’ve received and the ratings we’ve gotten. Before my wife and I purchased this funeral home, there wasn’t a lot of thought and effort that went into marketing the business. And there weren’t many online reviews for the funeral home. But FDL’s digital aftercare has made it so easy to get online reviews. We’ve seen a lot more 5-star reviews and a lot of that has to do with the texting service. The digital aftercare uses a soft and gentle approach in asking families for reviews. It doesn’t feel pushy, and it doesn’t require the funeral directors to be the ones to ask. FDL’s digital aftercare has been hugely important to our funeral home and has helped us quickly raise our Google ranking.

If a colleague were to ask you for your honest opinion of FDL, what would you say?

I would tell anyone not to waste any more time considering FDL and to make the switch immediately. Everything about FDL has impressed me, and I haven’t had a bad experience yet. From the openness they provide their clients and the services they offer to their beliefs and how they do business, I think they’re second to none. I don’t think any other company can compare to what FDL is doing. I would highly recommend FDL to anyone who asked me, and I’ve already recommended them to some of my friends who own funeral homes. Every funeral home should get to experience what we’ve experienced.

Our new digital marketing packages have everything your funeral home will need to connect with families, stand out in your community, and continue your compassionate care long after the funeral.

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