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Precoa's ability to set appointments fro me has been wonderful.

SUMMARY

Despite 15 years in the industry, it wasn’t until Josie found Precoa and its unique resources that she could really get in front of the number of families she wanted to serve. Precoa’s planning center took making phone calls to prospective leads off her plate, and let her spent time doing what she does best: meeting with families and sharing the importance of preplanning.

ABOUT GEORGE RENNER & SONS
FUNERAL HOME

Josie Schwab is a preneed counselor at George Renner & Sons Funeral Home. Renner Funeral Home is a family-owned firm that has operated for over 75 years. The Renner family owns and operates three funeral home locations in the Belleville, Freeburg and Smithton, Illinois.

Precoa’s unique tools make preplanning a pleasure for family service counselor Josie Schwab.

Josie Schwab has been a successful preneed counselor since 1995, but she admits that spending time on the phone to follow-up on leads was never her favorite part of the job. She had to force herself to sit down and make those important calls to set her appointments. Like many counselors though, it could be a struggle for her.

“Making calls, especially in the evening, has always been hard for me and sometimes after a call or two I’d give up,” Josie said. “I’d miss that window of opportunity to reach families that worked during the day and there would be people on my list that I’d tried to reach for over a year without success. It was frustrating.”

Her life as a preneed counselor changed, however, when her firm partnered with Precoa in June of 2010. With that partnership, Josie gained the support of an elite team of customer service professionals in Precoa’s Funeral Planning Center that excelled in making those calls she had struggled with. She soon began to see her appointments surge, creating more meetings with more families.

“The fact is, since working with Precoa, I finally have a consistent, daily schedule,” she said. “The Planning Center makes calls at all different times of the day and eventually they connect with those families that I used to have no luck with.”

Josie said the success of the Planning Center shocked her at first, but she’s getting used to its results appearing consistently on her counselor Web Portal calendar – another important tool that benefits all Precoa agents.

“With the Planning Center setting appointments for me – both from direct mail and my own submissions of lead sources – I simply check into my Web Portal to see what the day’s schedule will be,” she said.

While it felt strange at first to let go of her appointment-setting responsibility, Josie said she doesn’t miss the time she used to spend making follow-up calls. Precoa’s innovative resources – like the Funeral Planning Center and Web Portal – have all been designed to make counselors’ workdays more efficient and successful.

“Precoa’s ability to set appointments for me has been wonderful,” Josie said. “My time is freed up to do what I do best – presenting to families.”