Obituary

ANNOUNCEMENT: New Services Available - Please Read

Press Release - For Immediate Release

December 1, 2009

WAKEMAN FUNERAL HOME ADDS NEW TECHNOLOGY TO ITS SERVICES

Over the past several months Wakeman Funeral Home, Inc. in Saginaw has taken steps to upgrade their service offerings to their clients. Many of these new offerings come from requests made by consumers. While making a recent upgrade to the obituary section of their website, www.WakemanFuneralHome.com, it was determined to be the ideal time to integrate other new technologies into their service offerings.

The firm has established a whole new suite of technological services and is now available to their clients.

“These new services include individual, personalized Interactive Websites, which is in addition to our primary website,” said Funeral Director and Co-owner of Wakeman Funeral Home, Inc., Rodney C. Wakeman. “The Interactive Websites have five separate modules to encourage family and friend interaction, all to perpetuate the memory of the loved one,” he added.

“Once the site has been established it can be accessed via the Obituary page of our website where the public can view it,” said Brian D. Wakeman, Co-owner and Manager of the firm.

“If, however, the family wishes to keep interaction with the site private, only among family members, it can be done,” said Rodney Wakeman. “Otherwise, family, friends, business people, community contacts – anyone who knew the deceased can interact with the site accordingly,” he explained.

Some of the features include lighting a candle and providing a short message in memory of the deceased, uploading photos to a personalized Photo Album, writing a memory in the Share Memories module and accessing a Video Tribute – a slideshow of photos set to music if one was requested by the family.

“Soon, a Family Tree module will be available, allowing family members to build a family tree,” said Rodney Wakeman. “The family is given administrative control of the site. Any additions and deletions are administered by the family,” Wakeman added.

In addition to these services and at the foundation of this newly-offered technology, the funeral home is providing Webcasting through video streaming over the Internet.

“Technology is everywhere,” said Rodney Wakeman. “We are now uniquely positioned to further help our clients with the loss of their loved one through the use of this specialized technology,” he added.

“Consumers use technology in most every application in their lives; from televisions to computers to cell phones.  Technology is no longer a luxury. It is a must-have. To include technology, even Webcasting, as an integral part of a funeral has already been identified by families as the piece that had tied absent family members together and brought them into the important family event," Wakeman noted.

“The same technologically savvy consumers who seek computers, cell phones and the like also have funerals. It is natural to incorporate what is already in our daily lives onto these services,” Brian Wakeman added.
The firm has used the new services for a number of funerals already. Each time the funeral directors have explained to their families what they are capable of doing for them they have been extremely receptive of it.

“It has been our experience that once our clients understand its purpose and how the technology can be applied to the service, they fervently embrace it,” Rodney Wakeman explained. “Nearly each family we have talked to about the technology had a situation where relatives or close friends were unable to make it to the service. When we told them of the Webcasting service and that we could record the funeral and upload it to a website for later viewing, the families were relieved to know the others could still participate,” Wakeman said.