Des Plaines online funeral service offers consumers a choice
While the Internet has changed the way we do business, the funeral industry is perhaps one of the last frontiers. Until now.
Consumers now have the option of planning a wake and funeral service, and even a cremation, through Des Plaines-based BasicFunerals.com.
The online service has a bricks-and-mortar headquarters in Des Plaines and other offices in Ontario, Canada, California and Colorado. It now aims to expand further, said co-founders Dominic Mazzone and Eric Vandermeersch.
"We still provide the same services. We just changed the business model," said Vandermeersch, a licensed funeral director.
BasicFunerals.com offers consumers the chance to make all the arrangements online, by phone or even have a funeral director visit in your own home, the co-founders said.
"We use all the same locations (for wakes) that you would for a wedding or another event," said Mazzone. "We've used golf courses, yacht clubs, churches, anywhere."
The idea for the web-based service started about 4 years ago. Vandermeersch left the funeral industry for a period of time and opened a fitness center, all while retaining his funeral license. Mazzone, who was born and raised in Arlington Heights, met Vandermeersch when Mazzone's wife had joined the gym and they became friends.
Vandermeersch wanted to create a modern approach to funeral arrangements and offer more convenience to grieving families without pushing them into higher-cost packages they may not want.
With Mazzone's background in IT, the two men decided to create the business in 2009 and originally launched it in Ontario, where Mazzone's wife is from. They opened the Des Plaines headquarters last year.
The business is not a brokerage, so services are not parceled out. The company has licensed funeral directors on staff and provides basic to elaborate funerals, they said.
So far, the online service has arranged "a few thousand" funerals, and it expects to do about 2,000 this year, they said.
The company has 22 workers and more may be hired later this year, they said.
"It's a fragile time in a family's life and we want to maintain the best customer service possible," Mazzone said.
Surfing: Elk Grove Village launched a free new smartphone application called Shop Elk Grove for iPhone and Android phones. It supports local retail, hospitality and wholesale businesses and connect customers with those local products and services. It's available on iTunes App Store or the Android market.
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Ÿ Illinois residents donated more than 39,500 no-longer-used wireless phones to HopeLine from Verizon, a Verizon Wireless' phone recycling and reuse program that helps support domestic violence victims. See www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.
Ÿ Libertyville-based Motorola Mobility created a special edition Red Carpet Droid Razr Maxx that was given to select nominees and presenters at the Oscars. The best actress and best supporting actress nominees received the phone with a gold sequined pouch. The best supporting actor and best actor and best director nominees were given a high-end shaving kit with the phone.
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