ST. RAYMOND’S CEMETERY, NY
background
St. Raymond’s Cemetery is one of the busiest cemeteries in the U.S., one of two total cemeteries and the only Catholic cemetery in the Bronx, a borough of New York City with close to 1.5 million people. With 180 acres and 2,500 burials a year, St. Raymond’s offers above-ground crypt burials and cremation niche internment in addition to their inground internments to supply the high demand for burial space. As a part of their forward-thinking sales strategy, St. Raymond’s recently constructed an addition to their mausoleum complex which added hundreds of crypt spaces and thousands of niche spaces.
Challenges
When considering an above-ground mausoleum project, cemetery managers face several challenges:
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Significant up-front construction costs
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Long time span and possible delays due to construction until revenue can be generated
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Compliance with local regulation and insurance requirements prior to permitting on-site access
Mitigating financial risk and reducing time to market are key priorities when considering constructing a mausoleum.
Until now cemetery sales staff could only use traditional paper maps or a simple rendering to offer those interested in pre-need purchases prior to safe walkthrough conditions of the construction site. Oftentimes, this cannot occur until well into the construction phase and often local permits are needed before interested parties can tour the facilities. This creates a significant challenge to sales staff and there is a large delay until initial deposits can be made on crypts and niches. Many cemeteries are unable to presell effectively and must wait until the construction process has significantly progressed or, in many cases, is actually completed. This leaves the cemetery with large amounts of money spent out of pocket before any revenue can be generated.
How can a cemetery integrate a pro-active sales strategy before construction even begins and secure revenue to offset their initial costs?
Solution - CRYPT3D
Crypt 3D provides a robust, real-time, and interactive solution that will innovate and revitalize your pro-active mausoleum sales program. Crypt 3D fully renders your mausoleum with photorealistic detailed images that can be customized to reflect the exact materials and textures. Through the easy to use interface and browser based interactive map, your sales team can use a tablet or website to show interested customers their inventory and sale offerings. Even remote sales can be done via screen sharing to give the customer a fully immersive walkthrough experience.
Results
Over the course of 90 days during construction, St. Raymond’s was able to use Crypt 3D to sell to an initial list of interested parties, securing down payment commitments from families for over 20% of their new crypt inventory. This generated a significant portion of construction costs prior to the start of operations at the site.
St. Raymond’s Cemetery adopted a policy that allowed a full refund for families if they were unsatisfied after a walkthrough of the building once construction was completed. After the walkthrough and final signoff from the customer, the sale would be completed, and the family would begin paying monthly installments. Due to the complete and detailed visual representations that Crypt3D offered, not one of the initial pre-construction sales were reversed, and the cemetery currently has a 100% sell thru rate.
“ Because of Crypt3D, I can start thinking ‘If I can sell a substantial portion of this building out by next year, I can start planning my next construction project.’ Crypt3D gives me the leverage and data to back up the financial planning for a long term construction project. If I undertake a large scale financial commitment for a new construction project, I know that using Crypt3D I can begin to sell crypts and mitigate my costs and risk. If I am able to recoup a third of my construction costs,
I am ahead of the game. ”
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Frank Mangual, Director, St. Raymond’s cemetery