Funeral Home Answering Service: Options and Costs (2026)
The calls that matter most to a funeral home come at 3am, from a family who has just lost someone, or from a hospice nurse who needs to know when your team can arrive. Whoever answers has to be calm and kind, collect the first-call details correctly and reach your on-call director fast.
The quick answer: A funeral home answering service takes your calls when your staff can’t, mostly nights, weekends and during services. You can use a funeral-only service like ASD (priced by quote), a general live answering service (about $410 to $1,725 a month at 80 calls), or an AI that works behind your director. Carly is the pick for homes that want the director reached first and nothing missed: it rings your on-call director before anyone else, and if they can’t pick up, it answers gently, takes the first-call details in your order and texts the director the summary the moment the call ends.
Funeral home answering service costs at 80 calls a month
US list prices from each vendor’s own page, checked October 23, 2026. The last column estimates a month for a funeral home sending 80 calls to the service, about 4 minutes each (320 minutes).
| Option | Who answers | Entry price | Billing unit | At 80 calls (320 min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Your on-call director first, then AI | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo | Monthly plan | Setup: one prompt in ChatGPT or Claude |
| ASD | Funeral-trained call specialists | Not published | Quote | Quote |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI, with live staff available | Free for 25 calls, then $3 a call | Per call | $162.50 (Pro: $150 for 75, then $2.50) |
| Specialty Answering Service | Humans | $44 plus $1.54/min | Per minute, by the second | About $413 (220-minute plan plus 100 minutes at $1.44) |
| PATLive | Humans | $49 plus $2.99/min | Per minute | About $517 (300-minute plan plus 20 minutes at $1.89) |
| Smith.ai live receptionists | Humans | $300 for 30 calls | Per call | $810 (90-call plan) |
| Ruby | Humans | $250 for 50 minutes | Per minute | $1,725 (500-minute plan) |
ASD is the name most funeral directors know. It only serves funeral homes, its call specialists are trained for death calls, and its reviews are full of directors who have used it for 10, 20 and 30 years. Its prices come by quote.
What each option does with a death call at 3am
| Hospice nurse reporting a death | Family calling about arrangements | Caller asking about tomorrow’s service | What the director sees | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | The nurse waits, or calls another home | The family calls another home | Leaves a message | A list of voicemails |
| Funeral-only live service | First-call details taken, director paged | Message taken with care | Service details read from your notes | Messages in the service’s app |
| General live service | Message taken and relayed per your script | Same | Same | Messages by email or app |
| Carly | Director’s phone rings first; if they miss it, Carly takes the first-call details and texts the director at once | Answered gently, details taken, arrangement meeting booked if the family wants one | Answered from your service schedule | Summary, transcript and callback number on their phone |
What a first call has to capture
Write your list down and have whoever answers ask it in the same order every time:
- The person who died: full name, and where they are now (hospital, hospice, nursing home or residence).
- Time of death, and whether hospice, a physician or the medical examiner is involved and has released them.
- The caller: name, relationship and the best number to reach them.
- Anything your removal team needs to know before they arrive.
A good service also knows what not to do. It shouldn’t quote prices, make promises about timing it can’t keep, or rush a grieving caller off the phone.
How Carly covers a funeral home’s phones
Carly follows your instructions exactly, the same way on every call, which is what you want when the details have to be right at 3am.
- The director comes first. Calls ring your on-call director (or a ring group of directors) first. Carly answers only when nobody picks up.
- A calm, gentle voice. You write how Carly speaks to families: unhurried, plain and kind. It answers in English or Spanish, whichever the caller uses.
- First-call details in your order, then a text to the on-call director with the summary and callback number the moment the call ends, through a workflow.
- Transfers when a person should take it. A family that asks for the director can be put straight through.
- Answers everyday questions about visitation times, service locations and directions from the schedule you give it.
- Books arrangement and pre-planning meetings on your directors’ real Google or Outlook calendars, and texts the confirmation.
- One record for the morning. Every call, transcript, voicemail and text sits in one team inbox, logged to Carly’s CRM. Carly connects to thousands of apps.
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Keep your funeral home’s number and forward the calls your staff miss, or get a new line in the chat. Paste this into ChatGPT or Claude:
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/integrations (Advanced > API Keys > Create a new key, with Owner set to the team and all scopes selected) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.Then call your own number at night and play a hospice nurse to hear exactly what a family would (how to test it). Get started.
Questions to ask any funeral home answering service
- How fast does the on-call director hear about a death call? Ask for the exact path: text, call, app alert, and what happens if they don’t respond.
- Do nights, weekends and holidays cost more? Get it in writing.
- What’s billed? Minutes or calls, rounding, and setup fees.
- Can it take your first-call form in your order? Send your form and ask them to read it back.
- Who hears the call? Ask whether calls are recorded and who can listen.
For general after-hours coverage, see after-hours answering service and AI answering service.
FAQ
How much does a funeral home answering service cost?
At about 80 calls a month, general live services run from about $413 (Specialty Answering Service) to $1,725 (Ruby) on list prices checked October 23, 2026. ASD, the funeral-only service, prices by quote. Carly: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Should an AI answer death calls?
The best setup puts your director first. With Carly, the on-call director’s phone rings before anything else. Carly only answers when they can’t, takes the details your form asks for, and gets the summary to the director within seconds.
What information does a funeral home take on a first call?
The name of the person who died, where they are, the time of death, whether hospice, a physician or the medical examiner is involved, and the caller’s name, relationship and number.
Can I keep my funeral home’s number?
Yes. Forward unanswered calls to Carly, and your number, listings and signage stay the same.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
