Nicole Vullo

Pandemic drives funeral industry to speed up adoption of technology By Danny King, Houston Chronicle Contributor June 22, 2020 COVID-19 has forced Houston’s prominent funeral services industry to look to the future to better honor those who’ve passed. With coronavirus-related state mandates limiting gatherings to 10 people until late last month, funeral home operators continue to be obligated to reduce the number of an event’s attendees to 50 percent of capacity for indoor spaces. As a result, such businesses have rapidly turned to online tools such as Facebook Live and Zoom to allow more people to attend funerals virtually while more are regularly adopting the practice of selling their products online instead of in person. “Broadly, the industry has been 10 to 15 years behind the times from a technological perspective,” said Chris Cruger, chief operating officer of Phoenix-based funeral […]