February 28, 2013 – Atlanta, GA and Media, PA – Bluefin and ASD – Answering Services for Directors, the leading answering service for funeral professionals, announced today that they have entered into a partnership to make Bluefin’s payment gateway, PayConex, available to ASD’s customer base.
Bluefin is a leading provider of payment processing solutions for the funeral profession. The company’s PayConex payment gateway features debit/credit/ACH acceptance, plus recurring billing, a virtual terminal and a hosted payment page – all backed by security features such as tokenization and point-to-point encryption (P2PE).
ASD serves more than 5,000 funeral homes and is the preferred choice among Independent Funeral Homes and Funeral Home Directors. The company’s custom-built funeral communication systems and extensive, 6-month training program have made ASD the answering service trusted by more than one quarter of all funeral homes in the United States.
“ASD has created a new class of answering services exclusively for funeral homes,” says John Perry, CEO of Bluefin. “This falls in line with our commitment to the funeral profession, and combined we can offer superior products and services that will provide efficiency and convenience to funeral homes, directors and families.”
Per the partnership, all of ASD’s clients will have access to Bluefin’s secure payment gateway by simply applying online for a merchant account. Funeral professionals can take advantage of Bluefin’s virtual terminal to process customer payments from any PC, tablet or smartphone, while offering their families the convenience of paying for services over time with Bluefin’s recurring billing feature. This will allow ASD clients to process payments without ever tying up the funeral home’s phone line. Additionally, clients will receive an exclusive discount on each transition with Bluefin in the form of an ASD credit.
“From inception to delivery, technology is the driving force behind all business transactions,” stated ASD Vice President and Family Member Owner Kevin Czachor. “And, due to the large cost of a single sale in the funeral business, cash flow is vital. By using Bluefin’s payment gateway, our customers can accept credit and debit payments and ACH one-time or recurring payments, providing customers flexibility while receiving payments faster and in full.”
About Bluefin
Bluefin specializes in providing secure payment gateway solutions to over 15,000 U.S., international and Canadian merchants. Bluefin’s PayConex payment gateway enables debit/credit card acceptance, ACH processing, recurring billing and more, all backed by secure solutions including end-to-end encryption for POS transactions, transparent redirection, hosted pay page, store and convert processes and PCI consulting for large companies. Bluefin serves major E-Commerce merchants and partners with leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in a variety of industries to bundle payment processing with their software offerings, enhancing product value and increasing customer satisfaction.
About ASD
ASD – Answering Service for Directors has created a new class of answering service exclusively for funeral professionals. Family Owned and Operated, ASD has been helping funeral homes manage their calls and their lives since 1972. With a visionary approach to business, ASD has redefined the way Funeral Directors serve families through combining unparalleled levels of training and advanced technology. For more information, visit www.myasd.com or call 1-800-868-9950.