How to use ChatGPT to Respond to Google, Facebook, and Yelp Reviews on Your Funeral Business | #37
When a family leaves a tough Google review, it can hijack your whole day. You want to respond quickly, you want to sound compassionate, and you absolutely don’t want to accidentally make things worse.
In this episode of the Direct Cremation Podcast, host Will Demichelis (funeral home consultant and former manager at Omega Society, which serves 4,500+ families per year) walks through a simple, practical way to use ChatGPT as a writing assistant for review responses—especially negative ones.
Will doesn’t pitch this as a magic “copy and paste” button. He positions it as a time-saver and a stronger starting point—so funeral directors don’t burn an entire shift trying to craft the perfect paragraph.
Why Google Reviews Hit Funeral Homes Differently
In death care, reviews carry extra weight. Families don’t just rate a transaction—they rate a moment they’ll remember forever. That’s why a thoughtful response supports more than your reputation. It signals your standards, your compassion, and your professionalism to the next family who finds you through your funeral website or cremation website.
For many firms offering online cremation services, the review section often becomes the first “conversation” a family has with you. A clear, calm response can reinforce trust before a family ever starts online funeral arrangements or asks about cremation arrangements.
Will’s Core Idea: Use AI to Draft, Then You Lead
Will opens by acknowledging the bigger trend: companies have started releasing AI-generated tools for things like obituaries, but that’s not the focus here. Instead, he zooms in on a daily pain point: responding to reviews.
His main observation feels painfully familiar: he’s seen funeral directors receive a negative review and spend hours (sometimes a full workday) writing and rewriting a response. The emotional stakes are high, and the wording matters. Will’s solution: let ChatGPT generate a strong first draft so you start from a better place.
Think of it like a funeral director app for writing—except you still control the message, the tone, and the final decision.
The Exact Workflow (Simple, Repeatable, Fast)
Will shares his screen and walks through a step-by-step process you can repeat anytime:
- Open ChatGPT (a standard personal account works for this demonstration).
- Copy the Google review from your business page.
- Paste it into ChatGPT with a prompt that includes context and values.
His prompt structure matters. He doesn’t just say, “Write a response.” He includes:
- The request: a compassionate response to a Google review
- The business name: the funeral home ChatGPT is speaking on behalf of
- The values: what your team stands for (he uses “compassion, understanding, and care”)
- The full review text in quotes
That extra context helps ChatGPT shape the response in your voice and align with your brand standards—something every funeral home management team cares about, especially if multiple staff members reply to reviews.
What Surprised Him Most: The Quality of The Writing
Will notes that the draft came back with a high level of writing and incorporated the details he provided. He doesn’t treat the output as “the answer.” He treats it as a strong rough draft—like hiring a capable assistant to get your first version on paper.
This is where the time savings show up. Instead of staring at a blank screen, you start with a complete response that you can quickly adjust, tighten, and personalize. That matters for busy firms juggling everything from case volume to scheduling, especially if you’re also managing growth through marketing cremations or improving systems across your funeral management system.
His Biggest Warning: Never Publish It Straight From ChatGPT
Will gets very clear here, and it’s the most important part of the episode:
- Always read the entire response.
- Never copy and paste it directly as your official business reply.
He calls that a poor standard operating procedure—and he’s right. Your responses still need human judgment, sensitivity, and accuracy. You also want to protect your reputation and avoid sounding templated or overly formal.
A strong approach looks like this:
- Keep the empathy
- Remove anything too generic
- Add one or two specific, non-confidential touches that show you listened
- Make sure you don’t reveal private details about the case
Where This Fits In Modern Funeral Tech
If you already use funeral home software, mortuary software, or funeral arrangement software, you know technology doesn’t replace care—it supports it. Will frames ChatGPT the same way: a tool that helps you outsource the parts you don’t enjoy (or don’t feel confident writing), so you can focus on families.
Even if you run the best funeral home software, you still need thoughtful communication on public platforms. Review responses act like mini marketing messages—especially for firms building visibility with cremation ads, cremation advertising, and local search.
Final Takeaway For Funeral Directors
This episode delivers a straightforward message: use ChatGPT to get unstuck and move faster, but keep your standards high. You don’t hand your reputation to a tool—you use the tool to help you protect it.
If your team wants a realistic, low-lift way to upgrade how you respond to reviews (without losing your voice), this workflow gives you a solid starting point—one that fits right alongside the rest of your funeral tech stack.
Watch full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LYjS2D2aG4