How Phantom Crew works

What is Phantom Crew, in one line?

It's funeral home staffing software — a shared board that gets the right drivers, dressmen, clergy, and livery to every service. You assign roles; it texts each person; you see every confirmation in real time. No more group texts, no more paper folders, no more "wait, who confirmed who?"

Why does building my bench matter so much?

The bench is your Rolodex — every dressman, driver, pallbearer, clergy, and limo company you'd ever call. It's the single thing that makes inviting crew fast: with a full bench, staffing a service is a few taps; with an empty one, there's nobody to invite. Use Bulk Add to paste names and phone numbers straight from your contacts, 30 at a time. Set up the roles your firm actually uses, and rank your people so your first call sits on top and the rest fall in behind as backups.

Tip: do this on day one, before your first real case. A full bench is the difference between Crew feeling instant and feeling like work.

How do I build a case?

Hit + New case. The only things you truly need are the deceased's name, a date, and a time. Then tick the events this case has — Visitation, Funeral, Cemetery / Committal, or Other (a Celebration of Life, a witness cremation) — and the form expands so you can fill in each one. Leave a location blank and it falls back to your funeral home automatically; you only type a venue when the event is somewhere else.

Tip: you don't have to enter the whole case at once. Start with the funeral, add the wake or the committal when you know the details.

How do invitations and confirmations work?

For each role you pick the person, their report time, and their report place. Crew sends each one a personal text — not a group blast — naming the case, their role, and where and when to show up. They confirm or decline with one tap (or just reply YES or NO): no app to download, no login to remember. If someone declines, your ranked backup for that role is invited automatically — you never have to notice the gap and start calling around. And you watch a live "3 of 4 confirmed" count that every director sees on every device.

Good to know: when a staffer confirms, the service drops straight onto their phone — one tap adds it to Google or Apple Calendar.

Do I still need to call people?

Yes — and this is the most useful habit to build. The app handles the staffing; the phone call handles everything a text can't carry. Here's exactly how I run it: "I book the clergy through the app myself, but I always do a follow-up phone call — the clergy side needs more instruction than the app shows, so the call stays no matter what." Limos are the same: send it through Crew if it's easier, but pick up the phone when the route's complicated. The rule of thumb — send the invite in Crew so it's tracked, then call when the person needs context. The automation and the human touch work together; one doesn't replace the other.

What does it cost?

$39 a month, per funeral home — every director, every case, unlimited staff, all in. If you run more than one home, each additional location is $9 a month. There's a 30-day free trial and no card required to get started.

How do I mark someone as away or on vacation?

On the bench, open a staffer and set their time-off dates. While they're away, Crew automatically skips them when you're staffing a service in that window — their ranked backup gets invited instead — so you never text someone who's on vacation. When they're back, they're in the rotation again, nothing to undo.

Who logs in — and what do my staff need?

Your directors log in and run cases. Give each one their own login under Settings → Directors so everyone sees the same board in real time — no more comparing notes. Your staff — dressmen, drivers, clergy, livery — need nothing. No app, no account, no password. They get a text and they tap. That's the whole experience for them.

What are Director Notes?

One place, per case, for the things that don't fit a form — the family's wishes, how many cars, where to park, the side door, "the widow uses a wheelchair." Every director at your firm sees the same notes, and you can push them to your confirmed crew so everyone walks in already knowing the plan instead of finding out at the curb.

Venues vs Locations — what's the difference?

Venues are the churches, cemeteries, and halls you use again and again. Save one in Settings → Venues and it shows up in the dropdown when you build a case, so you're not retyping "St. Anthony's" every week. Locations are your funeral homes themselves — if your firm runs more than one home or branch, each additional one is part of your plan (see pricing below). Most homes only ever touch Venues.

Does pasting the obituary fill everything in?

It gives you a head start on the name and a service date — and on purpose, that's all it does. It does not auto-create every event or pull in every church and cemetery. I built it that way deliberately: a Tukios obit might list a visitation, a funeral, a Mass, and an interment, and auto-stuffing all of them in makes a case look pre-staffed and cluttered before anyone's actually confirmed. So the obituary saves you the typing on the name and date; you tick the events you really have and add a church or cemetery if you want them.

Something's not working, or I have a question.

Expect a few small bumps the first couple of days — that's normal, and it settles fast. Anything that comes up, email [email protected]. I read every message and respond the same day, and if something's broken I get it fixed quickly.