Meet the Team - Funeral Notices Manager

It's nice to put a face to a name, our Meet the Team blog series does just that.

As part of Reach Plc, funeral-notices.co.uk have been publishing notices in local newspapers for over 100 years. Sarah Welton has been part of the team for more than 22 years and in that time has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge in both the media and funeral industries.

Sarah began her career working for the Hull Daily Mail in a sales advertising role and has progressed within the business ever since. Sarah is mum to two boys and successfully juggles work and home life, leaving little time for relaxation. When opportunity allows she enjoys nothing more than catching up with her family or switching off with a good Netflix binge.

Sarah manages the Funeral Notices team which is part of the Contact Centre, overseen by Director Darren Minns.

As Funeral Notices Manager Sarah leads a team of dedicated Customer Advisors who are responsible for communicating with Funeral Directors across the UK. The team receive calls and emails to book notices into local newspapers and online at funeral-notices.co.uk. The team are also responsible for checking every notice we receive prior to publishing - all the while working to strict deadlines and maintaining their reputation of providing excellent customer service.

Sarah is incredibly proud of the daily achievements of her team:

"I am proud to lead a fantastic team of people whose job is to deliver excellent service to our Funeral Director customers publishing funeral notices with us.

"We never stand still and are always looking for opportunities to improve either our products or the service we offer to ensure we deliver the right solution to Funeral Directors and their families.

"I'm always keen we are aware of what is happening in the funeral industry so we can best support and inform our funeral notices audience and customers."

Sarah also manages a team of Account Managers who make outbound calls and visits to Funeral Directors to support them with their Funeral Notices account and the benefits that affords them.

In March 2020 the Funeral Notices team began working from home as the UK entered the first lockdown. This was a difficult period for everyone and Sarah is proud of the way the team came together to support one another and were able to support Funeral Directors. The team now work from home on a permanent basis and Sarah regularly does welfare checks with the team to support them:

"The team are a pleasure to work with and I'm proud of the customer service they deliver, they will always aim to go that extra mile for a customer. They really are a great bunch of people who care about the role they do."

Sarah has been involved with funeral-notices.co.uk since it began as an idea. It was a dream of the Contact Centre to have our own online home for the notices we publish. Through the dedication and hard work of people like Sarah, the support of Funeral Directors and an impressive audience, Funeral Notices has grown from an idea to become the UK's number one tribute site - something Sarah is proud to be a part of:

"Day in day out, I see the condolence messages, tributes, photos and charitable donations published on funeral-notices.co.uk and the comfort this can bring to many families, it's a place where people can announce the passing, share memories, and remember their loved ones forever.

"Our unique position as a publisher of news and information to local communities means the long standing tradition of obituaries in newspapers can continue to serve our online audience, ensuring we still connect people together."

Sarah's unique relationship with Funeral Directors has helped shape the way the website can help Funeral Directors as well as provide essential support to the bereaved:

"There are many ways using funeral-notices.co.uk can help Funeral Directors, whether it be a to provide a traditional funeral notice online, a cashless charitable donation service or publishing your funeral notices to your own website.

"We don't just offer funeral notices, all our Funeral Director customers feature in our "Find a Funeral Director" directory enabling potential customers to connect with local funeral businesses. And that's not it, as part of Reach plc, we have extensive marketing solutions knowledge where we can help funeral businesses grow their own customer base, we're here to help in any way we can."

Sarah loves her job, both managing the Funeral Notices team and driving the continued development of funeral-notices.co.uk:

"I love the job I do, and always have. The beauty of it is that we adapt and evolve which makes it challenging and exciting at the same time."