With everything going on in our industry, Salem Stones is consistently the partner I can trust to deliver for our families. The quality and timelines of their custom monuments continues to impress.

– Midwest Monument Retailer

We continue to hear customer feedback about promise dates of 9-12 months from other suppliers, “It’s our industries new normal” is what we hear far too often.

At Salem Stones, we do not accept this “new normal” narrative. We are in fact, committed to forging our industry’s path “back to normal.”

Therefore, effective immediately, we are reducing the expected timeline for custom import memorial orders from 180 days to 150 days! These revised timelines will provide more certainly for both you and the families you serve!!

Lastly, Salem Stones has a rich history of designing and delivering custom stones.

Here are some examples of our custom capabilities:

(Note: Columbaria and Mausoleum orders do not apply to the 150-day timeline.)

In our 15-plus years, we’ve always found it best to be transparent with our customers so that you could trust us and how we do business.

To that end, I’m writing to you today to address the operational challenges that may have negatively affected your recent customer experience.

As you know, the stone and monument industry as a whole has struggled these past two years: inventory is tight, while demand, unfortunately, remains strong. Thanks to supply chain shortages, delays have become all too common. We wanted to help solve these problems, so we connected with our global supply partners and quickly secured a new stone pipeline.

Opening up that channel doubled our business in 24 months, but it didn’t allow us enough time to properly scale operations. The result was delays, damaged stones and incorrect deliveries. Needless to say, this is not the top-quality experience we’ve always been known for.

To address these issues, we have looked to our past to move forward. In 2006, our first year in business, we faced similar logistical problems, including delayed shipments and occasional stone damage. We knew then that if we didn’t improve we would go out of business. Happily, we got better, and we’re using the lessons learned then to overcome our challenges today.

Here’s how:

• In response to delivery delays … To accommodate the heavy demand, we sometimes received 20 truckloads of stone a day. However, we didn’t yet have processes in place to organize and track this massive quantity, which in turn made it hard to locate each individual stone and resulted in delays for outgoing orders. To solve this problem, we’ve implemented a new warehouse management system, based on a row-shelf-bin organizational model. That new system and new QR code protocols—which require staff members to scan each stone upon arrival at our facility, upon shelving, and again upon shipment—make locating a stone a much easier task. Fulfillment times are, thus, faster, backlogs fewer, and delivery times shorter.
• In response to stone damage … The difficulties in locating specific stones meant our team had to move each stone around more frequently and this extra manhandling naturally led to more damage. The organizational improvements mentioned above go a long way to solving this. However we have also introduced stronger Paletts, so that the stones are more protected all along their journey,  purchased a new, state-of-the-art, shrink-wrap machine that better insulates our stones and implemented an inspection process that ensures each Pallet exits the warehouse in perfect condition.
• In response to incorrect deliveries … we tasked a supervisor with checking each outgoing order to ensure that each Pallet contains the correct stones. The QR scanning referenced above offers a second confirmation. And a new inbound supervisor guarantees that stones are shelved properly in the warehouse upon arrival, further decreasing mix-ups.
• In response to problems in the customer experience … we beefed up Salem Inspire—our designing, ordering, and tracking platform—to accommodate the increased demand. We also adopted a call center model of customer service, which has greatly increased our call-processing capacity.

We hope all of these changes mean you are already experiencing better service from us, but we will remain grateful for your patience as we continue to iron out the rest of the kinks. We will continue to update you over the next few weeks but please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments as they arise. Most of all, thank you for giving us another chance to offer you the highest level of service.

Respectfully,

Lenin

St. Michael Catholic Cemetery in Sioux Falls, S. Dakota, Expanding its Cremation Garden With Help From Salem Stones

Dan Johnson, director of St. Michael Catholic Cemetery in Sioux Falls, S. Dakota, has plans for his cremation garden courtesy of a free 48 Niche Columbarium from Salem Stones.

The columbarium is part of Salem Stones Columbarium Giveaway to help one cemetery adapt to the growing cremation garden trend.

“The cremation rate was almost 49 percent nationwide just a couple years ago. This is no secret to the industry,” said Lenin Kailasammani, owner of Salem Stones. “We know cemeteries and the families they serve are looking for options. This columbarium program is a way for us to open the door to conversations to discuss ways we can provide direction and guidance on the expansion or development of a cremation garden.”

Each person who entered Salem Stones Columbarium Giveaway is receiving a free cremation garden consultation and a customized conceptual garden sketch from its partnering team of landscape architects and designers. The value of the columbarium is $5,750.

Johnson has plans for St Michael Catholic Cemetery. The columbarium will be used to expand upon its current above ground cremation garden.

“I was ecstatic when I was notified. We’re very blessed to win this,” said Johnson. “This fits into our long-term vision of having a garden with Our Lady of Fatima as the focal point surrounded by four columbaria and stations of the cross.”

Johnson explained that since cremation is growing, the cemetery must be ready and prepared to handle the families choosing this option, and make it a place of prayer, meditation, and gathering.

“People want to be buried in a beautiful cemetery. I want people to come here and memorialize and remember the good times, have that family spend time with their loved ones.

Salem Stones is a trusted partner of granite memorials to the cemetery industry. Its focus is on helping cemetery owners and operators deliver reliable, customized memorials of exceptional quality so they can exceed the expectations of the families they serve. Salem Stones has a wide variety of inventory including monuments, mausoleums and columbaria in its two warehouses located in Columbus, Ohio, and Elberton, Georgia.

Contact Salem Stones about how we can help you with your cremation garden.