Company Profile

Our Beginning

During the mid-1990s, a funeral director in Vancouver, BC became increasingly concerned about a growing need within the death-care community – and decided to do something about it. The funeral director was Gary Darychuk. The need was for a specialized answering service to assist funeral professionals with their after-hours calls. And the “something” he did was to create Directors’ Choice in 1997.

Thirteen years later, Directors’ Choice is providing award-winning answering services to funeral homes and others in the death-care community across North America. We now answer 100,000 first calls per year – providing comfort and assistance to families at a time when they need it most, and accurate, timely information to our clients.

The journey has been exciting, challenging and rewarding!

Milestones

1997
Directors’ Choice answers our first call on October 15.

1999
Directors’ Choice answers our one-millionth call (we now answer more than one million calls a year).

2001
Profit Magazine names Directors’ Choice the 14th fastest growing start-up company in Canada.

2003
Directors’ Choice welcomes our 1000th funeral home as a client.

2007
Directors’ Choice celebrates our 10th anniversary.

2009
Directors’ Choice completes the largest project in our history – upgrading our entire answering system to enhance client services.

Directors’ Choice places sixth in making our debut on the list of Best Places to Work in Atlantic Canada.

Directors’ Choice receives the Canadian Call Management Association (CAM-X) Award of Excellence for the fourth year in a row.

Community

Perhaps it’s the very nature of the business we’re in – where caring and compassion are the cornerstones of our culture – that defines our strong commitment to community service, both corporately and individually.

From making sandwiches for a mobile soup kitchen to holding fundraising auctions at work, from organizing the annual community-wide Terry Fox Run in support of cancer research (this international event is our “official charity”) to donating groceries and gifts to those in need at Christmas, our entire team does its best to support our community.

In addition to contributing to the well-being of the place we call home – the place where we live and work – our community involvement has helped us in building a strong sense of team and a positive work environment. Our staff shows the same respect, consideration and concern for each other as they do for our clients and the families they serve.