About 15 years ago, I had the privilege of being involved with a Batesville research project called the “Funeral of the Future.” One of the most important findings that came out that project was that less than 5% of all funerals were personalized in any meaningful way. We reached that insight by asking funeral homes [...]
It’s not an easy time to be a funeral director. We’ve found ourselves in a snowball effect. The consumers of today aren’t interested in a traditional funeral anymore. And unfortunately, if we aren’t leveraging the Internet to educate our value to consumers, we make it easy for them to choose a direct cremation. In turn, [...]
If you’re in the funeral profession, it’s no secret that cremation and the lack of value of funeral services has made a pretty negative financial impact on most funeral homes. However, there is one aspect of funeral service that’s experienced quite the opposite financial impact. Can you guess which service that is? It’s the pet [...]
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Clarence Darrow Thanks to the Internet, there has been a fundamental shift in the way today’s families research and make funeral service decisions. This might not come as a surprise to you, but if [...]
The other day, a good friend of mine told me to try this new restaurant in downtown Detroit that has the BEST darn Cuban sandwiches… ever. And after reading some reviews on Yelp and Google my inner foodie began to yell “YES!! A cool, new restaurant!” Excited to try this new Cuban restaurant, I gave [...]
Leadership – there are many ways to define it, but one of my favorite quotes about leadership is John Maxwell’s: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Great leadership is the hallmark of a successful business. And like a great leader, your funeral home’s website is the [...]
It’s a tough market out there – no one knows that better than you do. Revenues are falling because people just don’t see the value of a funeral service the way they used to. In this economy, it’s become one more expense to families can’t afford– at least that’s how it seems. A recent funeralOne [...]
Almost every day, you can open up a magazine, read a blog or pick up a newspaper that tells you how you should change the way you run your funeral service operation. At the core of most of these “change” opinions is the Baby Boomers. The Baby Boomers have been altering the landscape that was [...]
It was late 1989. Rachel was then in her mid 70’s. A retired school teacher, she had worked for us for about 6 or 7 years. She was a quiet, unassuming and gracious woman who had that gift of always making you feel welcome. As a part-time hostess at our funeral home, Rachel was stationed [...]
I recently came across an article that surveyed Baby Boomers, asking them to select and submit images that represented their feelings about traditional funerals. The submissions were rather surprising. All of the images were oozing with dark colors and sorrow. One person even submitted a photograph of a shark to represent his anxiety and feelings [...]
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