Trust me, this isn’t your typical office space. Take a tour through our new headquarters and you’ll get a better understanding of where some of our innovative ideas and out-of-the-box thinking comes from!

So without further ado, here are a few of my favorite things about the new funeralOne headquarters!

Open, Collaborative Work Space

Before moving into our new headquarters, we tore down almost all the walls in our 10,000-square-foot space. Why? Because we don’t believe in cubicles, private offices and departmental borders. At funeralOne, we believe an open, collaborative work environment breeds creative and innovative thinking. So the whole office is open to encourage conversations and the sharing of ideas.

The Break Area

We believe that a work-hard, play-hard kind of environment actually increases productivity. I know it may sound crazy, but we work at a pretty fast-pace around here and sometimes it helps to just clear your head and take a quick 5-minute break—sometimes that’s all it takes to lose to your competitor! Our break area is filled with Ping Pong and foosball tables, pinball machines, air hockey and video games. I like to encourage everyone to partake in some sort of activity daily.

The Alice in Wonderland Room

The funeralOne headquarters is far from your typical corporate office setting. Along with our rainbow-colored walls and Andy Warhol paintings we have 4-themed conference rooms. Of which, my personal favorite is the “Alice in Wonderland” room. With sky blue walls and white clouds painted in IdeaPaint, you can literally draw your ideas in the clouds. Combine that with the artificial grass and you feel like you’re outside relaxing, which I think makes for a more enjoyable and productive meeting. Not to mention, you’re sitting in brightly-colored, oversized queen’s chairs. What more could you ask for?

We’re in the Heart of Detroit

Detroit isn’t just the city where our office is located; it’s our home. We believe so much in its potential, that we moved our entire operations downtown to help revive this great city and join the movement of making Detroit one of the greatest technology hubs of our time. Located in the heart of downtown, we are surrounded by legendary landmarks such as the Spirit of Detroit statue, GM Renaissance Center, Comerica Park, Ford Field, Fox Theater, the Fisher Building, Hart Plaza, and my personal favorite, The Joe Louis Fist (pictured above).

The Lego Table

The Lego table in our main conference room is definitely one of my favorite things in the office. And not just for the obvious reason—it’s freaking awesome—but because to me, it symbolizes everything funeralOne is all about. Teamwork, dedication and creative thinking. Everything from conceptualizing the idea, to buying over 30,000 Legos and constructing the 13-foot table, was done by funeralOne employees! I don’t think there’s a better representation of the kind of operation we have here.

This is only a glimpse into the life and culture here at funeralOne. If you thought this was impressive, just wait until you see what I have in store for you in Part 2 of My Favorite Things About the funeralOne Headquarters!

If you’re ever in the Detroit area, stop by! I’d personally love to give you the full tour of our amazing space; I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like it!

Everyone wants to come up with the next big idea that will bring their funeral firm growth, but very few are adept at knowing how.

Take eCommerce for example, how many of you thought of it as a passing fad when you first heard about it—claiming your families don’t shop online?

Well, with statistics showing 71% of adults shop online, clearly that’s not the case. And even more to the point, with $240 million being spent on sympathy gifts and flowers online each year, I think it’s safe to say that funeral eCommerce is no passing fad—it’s here to stay.

I can tell you that funeral eCommerce is the next big industry trend, but at the end of the day, you need to see it to believe it.

Here are some tips to help you spot the next big industry trend:

Separate Trends from Fads

First things first, you need to learn how to identify the difference between a trend and a passing fad. Some people believe the biggest difference is that trends affect a larger amount of people and industries than fads. Others think trends are long-term changes, whereas fads are short-lived. But whichever way you look at it, eCommerce is definitely no passing fad. It currently accounts for more than $200 billion in annual spending in the US and is projected to reach $327 billion in the next 4 years.

Know Your Trendsetters

In order to spot a trend, you must know who the trendsetters are. In fashion, that might have been the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ of the 1960s or the Kate Middletons of today. But in the funeral profession, the trendsetters are your families and your community. If you want to know if eCommerce is here to stay, look to the Baby Boomers. The generational cohort of 78 million strong will be passing through the funeral industry over the next 20 years. You need to find out what offerings they are looking for, that you’re currently not providing.

Read the Signs

As a funeral director or a funeral owner, analyzing industry trends is part of your job—at least when it comes to developing a business strategy. So how do you determine if a trend is just a passing fad or if it’s right for your firm? You open your eyes and read the signs. Sign 1: Your community, along with 93% of consumers, support grieving families with gifts and flowers. Sign 2: There are more than 200,000 searches on Google for sympathy gifts and flowers each month—and that number is constantly growing. It seems the signs are all pointing to funeral eCommerce.

Influence the Trends

All innovation starts somewhere…why not have it be with you? Spend time observing other industries and figuring out what’s working for them and what that might mean to your business. It will inspire new ideas for your funeral firm and give you a leg up on the competition. Don’t think your community shops for sympathy gifts or flowers online? Add it to your funeral home website and see what happens. By successfully identifying the behaviors of your community, you have the ability to determine which innovations are viable for the funeral profession, and therefore influence what becomes a trend in your industry.

Whether your goal is to serve as a trendsetter in the industry or to simply be able to spot future trends, one thing is for sure—you need to be willing to not only adapt to change, but anticipate change.

What are some ways you try to stay abreast of current trends in the funeral profession? Please share your comments below!

“A mother is the truest friend we have,” wrote Washington Irving. Since Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13th, let’s honor the mothers in our lives by taking a closer look at what they can teach us about caring for client families.

Mothers are comforting, selfless and supportive. They listen closely when we need to open up, and offer the wisdom of their experiences only when needed. They care for both our physical well-being, and nurture our spiritual selves. Mothers accept us as we are, and support our personal growth.

We all have personal life lessons we’ve learned from our mothers, but let’s take a closer look at the characteristics of a mother and see how funeral professionals can practice those same qualities when comforting grieving families.

Mothers are:

• Generous: A successful funeral professional is generous with their time—spending as much time as is necessary to build a connection with grieving family members.

• Patient: Everyone grieves in different ways, at different times. By offering your families aftercare services, you become a trusted resource for them to depend on, even after the funeral service, so they can deal with their grief in their own time.

• Resilient: The emotional ups-and-downs of grieving mean family members can be a lot like children and teenagers—unpredictable or difficult to deal with. Like mothers, funeral directors should be resilient and able to adapt to their families emotional needs.

• Self-less: Funeral directors need to show total interest in their client families, setting aside their own personal and professional needs during their time together. You must put your families’ needs ahead of your own.

• Responsive: Not only do you need to be aware of the physical, verbal and emotional cues brought about by grief, you’ve got to be able to respond quickly and appropriately.

• Prepared: A funeral director should always be one-step-ahead. Your families look to you for grief support during the weeks following loss, and that means you’ve got to be ready for anything.

• Resourceful: Every family expects different things from their funeral director. Providing all the grief support options available to your families proves you are someone they can rely on, and makes you the person they’ll turn to, time and again.

What Do Funeral Professionals and Mothers Have in Common?

In short, both do everything they can to help when times are tough. Every good funeral director and every loving mother does their best, again in the words of Washington Irving, “to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”

What valuable lessons did your mother teach you? Please share your comments below!

Previously, I predicted that in 5 years from now, the national cremation rate will hit 57%. Today, I’m going to explain to you where that prediction came from.

Over the years I have heard many explanations about why the cremation rate is rising. Shifting demographics, incomes, religious affiliations, transient society have all played an alleged role in the downfall of the traditional burial service. However, focusing on these issues has not produced a solution to pursue. I would like to propose a different way to look at this, one that hopefully yields insights that will help shape a new direction.

I believe that our families or consumers, in general, pursue the best value they can get. This does not mean the cheapest or the most elaborate but it means they seek value based on their personal perspective.

Consumers seek value in one of two ways:

1. They attempt to reduce the price of the offering or;

2. They look for more benefits for the same price

The challenge in our industry is that our families have almost no idea what benefits they want, much less what they need. The obvious result is a focus on price and the pricing pressures we face.

The Shift to Cremation

So what caused the initial shift that started the search for value? Why weren’t families satisfied with what we, the funeral service industry, have always offered? Well their perspective changed and it changed rather dramatically. Meet the Baby Boomers and all their challenges to the status quo.

Consider these facts:

• Up until about 1965 the cremation rate was pretty flat at around 4%

• And since that point it has risen dramatically to today’s average above 40%

• In the early mid 70’s the first Baby Boomers turned 30 and began making funeral decisions for their parents

• By the mid 90’s they started to turn 50 and in 2005 over half of the 78 million Baby Boomers were 50 years or older

• The shift in perspective represented by Baby Boomers is unprecedented in the world

And how did funeral service providers respond? We basically did nothing! And even worse we were woefully inadequate in explaining the benefits of what we did! Combine those two issues and we have a recipe for tremendous price pressure. And the only way families knew how to get a better price with the same provider is to cremate.

The Value Found in Cremation

I believe that families have an innate need to honor and remember the life of their loved one. This need was not met for Baby Boomers by the traditional funeral service offering. But, an interesting thing happened as they used cremation to find value via lower prices; they discovered that cremation liberated them from the traditional views of the industry.

They no longer had a 7-foot box with a body to deal with, and they could now have their remembrance service, when they wanted, where they wanted and how they wanted—without a funeral director making them feel bad about their decisions.

In spite of funeral directors and the traditional views of the industry, Boomers found better funeral service benefits on their own in the form of family gatherings and memorials in locations relevant to the life that was lived.

The Pricing Pressure

We have looked at how value perception has changed through Boomers. Now, let’s take a look at how funeral prices compared to inflation during this time period.

A study from the past decade shows the increase of funeral prices matched the increase of medical prices, which was over 50%. This was only exceeded by the increase of higher education, which almost reached 90%! All of which were much, much higher than the Consumer Price Index increase of around 30%.

To add insult to injury, consolidation has grown at an unprecedented rate. There is an unsettling parallel between the growth of consolidators and the increasing cremation rate.

• In 1965 Cremation Rate = 4% and Consolidation = just beginning

• In 1995 Cremation Rate = 20% and Consolidation = 13% of the rooftops owned

Typically consolidation leads to higher pricing not only in the purchased property but to increases in pricing of the surrounding funeral homes as well. Combine this with the growth of Baby Boomers using the funeral industry and you have a perfect storm that served to fuel Baby Boomers’ search for value.

While I believe that cremation rates would have risen without these inputs, I believe these trends are at the core of the dramatic increase in the rate of cremation. But more importantly, this analysis suggests the direction of a sustainable solution: provide benefits that meet the needs of the families we currently serve at a price they consider a good value. Pretty words but more on that in a later post!

What do you think is the real reason the cremation rate is rising? If you have any questions or want to comment on this topic, please share your thoughts below!

About the Author: Lajos Szabo, a licensed funeral director in Ohio and Architect by training, has been involved in funeral service since 1988. His portfolio of work includes, PMP Rooms, Cut Caskets, Meaningful Memories, Funeral of the Future research and several US patents specific to our industry. Recently, Mr. Szabo partnered with the Schoedinger organization to create a virtual funeral home business model named Funeral Choices. Subsequently, he served as Chief Strategy Officer for Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Service, a 2,500 call 14 rooftop firm in Central Ohio. There, he was responsible for realigning this 150 year old firm to more effectively respond to the changing funeral service consumer. His role included refining company infrastructures, implementing information systems, resource allocation, MourningStar arrangement implementation, website development, social media integration and initiatives impacting the creation of healing experiences for those touched by death. Currently, Mr. Szabo has joined funeralOne as President of Funeral Operations where he will use his industry perspective to provide organizational leadership and develop several key projects in pursuit of his personal mission; changing funeral service to more effectively meet the needs of people touched by death.

You met Kristan McNames in 5 Ways Your Funeral Home Can Freak Out the Competition. Now, we get a firsthand look at some of the different ways she’s shaking things up to promote her funeral home and connect with her community in Rockford, Illinois. In this guest blog post, Kristan shares some insider secrets on how to humanize your funeral marketing.

The “Rookie” Mistake

When we opened our funeral home three years ago, our philosophy was that if it looked really nice, we were friendly and compassionate and the prices were fair that people would come. What we failed to consider was that in order for people to step over the threshold, they’d need to actually hear about us some way, somehow.

According to the National Directory of Morticians Redbook there are 19,680 funeral homes in the United States. Our rookie mistake seems silly in retrospect, but I can’t help but wonder how many of the 19,680 funeral homes in America are kicked back just waiting for people to walk through the door. In case you missed the memo, consumer preferences are changing, and it’s way past time to get your marketing message out in the world.

Rather than regurgitate all the things that you’ve probably already read in funeral and cremation magazines and have seen at conventions, I’ll share some things that we’ve done that have worked. People like doing business with people they like. There’s no better way for people to get to know you than to throw yourself out into the world and spread your message.

There are different venues and options available for meeting the general public providing an environment in which people can get to know you as a person. This will lead to them liking and respecting you, which will in turn increase your business in the future.

Tapping into the Airwaves

We showcase the products and services that we offer on a local talk radio program. For a nominal fee, I get to talk about myself, my business, and what I do for 25 minutes every other week. I joke with the host and show the community that I’m not some pasty funeral drone with the personality of a wet shoe.

There, I have the opportunity to discuss examples of funeral personalization, to answer cremation questions, to share insight and offer suggestions to callers.

What I’ve discovered is that people are sometimes more comfortable asking even the most basic cremation and funeral questions from the comfort of their home or car. I offer the listeners the opportunity to tour the funeral home, and to meet us in person.

Going “Green”

We have “green” or “eco” caskets and offerings. In three years, no one has selected a “green” option for their funeral. What I’ve discovered is that the eco-caskets are a great ice breaker in the selection room. They relieve some of the tension in the casket selection process, and get the conversations flowing.

The local media also loves a good green story. The caskets have paid for themselves over and over in the free public relations and media attention. Families seem pleased to realize that we truly are unique and progressive.

Our Funeral Home Isn’t Only for “Sad Events”

We have a myriad of events at the funeral home. Our space isn’t reserved for “sad” events. We sponsor AARP Driving safety classes, have a local scrap booker lead digital classes a few Saturdays each year, and have pre-need “Lunch and Learn” events planned for this year. We try to look outside of funeral service to see what other professions are doing to market their services.

Don’t be Afraid to Shine a Spotlight

I believe that in order to thrive and survive as a profession, we need to showcase our offerings and our staff, and not be afraid to utilize the media to help spread our message. Press releases about the accomplishments of staff members are a no-cost tool for spreading your message and sharing your achievements. Working closely with the media helps to put a human face on funeral service, and has helped us grow and expand our business.

About the Author: Kristan I. McNames, CFSP, graduated with a Bachelor Degree from the Mortuary Science and Funeral Service Program at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. After working for two corporate funeral providers, most recently as the General Manager; she decided to open her own funeral home in June of 2009, with her husband Bob McNames. Grace Funeral & Cremation Services is located in Rockford, Illinois, and has served over 175 families since opening.

The most meaningful of funeral services are the ones that reflect the life that was lived. Today’s families are shying away from the traditional cookie-cutter funerals and embracing unique and personalized funeral services that allow family and friends to come together and celebrate the life of their loved one.

Here are some of the recent trends in personalized funeral services:

A Final Mission

Even though the idea might seem “out of this world” to most of us, memorial spaceflights are gaining popularity. During a memorial spaceflight, families send a portion of their loved ones cremated remains into space to either be spread into Earth’s orbit or returned as if part of a real space mission. This image was taken during the launch of the Legacy Flight from Celestis Memorial Spaceflights on April 28, 2007. Spaceflight services through Celestis range from $995-$12,500.

“Greener” End of Life

Green burials have become a growing end-of-life trend among the environmentally conscious. Many families are opting to bury their loved one in natural preserves, like the one pictured above, where only non-toxic and biodegradable materials are allowed. The service itself can be very intimate. Family and friends often serve as active participants in the ceremony by leaving personal messages on the biodegradable casket and assisting in the actual burial by lowering their loved one into the ground.

Sports-Themed Tributes

A popular way for families to incorporate personalization into a funeral service is by including memorabilia of their loved one’s favorite sports team. The image above shows Entenmann’s Florist in Jersey City creating a flower arrangement for the funeral service of a loyal New York Mets fan. Today, families have the ability to customize everything from the flowers and prayer cards, to the funeral service programs and memorial tribute videos. That added touch of personalization helps those who attend the service to feel a sense of closeness with the deceased.

Resting at Sea

Georgia-based Eternal Reefs allows families to take the concept of spreading ashes at sea a step further. Families create an artificial reef formation with their loved one’s ashes by mixing the cremated remains into an environmentally safe cement mixture. The family and friends actually take part in the creation of the memorial reef, writing personal messages and leaving handprints in the damp concrete. The memorial reef is then placed in the ocean, serving as a home for sea creatures and a living legacy of their loved one. The memorial reefs can weigh 350 to 4,000 pounds, depending on how many people are included; the largest can handle a family of four. Costs range from about $2,995 to $6,995.

A Symbol of Hope

A funeral service isn’t just about mourning the loss of a loved one, it’s about honoring their life. It brings family and friends together to share memories, and offer comfort and support. A butterfly release is a unique and personalized way of inspiring hope and encouraging healing in your families. According to Butterfly Memorials, butterflies symbolize the transformation of the loved one’s spirit. By releasing them, families instinctively feel at peace. Butterfly Memorials has been raising and releasing live butterflies for funerals and memorials since 1995.

All-In-One Personalization

You can increase the level of care you provide your families by helping them celebrate the life of their loved one with a more unique and personalized funeral service. With Life Tributes all-in-one personalization software, you can create tribute videos, customized prayer cards, personalized memorial books and more for your families in-house, in-minutes. Click here for a free 30-day trial of Life Tributes Personalization Software!

From flying their loved one to the moon, to creating a memorial reef with their ashes, the options for personalized funeral services are endless.

What are some other trends you’ve seen in personalized funeral services? Please share your comments below!

We all know what the Funeral Rule declares: you must offer your General Price List when you begin to discuss the type of funeral or disposition that you can arrange, the specific goods and services that you offer; or the prices of your goods and services.

But what does that mean when your first interaction with a family is through your funeral home website? This has been a topic of conversation for a few years now, and California has taken the initiative to ensure compliance.

According to SB 658 as of January 1, 2013, a funeral establishment that maintains a Web site will be required to post the list of funeral goods and services that are required to be included in the establishment’s General Price List (GPL), pursuant to federal rule, and a statement that the GPL is available upon request via a link from the home page, unless a phrase containing the word “price” links to the establishment’s GPL.

And I suspect that other states will follow suit. It makes sense that you hire a website company which offers you an option to include online pricing and/or a PDF version of your General Price List on your funeral home website, and an easy way to keep that information current.

When I was part of the Web Development team at funeralOne I encouraged my clients to include a copy of their GPL on their new website. While I prefer a downloadable version of your GPL because families can then print it out and review it together, it also makes it really easy to post a new version of this important document.

If you’d rather have your prices directly accessible on a web page, funeralOne’s “back-end” website editor makes it simple for you to make necessary price changes. Either way, if you ever need help, funeralOne’s highly-responsive support team will update your site quickly, via a reliable support ticketing system.

Don’t Fear the Competition

It’s really all about serving your prospective client families. Ask yourself this question: Do you think prospective client families always want to get on the phone with you to talk pricing, when they are under emotional strain?

I doubt it. Yet, lots of funeral homes today force them to do just that, by not including pricing information on their website.

Lots of directors I’ve spoken to say, “If I post our GPL, our competitors will know how much I charge, and undercut our prices!”

My response? “Chances are they already know how much you charge.” We all know how easy it is for them to find out what they need to know.

If we get misplaced fear out of the way and return to the concept of offering valuable service, adding your price list to your website will effectively enhance your reputation with your prospective client families. And they are the folks that really matter.

I know it takes guts to be open and accountable. But you may not have a choice for very long. The Legislature of your state may be poised to pass a law similar to California’s SB 658.

So, get one step ahead. Make your GPL available on your funeral home website. Your honesty will be appreciated and applauded by the people you serve, and you may just confound the competition with your transparency.

What are some other ways your firm tries stay transparent with your funeral home website? Please share your comments below!

If there’s one thing I can’t stress enough to you, it’s how important educating your potential client families is to your funeral marketing efforts.

And I’m not talking about educating them with content about the history of your funeral firm, staff and your facilities. I’m talking about providing them with quality content that answers their questions and addresses their needs.

Only then can you effectively market your firm and position your funeral home as a community thought leader.

Here are 3 benefits of educating families with content:

1. Establishes Trust

It’s safe to say that a lot of the traffic you see on your website and in your funeral firm is potential client families looking for information about funeral services, pre-planning or grief support. Provide these families with content that not only answers their questions, but clearly differentiates their options and educates them on why your services are of value to them.

Think about it, if you provide your client families with content that helps them to make a decision or solve a problem, they’re going to look to you as the expert in your community and establish trust in your funeral firm. Ultimately, choosing your firm for their funeral service, pre-planning or grief and healing needs.

2. Builds a Relationship

When you provide your families with content that effectively communicates how your products and/or services can help them, they end up feeling more confident that they’re making an informed decision. And in the end, it’s the simple things like having peace of mind that will make a lasting impression on them.

By creating that trusted connection with your families, you can start building a long-term relationship with them. Your funeral firm becomes a valuable resource to them, and they will return to you next time they are in need of a funeral service, pre-planning or grief and healing support.

3. Generates Word-of-Mouth

If client families are finding your educational content valuable, you can almost guarantee they will be sharing it with others. And with statistics showing that 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, that could mean an increase in the number of families your firm is currently attracting—even outside of your local community.

Thanks to the world of social media, you can extend your reach even further. The more content that gets shared through platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, the more credible your funeral firm will become; not to mention the impact it will have on your website traffic.

Today, your client families are hungry for information when it comes to making any sort of purchase decision. Now is your chance to position your funeral firm as an expert in the community and teach them all they need to know about funeral services.

What are some of the benefits you’ve seen from educating potential client families with content? Please share your comments below!

Your funeral home website has the ability to serve as the #1 tool for attracting families to your firm.

Unfortunately, a few common mistakes on your funeral home website can actually drive potential families away before they ever contact you.

Never underestimate the power of your website.

Here are the 5 deadly sins of a funeral home website:

1. Your website is difficult to find

Today, 97% of consumers use the Internet when researching products and services in their local area. When a death occurs, it’s likely the person planning the funeral service is going to start with Google. If they type the phrase “funeral home” with your city and state, and your funeral home doesn’t appear on the first page of the search results, chances are they will click on a competitor’s website first. Make sure your website is optimized to appear ahead of your competitors in search engine results. To learn more about SEO, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization!

2. There’s too much talk about YOU

Your website visitors aren’t coming to your website to learn about the history of your funeral firm or how many generations of funeral directors are in your family. This information doesn’t speak to their immediate needs. The primary focus of your funeral home website should be to provide potential client families with the information they’re looking for like service options, cost, and what to do when a death occurs. It’s not that you have to remove information about “you” entirely; just keep it under the “About Us” section of your website.

3. The navigation is confusing

Nothing frustrates a website visitor more than a website that is confusing to navigate. And seeing as your website visitors are already dealing with a lot of emotional stress, it’s best not to complicate the matter. Keep your main navigation at the top or left sidebar of your website pages (that’s where most web-users expect to find it). Don’t try to be cutesy or overly creative—use descriptive text for each tab of the navigation that clearly defines what they can expect to find on that page.

4. It doesn’t address your website visitors’ needs

For any website to be successful, it must address the needs of its website visitors. Today, families are much less traditional than they used to be. Their first contact with you is likely through your website, and even at that point, sometimes they’re not sure a funeral service is necessary—they’re simply researching available options. Use your funeral home website to show potential client families how your firm can help them during their time of need and educate them on the value of a funeral service so they no longer question its necessity.

5. Your content isn’t engaging

Even though death is a sensitive subject, doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to using bland and boring colors and images. Your funeral home website should convey a sense of hope and encouragement to your families. By including uplifting content and engaging videos and images of unique and touching memorials, your website will serve as inspiration to your website visitors to celebrate the life of their loved one.

What other deadly sins have you seen committed by funeral home websites? Please share your comments below!

Looking for an all-in-one website solution designed to attract and engage families? The f1Connect Website Platform was built from the ground up to address your families’ needs while generating new revenue for your firm. Click here to learn more!

To quote Anne Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop, “Whatever you do, be different – that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.”

But, just how different is “different enough”? And, when most funeral homes offer much of the same services and products – how do you differentiate yourself in a way that is significant to your target market?

Kristan and Bob McNames, of Grace Funeral & Cremations Services, decided early on that their start-up funeral firm was going to look, feel, and act differently. The décor is decidedly modern, in warm rich coffee tones – with a relaxed, trendy feel. The location is unique too; it’s located on the campus of Heartland Community Church, in Rockford, Illinois.

Here are some other ways The McNames are standing out among the competition:

• Kristan takes part in a bi-weekly WNTA radio show, Stateline Showcase where she and host Doug McDuff talk with callers about anything under the sun relating to funeral service.

• Regularly, Heartland Hospice and Grace staff members present Caring for the Caregiver; an informational session for anyone who is currently, or has been in a caregiver role.

• Kristan and Bob also host mid-day Lunch and Learn sessions, where they share the latest trends in funeral service, answer questions, and tour their location. “We love talking about funeral options and services, in a no pressure environment,” shared Kristan. Afterwards, they all enjoy a catered lunch.

• They also sponsor AARP Driving Safety Program classes. The AARP Driver Safety Program is the nation’s first and largest course for drivers age 50 and older.

Another funeral director doing things her own way is Sharon Mace, of A Special Touch Funeral & Cremation Service. Her intention back in 2004 was clear: “I wanted a welcoming, relaxed place. My office is decorated like my home. Many people breathe a sigh of relief when they walk through the door, simply because they feel so comfortable there.”

Sharon often gifts her clients with a “relaxation bag,” containing a candle, tea, cookies and bath products. “I tell them to go home and relax, take a nice bath and just let it go. I get referrals from clients because of those bags.”

For both firms, those “early days” were sometimes disheartening. Yet they persevered, confident that their essential differences from their competition would put them ahead of the game. And they have.

Other innovators include:

• Erlewein Mortuary’s wildly popular grief support program, Erlewein Adventures, offers the bereaved entertaining fee-based events, like May’s Ohio River cruise, with lunch, on the Belle of Cincinnati. The program started as a grief support group to help widows and widowers, but has grown over the years to include caregivers and others in need of community, support, and a bit of fun.

• The new Yoga Program for the Grieving developed by Christine Biggins, of Maroun-Biggins Funeral Home. The program revolves around seated yoga, enabling anyone to participate. With Christine’s authenticity, candor, and expertise, I know it will be well-received. You can learn more at www.christinebiggins.com.

Feeling inspired? If so, here are 5 things can you do today to start freaking out the competition:

1. Stare down inertia.

This is the big one. Instead of worrying about your external competition, realize the only competition you face is paralysis and inaction. Get up every day to help people change their world for the better.

2. Give people what they want.

Do you know what that is? If not, follow Kristan and Bob’s lead! Host monthly Lunch and Learn events –where everyone learns – including you. Then act on what you’ve learned.

3. Listen to everyone.

Set Google Alerts for your name, and the name of your firm. Listen to what people are saying on review sites like Yelp.com, and generally pay attention to what’s going on around you. Innovation follows.

4. Don’t use people, help them.

When meeting other small business owners, ask them “How can I help you? What can I do to tell other people about you? What are your goals?” Then do your best on their behalf, and they might return the favor.

5. Remember, your legacy starts now.

It’s about helping your community become a better place to live.

These innovations are by-products of the sincerity of those involved; everyone profiled is leaving a legacy worth their weight in gold.

And, I bet they are really freaking out the competition.

What are some things you do at your funeral firm to set yourself apart from the competition? Please share your comments below!