5 Principles For Exceptional Customer Experiences At Your Funeral Home
June 18th, 2021Customer service is the foundation of any business. And funeral homes are no exception.
The question, especially during a pandemic is: how can your funeral home’s team provide customer service in a rapidly evolving industry?
The best person to ask about customer experience is the Customer Service King himself, Micah Solomon.
Below, he offers up 5 ways to ensure that your team can engage with families in ways that create long term connections:
#1: Creating a purpose-driven organization
If everyone on board isn’t driven by the same passionate purpose, how will your team know the value of going the extra mile? Creating a statement that encapsulates your purpose or mission in customer service is a must-do. No crossing go or collecting $200 without this essential piece. Especially when things go wrong, the foundations you lay create space for excellence.
#2: Maintain a strong social media presence
Nowadays, the norm of customer service is to reach out via social media channels and receive a response almost instantly. Another foundation of customer service is messaging and commenting on a company’s social media posts to quickly engage and build a connection with the company.
As a funeral home, no matter how busy you are, you are expected to do the same. It is important to maintain a strong social media presence, including responding to messages and comments. Digital opportunities should also be leveraged to create even better in-person experiences. Is there someone on your team who is skilled at social media and can take the lead in making sure that you are connecting online? Empower that person to manage this incredibly important platform for customer service.
#3: Create a container of safety and trust
Your families want to feel connected to you and your team. Connection stems from trust and safety. This is especially important during a vulnerable time like losing someone. To help someone feel safe, connected and valued, you could do things like:
- Call them by their preferred name
- Find personal connections you hold with them
- Work to bridge generational or cultural divides
- Place empathy and vulnerability over formality
- Lead with listening and understanding
- Repeat what your client families say back to them so they feel understood
For more ideas on how to more easily create trust and safety with client families, check out this article.
#4: Be authentic
Families want to feel like your team members are people that they can relate to. It is important to speak authentically, and from your heart. People do not like feeling like you are rehearsing or reading from a sales script. You should use language that your families can relate to. If someone feels a unique connection with your team, they are more likely to continue choosing your funeral home… and recommend it to others.
#5: Help, even when you think you can’t
Sometimes it is not possible for your team to do everything that a family needs. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many instances, families are unable to grieve in person with others and hold traditional services. You cannot solve these global problems, but you can help people through these unprecedented experiences. Doing things such as following up with families, extending support, and being creative about new types of services can go a long way towards helping people navigate this new period in all of our lives. For ideas on that, feel free to check out the many articles we’ve written on COVID-19, all the challenges it brings (and how to overcome them).
In what ways do you drive forth the customer experience at your funeral home? Tell us in the comments below!
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