December 21, 2020
“Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition, and myth frame our response.” – Arthur M. Schlesinger (Historian) As always, I like to begin with a quote…firstly, to hopefully whet the brain’s appetite a little for the reader, and secondly, to provide somewhat of a theme for what I am about to write. In our recent Foresight Focus White Paper entitled Five Ways Technology Is Changing The Profession, we highlighted certain findings from our 2020 Foresight Funeral & Cemetery Consumer Behavior (FFCCB) Study on how the pandemic had changed consumer behaviors and forced our profession to adopt technology in order to continue serving families. Those five highlights included the following: Investing in and embracing technology. Becoming comfortable with virtual communication. Being transparent with online information. Making it simple for consumers to interact with you. Failure is an option. For […]
November 23, 2020
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” – A.A. Milne, The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh I wanted to begin with this Winnie-the-Pooh quote as the theme of this writing. However, I will tie this quote back into everything at the end. In our recently published 2020 Foresight Funeral & Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study, it reveals several key ways in which the pandemic has changed funeral and cemetery services in the minds and attitudes of the consumer in the United States—with most of these changes now universally recognized as permanent for a profession that simply has not changed significantly over the last century. Some key consumer behavioral changes are directly related to pricing transparency online and include the following: 75% of consumers state that they want access to pricing online. 52% of consumers state that […]
July 22, 2020
One of the hottest topics coming out of the Foresight Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study has been Pricing. Gabe Ngo, Director of Business Development, provides some insights on how to be more transparent with pricing. Question #1: How do we best address price transparency, given the complex design of the GPL? Question #2: How do I put my complicated FTC mandated pricing online in a way the consumer will understand and not drive the consumer away? Gabe Ngo: These are two great questions that I would like to attempt to tackle in answering them together. Yes, General Price List (GPL) requirements are complex and complicated—most notably for the lay person and consumer to follow and understand. On the surface, it is actually quite easy to just have your GPL scanned and posted on your website in the name of […]