Market Research

November 6, 2025

Bridging the Technology Divide

Bridging the Technology Divide DOWNLOAD NOW   The latest Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study (FCCBS) reveals an urgent message: consumers are embracing technology faster than the profession is adapting. Discover what families expect online, onsite, and beyond—and how your business can close the gap. For six years, the FCCBS has tracked the behaviors and expectations shaping funeral and cemetery service. In the 2025 edition, one theme stands out: technology is the profession’s greatest opportunity—and its biggest blind spot. Only 49% of consumers give top marks for technology-based products. Just 53% say employees explain technology effectively. Yet 78% of future customers plan to research online before making arrangements. From streaming and A/V systems to online pricing, digital merchandising, and AI-powered chat tools, today’s families expect seamless, connected experiences at every touchpoint. The firms that meet those expectations will earn loyalty—and […]
August 14, 2025

Is Our Profession Having a Full-Blown Customer Service Crisis?

Is Our Profession Having a Full-Blown Customer Service Crisis? DOWNLOAD NOW   A Customer Service Wake-Up Call for the Funeral Profession New FCCBS data reveals a growing disconnect—and what to do about it. The 2025 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study (FCCBS) uncovers something alarming: a widening gap between what families expect and what funeral providers are actually delivering. While the profession has long prided itself on compassion and care, the numbers—and the stories—tell a different tale this year. The new FCCBS white paper goes deep on these findings and what they mean for your business. Here’s what you’ll learn: Only 37% of consumers say they were educated about their options Ratings of honesty and professionalism have declined steadily since 2021 Many providers are unknowingly undermining trust through poor communication, pricing confusion, and lack of transparency Even industry insiders say […]
June 6, 2025

The 2025 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study

2025 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study Insights Summary DOWNLOAD NOW   Insights in Action: How Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors Shape the Future of Your Business Model For six years, Foresight has been surveying consumer attitudes and behaviors regarding funeral services and the cemetery profession. This research aims to deliver meaningful, fact-based insights that empower our profession to stay ahead of evolving trends. In the last three years, we’ve expanded our research to include funeral and cemetery professionals. This dual-perspective approach reveals an unsettling truth: a profession often out of sync with consumer expectations, and in some cases, actively resisting market changes. Many businesses lack a strategic long-term plan to engage with an increasingly non-traditional and evolving consumer base. We delve into the disconnect between the profession and the consumer, highlighting key findings from our research. You will gain actionable […]
June 18, 2024

The 2024 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study

2024 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study Insights Summary DOWNLOAD NOW Tracking and predicting consumer attitudes, opinions and behaviors about the funeral and cemetery profession. The goal of our Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study (FCCBS), now in its fifth year has been to capture the opinions, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers regarding the funeral, cemetery, and cremation business. More than 5,000 consumers participated in the 2024 study, providing insights into how perceptions of the death care profession have changed. Additionally, for the second consecutive year, we have measured the perceptions of deathcare business insiders to get a better understanding of the gaps between our perception compared to actual consumer experience. This year, more than 240 Profession members shared their feedback. Download our report today to learn how to adapt and thrive in the future of funeral service by meeting the […]
June 20, 2023

Is The Funeral and Cemetery Profession At A Crossroads? 

2023 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study Insights Summary DOWNLOAD NOW In response to the transformative impact of COVID-19, The Foresight Companies conducted our annual consumer behavior study to uncover key trends shaping the funeral and cemetery profession in the short and long term. As these trends become permanent, we are dedicated to helping you embrace and implement the necessary changes for future business success. Discover the actionable insights from our 2023 Funeral & Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study by downloading our Insights Summary. Gain valuable knowledge on evolving consumer attitudes towards the funeral and cemetery market and learn how operators can adapt to meet their changing needs. Adapt and thrive in the future of funeral service by meeting the evolving demands of today’s consumers.
May 29, 2023

Post-Covid Funeral Service: Understanding The Emerging New Normal

Written By Chris Cruger and Alice Adams 2018 – Business as usual — the “normal” as we knew it. 2019 – The COVID-19 pandemic arrives, ravaging both coasts then quickly spreading across the U.S. 2020 – Hospitals at capacity, death rates climbing daily, funeral homes and cemeteries overwhelmed. 2021 — COVID-19 listed as the underlying or contributing cause of 460,513 deaths (111.4 per 100,000), an increase from 384,536 deaths (93.2) in 2020, according to Centers for Disease Control/Prevention. 2022 — COVID-19 accounted for about 270,000 deaths in 2022, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, down from 473,000 in 2021, and 350,000 in the pandemic’s first year. 2023 – America back to work, nation in recovery, “new normal emerging.” ***** By mid-2020, phones stopped ringing in businesses, members of the workforce who were not furloughed were now working from home, most schools were closed and […]
April 18, 2023

Go with the Flow

Bringing your marketing blueprint to life requires a solid plan but also the flexibility to try new things and change what doesn’t work. I recently finished a book in which the main character and I shared a few things in common. We both love football and we both use algorithms in our careers. Her algorithms were focused on using data to analyze and predict game strategies and mine are focused on crafting the appropriate elements for a marketing strategy. Now, if only I could also marry the star NFL quarterback like she did… But I digress. Every marketing and social media platform uses an algorithm, and whether you like it or not, you need to understand it to be successful in marketing your funeral home or cemetery business. The algorithms determine which content people see every time they check the […]
July 25, 2022

The Foresight Companies is Featured on Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid

We are excited to share our participation in the Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid educational series. The Foresight team is featured in the episode titled “Funeral Care and Final Wishes”. This short piece focuses on the way the profession adapted to meet the needs of the consumer following the pandemic.  At The Foresight Companies, our mission is to provide customized financial and operational solutions to the funeral and cemetery profession. We actively engage with all members of the profession. We deliver results through our passion for the profession and the communities they serve. Over the last 40 years, we have made our goal to educate the profession on the new trends and shifts in behavior. Specifically, during the past two years we have focused on the factors impacting the profession because of the pandemic. We educate by providing empirical data and […]
July 24, 2022

Should You Be the Amazon of Deathcare?

E-commerce Is What Families Are Expecting Serve future customers. Is that not what all businesses set out to do? Substitute “customers” with “families” and replace “stores” with “funeral homes” and the quote below from the CEO of Walmart could have easily come from Tom Ryan (SCI), Mel Payne (Carriage), Brad Green (Park Lawn), or any other CEO for companies in the funeral, cemetery, and cremation profession. Or replace “customers” with “patients” and “stores” with “hospitals” and this quote can easily apply to hospitals/healthcare as well (and make no mistake about it folks, hospitals are businesses, with the majority of them being for profit). However, the part of the quote that I would like to focus on is “e-commerce” (before tying it all back to the rest of the quote and what it all means to you). So, what is e-commerce? […]
May 31, 2022

Meet the Needs of the Consumer to Ensure Business Success

2022 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study Insights Summary DOWNLOAD NOW In what was undeniably the most transformative time in generations, The Foresight Companies conducted annual consumer studies to connect data behind the speculative trends about how COVID-19 will impact the funeral and cemetery profession, both in the short-term and the long-term. With these new trends becoming permanent, how do we embrace and implement these changes that are vital to your future business success. We encourage you to download our Insights Summary on the results of our 2022 Funeral & Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study. It highlights the evolving consumer attitudes towards the funeral and cemetery market and the ways operators need to adapt. The future of funeral service is here, and we must pivot our business model to answer the needs and demands of the consumer.
May 30, 2022

Bereavement Support vs Practical Task Support

While researching technology trends in the funeral and cemetery profession I came across a company that provides an application to support bereaved families,  Empathy.  Their goal is to help a family with every loss related task associated with handling the loss of a loved one.  This support is provided online or via a downloadable app. What caught my eye while perusing their website is a report, they released in March 2022 exploring the impact of bereavement in America beyond the financial cost of disposition and any memorialization.  The report is based on a survey of over 2,000 families who took part in winding down their loved one’s affairs in the last five years. In summary, this study details the expense of a death for American families not just in monetary terms, but also in time, in emotional and physical health, […]
December 9, 2021

Foresight Focus Whitepaper: The Renewed Focus on Pre-Need

The Renewed Focus on Pre-Need: Giving Consumers What They Want DOWNLOAD NOW While Covid-19 has had massive effects on how consumer perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors have changed at an accelerated pace all across the board, consumer demand for pre-planning is an area that has taken front and center for the funeral and cemetery professional. While the last two years have been taxing across the globe, hitting the psyche of consumers everywhere and in almost every industry, the pandemic has taken a particular toll on funeral and cemetery last responders who have borne the brunt of helping families affected by the virus. Because there is a heightened awareness over one’s own mortality given Covid deaths, there has been a marked change in the attitudes of consumers regarding the value and importance of having pre-arrangements in place. As we discussed in the […]
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