Market Research

10 ideas to help you improve your workplace environment and motivate employees to stay long term. TODAY, ONE OF THE BIGGEST challenges the funeral industry faces is finding and retaining qualified staff. Each year, it seems as if fewer students are graduating from accredited mortuary school programs, and most of those who do graduate do not have any practical experience in the industry and find themselves surprised by the reality of the workplace. Quite often, the stress of the work combined with the unusual work hours lead to new hires jumping ship to find another career path. Locating staff appropriate for a funeral service business can be a complicated and expensive process. However, retaining employees is another hurdle as funeral businesses find themselves competing for the same candidates. Rather than focusing solely on how to find new employees, perhaps funeral […]

Combo? Yeah, they play some good stuff. If I referred to a “combo” while in a social setting (which involves a cigar and libation), according to Webster’s dictionary, most would think I’m referring to a jazz band or an appealing color combination. However, in our cemetery and funeral vernacular, we know a combo as a funeral home that operates in conjunction with a cemetery (usually onsite). From my point of view, a combo is a common-sense operation. Throw in a crematory, and voila, now you have the total death-care operator. Rather than using the code name combo, this type of operation should be introduced as a “funeral park” where consumers can pay one price at the gate and take advantage of all the offerings inside. Of course, like theme parks, one may have to pay extra for upgrades like a […]

Adjusting your funeral home operating model for maximum continuing business viability. There is a time when every business needs to evaluate its effectiveness from every facet to maintain financial viability and relevance to customers. Operating a funeral home and adjusting a business model can put owners in a quandary because of the hindrances surrounding the physical property. But a quandary does not mean impossible, and a funeral home building does not necessary need to be razed to make changes. Re-engineering your funeral business starts before any construction or wallpaper changes. The first priority to be addressed must be the business of doing business. Before considering any changes, conduct an in-depth market research study to understand the consumers who support your business. How do you do this? Surveys are the best way to find out what your community thinks about your […]

The evolution of funeral service has presented a sea of changes over time, so we must not simply mourn the past and hang on but move forward to give today’s consumers what they want. The traditional funeral, as funeral service so lovingly defines it, is gone. And it’s not coming back. In 2018, can we all finally agree on this point? Sure, there are some rural pockets of the country that have remained more stable in their practices, but are any among us honestly holding out hope that we’ll see families in the future choosing better quality merchandise and putting more emphasis on memorialization? When it comes to the “traditional” funeral, I encourage us all to get to the last and most important stage of grief – acceptance. But please don’t accept that changing consumer attitudes are all your fault. […]