A Consumer Awareness and
Preferences Survey commentary <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By\nDaniel M. Isard<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will\nbegin my commentary with a quote from Alphonse Karr, which was stolen by George\nBernard Shaw, who said, \u201cThe more things change, the more they stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I pore over the 2019 NFDA consumer survey and compare and contrast it with my\nmemory of earlier versions, I\u2019m amazed and saddened by what I see. Allow me to\nshed light on five more illuminating and condemning issues amplified this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before I\nstart, the pollsters are very clear that this survey reflects a younger age\nthan previous surveys. About 36.1% of respondents are between 40 and 54. Is\nthis important? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keep in mind\nthat almost 80% of all deaths take place after age 65, with the average life\nexpectancy in this country being 78.7 years. That percentage has declined over\nthe past two years, which could be attributed to the opioid epidemic.\nRegardless of the reason, it remains that we are dying well beyond our historic\nlife expectancy. Therefore, we even now refer to a service for an older person\nas a \u201ccelebration of life\u201d and not a \u201cfuneral.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knowing that\nthe average age of death is about 79, I next look at the age difference between\nthe deceased and the child. Today, women are giving birth for the first time at\nan average age of 26 (up from 21.4 in 1970). Therefore, I can conclude that the\nage of a child dealing with the death of a parent is 53 years or younger! I\nthink it\u2019s important we learn from this data. If anything, we\u2019re getting a look\nfurther into the future and still getting relevant information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POINT 1: The percentage of respondents who feel it is very important to have religion as part of a funeral has continued to decrease \u2013 from 49.5% in 2012 to 35.4% in 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you trace your roots back thousands of years to a fledgling Europe,\nRome was the center of your society. When death occurred, Roman society had its\nown version of undertaking, which helped bring the soul of the deceased to the\nnether regions. This was an early form of religion that guaranteed that your\npredecessors would make a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast-forward\nto 1960, when your grandparents had the aid of our modern-day clergy to\nguarantee their livings. Today, you have just 35% embracing religion as part of\na funeral, and the number continues to decline sharply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can also\nlearn from parallel studies, such as Pew Research Center\u2019s \u201cReligion in\nAmerica,\u201d which shows that the country is becoming less aligned with formal\nreligions and more aligned with either no religion or \u201cbeing spiritual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Religion has\nbeen a great aid to funeral homes\u2019 success. We built our buildings to look\nchurchlike and designed our interiors with pews. We call our meeting rooms\nchapels. How are you amending your business, marketing, physical plant and\nstaff to deal with people who are in need but are not ritual driven?<\/p>\n\n\n\n POINT 2: A significantly higher percentage of respondents (54.6%) have attended a funeral at a nontraditional location in 2019, compared to 2017, when the number was 48.3%.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s difficult to move a 200- to 400-pound casket, and this difficulty\nkeeps gatherings from taking place offsite, unless it is the day of the\ninterment. But it\u2019s is easy to move a 10-pound urn. Thus, we will continue to\nsee more nontraditional locations for our events of funeral service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My advice is\nto get ahead of this trend. Identify where a gathering can take place. Have\npictures of gatherings at these sites. Allow families to decide where to hold a\ngathering, including locations other than your facility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This leads to\na discussion on food and beverages at a gathering. If your state law forbids\nthis, work to change the law. You have enough competition \u2013 you don\u2019t need\nlocal hotels competing with you for these gatherings. If I don\u2019t need a casket\npresent and I want refreshments served at a meeting of friends and family, are\nthere better places to meet than at the funeral home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A related\nquestion to these points is one that asked, \u201cHave you ever planned or attended\na funeral where someone other than a member of the clergy presided over the\nservice?\u201d The respondents replied in the affirmative 47.9%! We\u2019ve aligned\nourselves with churches, but how many times have you heard a minister give a\ncanned eulogy? How many times are you in your office on the phone with the intercom\nin the background, and you hear the minister say, \u201cLife is like a circle\u2026\u201d and\nhave to tell the caller that you need to go because the service is almost over?\nA quarter of all people surveyed have no idea what a celebrant is, but almost\n34.1% would consider using one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POINT 3: Consumers are evenly split when it comes to donating their body for medical research \u2013 34.3% would be very interested or interested, and 37.3% are not very interested or not at all interested.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the scariest statistic I see in this 2019 research. We are now\nup to more than 1 in 3 people who may be interested in a medical donation\nrather than a private disposition. I remember when study results asking people\nabout medical donation were less than 1%! This has gone mainstream suddenly,\nbut most people don\u2019t really understand that the \u201cbody harvesters\u201d of today are\nfor-profit companies and not \u201cmedical\u201d students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A question I\nthink is aligned to this is, \u201cHow confident would you feel in planning and\nexecuting a funeral\/memorial service without the help of a funeral director?\u201d\nIt seems that 53% would feel some degree of confidence planning a funeral\nthemselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, we\nwill need to redefine the meaning of \u201cfuneral.\u201d If 53% are choosing cremation,\nmany are interested in donating for medical research and people feel they don\u2019t\nneed to follow rituals for comfort, then what is a funeral?<\/p>\n\n\n\n My fear is\nthat someone outside funeral service will define this for the public rather\nthan those who are experienced in providing for both the dead and the living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POINT 4: Of the 16.8% of respondents who visited or called more than one funeral home whenplanning a funeral, 58.4% did so to compare prices, 32.7% did so to check available service options and 29.7% to check availability.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I interpret these results as showing that those people who did not shop\nfor a funeral are the ones who visited just one firm or do not remember. This\nyear, 83.2% of respondents acknowledged that they didn\u2019t shop more than one\nfuneral home, which is down from 85.7% just three years ago. I can remember\nwhen that number was 90% or more! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you have a\nplan in place to make it easy for staff to address the needs of shoppers and\nfacilitate them? Remember, while shoppers often inquire about price, that\ndoesn\u2019t automatically mean price is the most important factor in their choice\nof a funeral home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other outside\nstudies have shown that consumers are not necessarily looking for the lowest\nprice when they ask about cost. They\u2019re looking for \u201cvalue.\u201d The rise in\ncremation has shown that even cremation shoppers look for value and not\nnecessarily the lowest price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How do we show\nour \u201cvalue equation\u201d? We must be prepared to discuss our levels of service\nversus the levels of cost. The problem in funeral service is directors give the\nsame high-quality level of care to the body regardless of the choice of\ncremation or burial. You also give the same high level of care to the living\nwhen they meet with you. If you weren\u2019t afraid of losing the call, how would you\nset your prices for burial versus cremation? Shouldn\u2019t they be the same? <\/p>\n\n\n\n POINT 5: More than half of respondents (59.2%) said they would prefer a cremation for their own funeral. Only 16.1% of these respondents said they would have a complete funeral service with a viewing and visitation prior to cremation (down from 26.6% in 2015).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n These stats should scare the profession! We have gone from 1980, when\nabout 80% of people wanted a complete funeral service with a viewing and\nvisitation, to this group\u2019s vision in the next few years of 16.1%. And during\nthat same time period, we have gone from about 5% wanting cremation to almost\n60% forecasted for the near future!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The changes to\nthe profession based on our witnessing of the increase in consumers choosing cremation\nhas to be foretelling in many ways. The most obvious to me is that, according\nto most state laws, most funeral homes must have a prep room but are not\nallowed to have a crematory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related to\nthis question is, \u201cIf you were planning a cremation service, how important is\nit to use a funeral home that has a crematory onsite?\u201d Almost 45% felt it was\nimportant or somewhat important. I am not troubled by this conclusion. The\nstatistic has not really changed much over the past three years; in fact, it is\ndown from about 47%. However, after witnessing several horrific crematory mass\nscrew-ups, I would think if the public understood the issue, they would deem it\nmore important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I contend that this survey and like surveys of the past decade have the ability to predict the future. The data contained here is literally like consumers telling us the future. We must wake up and change our business plans. We must conform to consumers because if we don\u2019t change, they will find another provide that will help them as they deem they want to be helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I ask this\nquestion in many of my seminars: \u201cIf your funeral home burned down yesterday,\nwould you rebuild it just as it is now?\u201d Most say they would not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, your\nbuilding is just one part of your business. Don\u2019t wait for a fire \u2013 rebuild\nyour business now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan Isard, MSFS, is president of The Foresight\nCompanies, a business and management consulting firm specializing in mergers\nand acquisitions, valuations, accounting, financing and customer surveys. He\ncan be reached at 800-426-0165 or danisard@theforesightcompanies.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Consumer Awareness and Preferences Survey commentary By Daniel M. Isard I will begin my commentary with a quote from Alphonse Karr, which was stolen by George Bernard Shaw, who said, \u201cThe more things change, the more they stay the same.\u201d As I pore over the 2019 NFDA consumer survey and compare and contrast it with my memory of earlier versions, I\u2019m amazed and saddened by what I see. Allow me to shed light on five more illuminating and condemning issues amplified this year. Before I start, the pollsters are very clear that this survey reflects a younger age than previous surveys. About 36.1% of respondents are between 40 and 54. Is this important? Keep in mind that almost 80% of all deaths take place after age 65, with the average life expectancy in this country being 78.7 years. That [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n