More than half of those who responded to the 2004 Family Contact Surveys by the National Funeral Directors Association, 51.7 percent, said they would choose a funeral home they had previously dealt with for their next at-need call.
     On the heels of familiarity, half of those surveyed, 50.9 percent, said their next call to a funeral home will be determined by location.
     Also influencing a family’s choice of funeral home were prior attendance at a funeral, 24.8 percent; preneed, 22.1 percent; and advertising, 3.4 percent.
     So let us explore each of these five reasons why families select a funeral home and add some known trends in

 the funeral industry.

                 Previously Served Family
                      (51.7 Percent)
     By solely relying on providing great service to earn the business of families previously served, are you at risk? What if the continual surge in cremation begins to cannibalize the number of traditional services at your facility? If you were doing 150 calls per year (130 traditional and 20 direct cremation), and over the next five years you continue to do 150 calls/year but the mix is now 100 traditional and 50 direct cremation, how drastic of a financial change would this be to your business?     

    I can tell you it will be about as devastating as Katrina was to the Gulf Coast. With the death rate projected to remain relatively flat for the next 11 years, it would have a major impact on the existence of your business, not just be an inconvenience. You do the math.
     I have spent the last full year studying the mistakes most funeral professionals make by failing to maximize key areas of financial enrichment in their business, and by not addressing this real encroaching situation. The question is, “Do you think you need to do something to protect or insure your business against this?”

                   Location
                   (50.9 Percent)
     The survey showed that the second reason why families choose a funeral home is location. Does this mean that if the funeral director in the neighboring town who has been eyeing up your market builds a new funeral home, he would get those families closer to the new location than you who have been serving them for all these years? Probably a few, but at what cost to him would be his challenge.
    Another way to look at this surveyed response is to challenge yourself that if location (Proximity) is a desire of families and a compelling reason to use a funeral home, what can you do to get families to drive past your competitors’ location and come to you?
     The answer is not to offer the same thing as what he does (remember: many surveys reveal that the consumer believes all funeral homes offer the same thing and also provide the same level of service.)
     I know that most funeral directors would disagree with this but studies continue to show very little shift in calls to Funeral Home A which advertises that they provide a much better service than Funeral Home B. Just compare changes in call volume to your competitor over the last 10 years to see how you rank.
     Could you be offering something different from the family’s standpoint to get them to drive past the other funeral home? Do you need to offer something different, or is your business going to be fine over the next 10-15 years? It is only after you take a hard look and answer these questions that the successful solutions we

discovered will have merit for you.

     Attendance at Other Funerals
                       (24.8 Percent)
     According to the 2004 NFDA Family Contact Survey, a family selects a funeral home 24.8 percent of the time because someone in the family attended a funeral at said funeral home. Do you do anything other than host the event to boost attendance? If this is a deciding factor to get a new call into your business, what could you be doing to capture more business? Do you allow the attendees an opportunity to participate? If you could do something to boost attendance, is it worth the extra effort to you?
      As far as the funeral homes I have worked with that are successful in doing this, they have had a continue upward growth in the number of families they serve. Together we found a new recipe . . . made with some new fresh ingredients.

                         Preneed
                   (22.1 Percent)
     Preneed at most funeral homes is still a small factor in growing calls because they fail to utilize it to even half of its potential, settling in most cases for handling the families who come in and ask for it. This is a good service to your families, but lousy in a business model both for growth and financial receipts.
     In failing to use preneed properly, the policy shortfalls can adversely affect your business, but many funeral homes never ask for help and continue to follow this unproductive path. Unfortunately, preneed gets a bad reputation from the lack of execution and implementation by funeral homes.

     But it is interesting, to say the least, because most funeral directors think that they are doing a good job, and they fail to seek out a “check up” to get a true evaluation. Just going to see the doctor for routine check ups, is it not better for both you personally and your business to know the health (or sickness) of your business sooner rather than later? Is it time for you to get an evaluation?
     Many firms try their own “home remedies” to fix their preneed program. This haphazard remedy is culled from bits and pieces of what they may have heard or read. Ultimately, funeral directors may conclude that their towns are different, and they really don’t need to be doing this because they give the best service and will bury everybody in town!
     To grow and protect your business - to be able to have more business value in 20 years when you are ready to move on - funeral directors need to go beyond the trite and redundant preneed methods everyone else recycles. Success can easily be accomplished with a little hard work.
     Preneed can easily grow from the 22.1 percent reason why families choose a funeral home to well over 35 percent and stabilize a strong business for the future. But are you happy doing what you are doing? Are you worried about the need to change for the future?

                Advertising
               (3.4 Percent)
     Advertising rounds out the bottom - and, wow, it does just that when
the survey results show that only 3.4 percent of families select a funeral

 home due to advertising.
     Firms we work with have shown that they can quite easily have a more effective advertising program. The secret is to focus on understanding that what matters is what the families want. It is also important to think about your business and not about what you want.
     Families are the ones who vote by coming into your business and hiring you, buying your goods and services. Too often the direction of a funeral home’s advertising program is what makes the funeral home owner feel good. Small tweaks and usually spending less in the right way can produce a bigger impact.
     For many years, change in our business has been a very gradual process that has not been painful. I