Large city funeral homes are starting to see slippage in their traditional calls. There are two reasons for this: they are losing families to competitors and more and more people are choosing cremation. When I talk to customers these days, I find myself involved in ever increasing numbers of conversations about cremation. While funeral homes in rural areas have not felt the same impact, even they are quickly beginning to realize increasing numbers of families choosing cremation.

Aside from getting the law changed to ban cremation – which is probably impossible! –you might want to find some ways to adapt your services and offerings. Otherwise your bottom line is the next thing that is to be cremated. You probably need to increase call volume instead. So where will your increased calls come from?  

I see many funeral directors subscribing to one or more of six different theories for how they can increase calls, or how circumstances might increase calls for them:

1  give a better service

      Some funeral homes tell me they will get an increase in calls by improving their customer service. They tell me about the great service they have given over the last 10 to 15 years, but after I ask them how many calls their “better” service has earned them over the last few years, their answer is almost always that their call volume has not increased.  I have a hard time understanding why, if it has not won them more calls by now, they would expect it to happen anytime soon.  

   Unfortunately, surveys both nationally and at a local level have showed that families perceive all funeral homes to provide the same level of service; there is no perceived difference. 

2  personalization

      Funeral directors are beginning to focus more and more on  how to personalize a funeral to create a new value to satisfy families…to make the service a true celebration of an individual’s life. That is a value that many surveys say has been lost to most families.

   Unfortunately, many funeral directors are slow to change because of how they (and their fathers) have always done things.  Some have begun to embrace the concept of cap panels, casket corners, and so on, but those add ons will not get you across the goal line and help you achieve the value consumers seek.  Sure, you can add memory boards, videos and personal item displays. They add an      extra piazza to the service, which will help – especially if your competitor is not providing such services.

       The real answer is to create an “experience” and get everyone involved to celebrate a life lived.

3  increase in population  

     In some areas of the country (think Vegas, Arizona, and Florida, for example), many seniors are moving in, or buying a second home.   This has proven to be a boost for those funeral homes servicing those areas. 

   A large percentage of these families, however, are choosing to forgo a   conventional funeral in favor of a memorial service and/or cremation. They have new friends and a new environment. Their roots and their rich history may have disappeared in the move. And those funeral firms in the areas from which these seniors have moved, are also facing a loss in available calls.

4 increased death rate

      Many funeral directors have been hearing of a large increase in deaths from the baby boomers, and are counting on this increase offsetting the growth in cremation and recent shifts in population.

   Unfortunately, given current trends, this will not occur for another decade. According to statistics and data from the Centers for Disease Control, the funeral industry would start seeing the effects of the baby boom in the year 2016 - - 70 years after it began. Deaths for the next 11 years are predicted to remain relatively flat – with some predicting that we could even experience continued decreases in the death rate, which has fallen relatively steadily since around 1970.

5 other firms closing

     Consolidation, the growth of large funeral home conglomerates and the contraction within the industry sometimes leaves funeral directors with the perverse hope that their competition will simply dry up and go away. In recent years, this was not a

ridiculous idea. As Six Feet Under showed, running a funeral home can be a tough business.

   But this is no longer likely. Consolidation has slowed. Funeral homes that survived are embedded in their markets. The industry has the second-lowest failure rate of all businesses. Even for funeral directors inclined to gamble, those are tough odds.

6 remodeling/expanding

     One of the keys in this business is getting footsteps into your business, from both families and visitors. Some funeral directors remodel in the hopes of attracting (and maintaining) families.  Others realize that families want a funeral home within a few miles of their home so they add a new location to try and capture families nearby. With proper surveying, staffing, and advertising, these types of moves have proven successful for many.

       The negative here is obvious: costs can be staggering. Plus, remodeling and expanding works a lot better when you service $7,000 funerals instead of $700 cremations. Many homes open a second branch and do increase their call volume, but still lose out, because they wind up spending their time performing cremations – with their small margins.

Every day, without their realizing it, funeral directors around the country take calls from their competitors.  It is like an iceberg: you only see the tip, not the rest of what is happening.

    Often, those funeral directors tell me they do not need an active program to recruit families because their competitors are practically forcing new business on them.    

       They explain that, yes – every now and then, they see the name of a family that they had served for generations in the death notices (obituaries) being serviced by a competing funeral home.  They do not like to describe this as (possibly) the tip of that iceberg. They would rather think ‘every time my competitor does a mailing, I get preneed business. He is doing my advertising for me!’ Yes – that is a common result, but do not fail to realize that for everyone that walks in your door to prearrange, he is probably getting three.  If he has a bigger marketshare and is doing more funerals than you in town, our research shows he might be getting eight to every one you get! To land new calls, you need to be the one with the effective advertising.

   Now, I know many funeral homes have done mailings to find preneed prospects (one of the most cost-effective advertising methods that also generate the fewest number of complaints) and have not had the results – most probably because there was no training on how to do it in the most effective manner. You would be amazed how many homes do not bother to train their preneed specialist in the most effective marketing solutions.

     Here are 3 keys to a successful increasing call volume with a preneed approach for a funeral business:

1 Offer experiences instead of products.

   You can’t fight cremation – it is a permanent part of the market. So whatever type of interment families choose, offer them a meaningful and valuable service, not just an expensive casket. You can continue to sell traditional services as preneed, but start offering cremations that memorialize the deceased as effectively as a traditional service. Tailor these services to each individual family. Everyone wants to be remembered in their own way. Create an experience for each family and their friends.

2  Make sure you have funded prearrangements - lots of them.

   Families with a financial commitment to a preneed plan are more likely to actually use your services. Find families new to the area, or those who have previously used a competitor, and start a loyalty chain – the type that extends through the generations. Such a chain can mean multiple funerals from the same family and help create buzz about your home and your services.

3  Provide superior customer service.

   This means responding to all calls quickly – the same for preneed inquiries as for atneed first calls. It sounds simple, but a lot of homes fail right there. Listen to what each family wants, and, as I said above, be prepared to tailor each funeral to each family’s needs. Listen to their concerns. Funeral homes that get bogged down in traditional methods of doing business, which are not prepared to adapt to the changing times, will provide your new customers. You can quickly reach these people with an effective advertising program funded by preneed sales.

   None of these ideas is rocket science. But they represent the cheapest, least risky approach to increasing call volume. Your home can adapt to the changing times and the growth of cremation. But you need to be prepared to shift your methods of doing business.

   The benefits of adaptation cannot be overstated. In my family’s business, which first opened in 1854, we estimate that for every preneed sale, we get three additional atneed services. I have seen examples of that trend over and over as I have consulted with funeral homes around North America.    

    So be flexible. It will pay off. If you have questions or comments, you can email me at quinn@preneed.net, send me a fax at (504) 837-4983 or call me at (504) 837-8868.