(Ad from Roseville Memorial Chapel in Roseville, Minnesota. I’m sure they’ve copyrighted it, so don’t steal!)
As families slowly walk away from simple, cookie-cutter funerals, they are headed in two possible directions: Away from a funeral home of any kind or toward a progressive firm that offers the services they really want.
Does anyone REALLY want to bury or cremate a loved one? I’ll let you answer that for yourself. When a family chooses a funeral home, they assume that every funeral provider can get the basics (the uncomfortable disposal part) right most of the time.
Therefore, families base their decision upon other factors. They decide what they really want (a pretty memorial service, a low price, a convenient location, etc.) and then choose the funeral home that meets those needs.
Living and working in Florida, I’ve seen the march (sometimes the outright SPRINT) toward cremation by many of my friends, family and clients. Most of them have a rationale for choosing direct cremation (don’t want to be a bother, don’t have money, etc.) but the most common answer that I find after a lot of prodding and digging is that “I don’t want a regular funeral for my loved one so I don’t want a regular funeral home doing the service.”
It’s time to become the “exceptional funeral home” in your community. It’s time to listen to your customers (and potential future customers) and offer them what they really want and need. This starts with simple things like pet memorialization products and services, progresses to video tributes and audiovisual systems and culminates in the community room.
A community room is a flexible space that can accommodate large services or catered receptions. The community room should probably also include a kitchen so that catering staff or others who rent the facility can serve food.
In many areas, local churches serve this function. The family has a service and goes back to the fellowship hall for a meal, provided by the church. But today’s market includes a number of families who have no ties to a local church (recently moved to the area) or who do not attend a church. Often a person who has friends and family from many different backgrounds will choose not to have services or a reception in their church so as not to offend others.
Being able to offer a variety of services will keep your families from opting for direct cremation and running to the country club for a reception.
March 2, 2007 at 5:02 am
Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes. At least now, thanks to the internet, death doesn’t have to be as expensive.
According to AARP, the average funeral in the United States can easily reach $10,000 once a burial plot, flowers and other costs are included.
Educated consumers are no longer in the dark about how the funeral industry works. Big conglomerates are mercilessly buying up family-operated homes with their eyes solely on the bottom-line. Caskets alone average a 600% mark up. They may be the last example of a legal monopoly left in the United States. Mourners are literally gauged, as they haven’t the time or presence of mind to comparison shop.
It has always been tradition to call upon the neighborhood funeral parlor, cemetery or monument dealer when a loved-one passes. But, due to the internet, that traditional is starting to change.
MonumentsInStone is the sister company of Interstate Granite, a family-owned, monument manufacturer that has been in business in the Atlanta area since 1916. They have recently launched a website, http://www.monumentsinstone.com, offering granite headstones, bronze markers and crematory products at a fraction of their retail price. “We have been there.” Say the owner, Robert Womac. “And, we want to right an industry-wide wrong.”
MonumentsInStone supplies headstones and memorials directly to the consumer. Although cemeteries might not like this, they have to, by law, accept a stone from an outside source. The savings have been a blessing for many customers.
The Funeral Consumers Alliance has many tips that should be followed when planning a funeral. They told us that savvy consumers need to shop around for a grave marker or monument. The Better Business Bureau also warns to resist high-priced sales pitches from funeral industry vendors. They should treat you with compassion; not pressure you.
Perhaps, asking a friend or neighbor to work the phones or search the net would be a good idea. Even a check on Ebay has produced a number of beautiful choices. I found an elegant, Granite Companion Monument for a third of the price my funeral parlor was pitching. A Tombstone on Ebay? I emailed the highest bidder to find out why. “I’m sorry,” He told me. ” I see no reason to pay top dollar because of some outdated tradition.”