Einstein said it best, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Taking on the role of a leader in your funeral firm means that you open yourself up to making a few mistakes – and hopefully – learning from them along the way.

Demonstrating leadership within your funeral home is more about behavior than it is about specific skills or knowledge.

The following are seven examples of poor leadership behaviors. See how your actions may be affecting others around you:

• Blaming others – or external events – for setbacks. In this way, leaders think that they can maintain some semblance of self-esteem and control. But it’s seen by staff members as just-plain-poor leadership.

• Worrying about everything. Good leaders don’t share every concern with their staff. At best, it comes across as lack of confidence, or more likely sounds as if you’re trying to make excuses for possible later failures. Team members want a leader who calms their worries.

• Criticizing others. Funeral professionals who speak critically of their staff, client families, or service guests usually have some aspect of self that they find unacceptable. The best leaders are those who are willing to look in the mirror, and learn from what they see.

• Complaining about being overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed happens to all of us at one time or another. But, real leaders embrace and manage these feelings, rather than complaining to their staff.

• Doing 10 things at a time in a mediocre way. Anyone who claims to be able to do multiple things at a time must never use this as an excuse for poor quality. Your staff will quickly conclude that mediocrity is good enough. Even one task done with mediocrity can be the kiss of death for any funeral home, or any funeral service professional.

• Appearing disorganized and managing things haphazardly. A haphazard approach is sure to lead to mistakes, which cost time, money, productivity and morale, and will erode your team’s image of you as a leader. And guess what? Chances are they’ll follow your haphazard, disorganized example.

• Failing to see the positives in others. In this economy, it’s extra important to maintain a positive mindset. Quality leadership is all about finding positives, for business growth, competitive advantage, and furthering the development of the staff at your funeral firm.

The Upside to Making Mistakes

OK. We all make mistakes. We’re only human. Can there be an upside to making mistakes?

In One Word: Yes

If a good leader should see the positives, instead of dwelling on the negatives, then what’s the ‘upside’ of making mistakes?

We all must make mistakes in order to learn. And by acknowledging and identifying them correctly, we can improve not only ourselves, but the services we provide our families.

Truthfully, those who try to avoid mistakes tend to steer clear of risks and challenges. And we all know that’s no way to run a funeral home. You’ve got to be willing to take those risks, and meet the everyday challenges. Head on.

So learn from those mistakes. Accept responsibility. Make a commitment to change one behavior, or eliminate one mistake a month.

How many mistakes have you avoided recently? And what mistakes have you learned from? Share your comments below!

We all know there are limits to what you as a funeral home owner or operator, can do to promote your firm. Or are there? Perhaps we’re just crippled by our own myopic thinking. And considering how tough things are out there, we just can’t afford to be nearsighted.

Here’s what I’ve learned from some of the leading marketing firms around today. To excite your audience, you need to get personal and use unconventional ways of connecting with your community.

Unorthodox Marketing? Or Just Plain Tacky?

You may want to be unorthodox, but you don’t want to be tacky. While many of the funeral directors appreciated the humor within the following two funeral home advertisements, the general public (for the most part) was underwhelmed by them. There’s a fine line we have to walk, between being memorable, and disturbing potential client families. Consider this billboard from a Berlin subway:

Or this one, from an American firm:

Alexandra Gekas, the author of the Woman’s Day online article, 10 Controversial Billboards where I found these images, made her feelings quite clear. When writing about the Thomas R. Dobie billboard, she says “The message is loud and clear here—it’s just totally tactless. While we all can agree that everyone is going to die and it’s best to be prepared, this was a little over the top.” And the Bergemann & Son Funeral Services billboard fared no better. “(They) seem to have no shame when it comes to finding new customers, as can be seen from this billboard in the Berlin subway. It’s one thing for a funeral home to help you after death, but it’s a whole different story for them to help you get there.”

But what if I were to tell you that you don’t have to shock anyone to get noticed? That there was an easy way to become the most-trusted, most-turned to, most relied-upon funeral home in your community?

Two Words: Inbound Marketing

Embrace the power of inbound marketing by becoming a resource on all things related to funeral and memorial services, pre-planning, and grief support. Your funeral home website can help you do that, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Recently, Joe Joachim shared his thoughts on the marketing value of educating your community, and I’ve got to agree with him. But, I’d add three points about the nature of the educational content on your website:

• Seek to solve a problem. It’s always good to focus on how your services can help others, rather than bragging about your funeral home’s best features, no matter how cool they are.

• Make it share-worthy. It’s all about the “share value” in social media. Be sure to use easily-recognized and prominently-placed social media icons so your website visitors can easily “share” the educational content on their social network.

• Have a conversation. Engage your community online with social media, and with the educational content on your funeral home website. Don’t forget about hosting live events. I’m always inspired by those funeral professionals who step up to the podium to share what they know with members of the community who are hungry for the information. And those firms who provide expertise in grief support, estate planning, elder care, or any of the other topics of interest will naturally be seen by the community as the “go-to” funeral firm.

This echoes the words of Facebook’s Paul Adams, who argues the demise of in-your-face marketing and advertising is close at hand, to be replaced by a form of advertising that depends on “many lightweight interactions over time.”

In order to reach potential client families, your funeral home needs to start using inbound marketing tactics to build relationships with them rather than simply grabbing their attention with an attempt at funeral humor, as in the earlier billboard advertisements.

In other words, you should be progressive rather than aggressive, by adding Participation to the traditional marketing mix of Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

Your Turn: Let us know what you’re currently doing to market your funeral home, both online and off!

In order for your funeral home website to be a valuable business asset, you better make sure it includes these 7 critical elements:

1. Socially Interactive Obituaries

The days of standard, static obituaries are gone. Today’s families want to share the life story of their loved one with family and friends. Go beyond the traditional obituary and online guestbook and offer your families a dedicated memorial website for their loved one that interacts with Facebook and Twitter. A social memorial website will allow family and friends to view the obituary, share personal memories, offer condolences and leave virtual gifts in honor of their loved one—all from your funeral home website.

2. Sympathy Gifts & Flowers

The more convenience you can offer your website visitors, the more likely it is that they will return. By integrating an eCommerce sympathy store into your funeral home website, you make it easier than ever for the community to support the emotional needs of your families. Now, they can send sympathy gifts and flowers from the same place they’re already going to read the obituary and sign the online guestbook. Your funeral home becomes a one-stop-shop!

3. Interactive Service Selection Tool

Your families’ expectations of a funeral service are changing. More than ever, they are looking for unique and personalized ways to celebrate the life lived. Your funeral home website must educate potential client families on the value of the services you provide. By including an interactive service selection tool, you give them the freedom to explore all the unique and memorable ways they can honor their loved one.

4. Grief and Healing Resources

One of the most important services you can provide your families is grief support. However, not all of your families are going to feel comfortable coming to you and asking for guidance and support. By offering daily email affirmations or providing access to interactive grief videos on your funeral home website, you give your families the ability to manage their grief effectively from the comfort of their own home.

5. Proper Optimization for Search Engines

Your funeral home website can’t be successful if potential client families can’t find it. And today, it’s likely that when the need arises, the first place families go to find a funeral home is the Internet. With proper search engine optimization, your funeral home website will appear at the top of search results—every time!

6. Easy-to-Use Pre-Planning Tools

Statistics show that almost 70% of adults would pre-plan their funeral service, if given the option. If your funeral home website doesn’t feature a pre-planning tool that makes it easy for families to arrange their funeral service online, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to not only attract new families, but increase revenue.

7. Visually Engaging Photos & Videos

In today’s digital age, your website is often the first impression your funeral home makes on a potential client family. In order for your firm to connect with those families, your website must speak to them on a personal and emotional level. With visually engaging photos and videos, you can provide them comfort by showing them how to celebrate the life that was lived.

Maximize the online presence of your funeral home with the f1Connect Website Platform. f1Connect is the first all-in-one website solution built from the ground up for the families you serve. Click here to learn more!

Many funeral directors today feel their back is pressed against one wall or another. Maybe it’s falling revenues, longer delays in getting paid, decreased volume in death calls, the rise in price shoppers, or simply the pressures brought on by trying to satisfy the personalization expectations of the Baby Boomers. Without a doubt, one could argue it’s hard times in the death business.

Now more than ever, the creative juices should be flowing through your funeral firm. From my experience I’ve found that you’re more likely to motivate your employees if you encourage creative expression, and maximize the talents of everyone involved.

Let’s Get Creative!

Creative thinking means maximizing brain potential. But how can you train yourself and your staff to start thinking creatively?

Here are some ways the funeralOne team gets their creative juices flowing (this can be applied to your funeral firm):

• Create Teams: I’ve found that putting together teams of innovative people can lead to unexpected solutions. That’s because minds working together often create synergistic ideas that would not have appeared in any single mind.

• Brainstorm Together: If I need to come up with a new idea, solve a problem, or develop a course of action, I seek input from my team. By supporting an open, collaborative environment—both in the layout of the office and in the culture—you will inspire the sharing of ideas. I believe employees who feel their ideas are taken seriously will be more motivated and more loyal, as well as more creative and happier.

• Provide Tangible Incentives: Everyone who has ever earned an hourly wage can tell you, it’s not always the best way to maximize innovative or creative efforts. If you provide incentives that depend on the success of the organization as a whole, rather than solely on the number of hours a worker puts in, you can tie the success of your funeral home to personal success. These incentives can be purely financial, or they can be more creative in the form of gifts, vacations or recognition.

• Identify Your Employees’ Thinking Styles: One way to increase revenue is to increase your team’s productivity by identifying your employees’ thinking styles. Through a better understanding of how our brain works, you can align your team to enhance their collaboration and therefore increase their effectiveness and productivity.

It has been scientifically proven that in taking specific and deliberate steps to tap into the diversity of thinking styles that naturally exist in your staff, a team’s productivity can increase from 20% to 80%.

• Have Some Fun: I’ve found that some of the best ideas come when you take a break from thinking. Every member of our team, myself included, is encouraged to partake in a game of foosball, pinball or Ping Pong throughout the course of the day. I find that it refreshes your mind—not to mention I’m determined to brush up my Ping Pong skills so one of these days I might actually beat Martim.

How Creativity Benefits Your Funeral Firm

Currently your focus may be on cost-cutting and survival. But if you shift that focus to “creativity” – you’ll see something magical happen. That’s because creativity:

• encourages communication

• builds trust

• enables us to look at things from different angles

• produces out-of-the-box thinking, which helps with problem solving

• throws preconceived notions out the window

• creates an ability to change thought patterns and concepts

Embracing creativity increases your chances of discovering game-changing solutions that will lead to the success of your funeral firm. Taking the time to promote creative thinking allows your funeral home to increase your team’s productivity, often reduce costs, and has the potential to significantly increase revenue.

Are you planning on investing in developing your funeral home’s creativity this year? Tell us how!

Today, many Americans will celebrate Armed Forces Day. Set aside back in 1949, the day gives us all the opportunity to pay special tribute to the men and women of the Armed Forces. There are parades, open houses on military bases around the country, receptions and air shows.

Just like last year, the President Obama will inspire us with a few well-chosen words. In 2011, he urged all Americans to “salute the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen who perform their duties with impeccable courage, commitment, and character, and recognize our moral obligation to serve them and their families as well as they have served us.”

He also asked all Americans to display the flag of the United States at their homes on Armed Forces Day, and urged citizens to learn more about military service by attending and participating in the local observances of the day.

The Unique Opportunity of Funeral Directors

Armed Forces Day gives everyone, including funeral directors, a chance to recognize the contributions of living service men and women.

When families ask a funeral home to arrange military memorial services for a veteran, or soldier killed in the line of duty, the staff members are given a heavy responsibility. Not only the members of the family, but the citizens of the nation, look to them to pay proper tribute to someone who chose to serve us all.

All funeral directors know from experience that a military funeral or memorial service is steeped in tradition and ceremony. Yes, the flag-draped casket, flag-folding ceremony, and graveside bugler are the three lynchpins of a traditional military tribute – but there’s so much more a savvy funeral director can do to make a military funeral service even more meaningful, and memorable.

Here are some ways funeral directors can personalize a military funeral service:

• Create a patriotic-themed tribute video (like the one featured above): With the right tribute video software, you can create a video montage of pictures for your families, that pays tribute to their loved ones years of service. Ask the family for military or service-related pictures, and within minutes, you’ll have a tribute video everyone will love.

• Offer customized printing: With the right personalized printing software, you can create customized prayer cards, service programs and thank you cards for your families in-house.

• Make a Walk of Honor: Line the path to the graveside service with small American flags. Guests are then asked to take a flag as they leave the service, as a keepsake.

• Call on Your Local Patriot Guard Riders: The Patriot Guard Riders are a group of local Samaritans who have an unwavering respect for American servicemen and happen to ride motorcycles. They are invited to attend the funeral services of fallen heroes and act as escorts during the funeral procession.

Every time a veteran’s or soldier’s family turns to you, it’s a shining opportunity to close the final chapter of their lives with dignity and honor befitting their record of exemplary service. Blending traditional military funeral honors with current trends in personalization is the best way to make a military memorial or funeral service truly memorable.

How does your funeral home go out of its way to pay tribute to veterans and servicemen? Please leave your comments below!

You’ve probably heard all the statistics about the exploding, exponential growth of social media. Like this one. There are more than 800 million Facebook users, and if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest in the world behind China and India. HubSpot tells us that that 93% of all Internet users in the U.S. are on Facebook. And 56% of consumers say they are more likely to recommend a brand after following their Facebook page.

For the moment, let’s not even talk about all of the other social media platforms such as Twitter, Google +, YouTube or those user review sites like Yelp, MerchantCircle or Insider Pages. We’ll save those for another day—let’s keep our focus on Facebook.

If you put “funeral home” into the Facebook search bar, you’ll find hundreds of funeral homes listed. But, here’s the sad truth: the majority of funeral firms don’t take advantage of all the ways to connect with their Facebook community. Ryan Thogmartin, founder of Connecting Directors and the savvy mind behind Disrupt Media Group, shares the same thinking. “Here is the deal with funeral homes and social media,” he said. “They still don’t get it!”

So guess what they do? They ignore it, or simply use it as a place to cross-post obituaries. If that describes your approach to Facebook marketing, then you’ve made the #1 mistake.

Think about it:

• How often are you posting?

• What days and times are you posting?

• What content is getting the most interaction – pictures, links, videos, questions?

• How many people post directly on your page?

• How many respond to a post?

Don’t like your answers? All is not lost. You can change things right now, with the help of three funeral firms which are shining examples for you to follow:

1. Anderson-McQueen Funeral & Cremation Centers (1,132 likes)

2. Grace Funeral & Cremation Services (1,007 likes)

3. O’Connor Mortuary (250 likes)

The point I want to make is that each of these firms uses the “real estate” on their Facebook page effectively. Here’s what they’re doing:

• Posting every day. That’s because they know if you’re only posting once or twice a week your community may miss at least one of them. And they don’t neglect the weekends, because they know that’s when many people are on Facebook.

• Staying current on Facebook changes. They’re aware that the new Facebook Timeline Brand Pages have changed the way their funeral home interacts with their followers, requiring more visual and more frequent posting. It’s content-driven, and whatever you post will go through the news feed very quickly – sometimes within hours!

• Focusing on engagement. They’re asking questions, posting helpful tips, and linking to articles that their audience will “Like” and “Share”.

• Setting aside follow-up time. They know they’ve got to follow up on posts and respond to questions on their Timeline. In fact, they check their page every day, hopefully twice.

• Providing a call-to-action. They tell people to click “Like”, comment on a post, or “share” on their own timeline.

• Striking a balance in their content. That’s means there’s a balance between funeral home-focused messages (like obituaries and special program announcements) and audience-driven content/connection posts.

• When appropriate, they’re making it fun. Facebook is a social community. People are there to connect, deepen relationships, and have fun. Remember social media is a way for you to humanize your funeral firm.

Here’s a helpful tip from our funeralOne social media maven, Emily Black. “Create an editorial content calendar. In fact, it’s good to have two types of content calendars. The first is a larger roadmap of promotions and special events throughout the year to highlight, like seminars, grief support groups, or holiday remembrance services.”

The other is a weekly calendar. “This will give structure to your exact daily content. For example, one day you could feature a 3rd party link to an interesting relevant article. The next day you could ask a question, or post a local area photo. Mix it up!”

As you develop your weekly content calendar, your community will also get to know your pattern and they will look forward to certain weekly events.

The bottom line is that it’s time to ramp up your Facebook marketing efforts. You have a huge opportunity to reach new families, and build loyalty with previous client families, using this wildly popular social media community. Don’t blow it by neglecting to do a few simple things.

What are you doing to engage your audience on Facebook? What could you do better? Leave your comments below!

Trust me, this isn’t your typical office space. Take a tour through our new headquarters and you’ll get a better understanding of where some of our innovative ideas and out-of-the-box thinking comes from!

So without further ado, here are a few of my favorite things about the new funeralOne headquarters!

Open, Collaborative Work Space

Before moving into our new headquarters, we tore down almost all the walls in our 10,000-square-foot space. Why? Because we don’t believe in cubicles, private offices and departmental borders. At funeralOne, we believe an open, collaborative work environment breeds creative and innovative thinking. So the whole office is open to encourage conversations and the sharing of ideas.

The Break Area

We believe that a work-hard, play-hard kind of environment actually increases productivity. I know it may sound crazy, but we work at a pretty fast-pace around here and sometimes it helps to just clear your head and take a quick 5-minute break—sometimes that’s all it takes to lose to your competitor! Our break area is filled with Ping Pong and foosball tables, pinball machines, air hockey and video games. I like to encourage everyone to partake in some sort of activity daily.

The Alice in Wonderland Room

The funeralOne headquarters is far from your typical corporate office setting. Along with our rainbow-colored walls and Andy Warhol paintings we have 4-themed conference rooms. Of which, my personal favorite is the “Alice in Wonderland” room. With sky blue walls and white clouds painted in IdeaPaint, you can literally draw your ideas in the clouds. Combine that with the artificial grass and you feel like you’re outside relaxing, which I think makes for a more enjoyable and productive meeting. Not to mention, you’re sitting in brightly-colored, oversized queen’s chairs. What more could you ask for?

We’re in the Heart of Detroit

Detroit isn’t just the city where our office is located; it’s our home. We believe so much in its potential, that we moved our entire operations downtown to help revive this great city and join the movement of making Detroit one of the greatest technology hubs of our time. Located in the heart of downtown, we are surrounded by legendary landmarks such as the Spirit of Detroit statue, GM Renaissance Center, Comerica Park, Ford Field, Fox Theater, the Fisher Building, Hart Plaza, and my personal favorite, The Joe Louis Fist (pictured above).

The Lego Table

The Lego table in our main conference room is definitely one of my favorite things in the office. And not just for the obvious reason—it’s freaking awesome—but because to me, it symbolizes everything funeralOne is all about. Teamwork, dedication and creative thinking. Everything from conceptualizing the idea, to buying over 30,000 Legos and constructing the 13-foot table, was done by funeralOne employees! I don’t think there’s a better representation of the kind of operation we have here.

This is only a glimpse into the life and culture here at funeralOne. If you thought this was impressive, just wait until you see what I have in store for you in Part 2 of My Favorite Things About the funeralOne Headquarters!

If you’re ever in the Detroit area, stop by! I’d personally love to give you the full tour of our amazing space; I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like it!

Everyone wants to come up with the next big idea that will bring their funeral firm growth, but very few are adept at knowing how.

Take eCommerce for example, how many of you thought of it as a passing fad when you first heard about it—claiming your families don’t shop online?

Well, with statistics showing 71% of adults shop online, clearly that’s not the case. And even more to the point, with $240 million being spent on sympathy gifts and flowers online each year, I think it’s safe to say that funeral eCommerce is no passing fad—it’s here to stay.

I can tell you that funeral eCommerce is the next big industry trend, but at the end of the day, you need to see it to believe it.

Here are some tips to help you spot the next big industry trend:

Separate Trends from Fads

First things first, you need to learn how to identify the difference between a trend and a passing fad. Some people believe the biggest difference is that trends affect a larger amount of people and industries than fads. Others think trends are long-term changes, whereas fads are short-lived. But whichever way you look at it, eCommerce is definitely no passing fad. It currently accounts for more than $200 billion in annual spending in the US and is projected to reach $327 billion in the next 4 years.

Know Your Trendsetters

In order to spot a trend, you must know who the trendsetters are. In fashion, that might have been the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ of the 1960s or the Kate Middletons of today. But in the funeral profession, the trendsetters are your families and your community. If you want to know if eCommerce is here to stay, look to the Baby Boomers. The generational cohort of 78 million strong will be passing through the funeral industry over the next 20 years. You need to find out what offerings they are looking for, that you’re currently not providing.

Read the Signs

As a funeral director or a funeral owner, analyzing industry trends is part of your job—at least when it comes to developing a business strategy. So how do you determine if a trend is just a passing fad or if it’s right for your firm? You open your eyes and read the signs. Sign 1: Your community, along with 93% of consumers, support grieving families with gifts and flowers. Sign 2: There are more than 200,000 searches on Google for sympathy gifts and flowers each month—and that number is constantly growing. It seems the signs are all pointing to funeral eCommerce.

Influence the Trends

All innovation starts somewhere…why not have it be with you? Spend time observing other industries and figuring out what’s working for them and what that might mean to your business. It will inspire new ideas for your funeral firm and give you a leg up on the competition. Don’t think your community shops for sympathy gifts or flowers online? Add it to your funeral home website and see what happens. By successfully identifying the behaviors of your community, you have the ability to determine which innovations are viable for the funeral profession, and therefore influence what becomes a trend in your industry.

Whether your goal is to serve as a trendsetter in the industry or to simply be able to spot future trends, one thing is for sure—you need to be willing to not only adapt to change, but anticipate change.

What are some ways you try to stay abreast of current trends in the funeral profession? Please share your comments below!

“A mother is the truest friend we have,” wrote Washington Irving. Since Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13th, let’s honor the mothers in our lives by taking a closer look at what they can teach us about caring for client families.

Mothers are comforting, selfless and supportive. They listen closely when we need to open up, and offer the wisdom of their experiences only when needed. They care for both our physical well-being, and nurture our spiritual selves. Mothers accept us as we are, and support our personal growth.

We all have personal life lessons we’ve learned from our mothers, but let’s take a closer look at the characteristics of a mother and see how funeral professionals can practice those same qualities when comforting grieving families.

Mothers are:

• Generous: A successful funeral professional is generous with their time—spending as much time as is necessary to build a connection with grieving family members.

• Patient: Everyone grieves in different ways, at different times. By offering your families aftercare services, you become a trusted resource for them to depend on, even after the funeral service, so they can deal with their grief in their own time.

• Resilient: The emotional ups-and-downs of grieving mean family members can be a lot like children and teenagers—unpredictable or difficult to deal with. Like mothers, funeral directors should be resilient and able to adapt to their families emotional needs.

• Self-less: Funeral directors need to show total interest in their client families, setting aside their own personal and professional needs during their time together. You must put your families’ needs ahead of your own.

• Responsive: Not only do you need to be aware of the physical, verbal and emotional cues brought about by grief, you’ve got to be able to respond quickly and appropriately.

• Prepared: A funeral director should always be one-step-ahead. Your families look to you for grief support during the weeks following loss, and that means you’ve got to be ready for anything.

• Resourceful: Every family expects different things from their funeral director. Providing all the grief support options available to your families proves you are someone they can rely on, and makes you the person they’ll turn to, time and again.

What Do Funeral Professionals and Mothers Have in Common?

In short, both do everything they can to help when times are tough. Every good funeral director and every loving mother does their best, again in the words of Washington Irving, “to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”

What valuable lessons did your mother teach you? Please share your comments below!

Previously, I predicted that in 5 years from now, the national cremation rate will hit 57%. Today, I’m going to explain to you where that prediction came from.

Over the years I have heard many explanations about why the cremation rate is rising. Shifting demographics, incomes, religious affiliations, transient society have all played an alleged role in the downfall of the traditional burial service. However, focusing on these issues has not produced a solution to pursue. I would like to propose a different way to look at this, one that hopefully yields insights that will help shape a new direction.

I believe that our families or consumers, in general, pursue the best value they can get. This does not mean the cheapest or the most elaborate but it means they seek value based on their personal perspective.

Consumers seek value in one of two ways:

1. They attempt to reduce the price of the offering or;

2. They look for more benefits for the same price

The challenge in our industry is that our families have almost no idea what benefits they want, much less what they need. The obvious result is a focus on price and the pricing pressures we face.

The Shift to Cremation

So what caused the initial shift that started the search for value? Why weren’t families satisfied with what we, the funeral service industry, have always offered? Well their perspective changed and it changed rather dramatically. Meet the Baby Boomers and all their challenges to the status quo.

Consider these facts:

• Up until about 1965 the cremation rate was pretty flat at around 4%

• And since that point it has risen dramatically to today’s average above 40%

• In the early mid 70’s the first Baby Boomers turned 30 and began making funeral decisions for their parents

• By the mid 90’s they started to turn 50 and in 2005 over half of the 78 million Baby Boomers were 50 years or older

• The shift in perspective represented by Baby Boomers is unprecedented in the world

And how did funeral service providers respond? We basically did nothing! And even worse we were woefully inadequate in explaining the benefits of what we did! Combine those two issues and we have a recipe for tremendous price pressure. And the only way families knew how to get a better price with the same provider is to cremate.

The Value Found in Cremation

I believe that families have an innate need to honor and remember the life of their loved one. This need was not met for Baby Boomers by the traditional funeral service offering. But, an interesting thing happened as they used cremation to find value via lower prices; they discovered that cremation liberated them from the traditional views of the industry.

They no longer had a 7-foot box with a body to deal with, and they could now have their remembrance service, when they wanted, where they wanted and how they wanted—without a funeral director making them feel bad about their decisions.

In spite of funeral directors and the traditional views of the industry, Boomers found better funeral service benefits on their own in the form of family gatherings and memorials in locations relevant to the life that was lived.

The Pricing Pressure

We have looked at how value perception has changed through Boomers. Now, let’s take a look at how funeral prices compared to inflation during this time period.

A study from the past decade shows the increase of funeral prices matched the increase of medical prices, which was over 50%. This was only exceeded by the increase of higher education, which almost reached 90%! All of which were much, much higher than the Consumer Price Index increase of around 30%.

To add insult to injury, consolidation has grown at an unprecedented rate. There is an unsettling parallel between the growth of consolidators and the increasing cremation rate.

• In 1965 Cremation Rate = 4% and Consolidation = just beginning

• In 1995 Cremation Rate = 20% and Consolidation = 13% of the rooftops owned

Typically consolidation leads to higher pricing not only in the purchased property but to increases in pricing of the surrounding funeral homes as well. Combine this with the growth of Baby Boomers using the funeral industry and you have a perfect storm that served to fuel Baby Boomers’ search for value.

While I believe that cremation rates would have risen without these inputs, I believe these trends are at the core of the dramatic increase in the rate of cremation. But more importantly, this analysis suggests the direction of a sustainable solution: provide benefits that meet the needs of the families we currently serve at a price they consider a good value. Pretty words but more on that in a later post!

What do you think is the real reason the cremation rate is rising? If you have any questions or want to comment on this topic, please share your thoughts below!

About the Author: Lajos Szabo, a licensed funeral director in Ohio and Architect by training, has been involved in funeral service since 1988. His portfolio of work includes, PMP Rooms, Cut Caskets, Meaningful Memories, Funeral of the Future research and several US patents specific to our industry. Recently, Mr. Szabo partnered with the Schoedinger organization to create a virtual funeral home business model named Funeral Choices. Subsequently, he served as Chief Strategy Officer for Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Service, a 2,500 call 14 rooftop firm in Central Ohio. There, he was responsible for realigning this 150 year old firm to more effectively respond to the changing funeral service consumer. His role included refining company infrastructures, implementing information systems, resource allocation, MourningStar arrangement implementation, website development, social media integration and initiatives impacting the creation of healing experiences for those touched by death. Currently, Mr. Szabo has joined funeralOne as President of Funeral Operations where he will use his industry perspective to provide organizational leadership and develop several key projects in pursuit of his personal mission; changing funeral service to more effectively meet the needs of people touched by death.