Over the years I’ve made lots of friends in funeral service.  One of them is Janet McGee. . . . Janet worked as a licensed funeral director, then in banking, and attained her MBA.  She’s done other things, too, but she is now on the faculty at the University of Minnesota teaching business classes to aspiring mortuary students.

 

Janet and I communicate once in a while. . . mostly by text messages because we both seem to be too busy to take calls.  And, text messaging in non-intrusive.

 

The other day we had one of those text-messaging sessions and Janet mentioned something that is, at least in my opinion, very perceptive about the changing death care consumer.  She mentioned that she sees marketing in the death care profession that is “drastically” changing, and changing fast as consumers change.

 

Here is what I thought was very intuitively perceptive.  Janet mentioned that funeral homes have generally “pushed” their clientele towards tradition by saying “here are the services we offer”. . . but she also opined that consumers are now “harnessing their power to  “pull” what the consumer wants” from the business when it comes to death care choices – which is not always the services offered.

 

For instance, funeral homes might offer earth burial and cremation, but a family comes in and says that they want human composting (Natural Organic Reduction) or something even simpler like a service in a park.  Funeral homes used to push them away by saying that they don’t offer that. . . . . In today’s world, if you don’t pull yourself into the consumer’s world, then that consumer will probably walk out  the door and find a funeral director that will.

 

Janet goes on to say that funeral homes really need to understand this and also must give their employees the freedom and latitude to be creative enough to help these families produce a service that is memorable to them.

 

I think that Janet is right. . . .and, if you are a funeral home that says “We don’t offer that” then you might find yourself with a dwindling case volume over time.  And, even more important than the willingness to be non-traditional on services might be your marketing messaging letting future clientele know that you are willing to be non-traditional.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

 

• Gen Z woman shares why she became a mortician in her early 20’s.  Newsweek
• Indiana Funeral Education Foundation recognizes Kathy Gill as a Professional Development Scholarship winner.  Times Union (IN)
• Remains of WWii soldier buried in Elwood, Illinois.  Defense Viusal Information Distribution Service
• Spearheading change in the Japanese funeral sector.  International Travel and Health Insurance Journal
• Why did Irvine finance a report for a state veterans cemetery in Anaheim Hills?  Orange County Register (CA)
• Complaints over “shocking” overgrown cemetery.  BBC (Great Britain)

 

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