Yesterday’s Funeral Director Daily column dealt with “Demographics” and how that change over time in your business area can lead to gains or losses in Death Call numbers.  With long-term demographic changes in one’s area of business it is difficult and costly to make the changes necessary — such as building a new facility in a different location —   to deal with those population shifts.

 

There is another part of your business decisions that can affect gains and losses of call numbers and business that is much less expensive and easier to implement than changes to deal with demographics.  That portion of you business deals with what I will call your “hospitality” to the clientele and public visitors you are serving at this time.

 

I was reminded of this just last Saturday during my “Saturday Reward” time of coffee at the local Starbucks.  You see, I run four mornings a week and on Saturday after my run I treat myself to reading the Wall Street Journal and enjoying a cup of coffee at one of the coffee shops in our neighborhood as my “reward” for making those runs.

 

Last Saturday I chose the Starbucks down the road and when I ordered and received my coffee I was treated to an incredibly friendly hostess who served me with a smile and, as you can see from the photo, even wrote “Enjoy” on my coffee cup.  I told her that I was impressed with her service and appreciated her sincere desire to serve me.  Her comment was, “When I put on the apron, I forget about everything else”.

 

After I thought about that and about my career in a business that includes our hospitality of having people come to our facilities to be served, I appreciated her words and service even more.

 

I think her words are a slogan that I will remember for a long time — especially when I’m doing something such as serving others.  And as for those that work in your funeral homes, it is a good reminder that when you come to work and put on your funeral service hat you need to put those you serve utmost in your mind at all times.

 

If your staff is “forgetting about everything else” in their personal life and taking care of clientele as their utmost responsibility I think that there is a great opportunity to pick up market share and build business.

 

Related — Other slogans that have stayed with me in my funeral service career.

“I want them to know we are open”.  I received this slogan from my dad almost 60 years ago as a teenager who shoveled the walk at the funeral home next door to our residence.  In this instance we received a “dusting of snow” on a Sunday that he asked me to clean off the sidewalks.  His slogan is the answer I received when I asked “Why?”  For the next 50+ years I have always grabbed the shovel when a just dusting of snow hit the funeral home sidewalks.

 

“Even if your house is on fire, stay put and take care of the family you are with.”  Advice I received early on from my mentor, Mr. Bill McReavy, as a mortuary student living in the basement of a Washburn-McReavy Funeral Home, on concentrating on the family during the arrangement conference.  I thought of this many times and paid heed to it even when it would have been easy for me to rush through arrangements to get home in time for a youth basketball or hockey game.  Like most funeral directors I missed some activities of my family. . . . but at the end of the day, took the time to serve my community as best I could.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  After I sat down to drink my coffee and read the paper on Saturday I thought about the barista’s upbeat attitude and then told her I was going to write a column about her positive attributes and how they related to me a different side of Starbucks.  You see, I owned Starbucks stock for a long time but sold my position last year as I began to believe the company had lost its way with customer service and hospitality.

 

We then discussed what Starbucks is doing along with one of their competitors, Caribou Coffee, at this time.  Both of those companies have lost some goodwill, and business, because of the perceived lack of attentiveness to the customer over the past couple years and are now working to bring that attentiveness back because their business has suffered.

 

I told her that I prefer the coffee at Dunkin Donuts just down the street but, the atmosphere at Starbucks, with leather chairs and comfortability brings me to her store.  That thought in itself should give you cause to consider how you are serving your funeral home clientele and visitors with your hospitality.

 

To some, it might be your service that brings in the clientele.  To others, it might be the appearance of your facility.  And to others, maybe it is the comfort and hospitality they feel inside your facility that brings them.

 

In any regard, there is more than one attribute of your business that brings in clientele. . . . make sure you know what those attributes are . . . . and when it comes to your hospitality. . . .”When you put your apron on, forget about everything else”.

 

Related Article —  How ‘Back to Starbucks’ is reshaping every aspect of the coffeehouse experience.  Starbucks website

Related Article —  Caribou Coffee to refocus on cozy cafes instead of drive-thru speed.  Minnesota Star Tibune

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Rising funeral costs put financial strain on families across the U.S.  Daily Inter Lake (MT)
• China woman undertaker criticised for disrespecting the dead by wearing make-up at work.  South China Morning Post (China)

 

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