I receive the “Memorial Business Journal” from the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) every week and when I received it a couple of weeks ago I was excited to look at some of the findings from the 2023 NFDA Consumer Awareness and Preference Survey.

 

I looked at the results somewhat with an incredulous thought process.  It seems that for the last couple of years all we have heard about is how the funeral and death care tradition is becoming irrelevant in what is, at least we are told, a society that is caring less about customs and traditions.  That’s been somewhat of a thought because of the drop in membership — whether it be for churches, business clubs, civic groups, or social groups by our younger generation.

 

That “perceived” thought of caring less about customs and traditions has, supposedly, led to growth in Direct Cremations with No Services and Direct Cremations in general.  At least that has been the thought process.

 

What I found with the results of the consumer survey was that an astounding 91.3% of consumers found it at least “Somewhat Important” to hold a funeral or memorial service to commemorate the life of a loved one. . . .and over 85% of consumers felt a service “is for the living to help them begin their grief journey and healing process”.  Those numbers are both higher than I’d been led to believe on how society was affirming the need for death care of late.

 

I also found an interesting statistic in that when asked what type of service was held for the consumer’s most recent experience with the death of a loved one, that a “Full funeral service with viewing followed by casket burial” grew by over 2% from the 2022 survey to the 2023 survey.  It was listed by 48.1% of these consumers in that category.  And, the category of a full-service with viewing followed by cremation also increased almost 2%.  This category jumped to 14.5% for 2023 over 12.7% in the 2022 survey.

 

The other interesting aspect of types of service held was that all of the following dropped in their percentage of use while full-service funerals and/or full-service with viewing followed by cremation gained a total of almost 4%.  According to the Consumer Preference Survey, these types of services all dropped in popularity:

• Memorial Service with Cremation
• Direct Cremation
• No Service was held
• Green Funeral with burial or cremation
• Immediate Casket burial

 

From articles that I read, which I will admit are many times promoted by those with alternative service agendas, you would not have guessed those were the actual numbers.  However, one must remember that the NFDA numbers are just a sampling and there would be a margin of error also.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  91.3% of consumers finding it at least “Somewhat Important” to holding a service and over 85% finding that the service “helps them begin the grief process” does not sound like a rapid movement to leave the death care process in the wake of other alternative services.

 

What does it tell us?  Does it tell us that, maybe, funeral directors are getting better at explaining the process of how we heal through our grief experience?  Does it tell us that maybe some of those other seemingly simpler death care alternatives have been tried by some and found lacking?  Do these statistics tell us that the pandemic experience and how we lost our loved ones and couldn’t gather to grieve left us feeling short-changed?

 

I don’t know the answer to any of those questions.  However, I do believe that almost all of us are more in tune with the idea of “Mental Health Awareness” in this day and age and maybe that has something to do with having some added emphasis on the importance of a service.  The consumer is becoming aware that mental health can fluctuate and the goal of getting back to “full” mental health following the dying, death, and memorialization of a loved one is a reality and goal for most of us.

 

I was once told that when a family leaves the cemetery after a burial that is when the service has ended and the “healing” begins.  If that is the case. . . maybe, as funeral businesses, we are more aware of the need for the survivors to heal and maybe our services have became more helpful in that regard and we need to keep moving our clientele in that “healing” direction.

 

Maybe a bigger emphasis on aftercare services going forward might pay a big dividend in how the consumers “perceive” our services in the future.  Maybe funeral homes need to put as many resources, financial and employee, into aftercare to continue a walk with the clientele towards positive mental health following funeral and memorial services.

 

I’ve recently became aware of a company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to promote aftercare to your families for up to a year following the services of a loved one.  Maybe that’s one place to start.  You can learn of “Comforting Connections” here.

 

So, I don’t know what increased the usage of full-service funerals as discovered by the NFDA Consumer Preference Survey in the last year.  However, for the public and consumer’s state of mind. . .and for the business of death care. . . . I think it is a positive signal.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Roots in the community help build family atmosphere.  Southeast Iowa Union (IA)
• Beatty-Peterseim offers compassion, care when needed most.  Southeast Iowa Union (IA)
• Greenwich’s Fred D. Knapp Funeral Home, possibly the oldest business on the street, leaves The Avenue.  The Hour (CT)
• Mowell Funeral Home and Cremation Services partners with Shark Tank-featured company.  The Citizen (GA)

 

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