Scott Dahl
Hennessey Funeral Homes
and Comfort Dog Paddy

A really interesting question and answer interview appeared in the Spokane based Spokesman-Review recently.  The interview was with Hennessey Funeral Home and Crematory Managing partner Scott Dahl and is very comprehensive on his management style, philosophy, and the nature of funeral service in the Pacific Northwest.

Dahl, who originally received a communications degree, touches on his history as a Batesville Casket rep, among other things, prior to entering consumer based funeral service as a second career.  The Q and A touches on a lot of issues that management in medium sized funeral homes deal with.  Dahl describes Hennessey Funeral Home as a 550 call, two location firm, that sees a retail price range of services from $1,565 to $18,000 services with the vast majority of services falling in the $6,ooo to $11,000 range.

Among the management issues that Dahl touches on are marketing the funeral home in the community, different types of services that need to be offered, the odd hours that must be kept, the difficulty in finding qualified funeral directors, and the ideas his firm is using to bring in ancillary revenues.

Funeral Director Daily take:  This is a very well-done question and answer piece that reminded me of the many facets of funeral service that I was involved in during the day that I grew a 150 call funeral home to a 325 call funeral home over the years.  As I always found, similar to Dahl’s take, there are always lots of challenges that sometimes require flexible or non-traditional solutions.

I was interested to see that they are turning down time in their facilities into an effort to re-brand their facilities for receptions — including wedding parties and baby showers.

I actually laughed out loud at some of his gallows humor – which we all have used in our profession.  One of his comments was, “It is always better to be seen than viewed.”  How true.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]