I came across a couple of articles this week that once again reminded me that not everyone in the funeral industry is above board when it comes to serving client families or doing the right thing when others are not watching.

First of all, the Arkansas attorney general reached an agreement with Arkansas Funeral Care which, in essence, puts the owners of Arkansas Funeral Care out of business by permanently restraining them from being a part of any funeral business in the State of Arkansas and requires them to pay restitution to client families who were not given the services that they were promised.  According to a press release reported by TV11 the attorney generals office received numerous complaints on the business during 2014 and 2015.

Secondly, according to WKRN News, The Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers levied a total of $3,500 in fines on the E.H. Ford Mortuary and Edward Ford, Sr., personally, for violations regarding merchandise.  Evidently, the mortuary did not change out linings and inserts in rental caskets used by the firm.  The article points out that the board was notified by a former employee of the issue.

Funeral Director Daily take:  These type of events make you wonder, “What are these people thinking?”  Why would you risk the integrity in the community of your firm – which can take a lifetime to build — for the cost of casket inserts?  Why would you promise services and then not deliver them?

I worked hard every day at my funeral home to satisfy all clients needs.  I always tried to make things right with families so they left as happy consumers.  Part of that process was doing things the right way, with no shortcuts, so that families would be satisfied.

At the end of the day, however, the thing I wanted to preserve most of all — was my image and standing in the community as an honorable person and one who could be relied on to hold that sacred trust from families.  That is truly what we have that will grow our businesses over time.  Shortchanging that for the sake of a $100 or so profit by not putting in inserts  when required, or some other similar situation,  and then risking the bad publicity and putting the firm’s ethics into question by consumers just isn’t worth it.

We will see what happens here — Arkansas Funeral Care has been put out of business — but the E.H. Ford Mortuary is a well established business in Memphis.  What will happen with their credibility.  They probably have enough good will built up to withstand this situation.  However, they will have to let the public know that this is not “Business as usual” and will have to earn back a lot of trust slowly over time.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]