An article entitled, “This is Australia’s Most Expensive City to Die in” caught my eye.  However, in reading the article which was published in Australia’s Startsat60.com the main point about the difference in city’s costs was not what intrigued me.

The article points out that in Australia an average funeral with burial would cost about $7,430 ($5,907 US) and an average cremation with memorial service would cost about $6,900 ($ 5,485 US).  It also points out a that many services will go over $10,000 ($7,949 US) when other incidentals are added to the package.

The article also points out that 60% of Australians have not thought about funeral costs or just anticipated their loved ones would foot the bill.  Secondly, the results of a survey show that 1 in 5 Australians don’t have enough money set aside for a $500 setback so an unexpected death of a family member would cause significant financial stress.

Funeral Director Daily take:  What you just read in the preceding three paragraphs is nothing new to anyone in funeral service in the United States.  While the costs may be slightly different it pretty much mirrors what we know in the United States.

What I found fascinating in this article was a Funeral Planner that was linked to the article.  It’s about as good as I’ve seen on a web-site for comparing funeral costs at different funeral homes – albeit this planner is owned by Australian giant InvoCare and it is probable that the only services quoted are from their differing brands and not competitors.  But, given the chance with competing funeral providers, this is something I think might drive American consumers to make different funeral home provider choices for services and pre-arrangements.

In the United States the NFDA points out in their latest Consumer Survey that 74% of Americans only call one funeral home when a death is near or has occurred.  However, the trend is slowly moving for consumers to call more than one funeral home as the same survey reveals that in 2015 only 11% called more than one funeral home and in 2017 that number had grown to 19%.  It is my opinion that if it was made easier, more families would do so, competition would increase, prices would drop, and profitability among funeral providers would be thinner.  My prediction is that will happen in America.

The last time that you booked a hotel room or airline flight you easily looked at Orbitz or Trivago to get an idea of what is available at what prices.  I know people in the hospitality industry and they tell me that it is so prevalent that unless you subscribe to those services you could be out of business because your hotel does not get considered if not on those sites.  And the sites are getting so powerful that some are now demanding up to  25% of the rate as their commission — making margins razor thin for the operators.

It will be interesting to see where the American death care industry goes with web or mobile – based planning.  While heritage death call-based businesses have a built-in advantage today, I don’t think it will last forever.  Something like this Funeral Planner will be introduced and, when done properly, will be used in America.  I have two boys — ages 23 and 19 — and I’ve seen how they comparison shop and make their purchases – it’s different from what I did at that age –  and I’m guessing the traditional way of choosing funeral homes will change also.

Make sure that your business is ready for it.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]