Amazon’s Prime Day concluded Tuesday in what was the 7th annual event for the company.  My understanding is that Prime Day was dreamed up as a 20th Anniversary celebration of the company in 2015.  2020 sales for the company in what is actually a two-day event (Monday/Tuesday) were reported as $10.4 billion and estimates are that this year’s sales may top $12 billion.

Just to see what I could find for sale that may compete with the death care profession, I went on Amazon and snooped around.  You probably know what I found. . . lots and lots of cremation jewelry, cremation urns, and books on death and grief.  And, unless I was putting in the wrong search words, I was surprised that I did not find any “services” listed for funerals or cremations.  I did, however, find a casket company advertising products on Amazon.  It was interesting to see that the company, which evidently ships caskets one at a time had a 4.7 out of 5 rating and many reviews.

So, there is probably not a lot of modus operandi or customer relations that an internet technology business like Amazon and funeral homes have in common, even though they sell some of  the same products as funeral homes, . . . .or is there?

The first thing I think funeral homes can have in common with Amazon is “Value” and the creation of that value for the consumer.  Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon says this about value, “If you want to be successful in business (in life, actually), you have to create more than you consume.  Your goal should be to create value for everyone you interact with.  Any business that doesn’t create value for those it touches, even if it appears successful on the surface, isn’t long for this world.  It’s on the way out.”

There is not doubt that Amazon, through low pricing and fast delivery, creates value for its customer.  In most cases, the consumer can get the product at a lower cost and faster delivery than buying from someone else.  That’s the Amazon value proposition.  Your funeral home has to have a “value” proposition or it will lose clientele to another death care provider over time.

The second important concept that we can learn from Amazon is “Client Retention”.  As great as $12 billion in sales may be for Amazon this week the real carrot for the company is adding Amazon “Prime Members”.  It is said that Amazon has 200 million Amazon Prime customers that pay $13 per month for that privilege.  That’s $2.6 billion coming in per month for membership dues.  What Amazon looks to during the Prime Day event is adding to that number that increases that monthly fee revenue.

And, here is the kicker about Amazon Prime membership. . . . . the company has a retention rate of 93% of that clientele that look to Amazon first for purchases.  Compare that to Netflix, who are known to have a high subscriber retention rate . . . . of 74%.

While your funeral home probably cannot envision doing something such as Prime Day for sales, you can conceive of doing something to make sure that you retain the client families that you have.  Historically, it has been done by funeral homes creating survivor or grief care clubs, promoting preneed to served family survivors, and providing daily grief passages electronically to survivors.  Can you find another way to continue to connect with those families you have served?  Doing so will only strengthen your business.

Here’s an article I found on the difficulty of funeral home client retention while researching this article.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Reasons to be suspicious that the ‘average’ funeral costs $10,000.  Stuff (New Zealand)
• 4 funeral services stocks to watch on solid industry trends.  Yahoo Finance
• Donation helps offer free funerals for infants.  New Ulm Journal (MN)
• Lebanon City Council exhumes effort to allow green burials.  Valley News (NH)

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