There are some times when owning or working at a funeral home just seems to “Give you the hits that keep on coming”.  And, recently, I don’t say that in a good way.

 

Let’s see, in just the last couple of days I’ve told you this morning of the story I read in last Saturday’s New York Times about secret telephone shoppers and earlier this week I received notification from the National Funeral Director’s Association (NFDA) that, in spite of working with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, the Journal published an article that negatively reflects on the Federal Trade Commission and funeral association’s Funeral Rules Offender Program (FROP).

 

Finally, I came across this article, that I will run a feature article on later, from a publication called The American Prospect, which tears down funeral service for “exploiting” customers with its recent 4.7% inflation rate.  It does that even while statistics show us that “Services Inflation as a whole , stood at 5.0% for December 2023, an inflationary rate higher than the article posited for funeral home inflation (4.7%).

 

So, that preamble leads me to this point.  Funeral home owners and managers need to be aware of these examples and be prepared to protect themselves.  Here’s a couple of companies that can help you.

 

Dead Ringers —  This company can teach you the proper phone etiquette and give you the ability so that when you are called by some of the FTC’s phone shoppers you will not be non-compliant.  They also offer a service that will periodically call your firm and evaluate how your employee answerers did as to Federal Trade Commission requirements.

 

 

 

LA Ads — This company is a full-service advertising and public relations firm.  They recently sent out a e-mail that told funeral home owners that the time to go to a public relations firm is not when you need them. . . it is to go before you need them so you know what to say if and when the FTC or someone else comes with potentially bad publicity for your funeral home.

 

What’s the old saying. . . “It’s a jungle out there”.  If that is the case then I think it is appropriate that a funeral home has all of their weapons lined up before they start their Safari!

 

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