What keeps ’em coming back. . .do you have the data?

July 18, 2023/Business/

The funeral home business is well known for its retention of retaining families served over the generations of deaths. Most of us call this “Heritage” business and any great funeral home will find a way to keep the families they have served happy so they don’t look any where else the next time they need a death care provider.

So, what is it at your funeral home that makes those families come back? Unfortunately, over the years it’s not always been about “how well” you served them. Many times repeat family business has been about being the only funeral home in the neighborhood, or the convenient funeral home, or “it’s just where we have always went”. In my opinion, that’s not the greatest testimony for getting return or “Heritage” business.

If that’s the way you are “hanging on to business” in the 21st Century, you probably won’t be around to see the 22nd Century!!! In today’s world satisfaction is not only measured by clientele through “star ratings and reviews” such as Google ratings, but an exceptional rating is expected by these consumers. I’m guessing that at least one family member in each family is going to check out your ratings and depending on what they see. . . they will have an opinion — and that opinion could be pro and get you additional business or it could be negative and bring one of your families to your competitor’s door.

I’ve recently downloaded the “2022 Performance Tracker X of Trends and Insights Report” from the Johnson Consulting Group. It’s an incredible piece of work that looks at data from a total of 1.13 million funeral events over 10 years. It includes data on call volumes, sales, and more including what I’m delving into today — Client Satisfaction. You can download the report from Johnson Consulting Group for free by clicking here.

One of the things that I noticed is that, as expected, “Previously Attended Services” and “Convenience” are listed as the top two reasons for choosing a certain funeral home. One thing that was unexpected by me, and somewhat proves my statement from above, is that “Ratings/Reputation” now outdistances “Highly Recommended” as a reason for choosing a particular funeral practitioner. For decades, the word of a neighbor or friend would have ranked higher than any rankings one might have seen. However, I do think that does show a new group of younger consumers raised on the idea of “Star Ratings”.

And, these younger consumers are helping their parents select funeral or cremation providers for their pre-arrangments and at-need services.

Another interesting finding that I noticed was that, when asked to rate their satisfaction with specific aspects of their funeral experience on a scale from 1 to 5, the highest overall ranked attribute was “Vehicle Appearance” at a 4.9 total ranking. What does that say when your automobiles are ranking above personal service items such as “Attention to Detail”, “Timely delivery of products and services”, and “First conversation/interaction”? Those three items were among the lowest scored aspects of consumers in the survey.

It’s great to have a good looking funeral fleet and a great facility. However, if the inter-personal relationships and product delivery is seen as lacking, those Cadillacs and waterfalls will fail to impress over time.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Don’t get me wrong, the overall numbers for client satisfaction in the funeral business are pretty good. However, it looks like there is an opportunity to win over some client families with an “Attention to Detail” mind-set. And, many times it is not “What you do” but “How you do it” that can make positive impacts.

Take a breather from the day to day rigors of operatons and spend some time looking at your funeral home’s modus operandi of doing things and then ask yourself, “Are there better ways to do this?” “Are there ways we can be more timely?” Are there ways this task can be more client family orientated”?

I think there is always room for improvement and we have to remember that the improvement has to be universal to everyone that the death touches in some fashion. It’s not only the spouse or person paying the bill that can give you a rating. . . . . it’s everybody, including those that watch, or expect to watch the service on a streaming medium.

There is a lot to take care of. . . . But, families who pay for your services expect their dollars to pay for a seamless service with no detours. Anything less may very well become a problem with today’s high-expectation consumer.

No one ever said being a funeral director or owning a funeral home was an easy job!!!

Related –– According to (customer service company) Freshdesk’s blog, here are the Eight Best Customer Service Companies in 2023. Editor’s Note: I’m not necessarily in agreement with these choices!!! There is, however, a list of five key takeaways prevalent from what they refer to as these “customer-centric” companies.