Funeral Words

3000 Casualties

Take some time to view the online memorial developed by the New York Times to remember the Iraqi War dead. Each face can be viewed as a composite of squares representing each individual who has died. Click on any of the squares and the face changes to the individual represented. It's a little hard to explain in words, so take a look for yourself.

Faces of the Dead -- New York Times

New Accounting Option

Wondering about new accouting options? Perhaps Microsoft can solve the problem. PCMagazine has posted a positive review of a free online accounting system developed by the folks from Redmond. Here's the link:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2069936,00.asp

Online Store in Minutes

Been thinking about starting an online resources store but not known how to get started? How about using and Amazon aStore? I already had an Amazon "associates" account in place, so it only took a few minutes to put together an electronic store which I could now post on the funeral home website or which you could purchase an item from right this minute. For a quick look, follow the link just below.

Amazon.com Test Store

The good news is that you don't have to do anything else. You serve as a referral site and someone else worries about stock and shipping and credit card processing and all the rest. You receive a commission for any transactions completed.

Of course this does not cover many funeral goods, but for books and sympathy items, you can end up with a quality resourse in a very few minutes.

To learn more follow this link: Amazon Associates Program

Pagers--Remember Them?

According to an article in the New York Times, the nation used over 45 million pagers in 1999. Now the total has dwindled to 7.4 million. Overall, they appear to be on their way out as a technology resource as hospitals (the largest user segment) now seek alternatives. If you use them in your business, it might make sense to consider alternatives as well.

If you want to know more, follow the link:

To Send a Page--New York Times

[Note: To view this page may require free registration to the NY Times website.]

Virtual Dinner Time?

Accenture, the technology company, has prototyped an idea for a virtual dinner table which would allow an elderly family member to sit down for a meal and visit with a son or daughter or neice or nephew who lives many miles away. To get a better idea what I mean, follow the link to read the full article:

Virtual Dinner Table on Yahoo

They seem to think that within a couple of years such a system would cost less than $1,000.00 to install. They even want to see if insurance companies and government agencies will help defray the costs!!!

It's hard to envision how such systems will impact the need or want for funerals. In one sense, it may INCREASE the need because the daily visual interactions have made a relationship stronger as compared with checking in with Uncle Gerry over the telephone. Then again, all this virtuality and the accompanying loss of physical space interaction, may diminish the need for local gatherings all the more.

Either way, we as funeral homes will have to develop a wider repertoire of digital "interaction" tools in order for distant virtual relationships to express themselves at the time of a funeral. Digital guest books may have gotten us started but I expect we will need to move on to more elaborate, audio and video based resources in order to keep up with changing family needs.

Lots to figure out,

BT

My Holiday Wish

For every and all:

May you know the grandeur, majesty and quiet peace of a glorious holiday time.

BT

But the Average Wedding Costs...

I have heard it bandied about many times that the average WEDDING costs about $35,000 and therefore with a little creativity we can figure out how to get people paying similar amounts of money for funerals and that leads to a vague hopefulness about financial rennaisance on the horizon for funeral homes. BUT, no one that I know of has actually pulled that number apart to figure out what gets lumped into that figure.

So far I've only done a little investigating and in reality, that $35k number doesn't really tell us anything about funerals. Here's how I stated it in an editorial letter to Chris Raymond, Editor of The Director magazine published by the NFDA.

Hi Chris,

I guess I’m now on a roll asking probing questions about the future of funeral service. One of those magical numbers which gets bandied about over and over again is the average cost of a wedding. $27,690 by this particular website [ http://www.costofwedding.com/ ] of course I have seen other “averages” on other sites ranging from $19,000 to $35,000. For now, let’s look quickly at the numbers listed by category on the same site (which add up to $30,354, but who’s counting) and see what they may really mean to funeral directors.

Wedding Attire  $2,606
Wedding Ceremony  $2,525
Wedding Favors & Gifts  $1,121
Wedding Flowers  $1,969
Wedding Jewelry  $2,066
Wedding Music  $953
Wedding Photography & Video  $3,688
Wedding Reception  $14,169
Wedding Stationery  $847
Wedding Transportation $410

Now, if you whittle those numbers down to something comparable to funerals (particularly in Massachusetts where we cannot have anything to do with food or flowers), you have to eliminate attire (don’t need to rent tuxes for a funeral), flowers (I can’t sell those around here and even so, families don’t spend that kind of money on funeral flowers), jewelry, photography, and reception. That brings the number down to $5,856. Gee, sounds a lot like the average cost of a funeral. Hmmm. Even at that, the prices are overstated because it’s a wedding. It’s a rare funeral that spends more than $200 on music around here for instance and besides, I don’t participate financially in any of that activity. Cash advance items with no margins allowed.

Why do we throw numbers around like the proverbial $35,000 “average” wedding (that much higher number must include the engagement ring, rehearsal dinner and honeymoon, none of which applies to funerals) and expect that to mean anything??? It’s a red herring if there ever was one.

We need better thinking than this for the average funeral director, for whom the NFDA is sworn to serve and uphold, or we will hasten, not delay our own demise.

Thanks for listening and have a fantastic week,

BT

I guess for a few funeral homes out there, event funerals may actually bring in some substantial additional revenues. There's always someone in the big city willing to pursue novelty at almost any cost. For the rest of us out serving regular folks in average communities, we need another sort of thinking. Funerals are not likely to blossom into profitable "events planning" business. It's time to look elsewhere for our inspiration.