Challenges

The following is from a discussion which appeard on the FuneralWatch message board. I think these thoughts need to travel a little further. Don't miss the continuation of his comments after the break. He draws an analogy between funeral service and the troubles with the "big three" auto makers.

Anyone care to comment???

Many thanks to Dale Clock from Muskegon, MI for letting me republish his remarks.

These are tough times. We are at a 10% unemployment rate in our area and people are spending less, choosing cremation more and doing services on their own. For those funeral homes out there that haven't seen this yet, my guess is your time is coming. Plan for it now.

 

1.  I laid off someone at the beginning of the year. The lay off will most likely become permanent.

2.  Bonuses stopped several years ago.

3.  Wages have been holding until the business climate improves.

4.  3 of 5 Funeral Directors have left for various reasons over the past

2 years, none have been replaced and we are doing just fine without them.

 

I have hired non-licensed arrangers instead (we can do that in our state).

At over 50% cremation I don't need embalmers. I need people with creative minds that can design wonderful events, speak in front of a crowd, write in complete sentences, communicate on the internet like my teenager, and use the computer like it was their friend and not a ball and chain around their ankle.

 

In a recent entry on Tim Totten's Final Embrace Blog he hit it right on the head when he said;

 

"For years people have been telling us they want to "have a party" or "spend the money on my kids, not a casket" and we've responded with interchangeable cap panels and colorful register books.  Some of us added butterfly releases or personalized memorial videos, in an effort to meet the new "personalization" trend..So many of these answers were really just shots in the dark, hoping to hit the crazy, moving target that is the American funeral consciousness..We have the chance, now that consumers are more likely to buy only what they need or truly want, to find out what the modern American funeral really means to today's client family."

 

When the public looks at our visitation rooms and chapels furnished with sofas and stackmore chairs neatly lining the walls do you think they say "Wow, I want to party in this room"? When they see us standing in our dark suits, with our hands folded in the "funeral director pose" exuding the quiet comfort and confidence they have come to expect, I'm pretty sure they aren't thinking "Now there's a dude who can really plan a party".

 

So, of course, the public is looking elsewhere for guidance and ideas. The challenge for us is to change our image and our buildings. But that's easier said than done. Plus we can get caught in the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. There is a part of the market that still wants the traditions of the past and another part that wants new and improved. So if you jump into the new and hip with both feet are you alienating the traditional folks? It's the same challenge churches are having. 

 

There are no easy answers. But if we don't start really listening to what the folks are saying and adapting now, we will end up like the big three auto makers in Detroit. With a whole industry set up for the way things used to be, instead of being set up for what the market wants it to be.

 

 

Dale R. Clock

Clock Life Story Funeral Home

Muskegon, Michigan

www.clockfuneralhome.com

Comments

[Detroit Funeral Homes]

Hi Dale,

It's real Challenge...

[Karen Kilby]

It’s a challenge, but it sounds like a challenge Dale is willing to take on.

We are a small woodworking shop in northern Minnesota, we also make affordable beautiful wood caskets and urns. People have bought from us for many different reasons. For some, it’s the cost. The casket can be half the expense of a funeral. For some, it’s because they can customize the casket by making their own bedding or other decorations. For some, it’s the beauty of natural wood. One elderly gentleman once told me, “I don’t want to be buried in a metal casket! I just want to be buried in a simple pine box.”

This change of thought about funerals in our society is encouraging. Natural burial is quickly becoming the accepted norm.

Karen Kilby
http://www.asimplepinebox.com