Funeral Words

Economic Shifts Underway

In many respects, funeral service is "recession proof" in that people must take care of a funeral no matter their current economic circumstances. Nevertheless, people do have the ability to trim their spending and downsize their expectations when it comes to any sort of purchase.

The New York Times ran an article yesterday which talked about the dramatic shift in consumer spending which has started to show up in retail sales figures. Upscale items such as Coach handbags Burberry scarves saw a drop off over the holiday selling season, which many attribute to the housing slump.

Some experts have the opinion that many consumers used rising house values and home equity borrowing to help fuel their "masstige" (an amazing mash up of a word, combining "mass" as in mass-produced and the word "prestige") purchases and that those days may have come to an end for a while.

I don't think this makes a whole lot of difference for us here in the greater Fall River area in Massachusetts. We didn't have too many of those "mastige" consumers around here. However, in lots of other places where semi-upscale consumers have flocked to live over the years, even funeral homes may see a change in consumer spending and find that families become less open to service upgrades, higher scale mercandise and other "profit boosters" that some funeral home companies rely upon to make money.

New York Times Online: Thinking Twice About That $400 Handbag

Dvorak on Productivity

John C. Dvorak, columnist and self-appointed technology curmudgeon for PCMagazine and other magazines, has drawn my attention for 20 years or more with his no-nonsense outlook on the true and imagined impact of computers and other electronic technologies on the world of business and home.

His latest column on PCMag.com Promises of Technology are Often BS, provides the reminder that though some innovations can and do make a difference in corporate productivity. It doesn't always work out that way and you have to know the difference. Definitely worth the read.

John C. Dvorak: Promises of Technology are Often BS

"Our Family" Doesn't Always Tell the Right Story

This morning I helped a family friend finalize arrangements for her husband who died of complications related to a lifetime of battling diabetes. When we came to select acknowledgement cards, a dilema arose. The two of them, married 53 years, never had children and she became frustrated by the stock phrases we use such as "our family", "the family of", "our sorrow". After all, the card was coming only from her.

In place of "Thank you sincerely for sharing our sorrow...", I suggested "Thank you sincerely for sharing these sorrowful times..." which she appreciated greatly. We have a program for producing custom cards and we will have no trouble making this happen for her.

This made me wonder, in a world full of fragmented families, how often this happens with people except they do not say anything to the arranging director.

We all need to become more sensitive to such issues. And vendors??? Our world continues to change, please take a few moments to review your products. Has the time come, to find alternative words and phrases for the stationary and other resources we provide?

Parents with serious illness talking with their kids

I stumbled across a Newsweek article with deals with parents with serious illnesses talking with their children.

We all encounter this from time to time in prearrangement situations or in our own lives. People look lost or ask for advice. The piece includes videos of real families struggling with these issues. Keep the link in your "favorites". It may come in handy.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/43353

Inspiration--pure and simple

Alan Creedy just sent me a link to this online slide show. Powerful and simple inspiration for making customer experience shine. The whole thing takes about five minutes and it's worth every second.

Walk the Talk: The Simple Truths of Service

NFDA Convention Coverage

The National Funeral Directors Association national convention comes up in less than a week and I will have a chance to cover the expo floor in much greater detail than I have done in years past.

Keep an eye out here for new products, concepts and business ideas.

I tend to search the smaller booths for up and coming, and off-beat approaches which wouldn't tend to get covered in any of the major funeral service publications.

Check it out next week!

Smaller Churches--Newer Religions

I mentioned the book microtrends: the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes by Mark Penn in an earlier post. For those of you interested in social change, well worth getting a copy and browsing for early trends which might help you anticipate or recognize change in your area and if you don't want to spend the money, at least sit down at your local Barnes & Noble and read the Conclusion over a cup of coffee. Those pages alone will get you thinking.

Here's and example:

"While there is a wave of interest in religion, people around the world are gravitating toward smaller churches and newer religious sects. Some older religions are trying to modernize, reforming their doctrine and adding women to the pulpit. Others are going more traditional. Perhaps nowhere are we seeing more contradictory and swirling microtrends than in religions movements today. But it suggest that what we are seeing now is likely to grow--more and more people will be loosely affiliated with religion, and, at the same time, the intense followers will grow in devotion and influence. We have to be vigilant in watching for the growth of offbeat cults, and also hold the line on protecting the separation between church and state."

Thought provoking in many ways and challenging to those in funeral service who have tried to stick to the mainstream of religious service. What will it take in the future to serve the needs of these contradictory religious outlooks? How will this impact you in your area? How has it changed what you do already?

I look forward to getting a few comments and if I have piqued your curiosity enough, here's a link so you can purchase the book for yourself.

Have a fantastic day!!!

                           

Keep listening to your families. They have the greatest ideas.

I received an email today with the following text and attached photographs.

"I got this from a woman online. A friend of hers died who had a great sense of humor and always used to say that when she died she wanted a parking meter on her grave that says "Expired".  So her nephew got her one on e-bay!  She said that her grave is right by the road so everyone can see it and many people have stopped to get a chuckle."

   

   

   

   

   

How incredibly personal and fun and memorable and REAL a tribute and by the way, don't miss the epitaph: "Our Mom...her humor lives on"

I'm sorry, I don't know the location of this stone but if I can track that information down I will pass it along.

Just another clear example of how our world of funeral service consumers continues to explore the boundaries of customization. We have a tremendous challenge (and therefore opportunity) to build funeral service organizations with the flexibility and creativity necessary to effectively serve families with these kinds of needs.

Advertising???

Follow this link to a very clever, very well executed, funny but serious video designed to point out all the problems with traditional forms of advertising. You will see at the end credits that companies like Microsoft have sponsored the ad. Probably to promote their take on interactive consumer outreach or something of the kind.

It will make you think.

The Break Up Video

Health Insurance Changes

Our health insurance came up for renewal recently and our company faced a 24% increase in order to maintain the exact coverage. The insurance company did provide an alternative plan but this would mean new co-pay structures, deductibles and all the rest.

In the process of wrestling with the changes, I finally realized how much "merchandising" control our insurance provider has over their plans. Just like renewals with the Yellow Pages, these big companies can adjust their rates in ways that make it difficult to choose anything but what they really want you to choose.

When I wrote to the staff announcing the changes, I organized my communications around another form of merchandising that all of them would recognize. You can download a sample of the letter by clicking the link.

Download health_insurance_letter.pdf

Perhaps it will help you with your next health insurance meeting.