This category contains articles about how to get and keep customers

Inside the Mind of Funeral Consumers

Several years ago the Funeral Service Foundation commissioned an unorthodox market research project. They retained one of the foremost market research firms - Olson Zaltman - to study the funeral consumer's unconscious thoughts about funerals. They broke the research into two segments: What consumers actually thought about funerals at the unconscious level What consumers actually [...]

Families Aren’t Your Typical Consumer

Many consider the advent of the Internet to have ushered in the "Age Of The Consumer." The balance of power (inherently favoring the holder of information) has clearly shifted in a way that at least provides parity between vendor and customer. In the case of those unfortunate products and services which are considered commodities, the balance [...]

A New Approach To Price Shoppers

I subscribe to the Harvard Business Review Blog and an interesting article came through today that I wonder might have application to those of you who might be challenged by low price competitors. It is a way to separate those who are truly price shoppers and those who are looking for value. It also might [...]

Is Coca-Cola Still “The Real Thing”

Why Adaptation May Not Be the Right Strategy  “You Can’t Manage Change…You Can Only Get Ahead Of It.” Peter Drucker   Joe Weigel Last year, for the first time in the history of the annual Best Global Brands report, it was reported that Coca-Cola was no longer the most valuable brand in the [...]

How To Overcome Negative Stereotypes

"The best way to break a negative stereotype is to shock the stereotype" The Funeral Profession plays to the negative stereotype by the persona they cultivate: Formal, unapproachable, dignified, conventional, guardians of the past and so on. I have found one of the best ways to shock a stereotype is with humor. If I owned [...]

The Funeral Director Who Invented Social Media

Joe Weigel I am glad I don't have to compete with Frank Dawson. His use of social media for the past 50 years has built a veritable competitive fortress. Ron Hast, the recently deceased owner of Mortuary Management magazine, had a very compelling habit. It was shortly after I started my career at [...]

7 Steps To Reinvent Yourself

Gonna keep this positive. So just a word for background. Any casual observer would see that the declining results funeral service is experiencing signal a much greater problem: A growing segment of the public isn't sure why they need us or, worse, what they need us for. Now to better news: Statistically, the odds are very [...]

How Funeral Directors Confuse Being Nice With Being Kind

When it comes to customers funeral directors are often the nicest people. But being nice and being kind are two different things. It takes courage to be kind. There is risk to it. You don't really have to be more than just agreeable to be nice. Smile, never say anything bad about anybody and NEVER, [...]

Reinvention: Islands of Excellence In A Sea of Mediocrity

"one cannot manage change.  One can only be ahead of it."  Peter Drucker The Cornerstone Assumption of the funeral side of DeathCare is that being nice is the same as being effective.  Our "worldview" of being nice people is that we must never, ever make waves or create awkwardness.  We run pell-mell from any form [...]

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