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 [...]
This week I was privileged to be interviewed by Sebastian Thalhammer of Austria. You may or may not have heard of Sebastian but he is a pretty interesting media guru who somehow decided I had something to say. So, Here is my "15 minutes of fame." Actually, it's 45 minutes but it does have [...]
Here is a great video that you should watch with your staff and talk about. QUESTION: How do you mentally prepare yourself to wholeheartedly serve people each day?
As I travel about the country I encounter a lot of good ideas and some bad. It seems to me that my readers might enjoy learning about some of these first hand. Not long ago I encountered a young funeral home owner who had improved on an old idea. In fact, when I first saw [...]
Alternative Title: It's Time To Get Over Yourself! Not long ago I was part of a group studying the challenges of recruitment in the funeral profession. I was stunned to hear the "table talk" of practicing funeral directors. Our conversations centered around why people wouldn't want to be funeral directors...the long and unpredictable work hours, [...]
Did you know that money is not a motivator. It is only a hygiene factor. Paying too little creates dissatisfaction...paying fairly only takes away the bone of contention...paying too much does not create enthusiasm and can often lead to dissatisfaction. So what really motivates people. It's simpler than you think and if you are as [...]
I started out too many weeks ago addressing the virtues of a senior leader making themselves unnecessary and I ran straight into a wall! My apologies but this is too important to take lightly so I took my time to untangle the issues and turns out it's really pretty simple. There are three roles each [...]
Here is a short video for Good Friday to remind us that Jesus lives. Watch it, you might be surprised where He lives. Have a wonderful Easter
My hero, Peter Drucker, believed: "For the organization to perform to a high standard, its members must believe that what it is doing is, in the last analysis, the one contribution to community and society on which all others depend." For more than 30 years I have believed that DeathCare makes just such a contribution. [...]
Here is an interesting perspective on implementing change within your own organization. Most funeral homes and cemeteries are at level III. One or two are possibly at level IV. To my knowledge, I have never been exposed to a level V. Where Do You Fit on The Scale? Will it be your tribe that changes [...]
