The Creedy Commentary
Serve more families, work less and be more profitable
Staff shortages among licensed professions have been successfully addressed by changing the model in the medical and legal professions. The solution is simple: focus skilled licensed staff on the right duties and supplement them with trained lower level staff. The result: Licensees handle more cases, work fewer hours, produce more income and, as a byproduct, […]
Check Their Math! How The Herd Instinct Works In Funeral Service
WARNING! This is not about caskets! A couple of decades ago I was visiting with 3 funeral home owner friends. They were discussing among themselves that the expensive makeovers of their selection rooms, popular at the time, were not working as advertised. Having heard nothing but glorious praise about these “retail” style showrooms I was […]
Lest You Misunderstand
Last week’s post was about casket discounting. I just want to make myself clear. I still meet people who believe their salvation is in the selection room. They even have incorporated their arrangement rooms inside their showrooms. (What kind of message does that send??) What I want my readers to know is that I resent […]
The Curse of the 25% Casket Wholesale Discount
So, it’s not my hunt…not even my dog; but I just hate being played. A few weeks ago I was working with a client in the Midwest: 50 to 60 calls 30 – 35 caskets sold a year He was so proud of himself. He had just negotiated a 25% discount from one of the […]
You Don’t Need Another Licensee
Lessons From Radar O’Reilly Some years ago there was a nationwide nursing shortage. Then some very wise doctor’s and hospitals realized that there really wasn’t a shortage…there was a problem. Too many nursing duties were non – nursing tasks. Things like paperwork, bathing patients, cleaning rooms etc. Doctors and hospitals were using nurses as glorified […]
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 […]
Ragman: An Allegory of Death and Resurrection
As we prepare to celebrate Easter author Walter Wangerin, Jr. offers us a poignant allegory of Christ’s glorious work for us on the cross. Ragman I saw a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing in my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared me for. Hush child. […]
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 […]
Lessons From Bar Fighting
While I was in college I spent a summer as a Merchant Seaman on a Great Lakes iron ore carrier. Some of the crew “took me under their wing” and while in port one time invited me to join them on a trip into town. On the way one of them turned to me and […]
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 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 universe.Interbrand, a leading brand […]
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 […]
Why We Fail: How Blame Game Defeats Us
Why is it so important in the funeral service culture to find blame? Blame is always a counterproductive force that slows us down and PREVENTS us from the personal accountability we need to move us to a higher plane. Some years before my engagement with funeral service I was employed as a project manager and […]