Creative Thinking During the CoronaVirus Pandemic
This is an example of great creative thinking from O'Connor mortuary. CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW
The Intentional Funeral Director
What is an Intentional Funeral Director? Some years ago I attended a Men's Retreat at my church. The plan was that we would all ride to the camp on the church bus. What the pastor told us before we climbed on board set the whole tone. He said: [...]
How To Stop Customers From Fixating On Price
Equalize Price Points to Crystallize Personal Relevance. This is the first recession to show a measurable impact on DeathCare. Most surprising have been the many reports from rural and "rustbelt" funeral directors that cremation has recently spiked, not because people in their markets want cremation but BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD BURIAL. YIKES!!!! A recent article [...]
FUNERAL SERVICE : YOUR FLY IS UNZIPPED
OR WHY FUNERAL DIRECTORS ARE NEUROTIC A pastor friend once told me: "The test of love is whether or not you are willing to tell someone their fly is unzipped." Funeral service I love what you do and I love many of you. Your fly is unzipped. My phone rings: "Al, this is Ron." Me: [...]
EXPERT OPINION: 5 Tips for Positioning Your Funeral Home for Success in the New Year
Did your funeral home achieve all of its goals for 2012? Does the increasing number of families selecting cremation with no services have you concerned? 2013 is a new year that brings a new set of goals to help reboot you business and your team. The New Year is the perfect time to create new [...]
Funerals As Counter Culture
Are we rapidly moving toward a "Post-Funeral"culture? I don't think so. After 50 years of steady decline in public attitudes towards funerals the pendulum is swinging back our way. Like Croci in the spring, the signs are poking through the frost if you will just look and this week's post is one excellent example. 30 [...]
Liking What You Do Is Not The Issue
I was visiting with a friend last week and the conversation went, briefly, to some mutual acquaintances. We noted how angry they had become as their careers had progressed and concluded they were really frustrated with the career they had inherited from their parents. Disappointment is a normal part of life. Some respond with increasing [...]
Expert Opinion: Game Changers
Game-changers are those events that intervene in our lives, on athletic fields, and in our businesses that forever change everything. In our personal lives we identify marriages, deaths, and moving to a new city as the easiest examples of game-changers. In baseball, a homerun changes everything. In business, innovation is the most thought-of [...]
Disenthrall Yourself of Your Dogma
"The Dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and we shall save our country." [...]
Funeral Apologetics 101: Stop Clinging To Your Despair
[Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information.] Much of my career has involved business turnarounds. This experience serves me well as a funeral home consultant. Over the course of more than 30 years I have learned a lot about human nature. [...]