Funeral Directors are increasingly distressed about being treated rudely by families. This rudeness often causes practitioners to lose control of vital conversations at critical moments. Industry vendors know that Funeral Directors can be very rude as well. In my opinion the reasons both are rude is fundamentally the same. And Yes! Funeral Directors can [...]
Here is an excerpt of an interrogation of a witness in a Massachusetts trial court: Lawyer: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? Doctor: no. Lawyer: did you check for blood pressure? Doctor: no. Lawyer: so, it’s possible the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? Doctor: [...]
last week in my article "Funerals as Counter Culture" I made a bold statement: "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..." No sooner was that article published than I was exposed to [...]
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 [...]
No One Dies So Poor He Doesn't Leave Something Behind. Blaise Pascal Ya wanna know how to make a difference and set your funeral home apart? Take some of your advertising budget and hire a good journalist to do what this video talks about and post them on your site. Don't put it in [...]
Earlier this year Rick Baldwin used a comment by famed hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, in his post: "How To Be Exceptional In The New Normal". Here Bruce Buchanan, CEO of The Buchanan Group adds his perspective to Rick's. Bruce Buchanan As funeral professionals we are torn by two forces when we take on [...]
In the past few weeks I have used strong negative language: Cowardice...Fight... Neglect Please understand: this is not an emotional reaction on my part. Instead, it is an intentional effort to call you out. And it is this "intentionality" that I encourage you to undertake as well. It is time we, as a profession, [...]
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 [...]
Is it possible that in some markets people no longer care? In this series on Funeral Apologetics I have pointed out that our real problem is cowardice and have endeavored to share some techniques that might help the profession fight for itself. Several very thoughtful individuals (whom I also admire) have suggested that, in their [...]
Apologists must be aware of 4 generally accepted fallacies: Consumers think in a well-reasoned rational way In fact, emotions are closely interwoven with the reasoning process. Most often they are dominant. Consumers can readily explain their behavior and thinking 95% of our thinking is unconscious. Our rational mind serves mainly to make sense of behavior [...]