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Expert Opinion: Size Matters: Making the Case for Growth

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Practitioner Forum: Insights and Ideas. 14 Comments on Expert Opinion: Size Matters: Making the Case for Growth

Why is bigger better when it comes to creating memorable experiences?

Look at any successful service business, whether it’s a hospital, a hotel, a restaurant or even a funeral home, and you’re bound to come away with one undeniable message: the experience you create for your customers and guests is crucial to the future of your business. It’s what they remember and talk about, long after they’ve forgotten the price or the products. The next time they’re in a position to buy your service, what they remember is what guides their choice.

It’s why you see the leaders in all kinds of service industries making big investments in designing a better customer experience. They’re also making big investments in facilities, technology and training to ensure that the key elements of the experience are delivered consistently – every element, every customer, every time.

Making Memories

For example: Walt Disney World realized that happy family memories were one of the most important “deliverables” that Disney could provide.  In response, the company invested in rethinking on-site photography to literally make happy memories a saleable product.

Digital photos have long been an amusement park staple – think of those automatic cameras at the top of the roller coaster that capture full-grown adults screaming in zero-g like little girls. Disney took that opportunity to a whole new level, staffing the park with roving photographers who carry top-notch equipment. They’re stationed near every scenic point in the park and trained to reliably take beautiful, memorable family photos, without that awkward moment where you hand your camera or phone to a total stranger and hope for the best.

An important ingredient in Disney’s program is a wireless system where families carry a bar-coded “PhotoPass” that can be scanned by any photographer throughout the vast resort network. That system tags every photo as it’s taken and automatically uploads it to a website where it’s available for purchase by the family, even weeks after they’ve gone back home. A short vacation can produce dozens or even hundreds of high-quality photos, and an average add-on sale of nearly $100 per family.

Funeral Service Opportunities

In funeral service the situation is even more critical, because most people actually host or arrange funerals just once or twice in their lives. Like any other event business, marketing in funeral service depends on the impression you make on the guests. When they attend services (at your firm and at your competition), they’re unconsciously comparison-shopping. As funeral guests they’re getting a free sample of your service that will guide them when it’s their turn to be funeral hosts.

The unhappy reality for most funeral providers is that the free sample isn’t very inspiring.

Having spent a lifetime attending traditional funerals, about 40% of the country has opted out of traditional burial services, choosing cremation instead. In market research, when consumers explain why they choose cremation they often complain about outdated traditions, outdated facilities and outdated content in traditional funeral homes. Since most consumers have never actually purchased or arranged a funeral before, their complaints must be based on your free sample – their experiences as guests.

Why Are We Still Talking About This?

The formula for success in the experience economy isn’t a secret – some magical mystery that only the select few may know. It’s a straightforward matter of investing, first in designing an experience that sets you apart, and then in the People, Place and Process to deliver it consistently. Businesses around the world have mastered it to create a competitive advantage they can count on to help them grow.

Overdependence On An Unreliable Partner

If the answer is that simple, then why are funeral businesses so slow to embrace it? Of course, tradition is part of the answer. Funeral homes have a long tradition of out-sourcing the job of creating event “content” to one of the least predicable partners – the clergy. Driven by the rules of their own denominations and their unique styles as individual ministers, the clergy keep funeral directors guessing about the quality and content of every service right up to the end. Some funeral directors have begun to take over the content-creation themselves, but this usually requires an investment in people and technology. They need celebrants, digital media wizards and audio-visual hardware to build a better service.

Another obstacle to change is the fact that funeral and memorial services are a once-in-a-lifetime event. For each family, this is a never-to-be-repeated, last-ever chance to say good-bye to someone they love. For funeral homes there are no do-overs – just one (and only one) chance to get everything right. There are dozens of details to be managed, and just a day or two to pull everything together. Since most funeral directors work from handwritten notes on the back of the case folder, consistency and reliability are always issues. The fear of getting something wrong can make funeral directors even more conservative and undercut creativity before it starts. The quality of the experience is usually what suffers.

Information systems have real promise as a way to make execution more consistent and reliable in funeral homes. By coupling automatic task lists with mobile web access via smartphones and tablets, we can do a lot to make execution idiot proof. Staff can be reminded wherever they go, and managers can keep tabs on everything that is due (or overdue). Systems are beginning to emerge with these kinds of capabilities, but funeral homes have been slow to adopt them.

The Real Issue & A Better Solution

The biggest reason that funeral homes haven’t joined the Experience Economy is also the simplest – economics. Most funeral homes are just too small to afford the tools they need – better facilities, better technology and better people – to consistently create a better experience and grow the business. A business doing 150 funerals a year can only use its tools about 3 times a week. It’s not going to throw off enough cash to self-finance the improvements that it takes to stay competitive.

Fortunately, better access to working capital can help overcome those limitations. A $200,000 SBA loan at 5% can have payments as low as $1,100 per month. This opens the door to a couple of interesting possibilities.

First and simplest is to invest in those facility and technology improvements now, while they can still create a competitive advantage instead of just helping you catch up with your competitors. Using the industry average funeral of $6,560 and a 20% dynamic profit margin on new cases, it would take just one or two new families per month to fund that investment. To look at it another way, if your New and Improved experience lets you generate a 4% average upsell on your services, you would fund the investment with room to spare.

A final opportunity is the tried and true approach – buying out one of your less capable competitors. Assuming you can negotiate a realistic purchase price (always a big ‘if’ with funeral directors) the economic advantages can be huge. You grow your market share immediately and have more case volume to absorb (and profit from) that New and Improved Funeral Experience you worked so hard to create. The savings from consolidating back-office functions like accounting, transportation and the prep-room will often fund the financing cost and leave profit to spare.

The Common Ingredients

All these strategies have two common ingredients: Vision and Leverage. As a business owner you have a vision of what you want your business to be – a powerful vision of a compelling experience for customers that will give you a lasting competitive advantage. At Live Oak Bank, it’s our job to help provide the final ingredient – the leverage you need to grow your business and make your vision a reality now.

Be sure to attend the session: Size Matters: Why Growing Your Business is Key to Your Future, and How Small Firms Can Make It Happen at The NFDA convention in Charlotte Sunday, October 7 from 3-5PM 

About the Authors

Doug Gober is a Senior Loan Officer with Live Oak Bank. A CPA by training, Doug joined Live Oak after working with some of the leading companies in the funeral industry for more than 30 years, including Batesville, York Casket, Matthews International and Carriage Services.

Paul Seyler is President of Competitive Resources, Inc., a New Orleans-based firm providing research, strategy and execution support to companies both inside and outside the funeral industry.

Why Families Seem Ruder Today and Some Tips on How To Respond

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 3 Comments on Why Families Seem Ruder Today and Some Tips on How To Respond

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 be very rude when they want to be.

This is very important because it is causing a lot of Funeral Directors to lose control in conversations with the public when they should be in control (in control as opposed to taking control).

For several years now we have seen an increase in dysfunctional families in the arrangement conference.  THEY are not in agreement so we struggle to reach consensus.  Emotions run high and we wear ourselves out trying to keep a lid on the scene.

The reason things get out of control is that we are more focused on the content (making arrangements and making them meaningful) and we fail to understand we are equally responsible for influencing the conditions (how people are interacting, body language, etc.)  The one thing, manifested in a myriad of ways, that throws that monkey wrench every time is fear.  So what you are looking for is signs that people are feeling unsafe.  Many funeral directors are relatively adept at this.  It is the new levels of rudeness that is taking them off guard.  They make the mistake of taking it personally rather than seeing it for what it is:  A defense mechanism.

We don’t need to go into all the reasons for feeling unsafe in an arrangements conference or at a funeral.  But people tend to react to this feeling in one of two ways: Silence or Violence.  It is up to you, dear director, to be alert to either of these and recognize and respond to them early.  Rudeness can be classified as violence most of the time but it has a silent mode and that’s the one funeral directors employ so often.

Your job is to create and periodically restore a sense of safety to the conversation.  The first step is to recognize the signals and then the second is to kick your brain into gear and bring everyone back into safety.  Sometimes that takes backbone.  If some one is cussing you out it might be a good tactic to suggest another funeral home might serve their needs better.  Many times humor can work better.  Try to stop talking, look directly at your troublemaker and say something silly like: “Was that your cat I stepped on on the way in?”  and then, of course, shut up.  Maybe suggesting a time out will bring people to the realization they are behaving like children.

Silence and violence have three forms each:

Silence

  • Masking
  • Avoiding
  • Withdrawing

Violence

  • Controlling
  • Labeling
  • Attacking

So what does this have to do with why funeral directors can be rude?

Funeral directors tend to be nice people.  They avoid conflict and confrontation like the plague and hate delivering bad news.  Often they employ rude techniques when dealing with vendors they don’t want to work with. Delivering bad news takes them out of their comfort zone.   They miss appointments, keep people waiting, forget to show up, never return phone calls.  They hope the guy will get the message without realizing the damage done to their own reputation.  If you work long in funeral service you get used to this and realize it is just part of the game we have to play.  In life you have to take the good with the bad.  What most funeral directors don’t realize is that a polite “No” is a kinder and gentler act than the avoidance / withdrawal behavior so often manifested by some of our best practitioners.  Yes, I realize there are vendors who are overly persistent but that just means you need to be a little more assertive yourself.

P.S.  You and your staff can master handling “High Risk” conversations in a course I can deliver for your staff at your funeral home:

“Conversations That Matter”: How to Build Consensus and Relationships Through Positive Communication

Expert Opinion: Some Things Are Obvious

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 2 Comments on Expert Opinion: Some Things Are Obvious

Rick Baldwin

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: no

Lawyer: how can you be so sure, Doctor?

Doctor: because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

Lawyer: even so, couldn’t the patient still have been alive?

Doctor: well, I guess it’s possible he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere!

Some things are just blindingly obvious!

Alan Creedy asked me to read and comment on an article published by the Harvard Business Review from the standpoint of applying its logic to the funeral service industry.

The name of the piece is Integrating Around the Job to Be Done.  The central theme focuses on market segmentation – with market segmentations being defined as the subdivision of markets by “category of product,” or “price point.”  And of course, once a market has been segmented, potential customers for the segmented products may be identified and the various competitors listed (as the enemy).

Until about 1975 or so, the markets for the services of funeral homes was identified as basically everyone who might die – and the competition was identified as the funeral home down the street.  For our relevant history, price was an unimportant competitive determinant.

But then, the cremation societies began to emerge in areas of the country characterized by general family mobility, financial affluence and higher levels of education – and the market for death care services segmented.  Thereafter, funeral homes were no longer the exclusive ‘one size fits all’ providers of death care services.  And of course the markets fractured along the lines of product segmentation [traditional funerals –vs- cremations] and price [the cremation societies advertised their prices whereas it was considered unethical for funeral homes to advertise or to speak about theirs].  By definition, classic market segmentation occurred.

What has happened since then is that the cremation societies became aggressive marketers while most funeral homes remained traditionally passive, aloof.    Today, that segment of customers seeking simplicity and affordability when a life ends increasingly does not hire a funeral home – they hire what has become billed as an affordable specialist.  In practice, as well as by definition, classic market segmentation occurred in the funeral industry.

Can there ever be a return to ‘one size fits all’ market segmentation in the funeral home industry?  I speculate that ‘probably not.’ However, I believe that if traditional funeral homes are to stop the momentum of the cremation societies, and roll-back the profound impact of market segmentation, lots of painful changes will be incorporated into how they think, act, and deliver.

Summarizing my thoughts, here is an imaginary interview with a funeral director by the Harvard Business Review:

HBR:  What do funeral homes do?

Funeral Director: Funeral homes, through their staffs and facilities, care for the dead while attending to the living.

HBR: How do they do that?

Funeral Director: when someone dies, funeral homes arrange observances that generally involve putting the body in a box, gathering friends and family, asking a preacher to recount the benefits of living an upright life that lead to the kingdom of heaven, placing the box the ground, and erecting a memory stone on the place.

HBR:  How long has it been done that way?

Funeral Director: As long as anyone can remember.

HBR:  Is anything different today?

Funeral Director: Yes, almost everything is different.

HBR: How are things different today?

Funeral Director: when someone dies, people increasingly don’t want boxes anymore, friends and family don’t generally live in same town anymore, people don’t trust preachers or believe in heaven anymore, people don’t want burial in the ground, and they don’t want memory stones.  They also want much lower prices.

HBR: What have funeral homes done to adapt – to deflect the negative effects of product and price-based market segmentation?

Funeral Director:  I can’t think of anything.

HBR: Huh?

Some things are just blindingly obvious!

Alan Creedy Comments: If you are looking for a new way of thinking about your market the article referred to by Rick “Integrating Around the Job to Be Done”  written by Clay Christensen, the author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” is a MUST read.  You can purchase a copy for $6.95 by clicking here.  

 

Death Goes Mainstream

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary, General Topics. 3 Comments on Death Goes Mainstream

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 an even more dramatic example:

The actual article heralded by the cover page chronicles the trials of a caregiving son and the decline and deaths of his parents.   But its significance as the cover story of Time magazine is profound in another way.  Time wants to sell magazines and magazines draw attention to themselves by their covers.  Now in the week this was published it was competing with such newsworthy events as the syrian massacre and the upcoming Wisconsin recall election.  But what did the editors of Time think would draw the most attention?

In three words… HOW TO DIE… they captured the interest of a rapidly growing number of boomers.  Whether in the context of aging parents or in the context of their own deaths it is a topic that perks up the ears of everyone in my cohort group.

I am telling you as loudly as I can:

BOOMERS WANT TO TALK ABOUT DEATH AND DYING.  

IF NOT YOU THEN WHO?

One cannot help but be reminded of an earlier Time cover.  A cover that arguably heralded a societal shift in the way our nation practices religion and set the stage for an entirely new worship style

1966 Time Cover

Here is what I would do:

  • I would become the local expert on the practical issues of dying
  • I would augment my local speaking with topics like “the good death” “how to die” “living wills” and “how to write creative eulogies and obituaries”
  • I would not overemphasize the emotional aspects.
  • I would become the “go to” expert for my community on resources and ideas.  After all, they think you are any way.

A final postscript.  Those of you who offer grief and bereavement programs will be very tempted to use the people who run those services for you.  I would encourage you not to do that.  This is less about the emotional issues (although they are important) than about the practical issues.  The sub theme is about how they can exercise control over the process.  You might want to read the case study on this website We Stand At The Threshold for greater depth on the Boomer market.

We Stand At The Threshold is password protected.  If you are a subscriber forward the email you received to me at alan@alancreedy.org and I will send you the password.  If you are not a subscriber then subscribe.  Enter your email on the right.  It’s free.

Funerals As Counter Culture

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary, General Topics. 7 Comments on 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 years ago a handful of brave pastors ignored the then-prevailing cultural surface signals and the revival we have come to know as the “mega-church” movement began.  The common belief at the time was that people just weren’t religious any more.  The actual reality was that many people had a deep need to grow in their faith, they just weren’t getting that need met by the traditional church.  Those churches that reinvented their form to meet the need for a deeper relationship with god experienced both dramatic growth and equally dramatic cultural impact.  If you are close to that movement you know that the founders changed the form while making the substance even stronger.  They demanded things of their constituents who willingly responded that no mainline denomination pastor would dare ask.

I believe we have that same opportunity now as the anti funeral movement begins to lose its voice.

My friend Grant Mckenzie of Sarnia, Ontario shared an amazing article with me last week that illustrates my point well.

In response to the decision of a beloved elder to forgo a funeral, Pastor Edwin Searcy of University Hill United Church of Canada decided to conduct a study group on death in his church in Vancouver, BC.  The results will surprise you.  With his permission it is reproduced in PDF format in its entirety at the bottom of this page.

As a Christian Believer I found this a profoundly insightful article and a personal challenge to examine my own response to funerals in my church.  It both strengthens my faith and challenges me to support my fellow believers in their time of need.  Even if when I don’t know them or their family personally.  Here are some excerpts from Rev. Searcy’s experience with his study group I think you will find interesting:

“They spoke of how empty it feels when there is no opportunity to gather to grieve…”

“Speaking about death in this way was a new experience in the congregation.”

“What really captured the interest of the gathered group were questions of how we as a congregation will deal with death when it occurs.  It was as if we recognized intuitively that in the marking of death we are confronted with powers that seek to erase the church’s memory and entice it to abandon its daring witness.”

“If it is no great loss when someone dies, if it is possible to die and make no noticeable impact on the fabric of the church and the community, then the claims made at baptism are false.  It is critical to the church that every death of one of its number be grieved.”

“A voice in the group questioned the way in which we decide whose funeral to attend…Death is not a private matter that affects only those who are friends and family.  It is a public event that affects the whole church and calls the whole congregation together to grieve and to witness to the good news of god in the face of death.”

“Caring for the dying and for the dead is a practice that disciplines the church to wash the feet of the poorest of the poor.”

“Our elders need to unlearn their fear of becoming a burden, so that the whole congregation has the opportunity to respond to the call to serve and to carry our cross.”

“We noticed that by ignoring and silencing conversations about death we had unwittingly simply absorbed the assumptions of the culture we inhabit.”

“Our study group discovered we have simply adopted the ways in which our culture figures death out.”

There is a nascent global movement afoot to “bring death out of the closet”.  As the last taboo subject “Boomers” the world over are determined to make death a healthy topic of conversation.  Rev. Searcy’s study group is an excellent example of this movement.

So, here is what I would do:

  1. I would print out copies of Rev. Searcy’s article and give copies to each staff member and leave copies in my lobby for the public.
  2. I would make an appointment with every Christian clergy in town and share this article with them and offer to facilitate a discussion group with their church. (You can see a copy of the outline for the first session by clicking here)
  3. I would stop looking down on those funeral practitioners that view their job as a form of ministry because it appears that it really is.

I believe the public wants to talk.  They will find an outlet.  If not you then who?

Reverend Searcy publishes a blog called The Holy Scribbler I encourage you to subscribe.

Click the red lettering below to download the PDF file of Dr. Searcy’s comments.

Funerals as Counter Cultural~Edwin Searcy

Differentiating Your Funeral Home: Reinvent The Obituary

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 5 Comments on Differentiating Your Funeral Home: Reinvent The Obituary

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 the public press unless the family pays for it.  Make people come to your site to get it.  Give copies to families that buy services.  Charge families that don’t.

Conversation Portrait: The Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries from Flash Rosenberg on Vimeo.

Or, here’s another idea, collaborate with your local newspaper after you copyright the idea so they won’t steal it.  Then every Monday have one of their better journalists do a special obit like the one’s they describe here on a local person (hopefully deceased not necessarily prominent) as a feature article sponsored and paid for by you with your logo prominently displayed.

You should negotiate a discount because it should be a collaborative effort that might help the paper sell obituary space with better obits while giving you exposure with the subtle but clear inference that you are promoting the celebration of the uniqueness of life.

Go out and be different today!!

Expert Opinion: The Need to Be Nimble

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Practitioner Forum: Insights and Ideas. 3 Comments on Expert Opinion: The Need to Be Nimble

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 a client. One, we are asked to care for the body. In some cases, make it look realistic for grieving purposes. And two, we are asked to create a celebration of a life lived. These are clearly two different skill sets. And because they are so different we have a public that is sometimes confused by the “one size fits all” nature of the funeral home business model. Oh, did I forget to mention the religious component?

I assume you used the Wayne Gretsky quote because it illustrated his willingness to take risks. I would add another reason why he and other world-class athletes and businesses are successful. Nimble. The ability to change when conditions call for it. In the business world IBM is a good example of being nimble. It transformed itself from a maker of computer hardware into a consulting business. Isn’t the funeral business simply transitioning from a ritual based into an individualized service model?

This nimbleness applies to every aspect of our business. There was a popular phrase used a lot over the past decade – WOW.   If we WOW our clients we will know what we did right. To do this we need to start with a blank slate with every family we serve.

I believe that funeral businesses will start to diversify to meet the expectations of the distinct consumer groups that exist. The “lowest-cost” consumer will look for cremation and burial packages through businesses that embrace them. Yes, existing strong brands in a community will have their loyal following, though that number will deteriorate. The opportunity is the other 80% of the market that will seek a funeral experience that matches the value they see in it. The current challenge is to capture the aspects of the funeral service that is currently going to other providers, like caterers.

So, in the spirit of a current beer commercial –“stay nimble my friend.”

Bruce Buchanan is CEO of The Buchanan Group Indianapolis, In.

 

The Real Victims of Our Cowardice

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 14 Comments on The Real Victims of Our Cowardice

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, called out our “NaySayers” and detractors, our “doom and gloomers.”

Have I made you angry?  I cannot say I am sorry.  You should be angry.  At least I have created some emotion and out of that emotion may come some resolve and out of that resolve may come some action.

This past two weeks have taught me the difference between sadness and discouragement.

Thankfully, I am not discouraged.  But I am sad.  Very sad.  And sadness has an effect…an enervating effect.

I am feeling your pain.

That pain comes from having the answers to your client’s questions but facing an increasing number of people who are less and less interested in answers.  I have that same pain.  In most instances, I know what needs to be done to turn a business around.  A bold statement? Really?  In most instances, you know what needs to be done to best help a family.  Likewise, my experience and training enable me to know what needs to be done to solve most business problems.  In my case, if it is a parallel, our profession seems fixated on a direction that, for more than 30 years, has produced only more of the same…decline.  I have learned that tact and diplomacy can work; but not often.  So, I have chosen a tactic that I think you should adopt as well: Boldness.  After all, most of you have lost so much ground that you can only gain.

My sadness comes from the awareness that I can’t win them all.  My optimism, though, comes from my unwillingness to give up.  My willingness to fight for what I believe.  From the cold, stark fact that I know that if I give in (even just a little bit) the battle is lost.  More important, though, is the experience that the more I am willing to take a stand the more I win…some.

Never, Never, Never...Give Up

When someone attacks your profession you should be willing to stand up and defend it.  Whether you chose to be a DeathCare Professional or you inherited it, you are in it.  So, make the best of it.  Misery and embarrassment are pathetic alternatives.

How To TurboCharge Your Marketing

There is a principle in marketing…a turbocharger, if you will.

“When a product / service is becoming a commodity You can differentiate yourself by letting people know what you stand for”

Unfortunately, most DeathCare providers are too timid to take bold stands.   Bold enough, at least, to differentiate themselves in the market place.  Instead, they create sanitized vision and mission statements for hanging in lobbies that are quickly forgotten and largely ignored.  In fact, most vision and mission statements are so sanitized they are commodities themselves.

Steve McKee in his video interview on Narrowing Your Focus says we should never say we are better.  Instead we should say we are…different.

I challenge my clients and their staffs to do some real soul searching and develop a “Statement of Beliefs”.   Yes, I can hear you now:  “Could we see a sample?”  No!  A Statement of Beliefs has to be individual, real and personal to your firm.  You can’t borrow someone else’s and just “stamp” it on your door.  There has to be total buy in.  It is built through a process.  But here are a few of the questions I use to stimulate the process:

  • Do you really believe the quality of casket defines the value of the funeral?
  • Do you really believe that increasing the average sale price of caskets is going to save your business?
  • Do you really believe every 95 year old alzheimer patient who has lived in a nursing home for 3 years needs a full visitation, funeral, procession and graveside service?
  • Do you really believe that the family and friends of a 62 year old “pillar of the community” popular local businessman and former mayor are going to be well served by a direct cremation?
Here, also, is my personal Statement of Beliefs:
  • I believe every life has value
  • I believe every life deserves to be commemorated in a meaningful way
  • I believe those whose lives have been touched in positive ways both want and need a physical way to be comforted and / or to comfort
  • I believe that most people still perceive the dead body of those they love as a sacred object deserving of reverent care whether or not they are religious people
  • I believe that the best and most natural way to comfort one another is physically, in person, with touch and voice
  • I believe that some people need a permanent place to memorialize
  • I believe DeathCare makes a valuable contribution to society by providing a formal, socially recognized physically present means for comfort, affirmation and encouragement, in whatever form they choose, coincident with the time of a death.
  • I believe most DeathCare providers are good people who are capable of learning the basics of good business and management practices

I have put a lot of time and thought into these recent articles.  It is not my purpose to persuade you or to give you false hope.

But it is my hope that some of you will decide to become intentional and bold in your own efforts.

That some of you will begin to take a public stand for your profession.

That some of you will think deeply about what it is we contribute to those we serve and why our society will be worse off if it abandons what we offer.

Then, in your own words…for god’s sake…express yourself.  Be proud of what you do and the contribution you make to your community.  Let others see that pride.  Let the chips fall where they may.  The results will probably surprise you.

The next time you are out socially and someone blows you off by saying, “Oh, I’m just going to be cremated and have my ashes scattered.”   Are you willing to say, “Ya know, I realize that’s become popular but I’m not good with that any more and I would like to tell you why.”  Then tell your stories (I know you have them).  Make it non economic.  Speak to the heart not the head.  You may not win them over but you never had them in the first place.  So how you can you lose something you never had.  Yes, you do run the risk of alienating someone.  But something I have learned in 40 years of adult life:  There are, in fact, people who don’t like “Truth Tellers”.  and, you know what?  They just happen to be the people you don’t want to know anyway.  Then, when you have become comfortable with that experience begin challenging the direct disposition customers in the arrangement conference.  Remember challenge is different than confront.

Because The Real Victims of Our Cowardice (borne out of our neurotic desire to be liked by people that probably don’t like us any way) are the people we have pledged to help.

One Last Time:

Your livelihood is at stake!!  What do you want?? Do you want me to tell you it’s someone else’s fault?  Or do you want to get in there and fight for yourself and those you love?

“lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees; make straight paths for your feet…”

Hebrews 12:12-13a

“The noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands”

Isaiah 32:8

Expert Opinion: Game Changers

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 4 Comments on Expert Opinion: Game Changers

Rick Baldwin

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 example.  Look at Sony [and digital photography] or Apple [and their iPads and iPhones]. And speaking of digital photography, that innovation was certainly a game-changer for Kodak, too.

Sometimes, however, an unmet wish that customers have about the current status quo will change the game. This is especially true in fundamental businesses like ours. Starbucks changed the way coffee is served, even though coffee has been served the same way for years.  SouthWest changed the airline industry, even though airplanes and airports are the same. Since the 1920s, every house in America has had a bathtub because Sears sold cleanliness.

And what about funeral homes and cemeteries, where we are accustomed to things staying the same for generations, or when they do change, having the changes carried on the backs of snails?  Are we, too, being slapped with some express game-changers?

Reflecting on this point, I believe as an industry [lumping together funeral providers and sepulcher suppliers] we are in the mid-innings of a game-changer right now.  Here’s my evidence:

  • Over-capacity: Look around. Most funeral homes could easily perform twice as many funerals as they do now.  The hearse runs two hours per week.  Cemeteries still measure their undeveloped lands in acres [that are mostly a big non-producing asset], when those vacant corners near the front gate are the most valuable of all.  And all those anchors add layers of unavoidable cost.
  • Mature consolidation:  The big funeral guys already own most of the major brands in the country’s metro and growth areas, and don’t have any good prospects to buy more. Yesterday’s flagships are struggling with margins, their historic names long ago milked of their original brand values, and most of those formerly esteemed community stalwarts are now losing market share. The new ones they can acquire, scattered here and there, are generally small and don’t add much value.
  • Profitability challenges:  I sold my shares in Stewart Enterprises for $6.10 per share in 2001.  Friday, those same shares traded at $6.26 [more than 10 years later!].  And STEI is not suffering alone. The other publicly traded funeral companies have found it difficult to grow their share prices.  I speculate that their trading prices have stagnated due to narrow capacity to cut their costs, to increase retail prices, or to acquire large and agile operators.
  • Limited opportunity for personnel:  Industry owners must find fresh ways to align shareholder and employee welfares. Corporate directors cannot expect employees to work against their own best interests.  Board rooms must engage local management and pay them to build shareholder value, and then pay them a bonus when it materializes. A message similar to that sent by the ‘Arab Spring’ will need to be heard in the big chairs.
  • Most industry participants haven’t noticed: Interestingly, all over the country, business owners are acting as if nothing has changed. Their commercial models are the same ones employed by their grandfathers. At the same time, the memorial preferences of their customers bear little resemblance to those of their grandfathers’ customers.
  • New eyes are looking for opportunities, building on the back of the old and failing model: As over-capacity lingers, consolidators struggle with shareholder value, margins compress, employees struggle with employer loyalty, and board rooms ignore marketplace realities, new eyes are seeing opportunity. Be on the lookout for emerging industry names that you’ve never heard of before – ones that don’t carry the old baggage.

Yep, this writer thinks we are seeing the acknowledgment of a number of powerful game-changers that are likely to create unparalleled opportunity during the next ten years, as the innovative replaces the obsolete.

Let me know your thoughts on changing the game in our town. Write to me at rbaldwin@urgelborugie.com.

Sincerely yours,

 

The Secret Sauce: How We Might Resurrect DeathCare

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 18 Comments on The Secret Sauce: How We Might Resurrect DeathCare

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 market at least, people simply don’t care anymore.   In their opinion, the best that can be hoped for is to do more volume on a shrinking sales average.  But, I would ask: “Is it that people don’t care? Or, is it that people don’t care the way we think they should care?”

I need to make clear that my optimism on this subject springs not from rose-colored glasses.

  • Are we becoming irrelevant?  Possibly
  • Are our margins shrinking? Yes
  • Are we losing ground with every passing day? Yes
  • Do we know what we need to do? No
  • Is there a single solution? No
  • Is there any solution? I believe so, if we fight for it.

But this is not to dismiss the reality that the struggles and challenges faced on a daily basis by our profession, which confronts an increasingly disengaged customer, are both real and acute.  I am not suggesting that impacting this trend will be easy or quick.  It took us 30 years of neglect to get here.  Why should we expect overnight success?  That is specifically why I continue to use a “Fight” metaphor.  Because being passive is not working!  And doing nothing is cowardice.

What we believe and why we believe it is critical to our hope and foundational to our solution.  If we believe that people see us as irrelevant without exploring what lies behind that phenomenon then it ultimately becomes reality.  If we believe no one cares then…ultimately…no one will care.  Not because they aren’t wired to care but because they never knew why they should do some of those irrelevant things that…oddly…happen so spontaneously in tragic public and celebrity deaths.  

So, as painful as it is, it is up to us to care and to care very deeply.  And for us to care we must believe.

UNLESS someone like you

cares a whole awful lot, 

nothing is going to get better.

It’s not.

Dr. Seuss

Cognitive Dissonance

We all struggle with cognitive dissonance. But I seem to have an overdeveloped awareness of this human reaction.  Cognitive dissonance occurs when something happens in your experience that doesn’t fit your belief system or the facts as you know them.  What I believe and Why I believe it are tied directly to this Cognitive Dissonance.

First, A Parallel Example

More than ten years ago I began sharing the very distinct parallels between the “Megachurch” Phenomenon and trends in DeathCare.  I have often recommended that practitioners study local megachurches to better understand funeral trends.  The supposed “innovations” of video tributes, unconventional music and participatory services all have their genesis or at least their early signals in the “Megachurch” movement.

But here is the parallel that speaks to the issue of the decline of funeral service:  In mainline denominational churches, even today, across North America pastors and deacons are convinced that there is a decline in spirituality in America.  After all, you read about it all the time.  They struggle to fill the pews.  They compromise their standards to keep members and entice new members.  All to no real avail.  They conclude: “People just aren’t religious anymore.”

YET...and here is the cognitive dissonance…non denominational megachurches are exploding and growing to congregational sizes unimaginable 30 years ago.  More important, these new churches place GREATER demands and expectations on members than mainline denominations would ever dare.  People are excited to attend, they bring friends, they attend bible studies and compulsory home fellowships.  The message on Sunday is often stronger and more convicting.

What gives?

Some 40 years ago a young man by the name of Bill Hybels, struggling with the decline in church membership, did not say: “People aren’t religious any more.”  Instead, he began to study those who were not attending.  He found that they were looking for greater meaning, purpose and commitment…not less.

Now, the danger in drawing your attention to this parallel is the temptation to look at the cosmetics of this phenomenon and decide it’s about buildings or programs.  Those of you who are faith driven will at least know that the Holy Spirit had a significant leadership role.  But, I don’t have the time to go into the real drivers of the megachurch movement nor is this the place anyway.

Cognitive Dissonance in DeathCare

People point to the growth of the Celebrant movement in DeathCare as proof of the decline in religion.  Yet every celebrant I have spoken with tells me the majority of families ask for scripture and hymns even for someone who has never been to church.  Cognitive Dissonance.

When a celebrity like Princess Dianna, Michael Jackson, Elvis and Whitney Houston dies the spontaneous outpouring of emotion and the need to gather as a community takes on surreal proportions.  The need to permanently memorialize is deeply felt by people who don’t have the remotest personal connection to the family or the deceased.   Cognitive Dissonance.

When tragic deaths occur like the Virginia Tech Massacre or a high school driving accident, kids and their parents…the whole community… spontaneously pour out of their homes to comfort each other and total strangers with a touch a word…tears.  Cognitive Dissonance.

So, if people no longer care, if religion is dying why do these things happen?

My belief is that god has wired us to need to gather, to physically comfort and touch when we are stressed.  This is the NORMAL response.  Whatever need is satisfied by gathering…affirmation, love, comfort…it is only satisfied physically in the community of others.  There is also comfort in having a sense of what we can do and / or should do that restores some order out of the chaos.  And when there is a loss, we feel that loss needs permanent memorialization.  These are not “Madison Avenue” inventions.  They are human needs.  Real needs…Real values.   Today, If they go unmet, in most cases, the outcome is no longer traumatic.  But if they are met the outcome is much, much better.

THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what we do!!

THAT is the contribution we make to society!!

So, how do we become a megachurch?  Well, I hope you don’t try.  Too many mainline churches have sent missions to study megachurches only to return with the building plans and programs while completely missing the drivers.  We have to ask and then answer our own questions and that is what “Fighting For Yourself” is about.  If no one cares anymore, why do people need to gather, call, visit?  If religion is declining why do families ask Celebrants to incorporate scripture and hymns?  etc. etc.

We have accepted as truth something that isn’t true: “People don’t care any more.” Think of it this way:  If we walk into a room and flick on the light switch and the lights don’t come on we assume that something is broken…the lightbulb, the breaker, the switch.   We do not assume that the nature of electricity has changed and it no longer lights a light bulb.  DeathCare meets a need in human beings.  It corresponds with basic…fundamental…human values.

I don’t think that people no longer care.  I am not willing to accept that as a universal premise.  Instead, I think they have become disconnected from their need and from their values.  They are confused…and we are confused…about how to meet those needs and values and the options they have for expression.  Imagine, for a moment what it would feel like if your spouse of 50 years died and no one acknowledged it.  I think it might make you bitter.

Marketing Strategist, Steve McKee, Says: “Whenever there is confusion in the marketplace it means there is a misunderstanding.”  In my experience, whenever there is confusion in the marketplace there are plenty of people willing to jump in and straighten it out.  As far as I can see most of the people jumping in right now are not focusing on real human values.  They are opportunists.  They are only focusing on the economics.  Probably because that’s easy.  But it’s also temporary.

It’s your livelihood.  Are you willing to fight for it?

Our challenge is not to convince People but to reconnect them.  

Our task is not to lower our expectations but to raise theirs.

The MegaChurch Success: A hint

Megachurches are often thought to have been “Built and people just came.”  I know something about this movement.  You are not going to find a successful megachurch that wasn’t built with a heavy emphasis on prayer, personal sacrifice and hard work.  and so it will be for us.  But the real secret-sauce is their ability to connect people with Purpose and Values.   There is a direct parallel in DeathCare.  But I will let you, dear reader, stew on that…at least for a while.

The Problem is Not Cremation

Funeral Apologetics 101: Stop Clinging To Your Despair

Funeral Apologetics 101A: 8 Principles of Successful Optimism

Disenthrall Yourself of Your Dogma

Don’t Confuse Me With Your Facts

Don’t Confuse Me With Your Facts

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 2 Comments on Don’t Confuse Me With Your Facts

Apologists must be aware of 4 generally accepted fallacies:

  1. Consumers think in a well-reasoned rational way
      1. In fact, emotions are closely interwoven with the reasoning process.  Most often they are dominant.
  2. Consumers can readily explain their behavior and thinking
      1. 95% of our thinking is unconscious.  Our rational mind serves mainly to make sense of behavior AFTER it is executed
  3. Consumer’s memories accurately represent their experiences
      1. In fact, consumers memories represent what they think about their experiences not the experiences themselves
  4. Consumers think in words
      1. We think in terms of images.  If I say the word “dog” you do not call to mind a biological description of a dog.  Instead, you bring to mind a picture of a dog.  And your dog is likely to be different from my dog

We Make Choices With Our Emotions…

We Explain Those Choices With Our Intellect

So we THINK consumers make choices and decisions with their rational faculties when, instead, they make them with their hearts.  We think (and, frankly, they think) they draw an imaginary “pro” and “con” chart and make the best decision based on The Facts.  When, in fact, they are rationalizing a choice already made in the subconscious.

Our emotions, by definition, are unconscious.  So, our challenge, as an Apologist, is to speak to those emotions.  So, never argue the facts, the evidence or try to be rational.  The doorway to this soul is stories.   And, if you have been in practice for long, you have lots of stories.

Your objective is not to persuade but to challenge their thinking.  My friend, Bob Speaks, insists on sharing all options with every customer.  I think this is why he is effective.   His professionalism dictates that he enable people to make informed choices by understanding all their options.  Epiphanies are not uncommon and you know this because you experience the same thing when people say to you:  “We didn’t know we could do that.”

The arrangement conference is not the best place for these conversations because it is typically emotionally charged and barriers tend to be up.  But, that is the hand we are dealt.  This is where the risk comes in.  But, let’s assume you are working with a family that is resistant and closed.  What have you really got to lose?  Most likely they don’t like you any way.  The damage is done so how is “damage control” going to help?  Why not stand up for yourself and share what you believe?

On the other hand industry veterans often recognize resistance as a challenge they need to rise to.

VIPS:

Valuable, Important, Permission, Story

My friend, William Bonacorda, shared a concept with me I have found works in awkward situations.  In a situation where two parties might disagree and there is resistance and tension I have learned to remind myself of these 4 steps.

Valuable: Acknowledge that their perspective is valuable and, in fact they are valuable.   “You know, a lot of people feel that way and even though I am in the profession I can relate.  I appreciate your sharing your viewpoint.”  Is a good opener.

Important: Acknowledge that the topic is important, not only to you and them but to their family and friends.  “Even though more and more people are choosing alternative services it is important that we work through the issues and understand WHY we make the choices we make.  Since we only get to make these choices once, it is important that we at least become aware of the options available to us.”

Permission: Ask permission to share.  Most will say yes, but if they say no, then that’s it.  “Would it be ok if I shared why I chose this profession?  I get a lot of personal gratification from helping families and I feel that if I could share that people might understand me better.”  You have personalized the issue in this case.  You have also made yourself vulnerable which many  people will interpret as trustworthiness.  Which, hopefully, you are.”

Story: This is where I put them in the picture by telling stories; and you have hundreds.  “I chose this profession because I think it makes a very significant contribution to society.  When a death occurs people, including friends and coworkers, are often stressed.  They don’t know what to do.  They anticipate it will be expensive… and it can.  But it doesn’t have to be.  They worry about losing emotional control.

My job is to bring order out of this chaos and restore a sense of dignity.  It saddens me that people are choosing to avoid it all, not because it is my livelihood but because we are wired to need human interaction in times like these.  And I get to see families and friends every year that have to suffer the consequences of poor choices.  In times of stress people need the comfort of others.  Both physically and emotionally.  We need to be touched and we need to touch others.  Let me give you an example, [fill in your own story].”

It is not my intent to create a script.  But I have found this process effective.  I know many of my readers have found effective techniques or approaches and it would be appreciated if you felt like sharing.

 

The Problem is Not Cremation

Funeral Apologetics 101: Stop Clinging To Your Despair

Funeral Apologetics 101A: 8 Principles of Successful Optimism

Disenthrall Yourself of Your Dogma

 

Funeral Apologetics 101A: Eight Principles of Successful Optimism

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Leadership. 8 Comments on Funeral Apologetics 101A: Eight Principles of Successful Optimism

How interesting! As I step out to encourage this profession to not give in but take a stand and fight for itself I find more than I expected joining the cause.

Apropos of everything my friend, Bruce Buchanan, brought an article to my attention published via The Wall Street Journal that succinctly expresses many of the points I am attempting to make in my most recent series of posts.  Here are a few excerpts to underscore the relevance of the comments in this important article.  I recommend you print it out and tape it above your desk, or wherever you sit the most, to remind yourself.

“You may have heard the world has a few problems…It’s easy to accept the standard story of the future: it’s all going to be rubbish…Luckily there are enough human beings that don’t accept this narrative, who believe things can change for the better and, crucially do something about it…Pragmatic Optimists, who admit the scale and nature of challenges ahead of us but still resolve to do something anyway should have more of our support.”

Click here to read the Eight Core principles of Successful Optimists