In the final two months of 2016, I had the fortunate opportunity to visit with some truly exceptional family owned and operated funeral homes across the Midwestern United States. There is indeed an abundance of genuinely fresh and exciting things happening in the world of funeral service at family owned and operated firms.
When I get the opportunity to travel, I always like to engage in some “cold calling” on funeral homes in the area I am traveling through. In addition to meeting some delightful new people and making many new friends, I like to share the good news about funeral pre-planning. Usually on these types of visits, I am excited to hear that the firm’s pre-need program is going strong as a result of the firm’s continual positive outreach into the community.
The drop by visits I made this time around set me back on my heels. I heard more than one funeral home owner share they didn’t see the real need to offer their families pre-planning. One said to me, “What benefit do I get out of helping a family plan their services ahead? If I help them now, what will be left for me to do when the death actually occurs?” I was dumbfounded by this comment. It’s 2017 and some funeral home owners are still questioning the fundamental value and benefit of offering funeral pre-planning to their community.
If you are not proactively offering your families the availability to pre-plan and pre-fund their final arrangements, you missed the boat and were left standing on the dock. Luckily for you, another boat has come along just in time to pick you up and help you continue to build your business. What are the pre-need benefits to funeral homes? They are numerous and here are just a few to mention:
• Continuous and positive funeral home public relations.
• Enhanced funeral home branding in the community at large.
• The chance to secure and/or expand your market share.
• Reduced accounts receivable anxieties. How many funeral homes today wait 45 days or more to get paid? If consumers pay ahead of time, you won’t wait that long to get paid for your services.
• Better educated consumers make better funeral purchasers. Worried about decreasing funeral values? Pre-planning is a positive and proven way to help bring them back up.
• An active pre-planning program shows you are responsive to the public request to make the funeral planning process easier.
• If funeral pre-planning is done correctly, it will help lay the foundation for an easier, faster, less apprehensive funeral arrangement conference at the actual time of death.
Don’t keep yourself a secret. Don’t wrongly believe that consumers aren’t interested in planning their final arrangements ahead of time. Consumers’ interest in pre-planning is growing steadily by the day. There are thousands upon thousands of Baby Boomers that still don’t realize they have the option to plan ahead. Despite years of funeral home marketing efforts they have fallen through the cracks. They need to hear from you! I implore you to get out there this New Year and spread the good news about your funeral home and the option of planning ahead. If you want to know more, please e-mail me anytime at ckuhnen@uflife.com. I’m always happy to hear from you.