While employees don’t need to see P&L statements, they do need to know what it costs to keep the firm’s doors open per day.

  The reality is that after interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization have been accounted, the average funeral home is only making about five percent. For the size of investment most owners have in their firm, that number is not a large return on investment.

  Take your firm’s total expenses from last year’s P&L and divide it by 365 to determine your daily cost of operations.

  Do your employees know how your firm’s pricing works?

  Do they actually know what your firm’s overhead is, or do they think the firm is making large amounts of money?

  Without knowing the true cost of running the business, arrangement staff may have a difficult time explaining pricing to the clients. While arrangers should not disclose confidential information that has been shared with them by the firm, knowing the cost of running a business helps them better explain the cost of operations.

  Today’s consumer is more financially savvy than that of years ago. They want to know they are not overcharged. This factor is even more critical for business if there are discount or low-end funeral providers nearby.

  And employees want to help those consumers. A frequent problem arises when an employee making $45,000 per year is working with a family spending more than 25 percent of that on a funeral. That’s a lot of money! Many arrangers are caregivers and not money driven. And they will often, albeit subconsciously, keep the services and merchandise lower than the consumer is actually willing to spend.

  The challenge comes in training and ensuring staff understands that the cost of services selected is justified and necessary to keep the firm moving forward. When staff realizes and understands that the fees charged are fair and justified, they will convey that to the consumer. The problem arises when the staff believes the fees are too high. That belief can even transfer through verbal and nonverbal cues to the customer.

  The problem arises when the staff believes the fees are too high.

  In locations with multiple arrangers, certain arrangers normally have higher averages. Why? Because they understand the pricing and are not timid to present the different options to the consumer.

  Training is different at every firm. One could have a staff meeting, use a train-the-trainer method or have different staff members mentor others. There is no turnkey system to staff training. But training to make sure staff understands the pricing enables them to better serve the consumer and maintain profitability for their firm.