An industry that will be changing soon, thank goodness
January 20th, 2011 by Paul HensbyEarlier this week I visited one of the big funeral companies to discuss a possible advertising deal on My Last Song.
The funeral planning advice articles on the website are increasingly popular and thus valuable to a company with a lot of funeral businesses around the country.
The discussion got off to a good start and my proposal seemed to be acceptable.
And then the managing director showed me the print off of the article called Cutting Funeral Costs.
“If we advertise on your website you’ll have to take off this page,” he said.
“Why?” I asked, knowing the answer.
“Because it means my companies won’t be making as much money. I don’t want families to pay less for a funeral.”
In fairness, he said that he didn’t have targets for his funeral businesses and his funeral directors were told not to force up the price the families wanted to pay.
He said advice on costs was discussed with the family, to ensure that “mum had the funeral they would want her to have…”
He didn’t think visitors to My Last Song needed to know how they could reduce the costs of the funeral so the deal would only be done if the advice was removed.
I thanked him for seeing me and caught the next train back to London.
The company, which has a large market share, should be aware that the industry will change radically in the next few years. Customers will be better informed and new businesses will challenge the established way of selling funeral services.
Take coffins. Eco-friendly materials are becoming increasingly popular, and while funeral directors are making these choices available, companies such as Greenfield Creations in Essex and The Coffin Company soon to launch in the north east, sell direct to customers wanting cheaper and more sustainable coffins.
And flowers. Funeral flowers are extremely expensive and also bad for the environment as they require heat and artificial light. Yes, the tradition of marking a death with flowers goes back thousands of years but that doesn’t mean a family in the 21st century shouldn’t want to save on this part of the funeral package, or instead donate the money to a good cause.
I appreciate the point made by the managing director that a family ‘at grief’ need a sympathetic service rather than a ‘we can do a great cut price job for your mum’ approach.
But what is unacceptable is his view that the customer should not be given the information to be a more informed client before the ‘at need’ engagement with the funeral director.
Only in a business as ‘traditional’ as the funeral business could such an unfair approach to the customer be defended in 2010.
With more businesses and organisations wanting to change how we deal with death, dying and funerals, this approach won’t last much longer, I hope.
Tags: coffins, eco-friendly coffins, Farewell Innovators, funeral costs, funeral directors, funeral donations, funeral flowers, funeral planning, funerals, green funerals
January 20th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
What a very principled stand, if I may say so. Characteristically principled, I should add. But there’s always this tension between what’s best and what’s possible and, as it says in Ecclesiastes, there’s “a time to concede and a time to stand firm.” Well, I think it does; I’m quoting from memory!
There’s something tawdrily Canute-like about these people. Do they really think they can stop people from finding out now that they have the means and the informants? The industry works like a sort of informal cartel. ‘Traditional’, you say. The sooner obsolete in its present form the better.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Thanks Charles. Things will change as the baby boomers want a different experience and also are less prone to ignore and be fearful of death. Many will agree with Carl Marlow who you quote as follows in one of your blogs: “I think funerals are a con. Too many people in an emotional frame of mind are paying too much money and there’s no need for it to be so expensive. It feels like a bit of a closed shop, and I’m trying to open it up a bit.” Carl, dear readers, is about to launch the Coffin Company and sell cheap coffins to the customer.
Slowly those who for whatever personal, commercial or principled reasons want to see a change to the funeral business must keep on because it will change…it’s just a matter of time.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
[...] There’s a good story confirming just this over at the MyLastSong blog. [...]
January 20th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Ahhhh, don’t get me started on funeral flowers!! Not so long ago buying expensive arrangements would have been the norm but thankfully now people are more astute and realise that the money is better spent on memorialising their loved ones in more significant ways and aiding a charity has far longer lasting benefits.
I don’t quite understand these funeral plans, I thought the point of them is for the person purchasing to express in advance exactly the kind of funeral they want and then to pay for it? I thought this would remove the need for ‘upselling’?
Personally I hope that people will learn to celebrate the life far more and invest time and energy on arranging more personal details to do with the service and that the funeral directors will aid them in achieving this. I went to a funeral recently and a dove was released at the graveside. I have no idea what that cost, but the effects of it were so powerful and moving as it signified the spirit flying free – it was poignant and memorable; far more so than the flowers and the purple coffin. I think the canny funeral director will be looking to understand that people do want value (especially when it comes to coffins) but can perhaps make the difference in enhancing the service that they offer by offering a wider range of benefits to the experience itself.
There will always be people who think that the more they spend, the more it ‘proves’ the love that they felt for the deceased (or perhaps to assuage guilt), those who want to do it as cheaply as possible and those who determine to plan a funeral befitting the person as they were in life. A good funeral director surely listens and meets those needs, even if that is sharing how the client can save money if that is what they want. If a client has their needs fully met (whatever they may be) they will tell their friends and THAT referral business is how a funeral director should be looking to boost their income IMHO.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:04 pm
That’s a nice description of the emotional and symbolic power of the dove. The company I visited (which better remain nameless, based in Litchfield) just did not accept that the family/client/customer should have any information about costs other than that given by the funeral company.