Outsourcing:
- oDesk.com
- 99Designs.com
- elance.com
Outsourcing:
On this show, Brad Scott, manager of R.S. Kane Funeral Home in Toronto, Ontario, has an open discussion about competition from both a independent and corporate perspective. Click the Play button at the left of the silver bar > [Read more…] about
With the current situation, funeral homes are faced with coming up with alternative ways of communicating with families including remotely over the phone and Internet. This process can be used by funeral directors either from the office or if they are working from home.
Please note that there are many ways to accomplish making arrangements remotely and this is just one way of accomplishing the task. I will be the first to admit that I don’t know everything, but what I have provided here will give you most or all of the information and tools that you will need to get started. The great thing is that since this is a process with supporting materials, you can tweak it and edit it to best suit your operations.
This “Website-Assisted” Funeral Arrangement process, has many benefits for both the funeral home and the client family.
For the funeral home, you will be able to guide them to information about all of your service offerings. For your client families, they will be more at ease as the will be more prepared and have more information before starting the actual arrangement – you may even see an increase in averages.
For details on our Funeral Home Resource websites – click here
Subject: Information to review prior to our phone call
Dear ###,
Thank you for confirming your appointment with us to discuss the services that you want to have for your ###.
We like to let families know ahead of time the various items that will need to be discussed during the arrangements. We have created a web page specifically for client families like yours so that you have some insights into the process of funeral and / or cremation arrangements – this will serve as an agenda for our telephone call. You can access that web page here: [LINK TO YOUR PAGE]
Included on this page are a list of information and items that you may need to drop off at the funeral home or for us to pick up, discussion on some of the various decisions that you will need to make, and a listing of some of the newer service offerings that we have available that you may not be aware of.
Also at anytime – now or during the arrangements or after – we are always available to answer questions that you may have. My cell phone number is: (###) ###-####.
Sincerely,
Funeral Director
For details on our Funeral Home Resource websites – click here
Thank you for the confidence that you have placed in [Company Name].
We want our client families to feel comfortable about making final arrangements in a time of illness or when unable to travel. We have created this website-assisted arrangement process. We can easily walk you the various steps over the phone and you can jump ahead and review or complete some of the steps if you feel comfortable. This page will serve as an agenda for the arrangement meeting.
There are various items that will need to be discussed during the time of the arrangements. We have categorized them into seven groups:
Note: The content of this page should be edited to fit the offerings of your funeral home. The key thing is to get this page up and running as soon as possible so that you can implement this strategy right away. You can always add to it or edit it in the future
For details on our Funeral Home Resource websites – click here
Thank you for your interest in the funeral and cremation services that we offer.
We’ve created this web page specifically for people like you who are wanting to know the various choices that are needed to be made during a funeral or cremation arrangement process.
Use this page as a resource to come back to while you are in the decision-making process – if possible, it would be best to print off the PDF and discuss it with your family.
If it anytime you would like immediate access assistance call us at (###) ###-####.
For details on our Funeral Home Resource websites – click here
Here is a quick and timely “How To” on creating and promoting a statement about the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and how it is affecting your firm.
Here are the bullet points presented in the video.
We currently have a full time opening for an Executive Assistant for a new branch of Funeral Futurist in Victoria, BC that will support local funeral homes. This is an opportunity to grow your career in the funeral, cremation and cemetery services profession.
SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES
Management Administrative Support
Staff Administrative Support
Customer Service
Requirements & Qualifications
For more details contact Robin Heppell, CFSP by TXT to 1-250-686-4576 or by email to [email protected]. Please include your Name and Email Address.
Funeral Futurist Marketing is looking for people who know how to move mountains – not just look at them. Earn $60K if you’re average, $100K if you’re good, and $150K plus if you’re great. This is in the funeral marketing industry, and we hire star performers, not backgrounds. Young or old – if you have the stuff, this is an opportunity to prove it. Matured sales skills are a must, though training is provided to ensure you are expert in the field of funeral home technology and marketing.
Compensation is performance-based, with huge rewards to get you to $150K and beyond each year. To be successful, you’ll need to know how to tactfully open doors, build a network, and get appointments from a cold start. Must be highly self-motivated, a terrific presenter and communicator, and expert at helping our customers get things started. Come and take control of your career with our trend-setting company. Our clients love us and we need earth-movers to help continue our growth without diluting our value. For more details contact Robin Heppell, CFSP by TXT to 1-250-686-4576 or by email to [email protected]. Please include your Name and Email Address.
NOTE: This position is not for someone who is a funeral director wanting to try out sales, only experienced sales professionals should apply – funeral home experience is a HUGE plus though.
Contact:
Mr. Robin Heppell
Phone: (250) 686-4576
Email: [email protected]
February 4, 2015.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FUNERAL CHAMPIONS UNITE TO CREATE FUNERAL INDUSTRY SUPERSITE, FUNERALGURUS.COM
VICTORIA, BC – Three highly-regarded leaders in the North American funeral industry have today announced the creation of an industry ‘supersite’, FuneralGurus.com. The site is dedicated to the training and mentorship of those within the profession, and the promotion of best-practises, from both funeral service and business perspectives.
The specialists behind the new venture are:
Todd Van Beck, CFSP, who has over 40 years experience in funeral service. He is the Director of Continuing Education at John A. Gupton College in Nashville, and Dean of the College of Funeral Home Management at ICCFA University.
John McQueen, CFSP, a funeral director and owner of Anderson-McQueen Funeral Homes in St Petersburg, FL. He is the President of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice, and is a world leader in Bio-Cremation using alkaline hydrolysis.
Robin Heppell, CFSP, is owner of Funeral Futurist Marketing Consultancy, with over 25 years experience in the funeral profession. Mr. Heppell is a 4th generation funeral director, a Certified Celebrant, and a Certified Google Adwords Partner.
Meeting Funeral Professionals Needs
“FuneralGurus.com is an online membership site that has been created to meet the needs of those within the funeral industry who wish to grow their traditional people-focused businesses using twenty-first century technology to guide them” explained Mr. Heppell.
“Our goal has been to create one destination where funeral home owners and staff are able to quickly and easily access training, obtain the very latest resources, and have their questions answered by industry leaders” he continued.
“Through FuneralGurus.com we are providing all of this, in one central location, at a fraction of the cost they would otherwise be paying for the training element alone.”
Shared Knowledge
Members of FuneralGurus.com will be able to draw upon an immense digital library of funeral industry resources, and tap into the decades of industry knowledge of not just McQueen, Van Beck, and Heppell – they will also benefit from the combined knowledge that other members bring to the group.
“A Funeral Gurus membership provides members with the tools they need to embrace and overcome the challenges we face in funeral service today. As an example, by using our ready-to-use content they are able to plan staff meetings and conduct training sessions without leaving their premises – a huge saving in time and expense” said Mr. McQueen.
“When planning our service offering, we took a holistic approach to running a funeral home. To this end, we have included training and guidance for administrative staff, and ongoing, online, mentorship to sales staff – all with a focus on ethical practices.”
“One of our training modules includes providing an insight into the psyche of price shoppers, and shares proven strategies to help convert them from prospects to clients, including some sophisticated digital strategies.”
A free webinar, and details on becoming a charter member of Funeral Gurus, at an introductory discounted rate, can be found at: http://www.funeralgurus.com/
This is a video showing an online casket retailer who posts negative online reviews of funeral homes who have had issues with the retailers caskets.
If this has happened to your funeral home, I would suggest that you do two things:
1. Post a reply to the negative review such as:
“This is not a customer that we served. This is a fraudulent review that this user has posted to numerous funeral homes.”
2. Report the reviewer by clicking Report – Block and then choose either:
This profile is impersonating someone
OR
This profile violates other User Content and Conduct Policies – Unwanted commercial content or spam
If this has happened to you, please let me know what the results are after completing these steps.
This is the link to the alleged fraudulent user: https://goo.gl/VLo20A
This is the link to the alleged fraudulent user: https://goo.gl/ylSnIw
Victoria, BC, Canada – July 30, 2015
Funeral Marketing & Strategy Consultant, Robin Heppell knows funeral home owners and managers have a choice in which seminars and events to attend. With attendees investing hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars every year in professional development, the Funeral Marketing Blueprint program has been developed to give attendees a complete road map for their marketing initiatives. Also, the Funeral Boardroom Mastermind is perfect for funeral homes that want to fine tune their operations to not only increase market share but also to increase aver funeral values.
Robin Heppell, the host and facilitator of the Funeral Rock Stars declared, “What makes the Funeral Rock Star event a really unique learning experience is that it is a complete plan with a consistent message that can be implemented and not just random ideas from a variety of individual presenters.”
This program is designed specifically for Funeral Home Owners and Managers. John McQueen of Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home of St. Petersburg, Florida proclaimed, “After attending the program, I know that I made the right choice by investing in Rob and the Funeral Rock Stars event. Any funeral professional out there that wants to be successful for years to come in their market should make sure that they take the Rock Star event.”
When asked about her thoughts on Robin Heppell’s Marketing conference, Anne Geib of Geib Funeral Homes of New Philadelphia & Dover, Ohio said, “It’s excellent. Rob’s done an excellent job of not only telling about very technical details but providing overview, how it can fit into your entire marketing plan. We’re learning why you do things, how to measure them, and how it’s going to benefit your company, which I think has been exceptional for me. Not only has he given us very specifics, but he’s allowed your mind to wander and to figure out how it fits into your organization. It’s been incredibly helpful.”
The first 2 days will showcase the Funeral Marketing Blueprint that will walk attendees through the process of creating their own Funeral Marketing Plan and also provide them with proven ways to increase the effectiveness of your advertising. This is a complete marketing plan for Funeral Homes with both offline and online channels including Print, Radio, Websites, SEO, Pay Per Click, Online Obits, Videos, Social Media, Online Reviews and Reputation Management.
For only 10 funeral professionals, the last 2 days is the Funeral Boardroom Mastermind is where this small, intimate group will roll up their sleeves and dive into 5 areas of strategic marketing for their funeral home. They will identify the most important ways to improve their business and more importantly how to get these strategies implemented into their business as fast as possible.
Heppell added, “Attendees will love the Rock Star format, especially being at the perfect venue, at the Union Club of B.C. that is located in the heart of Downtown Victoria. Besides having complimentary hot breakfast, lunch and snacks, each day will end with Hepp’s Hot Seat Happy Hour where drinks will be served during an uncensored, anything goes, Question and Answer period. This is a “can’t miss” event for those who prescribe to the “work hard – play hard” mindset.
About Robin Heppell, CFSP
The Funeral Rock Stars event reveals insider secrets and proven techniques to making a funeral home’s marketing plan more effective and easier to follow. Robin Heppell, CFSP of FuneralFuturist.com is recognized in the Funeral Profession as a marketing strategist and thought leader for positioning funeral homes to embrace the future and has spoken in front of thousands of funeral professionals on topics of Marketing, Strategy, Competition, Websites, Social Media, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Google AdWords.
For complete details of both the Funeral Marketing Blueprint and the Funeral Boardroom Mastermind, go to http://www.FuneralRockStars.com.
For media inquiries, please visit http://www.FuneralFuturist.com/connect/ for immediate download of the Funeral Futurist infographic.
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Hi. Robin Heppell here. On today’s show, I’m going to be talking about how you can be an all-star funeral director.
Topics discussed / In this video:
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Download My Funeral Director’s Report
Welcome to another edition of the Funeral Strategy and Marketing Show. Now, before I dive into today’s topic, I want to let you know to stick around till the end of the episode because that’s where I’m going to tell you where you can get your own copy of my personal funeral director’s all-star checklist. This is something that you can use just to record different things for every service that you do so that you can be a funeral director all-star.
Now, let’s get in today’s topic. How to be a an all-star funeral director. Now, first off, I’m not going to say that I am the best funeral director ever. I will say though that I feel that I was a really good funeral director and I still get called upon by close families to act in that capacity or even act as a celebrant so I still see things on the front lines.
What I want to share with you today is some of the things that I learned from my mentors and that can help you to rise above maybe the rest of the staff so that you can look like you would be the all-star funeral director on your staff. This is isn’t just for employees. It’s for owners as well, anyone who is working day to day on the front lines with the families, making the arrangements, embalming, directing the services.
Now, the reason why I want to share this with you is that I wanted to look back what would happen just recently. One of my mentors, Stu Carrol, who is the manager of McCall Bros. for a long time recently retired. I spoke just to have a little segment at his retirement dinner that I shared a few things. I thought, “You know what, this would be a great things for me to share with everyone, all the things that I learned from Stu plus my other mentors.”
First of all, when I started I started working in Ontario at my uncle’s and grandfather’s funeral home at Egan’s Funeral Home in Bolton, Ontario just northwest of Toronto. I came back to play hockey here in Victoria, British Columbia. It was funny because I was so shy I didn’t even … My dad phoned down to McCall’s and got me an interview. Actually, I had an interview with Stu way back so that’s almost 30 years ago.
Now, at McCall’s, I had great mentors there as well. Dave McCall gave me lots of great opportunities. He was very patient with me and his uncle, Torrey McCall taught me a few things that I’m going to share with you. Ken Kyle, who helped me during my apprenticeship. He’s an excellent embalmer, lots of attention to detail. For funeral directing and arrangement, Stu Carrol was the guy. He checked all of our work and made sure that we were doing the best that we could.
What I’ve done is I’ve broken this down into three areas. First of all, the first area is just the general attitude. The first one is, show up early. Show up early for work. Maybe ten minutes early. It’s funny. When I first started working at McCall’s, I got a handwritten letter from my grandfather, just checking in. This was way before e-mails and things like that. He wrote me a note saying and one of the suggestions that he made in that was to show up early.
I got to tell you, when you show up early for work, maybe it’s just ten minutes early, the day just rolls a lot better. McCall’s is a very busy funeral home and lots of things are going on. If you just up right up when you’re supposed to start working, there’s things that you could miss and it might threw you off the entire day. Get there early. If you drink coffee or tea or whatever you do, you grab that, find out what happened over the evening before, check out what’s happening today, make sure anything that you’re assigned to do, you’ve got that completely detailed and just be prepared.
Next, super simple one but be well-groomed whether it’s with your hair and your clothing, making sure that your shirts are pressed and not wrinkled. Make sure that your shoes are shined. Just little things but these things really stand out now more than back a generation ago, you won’t have to remind people because that’s why the people were. Nowadays, noticed many people uphold those types of things. There’s never going to be a negative just make sure that your shoes are shined, shirts are polished, you have a nice tie on if you’re wearing a tie. However you dressed, just make it the best that you can be.
Another skill that, I think, goes by the wayside is remembering names. If you have the chance to read and you should read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, just being personable and if you can remember someone’s name. They always say that the sweetest sound is someone’s own name. If you can call people by their name, remember their name especially certain pronunciations of names, how you say names, just make sure that you have that dialed in. Whether its certain things like Dana or Dana, Tara or Tara, things like that, just how do people pronounce their names, Ian or Ian, little things like that. Remember their names too.
I used to have this little book like a Day-Timer, not even a Day-Timer just a little pocket calendar and it had squares in it. I would write down the names of people once I met them. On the day that I met them, I put that it there. People on the staff and my friends would say, “Oh, what was that person’s name?” I wouldn’t even have to look back. I would just know because I just took that time at that point and wrote it down and that was enough for me to remember.
Now, with all our digital gadgets, we don’t always have that opportunity to do that. Somehow, maybe just key it in on your phone or enter them as a contact and put a note of how you met them and that’s going to go a lot further because, as I said, people love the sound of their name. People, even years later, will say, “I didn’t think you’d remember me. Thanks for remembering my name.”
Another thing too is public speaking and I lead it to the story of when I started at McCall’s, I was so shy, get this, that my dad actually phoned down to McCall’s for me to get an interview. I can even remember in Grade 3 and I still remember this. This is how paranoid or not paranoid but fearful I was of speaking aloud. We had to do this exercise and we’re reading a short story and the whole class had to read it and we went paragraph by paragraph. I can remember counting how many people are next because we’re going through the rows and then which paragraph I would have to read. I was just so hoping that it was a small paragraph and I can remember who has the big one.
I was so afraid but over time, if you practice and speaking aloud is a great or public speaking is a great skill because a lot of people stay away from it. Right? You’ve heard the thing that people even fear that more than death itself. Obviously, you’ve heard that, so many people used that in the eulogy but it’s somewhat true and it’s a great skill.
The first presentation that I ever did for McCall was a preneed presentation. It wasn’t the greatest. I basically read off a sheet of paper. Now, I can just have a few bullet points. I can tell stories and try to be a lot more engaging. I’m not the greatest order in the world but if it wasn’t for public speaking, I won’t be able to do what I’m currently doing. I think, it’s a skill that people put off to the side. They make up a lot of excuses why not to do it. If you can be that person of learning how to do it then do it.
Then also learn how to present and just get up just doing that. The more that you do it, there’s lots of books on it, lots of videos online to learn how to present, but don’t overthink it. The number one thing is to practice. Get a short presentation and offer that at smaller groups and they’ll become bigger and bigger. Now, I’ve presented hundreds of times to funeral directors all around the world and also hundreds of webinars and videos like this.
Those are some of the key things that are general skills. One more, anticipation. One thing that, I think, is really important especially in today’s busy lives is we have to anticipate what might happen or what might not happen. We can’t just assume that everything is going to go according to the way it’s been planned. I like to joke. The best way to be spontaneous is to have a plan. Just have an idea of, “If this happens, then this is what I should do.”
I can remember being in front of a church with over a thousand people. I had this idea that the flowers weren’t going to be sitting on the casket and it looked too big and it might start sliding off. What I did, I anticipated that. I brought in a small table at the very front of the church. As I looked in, “Yeah, this isn’t going to work.” I just carefully took the table, got it into place, put the flowers on it so that flowers didn’t slide off or we won’t have that. Just little things like that, anticipate.
When I was a hockey goalie, we used to do lots of sports. Athletes do this as mental imagery, thinking about things. I would be making a save in my mind, all the different scenarios so when it actually happens, it’s just second nature.
Now, again, I know that we’re super busy at work but just anticipate those little things. Anticipate what happens if there’s something in the family or if there’s a small child in the family. Anticipate where would a good exit strategy would be if the mom of that child wanted to leave early and not have to walk them down the middle of the aisle in front of everyone. That could be embarrassing. Just have those plans and maybe even let them know, “Hey, if this happens, this is where you can go.” Just be ready to improvise. You don’t have to but if you, again, the best way to be spontaneous is to have a plan.
Now, what I’d like to do is to drill in more to funeral skills overall for the business operations. The first one is and this might sound a bit weird but understand the profitability of a funeral home. This doesn’t matter who you work for. Maybe you work for a family, maybe you work for a corporation but you need to understand the profitability of the funeral home because if the funeral home is not profitable, one major thing is that you may be out of a job. We don’t want that to happen.
If you understand how the company makes money and making sure that … Not how much they’re making or anything at that but what’s important to them then you’re just going to approach things differently and you’ll be more valuable to that funeral. You might wonder, “Why do the owners and managers go around and turn off the lights when no one’s in the room? It’s not a big deal. They’re energy-efficient lighting.” Every penny that gets wasted is one less penny for the overall profitability of the firm.
If we dive into this a little bit deeper, I think, the most valuable skill, the most profitable skill, sure, as funeral directors we need to have a ton of skills but the most profitable one is if you can win price shoppers or phone shoppers. Not everyone’s a price shopper but they usually start out with that question, “How much is this going to cost?” If you can be excellent at that and maybe even a go-to person, that’s going to be very valuable because you got to think.
Here’s what happened, two major things had happened when there’s a phone shopper. Number one, someone has died or is about to die. That only comes around once in that person’s life so you only have one chance. Secondly, the phone has rung so that means that your marketing has worked up to that point. At that very moment, that call is yours to either win or to lose and if you lose it, it’s lost forever and you have to wait until the next person dies and, hopefully, your marketing works so that they call the funeral and that’s the cycle.
If you can really understand that and I know that role plan. I can remember I don’t want … That’s role playing and stuff like that and doing scripts but the more you practice it, the more comfortable that you get at that, you’re going to be that much more valuable to the firm.
The next one too is getting the money. You’ve got the arrangement. You’ve made the arrangements. Now, it’s time to how are you going to look after this. I think, funeral homes nowadays are on the ball about this and a lot more on top of it. When I started, it was, “Okay. Yeah, we’ll send you the bill in a couple of weeks,” or whatever or after the service. Nowadays, the cash flow is so important to a funeral home is that it’s better to get the money sooner than later.
A lot of funeral directors haven’t been on the other side of the desk. They’re not the business owners but, personally, as a business owner with a staff of 8 people, I know what it’s like when payday is coming around. Sure, you may have had a lot of sales or a lot of business coming in but if that money hasn’t been realized, if it’s still accounts receivable, you can’t pay your staff in money that you haven’t collected yet.
People will say, “The funeral homes got a lot of money. They can still pay for things.” In funeral homes, that money has been allocated to something else, just a pool there waiting if we haven’t received money yet for the next month. As a funeral director and as an arranger, it’s up to you to make sure that you take responsibility of getting that cash secured.
One of the lines and I’m sure your management has talked about this. How would you like to look after that today? They might ask what the options are and you can say, “We prefer to have everything paid up front. We can take a check or a credit card,” or however it’s set up at your firm. Assume that they’re going to pay today because almost everywhere else they go, they’re paying upfront for any other transactions. Funeral homes shouldn’t be any different. Just really understand that.
Now, I mentioned this, the next one is attention to detail. We hear attention to detail all the time but sometimes it gets lost or overdone or it’s talked too generally that we don’t really know what we’re paying attention to. This goes back to Stu Carrol. With the presentation of the deceased, we were always so competitive when I was embalmer/funeral director/arranger. If we were doing the preparation and the cosmetics, at the end of the day, we would have the deceased in the different viewing rooms and so we put them out and then Stu Carrol would walk around and check out how everyone looked.
The things that he always taught us to do was make sure that the colors are perfect on a male, that’s a nice knot on the tie if they’re wearing a tie, that the shirt is nicely snugged down, that’s not wrinkly. You can do that. There’s little tricks of doing that with the shirttails down in the pockets. In the pants pocket, you can tug those down to make those snug.
He was really meticulous on cuffs, that the cuffs were always straight and showing just a little bit past the jacket. If they’re wearing cuff links, that the cuff links were clean. There weren’t smudges or fingerprints on them or anything, that they’re always cleaned up and visible, and that everything just looked like they just came out of the tailors, out of the barber shop. Making sure that there’s nose hairs or ear hairs, that there’s not an eyelash out of place, that the mustache or facial hair that it was nicely trimmed if that’s the way they were just like they came out.
Same with females too, that everything was just right. Any dresses or blouses were always on properly. Sometimes I’ve seen other times at other places where things just looked a little disheveled and that’s not the way to do it. If you want to impress people, you have to pay attention to the detail.
The other thing too just in general arrangements. The obituaries, make sure that you double-checked all the names of the survivors. Obviously, the date and time of services. I’ve made that mistake before. That’s a story for another day. Those are really important. Same with flowers. Double-check if those flowers have been ordered and that they’re going to be on time at the proper location because that’s what those people are thinking of.
We just have service the other day and my mom, the first thing when we got there, she wanted to let me know that the flowers that we sent as a family, so Mom did it and put all our names on it but that’s the first thing that she did. Check to see if those flowers are there. Double-check that those are ordered just like what you hear about carpenters. They measure twice, cut once. Just double-check that information before it get sent off, before the order gets placed. This is the same with engraving urns as well. Make sure that that’s double-checked because you don’t want any mistakes. Same with monuments if you’re dealing monument cells. Those are some of the funeral skills.
Now, I wanted to talk you about the arrangements themselves. First off, I think, one thing that we don’t do enough of is introduce ourselves before the arrangements and you can do this via e-mail. Now, sometimes different funeral homes are going to be really busy. You may not know who’s going to be meeting that family but, I think, once the first has been taken, one of the critical pieces of information that is, after taking that first call, to ask for the e-mail address.
We always think, “They might think we’re prying or anything like that,” but they’re just giving you the business to look after their loved one, the deceased. I think, that they will be willing to give the e-mail address and just let them know, “We got some important information to send you before the arrangements and we find it best just to send it by e-mail. Can you give me your e-mail address, please?” Or, “What’s your e-mail address?” It’ll just be automatic that they give that to you.
Then you send an e-mail and you can briefly introduce yourself or maybe this is the admin staff sending it on your behalf. Maybe put a link to the staff page and say, “If you want, Rob Heppell will be meeting with you today,” or “I’ll be meeting with you today. For a little bit more information on myself, check out our staff page or my bio here.”
The reason why I say this is probably dozens of times, McCall’s, I’ve been working with McCall’s on their website. It was 1996 that we first had a website for McCall’s. Even then, the super tech-savvy people, I can remember this one lady, she was over 60 at the time. She started asking me about Ontario and Toronto and things like that. I said, “That’s strange.” I answered the questions. She says, “I was on the McCall’s website and I looked up your information.” It makes people more at ease and we’ve been working with this with our funeral boardroom members of actually creating a special page on the website that’s not part of the general navigation that we send families between the time of the need or by the time of the first call and before they come in for the arrangements.
Obviously, this isn’t going to work for walk-ins but for people that get that e-mail ahead of time, they’ve land on the page that has like these are the things that we’re going to cover. It’ll also introduces them to new services such us … Maybe it’s a tribute blanket or something like that. Instead of after 80 minutes of your 90-minute arrangement and I know that there are so much detail that we have to go through nowadays.
The boss will probably say, “No, no. Make sure you introduce cremation jewelry and tribute blankets and anything else that’s part of what you’re offering.” If they’ve never heard it, it’s sometimes even uncomfortable to bring that up. If they’ve had a chance to read that ahead of time on their own time, spend time on the website and see the sample of that tribute blanket, they might actually initiate the conversation. “Oh, tell me a little bit more about the cremation jewelry. Tell me a little bit more about this tribute blankets. I saw a sample on the website.”
If they start it then it’s not like you’re being sales-y at all but if you’re going through your list, over time, you might be getting uncomfortable. You might think they’re getting uncomfortable. I believe that the more comfortable that they are coming into the arrangement, it’s going to just set them at ease. It’s going to be a better experience for them. It’ll be an easier arrangement for you. I believe that your averages will go up because they’ll be more preconditioned to some of the new offerings that you might have.
Also, in that e-mail too, if you receive a personal e-mail from me, you see my picture at the bottom of the e-mail. Dr. Robert Cialdini who spoke at ICCFA a few years ago, one of his studies that he’s done show that people that insert a picture in their e-mail when they’re just introducing themselves to someone else, that those relationships are much stronger than people that don’t. We’re trying to build trust and credibility. Include a picture and also if you’re comfortable with it, include your mobile phone, your cell number.
Again, those are only given out to people in trustful situations so here you’re extending it to them and they feel then, “Hey, this is good. We know we’re going to be busy and this person has gone over the way to make sure that we can communicate with them however we need to.” Those are just some suggestions for that.
Now, another thing that I would do. Here in Victoria, it’s not uncommon for the service to go from … It might be four days later or even seven days later or it can be a couple of weeks or longer than that. Now, if it’s four days later or even it’s two days later, I would always check between the time of the arrangement and the day of the service with the family. I’ll give them a phone call and touch base. Let them know, “Okay. These are the things that happened so far. We’ve made the transfer so your mom has been transferred from the hospital and she’s now in our care.”
Again, we do this every day. We know it like the back of our hand. It’s totally new to them. They may not even have a clue like, “I wonder if they picked up Mom or not. I don’t know. Should we phone the hospital? Do we phone the coroner?” The funeral director who’s on the ball is going to be letting you know.
It’s not every little bit of minutia that you’re sending then ten e-mails a day but just touch base with them whether it be by phone call or maybe send them an e-mail or maybe if they’ve given you their cellphone number and the person thinks that communicating by text message is okay then you can send him a quick text just to keep him up to date.
I found that it’s just a lot easier to pull off a really good service by having that communication ahead of time because there’s not going to be as many surprises for you and you know what it’s like to get surprised by the family an hour before the service. A lot of those things can be looked after if you’ve been in touched with them.
Another thing that I would recommend is to put some note, just put any notes on the back of your file however you arranged, however you do your process of things that you can have went above and beyond. Just the little things. Instead of saying, “Hear people, he liked to fish and then he liked to golf.” Instead of saying, “Oh, make sure you bring in the good golf clubs or the fishing rods the evening before, you dropped them off.” If you’ve got free time, go out to the house and say, “Hey, I’m going to be in the neighborhood, would you mind if I go and picked those up?” Then you can get them, then you can have them set up early.
You’re not waiting on them to bring them in because they’re bringing them late, maybe they forgot them. You know what that’s like and then someone’s got to rush back. Just do these little things. Again, it’s usually not going to cost a lot of money or any money just maybe a little bit of time and maybe a little bit of gas but you’re providing a service.
More so now than ever, we have to justify why they’re paying a lot of money for funeral services. If we’re doing these things, they’re going to feel that they’re getting more value so do that. Write some notes on the back of your file and add just the little things in. I always put one or two things. It’s almost like a little challenge to me of what I could do extra for that family. Again, these are little things but they’re things that people remember.
Now, another thing that you can do is if you’re giving out surveys, the practice that we had at McCall’s was we have a survey and the survey would then be given to them with the information usually at the grave site or at the end of the service. We have the pouch with the guest book and thank you cards and give them the survey. Every family had to get one.
Back to Dr. Robert Cialdini, he recommends that if you’re using surveys, write a personalized sticky note, like a yellow sticky note, Post-it note in handwriting and just write, “When you have time please fill this out” or “I’d really appreciate it if would complete this. Rob.” Just put it on top. You got to remember, you’ve just done all this work for the families and now they’re indebted to you and here’s the personalized note so they’re probably going to fill that out for you and you probably get more positive feedback.
Especially nowadays you can take that and turn that into a positive review online then follow-up with an e-mail and say, “Thank you so much for the feedback on the survey. Would you mind sharing that on Google Plus or Yelp” or wherever. Use the yellow sticky to get more of those back because that’s one of the competitive things that we have at McCall’s. How many positive surveys that each one of us would get back. If I would have known the yellow sticky deal then, I would have definitely done it. I think, you should do it too.
One last thing and this goes actually back to Torrey McCall. One of the first times that I started there, I was a young kid, 18 years old, and I can’t remember what happened but I remember what happened afterwards or how it happened. I must have been closing the coach door and there’s probably a foot away or two feet away and I just let the handle go and the way to the door slammed shut. Torrey McCall who would have probably been 70 at the time quickly came around and instructed me on the proper way to close the door. You just take the door and push it closed, holding it all the way.
A couple of things, one, it looks a lot more professional. Two, it doesn’t make a big bang. Three, it’s going to be less wear and tear on the vehicle. Those funeral coaches nowadays are $100,000 so you don’t want something to bang or things to shake and get loose over time. It just looks good.
Another quick note that I was taught was always walk around the back of the car so don’t cut in front of the car all the time because as a driver you can usually see what’s in front and you should take a quick look but always work the back of the car. In closing the doors, that’s not just the coach, that’s also the limousine as well. Closing those doors just firmly shut.
Another thing and this is for Stu Carrol and he was a huge stickler on this. The door stoppers that flipped down, they got the little rubber grommet on them, he would make sure that we’d always bend over carefully, push that up, click it into place and then open the door. Once the door is open where we wanted it to, we pushed it down and put it in place. We would not use our toe to flick it up or flick it down. The reason why is, first of all, if you flick it up, it might make a big bang. If you kick it down, you may not get it so you may have to try it a couple of times and maybe it’ll slammed down.
It’s just not professional so you just quietly bend over, push it down, put it into place. It just looks a lot more professional and it saves your shoes. One of the other tips about having your polished shoes. If you’re not flicking the door stoppers up and down with your shoes, they’re going to stay polished longer.
Again, this is not a complete list but it’s just a bunch of things, general attitude things. There are other things that’s really specific but I wanted to let you know and also to really give thanks to mentors that I’ve had about being as good a funeral director as you can. I think, try some of these tips, put them into place, and whether you’re an employee or an owner or a manager, we have to really justify the things that we do as funeral directors and charging what we do for funeral services or celebrations or life services. These little things, I think, will just make us look that much better in the eyes of the public, guests, especially the client families that we’re serving. That’s my little seminar on how to be an all-star funeral director.
Now, just to keep you up to date on a few things that are going on, Funeral Rock Stars, it’s my big event that I’m having. I usually have this in Vegas but this year I’m having it right here at Victoria, B.C. and part of that is that you’ll be invited to a tour at McCall. You’ve heard me talked about McCall so much and you can actually visit. I’ll let you know the changes that have happened over the 30 years of how a funeral home can actually be successful and profitable in a market of 92% cremation.
For more details, go to FuneralRockStars.com. It’s in the third week of September, September 21. It starts right here in Victoria. Go to FuneralRockStars.com for more information on that.
Some other news that I want to share with you. Some exciting news is that I’ve been talking to my good friend and other mentor, Mr. Todd Van Beck. He’s a total guru when it comes to all things of funeral directing, administration. What we’re doing is we’re actually creating a private membership area where we’re going to be putting a lot of our resources, a lot of Todd’s teachings, a lot of my recorded seminars, are all going to go into the membership area of Funeral Gurus.
For less than a cup of coffee a day, you can access to a lot of that information and so that you can become as good a funeral director and/or as good as funeral home owner as you can be. That’s going to be our focus of putting that stuff there and then also for us to answer any questions that you have.
I just want to wrap up this episode here and I really think that being an all-star funeral director will not only help your career but help the funeral home that you’re working with. Most importantly, you’ll be providing even better services for the families that you serve. My challenge for you today is to start writing notes. Just do one of the things, start writing notes on the back of your file, and just over time or even complete the funeral checklist. If you want a copy of the funeral checklist, it’ll be below the video here and a post at FuneralFuturist.com.
Make sure that you check back soon for another episode of the Funeral Strategy and Marketing Show. I really want to thank you today for spending time with me on this. I think, it’s really important and my goal for you is to serve as many families as possible by providing them with the most meaningful services.
Thanks a lot. This is Robin Heppell.
Do you have anything to add to this list? Please leave your comments below.