RALEIGH, NC – The Turn-key Tributes™ program consists of a custom package of finished display materials that provides your funeral home with a way for your community to recognize all that Senator McCain has done for our country. The rollout following the death of Senator McCain last Saturday comes after a positive test surrounding the passing of Billy Graham earlier this year. The brainchild of Alan Creedy and Joe Weigel, Turn-key Tributes™ localizes the death of a national figure by giving an opportunity to share grieving at a local level. By making the funeral home the central place to gather and remember, funeral homes becomes the focus of a normal and natural human need. “For years, funeral homes have sought to be the place in their community where the public memorializes, honors and celebrates the death of a special person – whether they are a family member or an American hero,” stated Alan Creedy, president of Creedy and Company. The Turn-key Tributes™ program causes people to think of a funeral home in just that way.” Tying the death of Dr. Graham to a local presence resulted in hundreds of people signing specially made register books, the collection of donations to Graham supported charities, much positive local publicity through newspapers and, even television interviews featuring funeral directors. “In addition to the banner and register book, the test funeral homes were provided a media kit that included a press release and media tips to generate news coverage in the community for the firms”, commented Joe Weigel, owner of Weigel Strategic Marketing. “In fact, several funeral homes not only generated coverage in the local newspaper, but also a visit by the local TV station that resulted in a story in the evening news.” To learn more about the Turn-key Tributes™ program and how you can put the elements of the program to work for your funeral home following the death of Senator McCain, please visit www.tinyurl.com/Turn-key-Tributes. The post Turn-key Tributes Offers John McCain Outreach Materials appeared first on Connecting Directors. Turn-key Tributes Offers John McCain Outreach Materials published first on YouTube via Tumblr Turn-key Tributes Offers John McCain Outreach Materials
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A special CHANGE MAKERS episode featuring, Tim Bridgers, General Manager of Live Oak Bank: Funeral Home and Cemetery joins the show! Ryan and Jeff talk to Tim about the current state of the Funeral profession and what the “Roundtable Coalition” is supposed to achieve. Roundtable Coalition: Funeral business leaders, our mission is to educate funeral home and cemetery owners on consumer trends, marketing, financial literacy, pricing and culture to elevate the standards of the profession and enhance overall business performance. The post ROUNDTABLE COALITION WILL DRAMATICALLY IMPACT FUNERAL SERVICE | FUNERAL nation 122 appeared first on Connecting Directors. ROUNDTABLE COALITION WILL DRAMATICALLY IMPACT FUNERAL SERVICE | FUNERAL nation 122 published first on YouTube via Tumblr ROUNDTABLE COALITION WILL DRAMATICALLY IMPACT FUNERAL SERVICE | FUNERAL nation 122 Brookfield, Wis. – The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) is pleased to announce that 159 funeral homes have earned the 2018 Pursuit of Excellence Award. This award is presented by NFDA annually to firms that have demonstrated a commitment to raising the bar on funeral service excellence by adhering to strict ethical and professional standards and providing outstanding service to families and communities.
To earn an NFDA Pursuit of Excellence Award, a funeral home must demonstrate proficiency in key areas of funeral service, including compliance with state and federal regulations; providing ongoing education and professional development opportunities for staff; offering outstanding programs and resources to bereaved families; maintaining an active level of involvement in the community; participating and actively serving in the funeral service profession; and promoting funeral home services through a variety of marketing, advertising and public relations programs. Participants are also required to adhere to a Pledge of Ethical Practices.
NFDA will recognize the 2018 Pursuit of Excellence Award recipients on October 15 during the All-Star Recognition Ceremony, which will take place during the 2018 NFDA International Convention & Expo, October 14 through 17 in Salt Lake City.
Information about the NFDA Pursuit of Excellence program can be found by visiting www.nfda.org/pursuitofexcellence. Registration and application materials for 2019 will be available in late-October 2018.
Richard Myers Pinnacle Award
NFDA is pleased to confer the inaugural Richard Myers Pinnacle Award on Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Homes & Crematory in New Castle, Del.
As part of the entry process, all program participants are required to submit an essay describing the development and execution of a program or service that had a positive impact on those served. To recognize funeral homes that develop an extraordinary program or service, as described in their essay, that far surpasses the definition of funeral service excellence, NFDA established the Richard Myers Pinnacle Award.
Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home created unique and engaging 16-page anti-bullying activity book created entirely by their team, and geared specifically toward children ages 4-8. The book’s main character, a loveable bulldog named Duchess, offers a warmer, gentler way to introduce the topic of bullying to a young audience. Duchess is the name of funeral home owner Matthew Smith’s bulldog – she really exists.
The book, entitled “Duchess the Bulldog Says Be a Buddy, Not a Bully,” has been distributed by Spicer-Mullikin staff to local libraries, YMCA and several elementary schools. The book is also available to children who accompany adults to the funeral home. Spicer-Mullikin staff have also hosted live “book readings” for local children in aftercare and summer camps at the local YMCA.
The Richard Myers Pinnacle Award is conferred at the discretion of the Pursuit of Excellence Committee and only when it encounters a remarkable example of excellence in the profession.
This award is named in honor of the founder of the Pursuit of Excellence Program, NFDA Past President Richard Myers.
Best of the Best Award Recipients
All Pursuit of Excellence applicants submitted an essay describing the development and execution of a program or service that had a positive impact on the families they serve or their community, qualifying them for the Best of the Best Award, which recognizes the most novel and innovative programs and services in the profession.
After a thorough review, the Pursuit of Excellence Committee has selected three funeral homes to receive the Best of the Best Award:
The 2018 Best of the Best Award winners are: · Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors Pte. Ltd., Singapore, Singapore: The Last Portrait, was a special project to give families of nursing home residents a beautiful, professionally taken portrait of their loved one – something that many families did not have. · Funeraria San Vicente S.A., Medellin, Colombia: The Grief Counseling Center, is staffed by seven psychologists, a physician and other staff who offer free support groups and other programs to help people grieving the loss of a loved one. The center averages 600 consultations every month. · Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, East Pittsburgh, Penn.: When Pat Lanigan was searching for a unique and meaningful Memorial Day tribute, he decided to bring two local heroes – one who died during WWII and one who died during the Vietnam War – back to life. Dressed in vintage military garb, Lanigan represented Leo Maloney and Michael Estocin as if they were still alive. He gave voice to their stories and thanked those in attendance for making time to remember the nation’s honored dead.
NFDA Hall of Excellence Inductees
NFDA-member funeral homes are inducted into the Hall of Excellence upon receiving their 10th Pursuit of Excellence Award. In recognition of their consistent display of professional and ethical excellence, four funeral homes will be inducted into the NFDA Hall of Excellence in 2018:
· Ballard-Durand Funeral & Cremation Services, White Plains, N.Y. · Duksa Family Funeral Homes at Burritt Hill, New Britain, Conn. · Cannon Cleveland Funeral Directors, McDonough, Ga. · Emmanuel Johnson Funeral Home, Philadelphia, Penn. · Pedersen Funeral & Cremation Service, Morris, Minn. · Savage-DeMarco Funeral Service, Endicott, N.Y. · Tetrick Funeral Home, Elizabethton, Tenn. · Thomas McAfee Funeral Home Northwest Location, Greenville, S.C.
2018 NFDA Pursuit of Excellence Award Recipients *Previously inducted into the NFDA Hall of Excellence ^First-time Award Recipient
A.H. Peters Funeral Home of Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.* A.H. Peters Funeral Home of Warren, Warren, Mich. A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors, Troy, Mich.* Alderson-Ford Funeral Homes Inc., Naugatuck, Conn.^ Anderson & Sons Mortuary, American Fork, Utah Anderson Funeral and Cremation Services, Belvidere, Ill. Anderson Funeral Home and Crematory, Alexandria, Minn. Anderson-Burris Funeral Home & Crematory, Enid, Okla. Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors Pte., Ltd., Singapore, Singapore^ Arlington Memorial Chapels Inc., Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines Arnett & Steele Funeral Home and Cremation Center, Pineville, Ky.* Arrington Funeral Directors, Jackson, Tenn. Baird Funeral Home, Troy, Ohio* Ballard-Durand Funeral & Cremation Services, White Plains, N.Y. Baskerville Funeral Home, Wilmington, Ill. Bass Funeral Home Inc., Gordonsville, Tenn. B.C. Bailey Funeral Home, Wallingford, Conn. Brandon G. Thompson Funeral Home, Hammond, La. Brunswick Memorial Home, East Brunswick, N.J. Caldwell & Cowan Funeral Home, Covington, Ga.* Cannon Cleveland Funeral Directors, McDonough, Ga. Cassaday-Turkle-Christian Funeral and Cremation Service Inc., Alliance, Ohio* Centro Funerário Morada da Paz, Paulista, PE, Brazil Chambers & James Funeral, Pet & Cremation Services, Wellsburg, W.Va. Christopher Mitchell Funeral Home Inc., Albion, N.Y. Copeland Funeral Service, Beaufort, S.C. Cozean Memorial Chapel & Crematory, Farmington, Mo.* Cozine Memorial Groupm Wichita, Kan.* C.R. Lyons & Sons Funeral Directors, Danvers, Mass. Crowe’s Funeral Homes Inc., Jamaica, N.Y. David C. Brown Funeral Home, Belleville, Mich.* Davis Funeral Home LLC, Nashua, N.H.* Deiters Funeral Home & Crematory, Washington, Ill. D’Esopo East Hartford Memorial Chapel, East Hartford, Conn.* D’Esopo Funeral Chapel, Wethersfield, Conn.* Dobratz-Hantge Funeral Chapel, Hutchinson, Minn.* Duksa Family Funeral Homes at Burritt Hill, New Britain, Conn. Duksa Family Funeral Homes at Newington Memorial, Newington, Conn.* Dwayne R. Spence Funeral Home, Pickerington, Ohio* E. Blake Collins Funeral Home, Wilkes Barre, Penn. Emmanuel Johnson Funeral Home, Philadelphia, Penn. Falco Caruso & Leonard Funeral Home, Pennsauken, N.J. Falco Caruso & Leonard Funeral Homes, Camden, N.J. Farris Funeral Service and Crematory, Abingdon, Va. Finch & Finch Funeral & Cremation Service, Altavista, Va. Freitas Rupracht Funeral Home, Yerington, Nev. French Funeral Home, Brazil, Ind.* Funeraria Hernandez, Pennsauken, N.J. Funeraria La Esperanza, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia Funeraria San Vicente S.A., Medellin, Colombia Gamble Funeral Service, Savannah, Ga., US* Gardinier Funeral Home Inc., Franklin, Penn. Geisen Funeral, Cremation & Reception Centre, Crown Point, Ind. Geisen-Carlisle Funeral & Cremation Services, Michigan City, Ind. G.H. Herrmann Funeral Homes, Indianapolis, Ind. Gorsline-Runciman Funeral Homes, East Lansing, Mich. Grupo Primaveras, Sao Paulo, Brazil^ Gunderson Funeral and Cremation Care, Madison, Wis.* Halpin Bitecola Brookdale Funeral Home, Bloomfield, N.J. Health Funeral Chapel & Crematory, Lakeland, FL Henderson Funeral Home & Crematory, Pekin, Ill.* Heritage Funeral Home, Nipawin, SK, Canada* Herman-Taylor Funeral Home & Cremation Center, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. Holman-Howe Funeral Home, Lebanon, Mo. Howard K. Hill Funeral Services, New Haven, Conn. Hughes Family Tribute Center, Dallas, Texas Inglesby & Sons Funeral Home, Pennsauken, N.J. Irvin-Macz Funeral Home, Centralia, Ill. James Funeral Home & Northlake Memorial Gardens, Huntersville, N.C. James H. Cole Home for Funerals, Detroit, Mich.^ J. Garcia Lopez – Casa Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico Johnson-Hagglund Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Litchfield, Minn.* Johnson-McBride Funeral Chapel, Glencoe, Minn. Jones-Wynn Funeral Homes & Crematory, Douglasville, Ga.* Jones-Wynn Funeral Homes & Crematory, Villa Rica, Ga.* Joseph Vertin and Sons Funeral Home, Breckenridge, Minn.* Karrer-Simpson Funeral Home, Port Huron, Mich. Kemp Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Southfield, Mich.^ Kerrville Funeral Home, Kerrville, Texas* Kilpatrick Funeral Home, West Monroe, La.* Kimble Funeral Home, Junction, Texas Kok Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Cottage Grove, Minn. Krestridge Funeral Home, Levelland, Texas Lakeshore Memorial Services, a Dignity Memorial Provider, Holland, Mich. Lakeside Memorial Funeral Home Inc., Hamburg, N.Y. Langley Funeral Home, Camp Hill, Ala. Leo P. Gallagher & Son Funeral Home, Stamford, Conn. Lord & Stephens Funeral Home, Athens, Ga. Martin Funeral, Cremation and Tribute Services – Fairgrove, Fairgrove, Mich.* Martin Funeral, Cremation and Tribute Services – Grand Blanc, Grand Blanc, Mich.* Martin Funeral, Cremation and Tribute Services – Mt. Morris, Mount Morris, Mich.* Martin Funeral, Cremation and Tribute Services – Vassar, Vassar, Mich.* Memorial Funeral Home, Edinburg, Texas* Memorial Funeral Home, San Juan, Texas* Mercer-Adams Funeral Service, Bethany, Okla. Meredith-Clark Funeral Home, Cremation and Personalization Center, Morgantown, Ind. Mililani Memorial Park & Mortuary, Waipahu, Hawaii Miller-Jones Mortuary & Crematory Inc., Moreno Valley, Calif. Milward Funeral Directors, Lexington, Ky.* Molden Funeral Chapel & Cremation Service, Bristol, Penn. Morgan & Nay Funeral Centre, Madison, Ind. Morris-Baker Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Johnson City, Tenn. Morrissett Funeral & Cremation Service, North Chesterfield, Va. Murphy Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Ewing, N.J.^ Myers Mortuary – Brigham City, Brigham City, Utah* Myers Mortuary – Layton, Layton, Utah* Myers Mortuary – Ogden, Ogden, Utah* Myers Mortuary of Roy, Roy, Utah* Nie Family Funeral Home & Cremation Services – Carpenter Road Chapel, Ann Arbor, Mich.^ Nie Family Funeral Home & Cremation Services – Liberty Road Chapel, Ann Arbor, Mich.^ Oakley-Cook Funeral Home & Crematory, Bristol, Tenn.^ Oceanside Memorial Home, Lake Como, N.J. Ochiltree Funeral Service and Aftercare, Winterset, Iowa* Old Bridge Funeral Home, Old Bridge, N.J. Oliverie Funeral Home, Manchester, N.J. Olson Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Sheboygan, Wis.* Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, East Pittsburgh, Penn.* Pedersen Funeral & Cremation Service, Morris, Minn. Pixley Funeral Home, Rochester, Mich.* Posey Funeral Directors, North Augusta, S.C.^ Pray Funeral Home Inc., Charlotte, Mich.* Radney Funeral Home, Alexander City, Ala. Ransford Collon Funeral Home, Caro, Mich. Reeves Funeral Home, Coal City, Ill.* Reichmuth Funeral Home, Elkhorn, Neb. Reynolds Jonkhoff Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Traverse City, Mich.* Roller-Ballard Funeral Home, Benton, Ark. Roller-Chenal Funeral Home, Little Rock, Ark.* Roller-Coffman-Crouch Funeral Home, Mountain View, Ark. Roller-Cox Funeral Home, Clarksville, Ark. Roller-Daniel Funeral Home, Searcy, Ark.* Roller Funeral Home – Paris, Paris, Ark. Roller-McNut Funeral Home, Conway, Ark.* Roller-McNutt Funeral Home Clinton, Clinton, Ark. Roller-Owens Funeral Home, North Little Rock, Ark.* Savage-DeMarco Funeral Service, Endicott, N.Y. Seaver Brown Funeral Service & Crematory, Marion, VA Sharer-Stirling-Skivolocke Funeral Home, Alliance, Ohio* Smith Family Funeral Home, North Little Rock, Ark. Southern Utah Mortuary, Cedar City, Utah Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Homes & Crematory, New Castle, Del. St. Peter Chapels, Quezon City, Philippines Staab Polk Memorial Home/Cremation Services of Central Illinois, Chatham, Ill.* Tetrick Funeral & Cremation Services, Johnson City, Tenn. Tetrick Funeral Home, Elizabethton, Tenn. Thomas McAfee Funeral Home Downtown Location, Greenville, S.C.* Thomas McAfee Funeral Home Northwest Location, Greenville, S.C. Thomas McAfee Funeral Home Southeast Location, Simpsonville, S.C. Twiford Funeral Home LLC, Elizabeth City, N.C.* Waitt Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Morganville, N.J. Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary, Salt Lake City, Utah Watson Thomas Funeral Home and Crematory, Galesburg, Ill. Weeks’ Dryer Mortuary, Tacoma, Wash. Weeks’ Enumclaw Funeral Home, Enumclaw, Wash.* Weeks’ Funeral Home, Buckley, Wash.* Wieting Family Funeral Home, Chilton, Wis. Wm. Sullivan & Son Funeral Home, Royal Oak, Mich.* Wm. Sullivan & Son Funeral Home, Utica, Mich.* Worlein Funeral Home, Austin, Minn.*
NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving more than 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 39 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfda.org. The post NFDA Salutes Funeral Homes for Excellence in Service to Families and Communities appeared first on Connecting Directors. NFDA Salutes Funeral Homes for Excellence in Service to Families and Communities published first on YouTube via Tumblr NFDA Salutes Funeral Homes for Excellence in Service to Families and Communities Over the weekend, one of our many readers posted a comment on a previous blog post about Dignity PLC’s report on what they tell us people ‘assume, want and expect from funeral directors. We thought this comment deserved elevating to a post in its own right. So here it is. (Sorry about the illustration of a female in pink shorts as a reader though, we’re pretty sure it’s not an accurate depiction but it’s the best we could find). ‘Although this piece isn’t about “Quality and standards” and “Regulation” it is about the Dignity business. I’ve long since ‘had it’ with the constant media spiel that Dignity dispenses, Nothing other than a total smokescreen aimed solely for the benefit of City Institutions/Brokers/Pension funds etc etc. who are only interested in profits, reducing overheads plus a healthy balance sheet, who on the whole know absolutely nothing about the Funeral and Cremation Industry. Those actively involved all of course employ ‘Analyst people’ with an interest in economics, figures whatever who regularly run a line over Dignity’s figures, i.e. expensively employed ‘bean-counters’. Those Dignity figures will tell them one thing only, exactly how Dignity are performing. What this doesn’t do of course is to give any idea of what the remainder of the Industry are up to. Said Analysts etc should spend an equal amount of time in looking at this excellent blog since without it, how can any comparisons be drawn……………….? Consistently Dignity have taken a swipe at the Independent opposition by using the term “fragmented” without ever explaining the use of that term. Put simply, following results last year and earlier this year (together with the Share Price tanking) Dignity realised that they had to do something and as ever that involves a mandate in favour of an expensive Management Consultancy outfit, since that’s the sort of mandate that the Square Mile expects, Corporate Governance you know and again adding to the costs of a Funeral……………………. Let’s have a look at their Crematoria as it’s not just the pure Funeral side of the business that I suggest is alos suffering, it will not be long (if not already) that they start to feel a real pinch in this area. For many years no new Crematoriums were built but over the past 10 + years, thanks to Westerleigh and Memoria that position has significantly changed. Take the fairly new Cromer Crem as an example, this has a forecast 1000 funerals pa. Previously the nearest Crem or should I say Crem’s were both in Norwich, both owned by Dignity. We all know that the standard Dignity Crem fee is approx £999 so that’s an almost certain annual loss in turnover of £1M from those two locations alone. Memoria also have another operation (Waveney Memorial Park) south east of Norwich which must have added to the ‘Cromer loss’. All in all Dignity must be taking a large hit in Norfolk, considerably in excess of the £1M already mentioned Their Oxford operation I suggest is literally haemorrhaging. A few years ago Memoria opened a new site near Abingdon, all of those funerals would previously have taken place at Oxford. This operation, the South Oxon Crem (shows as per their diary,) 21 funerals during the coming week, admittedly an exceptional amount and 11 next week. Assuming 800 funerals pa, that’s another £800K that’s not rolling into Dignity’s coffers. Meanwhile down in East Devon, the now mature Southern Co-op funded East Devon Crem has taken a considerable amount of funerals away from what was a very busy Dignity operation in Exeter. That site alone has probably taken 500 funeral pa from Dignity. Basingstoke is another. The recently opened Test Valley Crem near Romsey has almost certainly affected Basingstoke, say 450 pa (and possibly more) I’ve highlighted five Dignity Crem’s, which have almost certainly in total shown a Revenue downturn pa of at least £3M, probably more. Memoria and Weterleigh Crem’s are all cheaper than Dignity, so it’s not just the Dignity Funeral side that’s having a marked effect on ‘Funeral Poverty’, it’s their Crem’s too. I suggest that said Analysts may care to take this into account as well since the number of new Crem’s being built will almost certainly not decrease. Dignity have a monopoly/near monopoly with their Crem’s located in the Brighton, Chichester, Crawley and Leatherhead areas, all very busy but are at risk to new ‘operations’ I ‘sped read’ through the recent media hype that they’ve issued, gawd how much did that cost……….. There’s something about under-performing Branches and something else about separating the Branches from the Mortuary/Vehicle bases, Funny that, since I thought that that had always been their business model. And on under-performing Branches this is a ‘token offering’ to the Square Mile, those that current “u-p” are exactly the same as those that did, say five years ago, their under-performance has been mollified by consistently large price increases across the board. I know who some of them are and would be really surprised if there are more than 30% of the entire Dignity Branches who are significantly profitable. The plain truth is that what’s happened to Dignity during the past twelve or so months had been a long time coming, a very long time and the Management have surely been fairly arrogant during this time, in that “…..it cannot happen to us….”. Prices have consistently been ramped up to a level which cannot be justified and for whatever reason they just hadn’t accepted the power of the web and the constant on-line flow of information re prices etc from opponents, that’s pure arrogance in itself. Going back to “Corporate Governance”, the current main Board have seven members, there’s only one who has long term experience of the Industry, I suggest that they’re no more connected to the Industry than your average daily commuter Where is the business going…………….? Can it go any further – closing a few Branches here and there makes no difference, surely they cannot increase the Crem fees again…….? It’s a massive business with much middle management. I could go on I really could…… There’s an additional dimension which never seems to be mentioned regarding the level of a Dignity funeral and the knock on effects that this has towards “funeral poverty”. Put simply, with Dignity feeling that they can keep their prices at X and X for the different aspects of a Funeral and if the ‘market’ continues to accept them, then it’s pure logic that other Corporates (who are also based in or around Dignity Branches) feel that they can also charge those amounts. On this blog, Co-operative Funeralcare have made a number of appearances, the third largest Corporate i.e. Funeral Partners have to date made just the five appearances on here. FP have grown significantly during the five or so years and seem to be in very much an ‘avaricious expansion mode’ with 160 shops (or thereabouts) to be precise. Clearly no ‘mom and pop business’. FP are no different than Dignity or F’care when it comes to on-line pricing, in fact they appear to be the most secretive. Later this week I’ll be posting on here current prices for both Dignity and FP for Funerals in the same location. Two highlights (sic) will be the cost of a local removal and for supplying a hearse. I’ll also throw into the mix, comparable prices from a mature local Independent Finally I had intended to write something along these lines six or so months ago but as the ‘Dignity Plc issue’ per se has again appeared on here, felt that this was a good a time as any to go into print.’ Andre Thoughts about Dignity PLC from a reader published first on YouTube via Tumblr Thoughts about Dignity PLC from a reader If you’re in the Houston area, mark your calendar for the evening of October 2 to attend Gail Rubin’s presentation, “Laughing in the Face of Death: Funny Films for Funeral Planning.” This upbeat, film clip-illustrated talk is sponsored by Texas-based Avanti Senior Living. Even though humans have a 100% mortality rate, less than 30% of adults […] via Tumblr Laughing in the Face of Death Talk in Houston Is your funeral home website helping your funeral business, or hurting it? Chances are, if you’re not receiving thank yous from families on how helpful or educational your website is, it might actually be hurting your funeral business. It’s always good to do a check-in and make sure that your website is still relevant, functioning, […] The post 5 Ways to Keep Your Funeral Home Website Relevant in 2018 appeared first on funeralOne Blog. 5 Ways to Keep Your Funeral Home Website Relevant in 2018 published first on YouTube via Tumblr 5 Ways to Keep Your Funeral Home Website Relevant in 2018 Cremation metals recycling has gained a poor reputation both for the legal and ethical questions surrounding the practice. The stereotypical recycling companies have a reputation for their vulture-like stalking, pressure-sales tactics and mysteriously calculated returns on your metals. Additionally, from the outside looking in, customers wonder about the ethics of collecting metals from cremation remains and about what the best practices are for disposing of the scraps. Recently, the internet has helped weed out some of the bad players in metals recycling through public reviews, compensation comparisons, and increased demand for transparency. This cleansing through public accountability has happened across industries and has improved the overall experience we have with companies in the 21st century. Kevin Mckay recognized the need for a rebranded crematory metals recycling business and has lead Mid-States Recycling to become the industry’s leading brand. We interviewed Kevin about his view of the industry and how crematories today can know if they are working with a trustworthy recycling service provider or if they are getting ripped off. Connecting Directors: What are some warning signs that you might be getting taken advantage of? Kevin McKay: The least transparent option I’ve heard of is “weighing-and-paying.” This is when someone simply gives you a per cremation or per ounce price for your precious metal. The buyer has to factor in a large buffer to make certain they don’t lose money, but they’re also showing that they have no interest in applying the basic rules of recycling to the transaction. From there, I would say if the recycler isn’t divulging basic information like the weight of metal you sent in, what it weighed after the smelting process, the market prices for each precious metal and the percentages of each precious metal, those would be red flags. Withholding this type of information is usually done in an effort to disclose as little information as possible to give a price advantage to the recycler. CD: What are some signs that you are with a trustworthy cremation metals recycler? KM: Conversely, the recycler should be as transparent and forthcoming as possible with every step of the process. This means detailing every weight so that it checks out with what you have recorded as being sent in. From there, they should itemize what your metal weighed after it was smelted, what percent each metal was of the whole bar, what market prices were paid for each metal and all fees associated with recycling. Another great indication you are working with a trustworthy recycler is that you are always welcome in their facility to see the whole process and have it explained to you. When this isn’t practical, they should certainly be able to furnish you with a couple references of crematory owners who have been to their facility. CD: How can you verify that you are truly getting a fair value for your metals? KM: As I mentioned before, witnessing the smelt and quick analysis of your metal is the absolute best way to ensure that you are getting fair value. Keep in mind, whether you’re a small crematory or a large crematory, if you accumulate enough (20+ troy ounces of clean dental metal) it is probably worth it to fly in for the day to watch it firsthand; at least once to get a feel for who they’re working with and to have a better understanding of recycling. We’ve had numerous customers do this and left with a better handle on what to look for and what is involved in the recycling process. In these instances, they’re typically leaving with over $10,000 and in one case our customer was stunned to find out they had just over $55,000 in value. Whether or not a customer visits, they should always request a sample from each lot that is processed. Every time a bar is created from smelting the dental metal, a sample needs to be created in order to assay it. The assay is where the analysis is done to determine the precise metal content. If the customer is unhappy or ever wanted to fact check their recycler, they can send that sample off to another recycler (probably for free) or a third-party assayer to verify the results. There is no need to reveal the results to the secondary assayer ahead of time. In my opinion, this is the best way to keep your recycler honest. CD: Is crematory metals recycling ethical? (Touch on the environmental aspect/legal requirement) If we took away the fact that there is value in this metal, it wouldn’t even be a question as to whether or not the metal should be recycled. For that reason, we need to look solely at the benefits of recycling these metals the same way we do any recyclable material in daily life. We obviously need to recycle as much metal as we can. In theory, if we didn’t recycle precious metals the price for them would go up. Mining precious metals happens everyday anyway, but it is shrouded in environmental and cultural problems. The less metal that needs to be mined, the better. The metals coming from crematories range from non-precious (stainless steel, titanium, zinc, cobalt and nickel to name a few) to precious (gold, silver, platinum, palladium and iridium). Again, with disregard to the monetary value, if these metals wound up in a landfill to just sit, or worse, buried in a cemetery, they wouldn’t decompose. Small pieces of some kinds of metals will rust over time and float away into the atmosphere. But larger, solid pieces of metal (and some types altogether) are not really susceptible to rust or degrading. Metal isn’t biodegradable because microorganisms don’t feed on them for nutrition, therefore they just sit there for lifetimes. Recycling is the best environmental option. The post Is Your Metal Recycler Ripping You Off? Here’s How You Can Find Out. [Sponsored] appeared first on Connecting Directors. Is Your Metal Recycler Ripping You Off? Here’s How You Can Find Out. [Sponsored] published first on YouTube via Tumblr Is Your Metal Recycler Ripping You Off? Here’s How You Can Find Out. [Sponsored] You can’t afford Social Media marketing but you want to increase call volume? This episode is for you because Social Media will single handily increase business and a vital tool to help you acquire new market share… if you do it right! Ryan breaks down on what you need to be doing to make that phone ring, where to find content inspiration and what YOU NEED to do when you can’t afford social media. Download our FREE eCouse – 4 Proven Strategies to Increase Call Volume Today: http://disruptmedia.co/ecourse-registration/ The post YOU CAN’T AFFORD SOCIAL MEDIA | DISRUPTu! 049 appeared first on Connecting Directors. YOU CAN’T AFFORD SOCIAL MEDIA | DISRUPTu! 049 published first on YouTube via Tumblr YOU CAN’T AFFORD SOCIAL MEDIA | DISRUPTu! 049 What’s better than serving a family during their time of need? To us, that answer is simple: serving a family for a lifetime. That means retaining them over months, years and decades. But how can your funeral home continue to serve families for generations, especially in the age of choices, and low customer loyalty? Here […] The post 5 Strategies to Keep Families Coming Back After the Funeral Service for Generations appeared first on funeralOne Blog. 5 Strategies to Keep Families Coming Back After the Funeral Service for Generations published first on YouTube via Tumblr 5 Strategies to Keep Families Coming Back After the Funeral Service for Generations I am 30 years old. There are 10 weddings on my radar right now (weddings that already happened and are about to) and about half are being officiated by a friend or family member who got certified rather than a religious leader. When these people’s parents die, do you think they are going to hire a pastor? Absolutely not. Additionally, they will not want a casket (nearly all caskets just look like horizontal church-alters) and they will not be caught near a room with pews or crown molding. These future funeral planners will not even buy urns. The de-churching of America is a modern phenomenon in which people are departing from the strict rituals and tenets of religion in masses. These de-churchers prefer to affiliate with “spiritual but not religious” or “religiously unaffiliated.” This movement has been slowly creeping up for the past few decades, but in the last few years, studies show religious departure launch to an unprecedented rate largely driven by the millennial generation. The funeral industry is unique because it is typically not affected by cultural changes until decades down the road when the young early adopters’ parents begin to die. In one view, this is a major advantage because we can see the changes and proactively adapt before they begin to affect our businesses. On the other hand, if we don’t adapt, we subject ourselves to a self-inflicted anticipatory torture of passively speeding towards a cliff with no brakes. What are the De-churching stats?According to PRRI research, from 1990 to 2015 the number of people who identify as being “religiously unaffiliated” has risen from 8% to 24%. Another study by The Pew Research Center shows that 2012-2017 the share of Americans who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” has rocketed from 19 percent to 27 percent, while the share of those who identify as “religious and spiritual” has declined from 59 percent to 48 percent. These are dramatic changes for just 5 years. The PPRI study shows a sharp upturn in the “religiously unaffiliated” after a fairly consistent decade resting at 8%. A 2016 breakdown of “religiously unaffiliated” by age exposes that a whopping 67% are between the ages of 18-39 – mostly millennials. The departure from religion is not radical news to the death care space – we are all aware of trends away from traditional services, towards the hyper-personal memorial, and funeral homes that look more like event centers – to name a few. That said, we were also aware of the slowly rising cremation rate but could not have predicted the 25% spike between 1995 and 2015. If the de-churching trends follow the path of cremation and at the very least it continues to rise at the same rate, we will have 54% of the population with no religious affiliation by 2035. If the departure continues to gain momentum, we could reach the 50% mark a decade earlier or more. In the United States, the average life expectancy of both sexes combined is 69-years-old and the mean age for a mother to have her first birth was around 24 years-old in 1990. This means that the average age to plan your parent’s death is around 45. The trend of departure from religious affiliation began around 1990, making the early de-churching millennials 28 years old today.
The UK is often about a decade ahead of the U.S. on trends including the cremation rate and the stability and state of the funeral industry. Looking at their de-churching stats, we can see that as of 2017, 53% of their population claims no religious affiliation. The Guardian reports, “Many within the [Church of England] have warned that its resistance to same-sex marriage, and the difficulty of some churches in accepting LGBT Christians, have alienated almost an entire generation of young adults. Some young people also view the C of E as failing to embrace and represent the diversity of 21st-century Britain.” The number of religiously unaffiliated youth is staggering – nearly 75% of 18-24 year-olds in England say they have no religion.
The Death of the Cremation UrnThere is a visible conflict in the rising cremation rate paired with de-churching trends and it centers around an unexpected object – the cremation urn. Cremation containers are not historically exclusive to one religion. The earliest cremation containers date back to 7000 BC and have been used by nearly all people who carried out a cremation over the last 10,000 years, regardless of religious affiliation. Recent history, though, ties urns closely with death rituals which feel religious even if the object itself is not married to a singular belief. This religious feeling could have a major impact on developing cremation rituals. Over the next 20 years, we could see the sales of traditional cremation urns sharply drop. IBIS World reports that the cremation merchandise space is a $500MM industry annually in the United States. If 2/3’s of that is attributed to cremation urns, we can place the U.S. cremation urn market at $333MM. If urn sales do begin to plummet, it is unlikely that the money spent on them will simply vanish into the wind with the ashes of your grandmother… 10,000 years of history has confidently proven we want to keep cremated remains (at least for a little while). Instead, we might see a shift in consumer spending in the marketplace from the traditional-looking urn towards religiously neutral cremation containers and a continued rise in popularity of cremation keepsakes like jewelry, scattering jars, ashes-in-glass products, and biodegradable urns. What Can We Do to Prepare?The expedited de-churching of America might be new, but we’ve been feeling the early effects for decades and most funeral homes have already taken steps to adapt to changing customer preferences. If you have been avoiding the trends, hoping they will retreat, this is proof that they are here for the foreseeable future.
The de-churching of America is not a death sentence for the funeral space, it’s an opportunity. Industries evolve with time and the funeral industry has been pretty fortunate when considering what has happened to the taxi industry, hotels, the mom-and-pop corner stores, and, soon, package delivery and the fossil fuel automobile. That said, the industry is not immune to disruption and we need to be proactive to ensure the future generations who are managing our funeral homes… have funeral homes to manage at all. It is important to consider your own community when thinking about preparing for the de-churching millennials. Some communities were ready for the shift a decade ago and some won’t be ready for 30 more years. It is also important to consider your specific business’s target customers with an eye on the future. If you are a home that focuses on serving just Catholic families, it might be time to broaden your scope to accommodate social changes. Alternatively, you could double down with a laser focus on serving only Catholics who bury. What will the de-churched future of death care look like? Here are some ideas and actions you can take today to prepare. Redesign End-of-Life TerminologyTerminology has the potential to put a huge strain on the funeral industry if it is not carefully designed moving forward. Using religiously-neutral terminology for aspects of death care that have become associated with religion or ritual will be crucial. As a starting point, when working with religiously neutral customers we can use “cremation container” instead of “urn.” and “life celebration” instead of “funeral.” As a long-term shift, serious consideration needs to be given to the term “funeral home” – It needs to change. This is not so easy because you want the name to be confidently dedicated to end-of-life, but not suggest that you follow the (religious feeling) funeral rituals of the past. A good alternative starting point could be “Life Celebration Centers” Another consideration is the timing of this proposed name shift. If you are a funeral home that tends to have more religious-affiliated families, your terminology shift might be 10-20 years out. If you are currently serving a high number of non-religious families it would be a great strategy to make the name shift now and become the go-to business for religiously-unaffiliated people in your community. If there is a successful funeral home dedicated to the 10% of Jewish people in your community, surely there should be one dedicated to the 30% of religiously unaffiliated people. ReBrand Your Funeral HomeIn addition to rebranding terminology, the overall end-of-life experience needs an update. I would go out of my way and pay more to find a funeral home that doesn’t feel like a funeral home – and if I can’t find one I’ll make one up. My desires are aligned with many future millennial funeral planners. We need to start from scratch and redesign the entire experience for a religiously-unaffiliated future and for the modern standards of customer experience. This means, no more peg-board accessory displays, no more church pews or crown molding, no more crappy brass urns made in India by children, no more vacuum cleaners that emit a “fresh” scent as you clean (and obviously no more carpet), and…this is a big one…no more wearing ties to work. Apply for a Liquor License. Like… NowThis one is pretty straightforward: Liquor licenses can take 5-10 years to obtain, so apply for one now. I want to drink at my dad’s end-of-life celebration and if I can’t do it at an end-of-life business location then I’ll haul his corpse into a pub. Find Alternatives to the Traditional UrnTake a look at your current product selection and tally up what percentage of it has a religious feel versus religious neutrality. Your findings should reflect your clientele – you don’t want to be showing your 50%religiously-unaffiliated customers a showroom with 90% status of angels, urns, and crosses. As the religiously-unaffiliated U.S. population approaches 50% this selection should begin to shift on the side of cremation jewelry, cremation containers like wood boxes, environmentally-friendly “urns”, local artist-made options, and for burial, a non-traditional style casket like Able Caskets. Considering the $333MM spent on cremation containers each year, the key to cremation merchandise success in a de-churched future will be finding urns that don’t look like urns. The post In 17 Years, De-churching Millennials Will Rock the Funeral Industry…The Stats Are Shocking appeared first on Connecting Directors. In 17 Years, De-churching Millennials Will Rock the Funeral Industry…The Stats Are Shocking published first on YouTube via Tumblr In 17 Years, De-churching Millennials Will Rock the Funeral Industry…The Stats Are Shocking |
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