Funeral Homes Beating the New Competitor

Today, funeral home owners and managers not only face competition from other funeral homes, they have to fend off the threat of "substitutes" - those who are trying to expand their offerings into the funeral industry. This posting will identify some of the potential substitutes coupled with some strategies to keep them at bay or form a strategic alliance.

Costco (and other outsiders) Selling Caskets:
Due to past pricing strategies that put to much financial emphasis on funeral merchandise, third parties (those outside of the funeral industry) such as Costco, Casket Stores, and Internet Retailers are now offering caskets and other funeral merchandise for lower prices than offered by funeral homes.
Solution: Put a higher emphasis on your professional service fees and lower your merchandise prices. Many funeral homes and larger funeral corporations have already adopted this strategy. View this example: Bay Gardens Funeral & Memorial Centre, Burlington, Ontario.

Hotels & Golf Courses offering facilities for Memorial Services & Memorial Receptions:
As other industries are looking to horizontally integrate their resources into new markets, both Golf Courses and Hotels have large banquet facilities that are usually empty during the week. Their Event Coordinators are mandated to try to fill these vacant rooms with any type of event, but since a Memorial Service will usually bring in more revenues with catering and liquor sales over educational seminars.
Solution A: Have updated facilities that include reception and catering capabilities and even have the ability to serve beer and wine if the families desire that.
Solution B: Form a strategic alliance with the golf course / hotel event planner. The last thing that these event planners want to have to deal with, is having to organize a memorial service with a grieving family. We are the ones that have knowledge and the compassion, so we would be providing value to the event planner – making their job easier, and even though you may not be getting “Use of Chapel” fee, you can become the “Preferred Service Provider” for these venues, hence increasing your call base and touching more people.

Event Planners joining forces with Hotels:
Event planners - those who supply displays for conventions and home shows - have a huge inventory of various props for themed events. For example, they could have beach / cabana themes, gardening themes, golfing themes, gambling / Vegas themes, and even an Elvis theme for those who are fans of the King. Before these events planners start approaching hotels and convention centers (who they work with together on a regular basis) to see how they can make additional revenues, you can approach them, take a look at their inventory of props, etc., get pricing information, and maybe even have pictures of the various themes. Then you will be prepared the next time you get the request, "Dad and Mom met at Graceland and were huge Elvis fans, Mom would love it if we had something to do with Elvis at Dad's funeral."
Example: Island Displays, Victoria, BC.

Needing a Creative Consultant?
If you are trying to make your services more distinctive - different & better from your competitor and want to add some flare or panache to the front of your chapel, but you do not want to hire someone on a full-time basis. You may already be in constant contact with someone and not even realize it. Your local florist! They will naturally have more creativity than the average funeral director as that is what they do on daily basis. Florists often set up flowers for weddings and other events - why not at your funeral home? Maybe you can make a deal with them to arrive 1 or 2 hours prior to the service to set up the flowers and other memorabilia as a value-added service to you sending them all of your floral orders - and you can still ask for your commission as well. Florists today do not get the same number of orders for funerals as they used to so they too need to raise their level of service and you get your own "Martha" on staff!

Did the Little League Coach die?
Even though your chapel may hold 200 people, when the Little League coach dies in your town consider holding the service at the ballpark! Contact your local rental company and find out how much it would cost to rent and set up 200 chairs and a 20 foot stage in the infield. Views, smells, and noises at the ballpark can't be replicated at the funeral home. Even consider serving hot dogs at the reception out of the concession stand - how fitting would the smell of cooked onions be? Thinking outside the confines of your own facilities in this situation would be a home run. This same creativity is not just for baseball; hockey coach at the arena, football coach at the stadium, soccer coach at the field - plus these ideas can be applied for players as well as coaches.