Just ten years ago, who would have thought that we would be asking ourselves the following questions:
1. What is the purpose of a funeral home website?
2. Does it add income?
3. Does it save me time and money?
4. How can a funeral home website help me manage my business?
It’s safe to say that the two questions of adding money and saving money are on the minds of owners and managers every day. The other two questions about purpose and management are coming into focus. They are coming fast and they will change the way we do business. Decision makers who understand these new tools and use them will remain in the mainstream of the funeral business. Those who don’t will either be your employees or look for another line of work.
Now! Let’s get straight to the heart of this cremation business. A very effective and straightforward mission statement is: “Find what works for cremation clients and deliver it.” The result of a successful business is customer satisfaction, repeat business, and referrals.
Today’s funeral home website must measure every prior need and buying experience of the customer’s family. You must link the measurements to the funeral director or staff member involved and present a clear dashboard report to the manager. In addition, the opportunity for open feedback via your home computer should be available to all client families. The website, combined with some offline elements in the fix room and manager dashboard, accomplishes this goal. It is important to minimize the filtering of staff, vendors, and industry gurus in this customer feedback process. Customers are driving business today. The Internet is giving them the means to do it.
What will the customer feedback features on our funeral home websites look like in a year, two or three? It could influence funeral directors salary schemes, training programs, and even the functions and decor of the funeral home. For the foreseeable future, it gives the manager insight into the mind of the customer and a clearer view of how the company’s staff members are performing.
Let’s look at another feature rarely seen on funeral home websites, the Forms Section. Tighter regulation of the irreversible cremation process by states creates a demand to more easily complete, sign, and transmit documents. The Forms Section of the website will develop rapidly due to the rising cost of gasoline and the cost of salaries for funeral directors. The inclusion of downloadable forms saves a lot of time and travel. One of Cremation’s client firms eliminated a $50,000 per year funeral director position by adding the Cremation Authorization Form and Personal Information Form to its website. That cause and effect experience resulted in the development of the new Forms feature as a no-cost add-on for Cremation client companies. Feedback on the use of this feature is very positive from both funeral directors and families of clients.
The evolving funeral home cremation website should include an urn display. Because? Family members reside in different locations. Today, it is often found in different states. They want to inquire about the selection of the urn and keepsakes. It’s easy for them to view your website and discuss their choice over the phone. Website display has an advantage over your showroom display. You can include a greater number of articles and colors. May include other merchandise such as urn chests, flag cases, and medallions. To find what cremation clients want, two tips are appropriate here. First, they want information about prices and sizes to be included on the website. Second, they want to shop at your company or with you over the phone, NOT through a “shopping cart” process on your website.
We will see increased use of merchandising on funeral home websites. It will be an extension of the firm’s physical screens. The obvious benefit is that it can be displayed in the living room of any client in any community or state. That translates into increased sales and customer satisfaction.
Well, what about the next one to three years in the development of merchandising on funeral home websites? Before I make a prediction on this area, I have to mention the development of websites based on content management platforms. Client funeral homes benefit from Cremation being able to fill in the missing features on their individual websites. Funeral home administrative staff can instantly change any text or photo on those fill-in feature pages. That means there will be no more delays or costs for webmasters. It also allows wholesale vendors to archive an extensive database of merchandise images for their client’s signatures to select from when building their website displays.
The administrative staff of the funeral home will be able to add, delete and change images. Descriptions and prices can be edited independently of the image. Let’s say you carry your cousin’s line of cypress knee urns and sell the last one before he gets back from his Florida vacation. His shelf is empty at his funeral company. Just temporarily remove it from the website screen.
How about obituaries and condolences? Most funeral homes already have this feature on their website, and most also display a Schedule of Services. As newspapers decline in news delivery and circulation, these features become more important on the website. It’s a great way to promote your business and attract new customers at little or no cost. The ease of visiting other areas of your website when looking at obituaries, condolences, and hours of service is something to work on. The motivation to check the choices made is high when friends and family visit your website. Navigation to that area should be as easy as pie. Most of the visitors are potential customers. The link between Obits and the Planning, Preneed area of your website is evolving and deserves a full article in the future.
There is a looming frontier on the internet for managers of funeral homes. It is the use of your website as a management tool. In a service industry such as the environment in which a funeral home operates, an interactive website can be a powerful management tool. At this point, the public seems more motivated than funeral managers to explore this frontier. Clients seeking cremation as a method of disposal seem more motivated than those seeking burial. Customer feedback and satisfaction measurement are important steps with this group. Coverage of the market area with access to search engines and measurement of visitor traffic are also important steps.
There is a lot to be done in finding what works for cremation clients on a website. Gone are the days of a client viewing your website as a digitized brochure. The evolution towards something more useful for customers is underway. These are interesting times and it is good to remember that only about half of the ideas of the smartest gurus succeed. The trick is to test cheaply and quickly to find the misconceptions and discard them. Fortunately, the Internet is well suited for that task. It gives the consumer a better view before making a purchase decision. But, at the same time, it gives the marketing manager (you) a much clearer view of what your customers like.