Give your families multiple ways to pay.
By giving your families options, they can focus on creating a funeral that honors their loved one’s life, instead of worrying about how they’re going to afford it.
READ OUR FREE EBOOK TO LEARN MORE A B O U T PAY M E N T O P T I O N S !
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-payments-ebook
ISSUE 21
Table of Contents
24 Responding to
F E AT U R E A R T I C L E
Reviews and Testimonials
In any business, your reputation matters. But for funeral homes, your reputation is everything.
Year, New Goals: 06 New How to Prepare Your Funeral Home for 2022
Make 2022 the best year yet for you and your business by setting goals for the 2022 and beyond.
Ideas for 10 12YourEvent Funeral Home in 2022
No matter how much experience you have with event planning, we have ideas for everyone.
Reasons Why 15 Four You Need a Marketing Plan for Your Funeral Home
Without a plan and time to execute it, it’s difficult to get the word out about your funeral home.
Your Funeral 20 How Home Can Make the Most of Video Marketing
Even something as simple as using your smartphone to create videos can go a long way.
or Recover 34 Prevent from Burnout with
30 Employee Feature
Meet Adam and learn what his unique role and hobbies bring to the Frazer family.
These Tips
Since funeral directors have demanding jobs, we want to make sure you have the self-care resources you need.
31 How Much Do You QUIZ
Know About the Funeral Profession? Take this quiz to see if you’re up to date on these funeral profession facts.
Your Business 38 Boost Performance with a Little Help from Funeral Technology
Implementing new technology can be intimidating, but it’s meant to make your life easier.
the Funeral 44 Start Preplanning
Conversation with These Simple Ideas We’ve come up with four simple ways to start the funeral preplanning conversation with families.
Letter from the Editor Dear readers, Welcome to The Meaningful Funeral magazine, an exclusive publication by Frazer Consultants. Our goal with this magazine is to be a resource for your funeral home and to help you learn new skills, keep up with funeral trends, and serve your current client families in more meaningful ways. In this issue, we’ve included video marketing tips, how to prevent or recover from burnout, advice to prepare for 2022, and more. With the variety of topics covered, there’s something for everyone! Want to read The Meaningful Funeral on the go? Every issue is available for free on our website. All you have to do is visit frazerconsultants.com/meaningful and click the “magazine” tab. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of The Meaningful Funeral, and I look forward to hearing your feedback. If you have any suggestions for future magazine content, we would love to hear them — just email us at marketing@frazerconsultants.com. And if you really love our content, visit frazerconsultants.com/meaningful and sign up for our newsletter to have fresh content delivered to your inbox!
M AT T F R A Z E R P R E S I D E N T, F R A Z E R C O N S U LTA N T S
Create funerals that are truly personalized to a loved one’s interests.
There are many ways to incorporate special details into funerals based on the professions, passions, and hobbies that make each of us unique. With a software solution like Tribute Center, you can even create personalized funeral stationery products to match the funeral theme.
READ OUR FREE EBOOK TO SEE SOME FUNERAL THEME EXAMPLES!
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-personalization-ebook
06 | The Meaningful Funeral
New Year New Goals: How to Prepare your Funeral Home for 2022 Make 2022 the best year yet for you and your business by setting goals for the new year and beyond.
With the new year approaching, many people use this as a time to reflect on the past year and come up with new goals for the next. While this includes business goals and ways to grow professionally, it includes your personal goals, as well. Is there a hobby you’ve always wanted to try? Or is there a new trend in the funeral profession that you’re curious about and want to learn more? Make 2022 the year you set these goals into action! Let’s go over a few tips to make sure you’re prepared for the new year. And if you’re not sure what you want your goals to be, we’ve come up with a few ideas to get you started. P R E PA R E Y O U R 2 0 2 2 G O A L S B Y F O L L O W I N G THE THREE S’S
When creating your goals for the new year, remember the three S’s: size, specific, and share. For size, you don’t want your goal to be
so large that it’s impossible to reach. On the other hand, you don’t want it to be too small that it’s almost too easy to reach. You want it to be somewhere in the middle. You also want to be as specific as possible when creating your goal. If you’re too vague, you won’t have a clear direction of where to go with it. Consider the who, what, where, when, why, and how of your goal so it’s well thought out. Lastly, don’t forget to share your goal with others. By writing it down or saying it out loud, you’ll be held more accountable for it versus if you just keep it to yourself. Once you’re done preparing your goals, make sure to check-in on your progress toward them throughout the year so they don’t get neglected. Still stumped about what you want your goals to be? Check out these ideas in the next few sections.
The Meaningful Funeral | 07
PROFESSIONAL GOAL IDEAS
BUSINESS GOAL IDEAS
To grow as a funeral professional in 2022, one
To set up your funeral home for success, you need to invest in your marketing. It’s almost 2022; families aren’t just going to wander into your funeral home. When they need a funeral home’s services, they’re searching online. Without an online presence and a marketing strategy to back it up, it’s nearly possible for families to find you. If you haven’t invested in your online presence, having a modern website with revenue-generating tools is the first place to start.
goal idea is to set up the foundation to pursue lifelong learning. This can mean going to virtual and/or in-person events, reading blog posts and articles about the latest news and trends, and more. You can even teach your coworkers what you’ve learned. Another idea is to prioritize organization in 2022. For example, if you’re still storing your files in a physical cabinet, it may be time to switch to a virtual solution so you can stop searching through piles of paperwork whenever you need something. We want to help funeral professionals save time, so that’s why we’ve recently released our FrazerGO funeral home management software.
08 | The Meaningful Funeral
Another idea is to host more events in the new year. These can be in-person, virtual, or even hybrid. What better way is there for you to get to know your area’s families and educate them about the services you offer? You can check out some event ideas in our article on page 10.
PERSONAL GOAL IDEAS
One personal goal idea is to make time for your hobbies. Oftentimes, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine and chores that you forget to make time for activities that you enjoy. Or you could also try something new.
T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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Another idea is to make time to get active. Whether that means going for a walk, swimming at your local gym, or joining a yoga class. Your funeral home can even work on this one together by doing a monthly step challenge. Whoever has the most steps at the end of the month could win a prize. For the new year, it’s crucial to balance each of the three idea categories at the same time. By having professional, business, and personal goals occurring in unison, you’ll be setting each up for success.
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10 | The Meaningful Funeral
12 Event Ideas for Your Funeral Home in 2022 Bring your funeral home’s community together and educate them about funeral planning by hosting events.
Whether you’re an experienced event planner or trying it for the first time, we have in-person and virtual event ideas for everyone varying in time commitment and the amount of planning involved. From educational events for helping families funeral plan and grieve to justfor-fun get-togethers for getting to know your community and getting your name out there, there are many event possibilities to choose from. To help you get started in 2022, we’ve brainstormed some ideas for each month, although some of the topics would work during other months, as well.
The Meaningful Funeral | 11
January
February
March
S E L F - C A R E S E M I N A R : TA K E C A R E O F YO U I N 2 0 2 2
EXAMPLE FUNERAL HOME’S VA L E N T I N E ’ S D AY C R A F T EVENT
S T. PAT R I C K ’ S D AY S C AV E N G E R H U N T
To help families take care of themselves while grieving, host a self-care seminar or webinar. For the event speaker, reach out to a local health professional, such as a nurse. They could go over mental and physical grief symptoms that families may experience and ideas for coping with them. To thank families for attending, give them a small gift, such as a journal or spa gift card.
By hosting an in-person or virtual Valentine’s Day craftmaking event, your families can create something special to remember their loved ones by. You could team up with a local artist or one of your employees could teach everyone how to make a craft, such as decorating a picture frame. If your firm has a collection of memorial keepsakes, you could offer a discount to event attendees.
Bring your firm’s community together by hosting a St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt. Get local businesses involved in the fun by having it take families around your community. For example, write clues for families to find the locations with golden tickets. Once they’ve found all of them, the first family to get to the rainbow, which could be at your firm, wins a prize.
April
May
June
E A R T H D AY: C L E A N U P T H E COMMUNITY
W E VA L U E O U R V E T E R A N S VOLUNTEER EVENT
Celebrate Earth Day this year by cleaning up your funeral home’s community. You could get a group together to clean up litter around your town and/or at local cemeteries and memorial gardens. You also could let your community know how you’re making your facility greener, such as by using a digital file storage solution instead of a paper filing system.
Like the Earth Day idea, you also could create a volunteer group for Veterans Day to clean up your local veterans cemeteries. You also could place flags outside of your funeral home to honor the number of veterans who have passed away so far that year. Or another idea is to have an in-person or virtual remembrance ceremony to honor veterans’ sacrifices for their country.
M O R E T H A N J U S T A P E T: HONORING OUR FURRY BEST FRIENDS
12 | The Meaningful Funeral
Partner with your local vet or animal shelter to help families honor and remember their pets. For example, you could share information about what to do when your pet passes away, create mementos to honor them, and/or have a remembrance ceremony at your local pet cemetery or ash scattering garden and live stream it for those who wish to attend virtually.
July
August
September
EXAMPLE FUNERAL HOME’S J U LY J A M B O R E E
PICNIC AND PREPLAN
N AT I O N A L S U I C I D E PREVENTION MONTH SEMINAR
Summer is the perfect time for hosting a community barbecue with yard games and music. For the food, team up with a local restaurant or have a potluck. And for the music, reach out to a local band or put together a playlist. If your facility doesn’t have a lot of green space, you may want to see about hosting it at a local park with a shelter in case of rain.
Similar to the Pizza and Preplan idea we’ve mentioned before, you can host a picnic with free food and share useful information about how to preplan your funeral. Everyone loves free food, but to get even more event attendees, you could give them a small gift card to your local coffee shop to support local businesses or have them enter to win a larger gift card.
Did you know September is National Suicide Prevention Month? To spread the word about suicide prevention, you can host a seminar or webinar with a guest speaker, such as a grief counselor or organizer of a local suicide support group. You also could have a remembrance ceremony for those who have died by suicide.
October
November
December
MOVIES BY THE MAUSOLEUM
THANKSGIVING DINNER
Have a spooky Halloween movie night at your local cemetery to bring your community together this spooky season. You could even do multiple showings, such as one for horror movies and one for family-friendly Halloween movies. You also could rent a popcorn machine to give families something to snack on while they watch.
This Thanksgiving, partner with your local hospice center or nursing home to have a Thanksgiving dinner. Many of the residents may not have family in the area, so your funeral home can make sure they have a delicious meal surrounded by loved ones and friends. You could also invite other seniors of your community to the event.
H O L I D AY R E M E M B R A N C E PROGRAM
Many funeral homes host annual holiday remembrance programs to honor those who have died during the year. For your event, you could have a ceremony with music, readings, and a gift for attendees, like an ornament. For instance, we have a beautiful collection of glass and crystal ornaments. You could give each family one as a gift, and they can order more if they wish.
T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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The Meaningful Funeral | 13
Does your website look beautiful on all devices?
A responsive design allows families to easily navigate your website from any device, whether it’s on a smartphone, tablet, computer, or even a TV screen. That’s why Frazer websites respond to all device types.
LEARN MORE ABOUT RESPONSIVE DESIGN IN OUR FREE EBOOK!
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-mobile-ebook
14 | The Meaningful Funeral
Four Reasons Why You Need a Marketing Plan for Your Funeral Home Without a marketing plan, it’s extremely difficult to get the word out about your funeral home to your community.
Even with a marketing plan, it’s nearly impossible to reach and engage families without the time and determination to execute it. Still not convinced? Let’s go over four benefits of having a marketing plan. 1 . E S TA B L I S H Y O U R S E LV E S A S T H O U G H T L E A D E R S I N YO U R F U N E R A L H O M E ’ S COMMUNITY
Creating marketing content is a great way to establish yourselves as thought leaders in the funeral profession. To put it simply, thought leadership for funeral directors means showing
that you’re knowledgeable about the profession and regularly thinking of new ways to better serve your families. This builds trust with your families and community, as they know they can trust you to care for their loved one. It also helps you stand out from your competitors. There are many ways to establish thought leadership through your marketing, such as by writing a blog post, hosting an educational event, posting on social media, creating your own downloadable resources, and sending an email newsletter.
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2 . H E L P E D U C AT E Y O U R F U N E R A L H O M E ’ S C L I E N T FA M I L I E S A N D C O M M U N I T Y
3 . G E T M O R E E X P O S U R E F O R YO U R F U N E R A L HOME WITH A MARKETING PLAN
Per content marketing research by Conductor, people who read a brand’s educational content were 131% more likely to purchase something from them after reading it. By educating your families on things they are concerned about, you build trust and associate your funeral home with a level of helpfulness they will want to return to later.
By creating marketing content for various
Not sure what to write about? A few topic ideas that may interest your community are cremation, funeral personalization, green burials, grief during the holidays, and pet memorialization. Although, it’s best to conduct your own marketing research to find out your community’s interests.
about preplanning; per NFDA’s 2019 Consumer
Creating marketing content also helps your families make educated decisions, so when they come to you, they’re more prepared — which saves everyone time and stress.
platforms, you can spread the word about your mission and service offerings. You also can reach more people by boosting your social media posts and creating targeted ads. Doing this also helps promote the importance of having the funeral planning conversation. As you know, many families haven’t talked Awareness and Preferences Survey, 88.5% of respondents haven’t preplanned and only 43% are somewhat or very likely to preplan within the next five years. Some of the respondents were younger, with 36% being between the ages of 40 and 54. By creating marketing campaigns focused on preplanning you can help them realize why it matters, such as giving their loved ones peace of mind that the arrangements are taken care of.
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4 . G E N E R AT E M O R E L E A D S F O R Y O U R FUNERAL HOME
While creating a marketing plan has many benefits like the ones discussed above, the main goal of your marketing efforts is to find potential client families for your funeral home. With the help of your educational resources, you can nurture families with the goal of turning them into new clients. Not sure where to start with your marketing plan? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with our new partnership with Growth Engine Marketing Hub. Growth Engine has an extensive library filled with pre-made content on a wide variety of topics. This way, the marketing hub can send campaigns personalized to your community’s interests on your behalf.
T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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See why this funeral home loves Tribute Store!
“People love the florist link! If someone from out of town calls to ask us what florist they should use, we direct them to our website and explain that our local florist is the one who gets those orders, not a large corporation that is going to ship flowers in a box.” Veronica Haskell of Haskell Funeral & Cremation Services
D O W N LOA D O U R C A S E S T U DY TO R E A D M O R E !
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-HF
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How Your Funeral Home Can Make the Most of Video Marketing Video marketing is gaining popularity and is only going to continue to grow. If your funeral home isn’t using video yet, now is the time to consider it.
When creating marketing videos, they don’t have to be professionally shot. Even just using your smartphone can go a long way. Whether or not you have video experience, we’ve laid out the basics of using video and some video topic ideas for your funeral home to consider. BASICS OF VIDEO MARKETING
Before you press record, there are a few tips and tricks that can take your video quality to the next level. First off, the person who is on camera should pay attention to their outfit. Specifically, they should avoid tight, contrasting patterns like pinstripes and polka dots, as well as avoid stark whites and bright, saturated colors like red and pink. Typically, darker, neutral colors like gray, black, or navy tend to look best on camera.
When choosing your filming location, lighting is frequently overlooked, but it’s the biggest secret to making a video presentable. You want your location to have a bright, soft light source in front of you, but avoid direct sunlight. Indirect natural lighting works great, so you could try facing a window. If the window is too bright, cover it with a sheer white or cream curtain. Sound is another extremely important element to creating a high-quality video. When choosing your location, pick somewhere that is quiet and has carpet, upholstery, and/or furniture to eliminate echoes. Also keep in mind any devices in the room that might turn on and make noise, such as clocks, refrigerators, and smartphones. If possible, remove them from the room or turn them off.
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VIDEO TYPES
Video marketing can help your funeral home gain more online engagement and, ultimately, potential client families. Plus, there are many video types you can choose from. You should choose the video type that best reflects the topic and how you want to present your knowledge on the subject. For example, a few video types are how-to tutorials, interviews, screen shares, short videos of one of your employees, and longer videos featuring an important topic. VIDEO IDEAS
Based on the video types in the previous section, we’ve come up with a few topics. For a how-to tutorial, it could be about how to preplan your funeral. If you want to do an interview, consider reaching out to a grief counselor to provide families with healthy grieving tips. Or if you want to quickly walk your families through your products and services, a screenshare may work well. As for a short video, one of your employees could talk about how they were called to the funeral profession. And for a longer video, you could outline your payment options, such as crowdfunding and life insurance assignments.
22 | The Meaningful Funeral
VIDEO AND SOCIAL MEDIA
If you’re sharing your funeral home’s videos on YouTube, you want to include metadata like a video title, description, and tags. You should treat your tags like keywords. For example, if you make a preplanning video, these are some tags you may want to include: (your funeral home name), funeral, funeral home, preplanning, funeral planning. However, don’t include your tags in the description. That’s for briefly describing what your video is about. Keep in mind that only the first 180 characters will show before users have to click “show more” to see the rest. So if your call to action is to click the link in the description or to call your funeral home, include it at the beginning of your description. If you’re sharing them on Facebook, you can choose a call-to-action button to include with your video. Facebook has prewritten text to choose from for your button. These are the ones your funeral home is most likely to use: contact us, download, learn more, request time, shop now, and watch more. For example, for a preplanning video, your call to action may be to “contact us” to schedule a preplanning appointment or to “download” your preplanning guide to learn more.
T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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Responding to Reviews and Testimonials For funeral homes, reputation is everything. A funeral is one of the most serious and sensitive services that people seek help with.
Families exploring businesses they are inexperienced with take online views very seriously, and funeral homes should too. Reviews have the power to either help or harm a funeral home’s future. In this article, we’ll go over why reviews matter, how to get more testimonials from families, and more. W H Y T E S T I M O N I A L S A N D R E V I E W S M AT T E R
Think about when you’re shopping for a new refrigerator. What would you be more likely to trust? A television ad, a billboard, or an ad popping up online? What about a friend or neighbor who had a positive experience with a particular brand and model of refrigerator? You’ll probably lean toward choosing the neighbor, right? Well, you wouldn’t be alone. Despite the advancements in modern marketing, word-of-mouth remains the most trusted form of marketing for any business — including funeral homes. A 2015 Nielsen Report on the Global Trust in Advertising found that word-of-mouth recommendations remain the most credible form of advertising, with 83% of respondents saying they completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family. On top of that, 66% of all respondents said they completely or somewhat trust the opinions and online reviews of others. It’s easy to see the benefits that reviews and testimonials can bring. In the coming sections, we’ll discuss strategies for getting more testimonials from families.
The Meaningful Funeral | 25
TESTIMONIALS
Testimonials are a great tool for establishing trust between your funeral home and the families in your community. However, unlike other businesses, funeral homes need to be careful about asking for testimonials. Families have just lost a loved one and leaving a testimonial for your funeral home is probably not their first thought. Approaching families about testimonials can be a sensitive subject, but there are ways to make it easier.
26 | The Meaningful Funeral
HOW TO GET MORE TESTIMONIALS FROM FA M I L I E S
It goes without saying that it starts with compassionate, professional, and respectful service. But as a funeral director, you already know that. You wouldn’t have been called to the profession otherwise. There are some other tips to keep in mind, however, to get more testimonials from families. Providing outstanding customer service. It’s the little things that go a long way. Train your staff in the fundamentals of excellent service. Things like active listening, maintaining eye contact, and even spending a few extra minutes on phone calls to see how someone is doing are all little ways to ensure a family has a positive experience. Offering families new experiences. Provide new memorial products or services that your competitors aren’t. It’s important for families to honor a loved one in ways that are unique to them.
Presenting the right atmosphere. Make sure your funeral home’s lobby and offices feel like a second home to families. Again, small gestures, like free coffee, snacks, and WiFi, go a long way in improving hospitality. One overlooked aspect is young children. Consider offering a children’s room with games and activities to help them feel more comfortable. Having a simple General Price List (GPL) and policies. One of the biggest reasons for negative reviews comes from confusing GPLs. By keeping things simple and up to date, you’ll avoid any potential misunderstandings from client families. Exceptional aftercare. A strong aftercare program is another way to connect with families long after the funeral. It’s also a great way to show how much you care for them and your desire to help them through their loss. Follow up with care packages, anniversary and holiday notes, or even a simple phone call to see how your families are doing.
The Meaningful Funeral | 27
TIPS FOR ASKING FOR TESTIMONIALS
Once you’ve laid the groundwork by providing exceptional service, now you’ll need to ask a few families to share their thoughts. Of course, many families that have had a positive experience with your funeral home will naturally want to share their stories. It’s your job to let them know how they can easily do so. Here are some helpful strategies when asking for testimonials: Decide which families to ask. You or your staff might already have a family in mind. Look for families that you’ve served recently that’ve given you positive feedback from their experience working with your funeral home, or maybe a family that you’ve served on more than one occasion. Consider the special funeral experiences. Has your funeral home served any out-of-theordinary funeral requests? Maybe you had a funeral procession of boats or motorcycles instead of cars. Or maybe the funeral service was in a unique location, such as a barn or museum. It’s the special funeral experiences like these that make compelling stories to share as testimonials. Make it easy for families. When reaching out for testimonials, you’ll want to make the experience of providing feedback as easy as possible. Families are still grieving, after all, no matter how long you wait to ask.
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To make a testimonial feel natural, let the family choose how they prefer to give their feedback. One of the easiest ways is directing them to your website, where they can simply fill out a form and share their story. Other families might feel more comfortable making a short video that documents their experience working with your funeral home. Choose a topic. Another way to make testimonials easy for families is to narrow the focus. Ask them what aspect of working with your funeral home they felt stood out. Was it the personalized experience? The helpful grief resources? Or the convenient payment options? For every family, value will mean something different. And by having them focus on what they felt was most meaningful, you’ll ensure that you receive a heartfelt and honest testimonial. Don’t ask directly. Instead of directly asking your families for testimonials, try asking them questions about their funeral experience that naturally leads to the topic of sharing their feedback. For example, your funeral home can follow up with families a few weeks after the funeral. Ask them how they are doing, direct them to some grief resources, then simply ask how they felt their overall experience was when working with your funeral home. If they share some positive feedback, ask them if they would feel comfortable sharing that feedback as a testimonial for your services.
WA N T T O L E A R N M O R E ?
Download the rest of our free eBook to learn more about responding to reviews and testimonials!
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-reviews
The Meaningful Funeral | 29
Getting to Know Frazer Consultants Meet one of the members of our Frazer family — Adam — and learn about his role at Frazer and what he likes to do in his free time.
NAME
Adam YEARS
7.5 ROLE
Sales Manager
efficiently. And allow you to spend more time creating the meaningful experiences for the families you serve. Of course, creating these funeral technology solutions isn’t a one-person job. My coworkers are a huge reason why I love being a part of Frazer Consultants. Together, we all play an important part in helping funeral directors better serve their communities.
W H AT I D O AT F R A Z E R : HOW I SPEND MY FREE TIME:
With more than seven years at Frazer I love anything outdoors, so whenever I have Consultants, I’ve had the privilege to see some free time, you’ll likely find me spending over the years how funeral directors use time outside. Whether that’s on the putting our solutions to provide their families with green, mountain biking, or hiking. Since it’s meaningful funeral experiences. We’ve come a almost winter here in Wisconsin, you’ll likely long way since when I first walked through the find me on the slopes snowboarding once the doors at Frazer. When I first started, I was the snow falls. I even plan a third salesperson hired big snowboarding trip onto the team. At the every year so I can make time, we only had 80 “What I love most about Frazer is the most of the season. website clients. Through working with funeral homes and a lot of hard work and using their stories to create new My wife Luray and I love taking the time to truly and innovative tools.” to travel the world and understand what funeral directors need, we now have a growing team that provides more than 2,500 funeral homes with websites, among other solutions. What I love most about Frazer is working with funeral homes and using their stories to create new and innovative tools. Getting to see an idea go from a concept into a reality is very cool and rewarding to see the positive difference it has for funeral homes and the families you serve. One of our goals is to give you more of your time back, so you can run your business more
30 | The Meaningful Funeral
explore new places. Of
course, the pandemic has made this more difficult, but we hope to continue to check off more destinations on our bucket list as long as it’s safe to do so. When we’re not traveling, we’re taking part in another big adventure: raising our dog, Rodney. We just welcomed him to the family a few months ago, so taking care of a puppy definitely keeps my wife and I busy but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Quiz: How Much Do You Know About the Funeral Profession? Take this quiz to see if you’re up to date on these funeral profession facts.
0 1 — What is the only place in the U.S. where open-air cremation pyres are legal? (Per US Funerals Online)
04 —
Denver, Colorado
59.6%
Crestone, Colorado
65.7%
Seattle, Washington
71.2%
Portland, Oregon
78.4%
0 2 — Only three states have legalized human composting so far. What are they? (Per Green Matters)
05 —
Washington, Colorado, and Oregon
16.0%
Washington, Oregon, and California
18.2%
Washington, Colorado, and California
21.9%
California, Colorado, and Oregon
24.3%
How many states and provinces allow alkaline hydrolysis (also known as water cremation and aquamation)? (Per the Cremation Association of North America)
0 6 — As of 2020, how many funeral homes are in the U.S.? (Per the National Directory of Morticians Redbook)
15 states and 1 province
18,874
17 states and 2 provinces
19,684
20 states and 3 provinces
20,098
03 —
What’s the predicted U.S. cremation rate for 2040? (Per the 2021 NFDA Cremation & Burial Report)
What’s the predicted U.S. burial rate for 2040? (Per the 2021 NFDA Cremation & Burial Report)
18,723
21 states and 4 provinces
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Answers 0 1 — B . C R E S TO N E , C O LO R A D O
0 2 — A . WA S H I N G T O N , C O L O R A D O , A N D OREGON
According to Green Matters, the state of California doesn’t currently legalize human composting, but they’re trying to get it approved. 0 3 — C . 2 0 S TAT E S A N D 3 P R O V I N C E S
The 20 states are Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. The three provinces are Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Ontario. 04 — D. 78.4%
05 — A. 16.0%
06 — B. 18,874
T O L E A R N M O R E A B O U T W H AT ’ S HAPPENING IN THE FUNERAL P R O F E S S I O N , V I S I T:
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Fewer than four in ten Americans can afford an unexpected expense of $1,000.*
By offering funeral crowdfunding, your families can raise funds for the funeral expenses, medical bills, memorial funds, and more. With our Tribute Crowdfunding program, the funds go directly into your funeral home’s bank account.
L E A R N E V E R Y T H I N G YO U N E E D TO K N O W A B O U T CROWDFUNDING IN OUR FREE EBOOK!
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-crowdfunding-guide *
Per this Bankrate article: https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-january-2021/
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Prevent or Recover from Burnout with These Tips After more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re probably experiencing information overload. Since it has impacted the mental health of so many, we want to make sure you’re doing okay. Per Asana’s Anatomy of Work 2021 Report, 71% of workers experienced burnout in 2020. The report also found that 18% of workers said their mental health is poor or very poor, a large jump from the previously found 5%. Additionally, 42% of those surveyed ranked their stress levels as either high or very high. Since funeral directors already had demanding jobs before the pandemic, we want to make sure you have the self-care resources you need. Let’s define burnout and go over some tips for preventing or recovering from it. Keep in mind that this is a generalized informational article. Consult with a medical professional for any questions or concerns. W H AT E X A C T LY I S B U R N O U T ?
According to HelpGuide, “burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.” And per Mayo Clinic, people who work in a “helping profession” like funeral directors have a greater
chance of experiencing it. In other words, burnout is when your stress has escalated to the point of feeling hopeless instead of hopeful. As a result, you may lose sight of why you were called to serve in the funeral profession in the first place. HelpGuide notes several symptoms of burnout, such as constantly being tired, getting headaches and other body aches more often, experiencing self-doubt, lack of motivation, and feeling trapped and alone. W H AT A R E S O M E S P E C I F I C C A U S E S O F BURNOUT?
Now that you know the basic definition of burnout and some symptoms, you’re probably wondering what some more specific causes are. According to Dr. Sahar Yousef in her article published on Asana’s blog, the top three causes are: having too much work on your plate, not having a healthy work/life balance, and not having a clear direction on your tasks and/or role.
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Funeral directors have likely experienced all three of these things at some point in their career — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. As you wear many hats, don’t work the typical 9-to-5 job, and the pandemic has made you change up the way you would normally operate. But just because you’re feeling burned out doesn’t mean that it will stay that way forever. By making changes to your daily routine, you can prevent or recover from it. HOW FUNERAL DIRECTORS CAN PREVENT OR RECOVER FROM BURNOUT
If you have too much on your plate, see if you can delegate any tasks to your coworkers. It may help to have everyone list their responsibilities, so you can see who may be able to take more on. You also should reevaluate your tasks to make sure they’re still necessary. Then, prioritize them by their importance. To improve your work/life balance, take breaks when you need them. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: you can’t take care of your client families if you don’t take care of yourself. Try going for a walk or reading a chapter in a book. With funeral directors not having a typical work schedule and having to work remotely more, taking breaks for self-care is extremely important. To make sure your funeral home’s employees understand their role and tasks, create clear job descriptions. You also should let them know how their tasks contribute to your funeral home’s overall goals. In terms of pandemicrelated changes, you should document that protocol, so everyone is on the same page. By having everything laid out, it can relieve your employees’ stress.
T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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Boost Your Business Performance with a Little Help from Funeral Technology With the end of the year approaching, it’s time for your funeral home to check in on your progress toward your business goals.
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Maybe your goal is to find more preneed families. Or maybe it’s to get a better handle on your firm’s organizational system. Whatever your goal is, updating your funeral technology solutions may help you achieve it. Like when learning anything new, we know implementing new funeral technology can be intimidating. But just remember that funeral technology is designed to make things easier for you, not more difficult. It’s also designed with funeral professionals in mind, so it’s easy for anyone to learn, even if you don’t consider yourself tech-savvy. To see how technology can help boost your business performance now and into the new year, let’s go over four examples.
0 1 — I N V E S T I N YO U R F U N E R A L HOME’S WEBSITE
There are many features that your website should have to set up your funeral home for success, but we’ll focus on these three important ones. They are that it should be easy to navigate, help you stand out from the competition, and save you time. First off, your families don’t have time to search around for the information they need. If your website doesn’t have a user-friendly design, they’ll go elsewhere. It also should be easy for your employees to navigate, so you can quickly make updates as needed. This way, you easily differentiate your firm from your competitors, and it should also save you time.
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0 2 — E X PA N D Y O U R F U N E R A L H O M E ’ S PAY M E N T O P T I O N S
By expanding your funeral home’s payment options, you’re making things easier for both your families and your staff. For example, you’re giving your families the option to conveniently pay online. And not only are you giving them the option to pay online, but you’re also giving them multiple payment options.
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Paying online means families can pay on their own time in their own home, without having to schedule a time to drive to your facility to meet. They also appreciate multiple options, so they can choose what best fits their needs, whether that’s paying with a credit card, starting a funeral crowdfunding campaign, or another option. And if your firm has a solution that offers all these payment options in one place, it gives you a clearer picture of your reporting.
03 — GET ORGANIZED WITH THE RIGHT F U N E R A L H O M E M A N A G E M E N T S O F T WA R E
Choosing the right funeral home management software for your firm is crucial for improving efficiency. To help you achieve that, there are some key features that your software should include, such as the ability to access your data anywhere, eliminate time-consuming tasks, and be more organized with everything in one place.
If your management software is web-based, that means you’re not limited to just one device or paper filing system. No matter where you are, you can access your cases, files, and other important information on virtually any device. It also should save you time, such as by integrating with your other solutions to eliminate double data entry. By having everything you need in one place, you won’t waste time tracking down the information you need.
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0 4 — TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F M A R K E T I N G A U T O M AT I O N T O R E A C H M O R E FA M I L I E S
Marketing automation can help you reach more families all with less work from your employees. It’s designed to save you time by automating redundant tasks. For example, marketing automation saves you the time and effort of planning your marketing campaigns, writing the content, and conducting marketing research about your community. Researching your target audience, planning your marketing campaigns, writing the content, and publishing and sending it takes a lot of time that funeral directors simply don’t have. By using marketing automation software, you can automate these tasks, so your employees don’t need to worry about it.
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CHECK OUT OUR NEW FUNERAL T E C H N O LO G Y S O L U T I O N S
Ready to start boosting your business performance? Frazer offers all four of these funeral technology solutions, including a drag-and-drop website builder, integrated payment options, FrazerGO management software, and our partnership with Growth Engine Marketing Hub. We designed our solutions to be easy to use, but if you ever have any questions, our team is always here to help. T O L E A R N M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
See why this funeral home loves their Frazer website!
“We love our new design, and the ability to purchase flowers through our website to a local florist can bring in $300 or more a month, depending how busy we are. It’s easy to use, and we’re very happy that a small family business in rural America can operate with a website that looks as good as any across the country.” Douglas Hunter of Duncan Graves & Lancaster Morgan Funeral Homes
D O W N LOA D O U R C A S E S T U DY TO R E A D M O R E !
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-DGLM
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Start the Funeral Preplanning Conversation with These Simple Ideas As funeral directors, you see first-hand how not preplanning your funeral causes unnecessary added stress to grieving families.
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So, how can your funeral home’s employees emphasize the importance of preplanning without making it overwhelming? We’ve come up with four simple ways that you can start the
to start with, these cards can help get the conversation going. Your staff can bring them out when meeting with families as an icebreaker, or you can host an event.
funeral preplanning conversation with families. 02 — HOST A PIZZA AND PREPLAN EVENT 0 1 — P U L L O U T T H E H AV E T H E TA L K O F A L I F E T I M E C O N V E R S AT I O N C A R D S
The “Have the Talk of a Lifetime” program’s Conversation Cards have changed the way we can go about funeral preplanning. With these cards, families can answer the questions on them to learn more about each other. It’s a fun way to get to know your loved ones a little better, while also getting ideas for how they’d want to be remembered. Since funeral preplanning can be an awkward topic that many families don’t know where
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We’ve heard of many funeral homes hosting Pizza and Preplan events. It’s another way to start the preplanning conversation with families in a more comfortable setting. Plus, who doesn’t love free food? While everyone enjoys some pizza, a member of your funeral home’s staff can present about funeral preplanning. You can even make it an interactive presentation by incorporating the “Have the Talk of a Lifetime” Conversation Cards or another activity, such as filling out a questionnaire and sharing your responses.
0 3 — H AV E O N L I N E F U N E R A L P R E P L A N N I N G RESOURCES
0 4 — E N G A G E W I T H FA M I L I E S O N S O C I A L MEDIA AND EMAIL
Don’t make families wait until meeting with your funeral home’s employees to learn about preplanning. By having online resources available on your funeral home’s website, they can easily access this information. This way, they’ll have some background knowledge and ideas when they come to you for their preplanning needs.
Also, don’t forget about social media and email! Direct, personal engagement plays a major role in online marketing. For example, you can share your educational funeral preplanning resources on your firm’s social media pages and in an email series. Your blog posts and guides make excellent resources, and you can even repurpose your website content for writing them. You also can ask your followers and subscribers if they have any preplanning questions and answer them in a Q&A segment.
For example, Frazer-powered websites come with a detailed preplanning webpage and convenient online preplanning form. This is a great resource to share with families at your preplanning events. Then, when they’re ready, you can invite them to fill out the preplanning form on your website or contact you with any questions.
T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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Help families tell their loved one’s life story.
These are a few prompts that you can share with your families so they can learn more about each other and start the preplanning conversation: • What is your earliest childhood memory? • Did you participate in any sports or activities in school? • What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done? • What is your favorite book and why? • How do you want others to remember you?
READ THE REST OF THE PROMPTS IN OUR FREE LIFE STORY EBOOK!
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-story-ebook
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I N F O @ F R A Z E R C O N S U LTA N T S . C O M
We’ve made life insurance assignments easier than ever.
We partner with Tribute Insurance Assignments, so your funeral home gets paid in as little as 24 hours.
READ OUR TIA BROCHURE TO LEARN MORE!
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