TRIBUTE STORE
Earn extra revenue for your firm! With Tribute Store, not only can your families conveniently purchase flowers directly from a loved one’s obituary on their Tribute Wall, your funeral home also can earn some extra revenue. When your funeral home hosts Tribute Store on your Frazer-powered website, you receive a commission on all qualifying flower orders.
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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
ISSUE 15
Table of Contents
Your Funeral 06 Why Home’s Staff
Should Strive to be Innovators
Tribute 11 How Store Benefits
Funeral Homes and Families
Is your funeral home’s staff made up of innovators, or are you resistant to change?
08
Introducing Our New 24/7 Tribute Store Funeral Home Hotline With this hotline, you can get funeral flower order questions answered right away.
Ordering funeral and sympathy flowers has never been easier than with Tribute Store.
14
How to Change Before You or Others Are Ready All businesses change and evolve, and the funeral profession is no different.
17
F E AT U R E A R T I C L E
Preparing Your Funeral Home for the Future To boost your bottom line, you can offer additional services to your families.
Benefits of 25 The Social Tribute Walls
40 Employee Features
Meet two members of our Frazer family — Jenna and Cathy — and see what they have to say about boosting your funeral home’s bottom line with Tribute Store.
on Frazer-Powered Websites
With Tribute Walls, families can share memories, order flowers, and so much more.
Your Funeral 29 Why Home Should Activate Tribute Store
With Tribute Store, families can order floral arrangements directly from your website.
30
What Wedding Planners Do Well and How We Can Adapt Their Ideas Wedding planners have many ideas that funeral directors can adapt for the funeral profession.
32
F E AT U R E A R T I C L E
How to Choose the Perfect Funeral Flowers There are a lot of factors that go into choosing the perfect funeral flowers.
43 Behind-the-Scenes: Frazer Flower Network
We’ve worked hard to build the Frazer Flower Network into what it is today.
Easy Way to Grow 46 One Your Funeral Home’s Bottom Line
By offering multiple payment options, you can increase your bottom line.
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. This issue is all about how your funeral home can boost your bottom line and create a consistent revenue stream for your business. By expanding your funeral home’s service offerings, you open the door for more revenue opportunities. One way to do this is by having an online store, like Tribute Store. When your funeral home hosts Tribute Store on your Frazer-powered website, you get a commission from flower sales. In this issue, we’ll discuss many ways you can boost your funeral home’s bottom line, such as with Tribute Store. 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 “Resources” at the top of the page. 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 and funeral news delivered to your inbox every week!
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
TRIBUTE CROWDFUNDING
Crowdfunding campaigns without the risk! With Frazer-powered websites, your families can host crowdfunding campaigns for memorial funds, medical expenses, charity donations, funeral expenses, and more. The best part? Your funeral home is in charge, traffic stays on your website, and you get paid up front.
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Why Your Funeral Home's Staff Should Strive to Be Innovators Is your funeral home’s staff made up of innovators, or are you more resistant to change? According to the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory, there are several types of people when it comes to change.
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This theory — developed by communications professor E. M. Rodgers — is about how people adopt new ideas. In the case of funeral directors, it’s how your funeral home adapts to changes within the funeral profession. As you know, the funeral profession is constantly changing with funeral trends emerging, from green burials to new technology. However, it takes more than just knowing what these trends are. Your funeral home needs to innovate before it’s too late to catch up to your competitors. Let’s break down this theory and determine your adopter type. FIVE TYPES OF ADOPTERS
According to the DOI theory, there are five types of adopters: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards. Innovators are the people who are the first to try new ideas. Early Adopters consider themselves opinion leaders, and they’re also open to change, but are a little less open to all new ideas than innovators. The Early Majority aren’t typically leaders, but they still adopt to new ideas before the majority does. As for the Late Majority, they are hesitant to change and only adopt after the majority does. Lastly, Laggards are very hesitant to change and want to stick to tradition. Most people fall into the middle adopter types: Early Majority and Late Majority. But even if you’re an Early Majority person, you’re still falling behind Early Adopters and Innovators. So, what factors influence adopting innovation? Let’s discuss this in the next section. F I V E M A I N FA C T O R S T H AT I N F L U E N C E A D O P T I N G I N N O VAT I O N
There are five main factors that influence adopting innovation. The first is Relative Advantage — is this idea better than the product it replaces? The next one is Compatibility — does this idea meet the needs of potential adopters? Then, there’s Complexity — is this idea difficult
to understand? There’s also Trialability — can we test the idea before committing to it? Lastly, there’s Observability — will adopting this idea give you concrete results? These factors fall into the different stages of adopting innovation. First, there’s the initial awareness of the idea and then the decision to try the idea or not. After trying it, you decide if the idea is working well or if more research is needed. Finally, you decide whether to continue with the idea. For example, if your funeral home is considering adding cremation services, first consider the five main factors discussed above. You also should conduct some research in your community to see if your community members would be interested in cremation services. Analyze your funeral home’s finances to see if it’s possible to add cremation services to your budget. If you find people are interested in choosing cremation services, it will bring your funeral home more families and revenue in the long run. T H E B E N E F I T S O F B E I N G I N N O VAT O R S
Although it’s good to maintain some tradition, it’s not good for a business to be resistant to change. By striving to be innovators, your funeral home can establish yourselves as thought leaders. You can show your families that you’re willing to try new and creative ways to honor their loved ones’ lives. However, you don’t have to jump into every single new idea out there; just start with one and see where it takes you. If you find it’s not the right fit for your funeral home, that’s okay. There will always be a little trial and error when finding out what works and what doesn’t. Everyone, especially funeral directors, should strive to be lifelong learners and innovators. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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Introducing Our New 24/7 Tribute Store Funeral Home Hotline We’re constantly looking for new ways to make funeral directors’ lives easier. That’s why we’ve created our new 24/7 Tribute Store Funeral Home Hotline.
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With this hotline, you can get funeral flower order questions answered right away. We know the funeral profession never stops, so you can call the hotline at any time of day or night and get the answers you need. Before we dive more into this brand-new hotline, let’s briefly go over the must-know information about Tribute Store. HOW TRIBUTE STORE WORKS
When your funeral home chooses a Frazer-powered funeral home website, it comes with Tribute Store at no additional cost. With Tribute Store, families can conveniently order funeral or sympathy flowers directly from their loved one’s obituary on their Tribute Wall. One big advantage of Tribute Store is that your funeral home chooses which florists you want to work with. Instead of big-box flower shops getting the revenue, you can support your local florists and keep those trusting relationships you’ve worked hard to build. We also take care of all the customer service for Tribute Store, so it’s no extra work for your funeral home’s staff. And with the new 24/7 hotline, you can rest assured that any questions your staff or customers have will get answered right away. HOW THE TRIBUTE STORE FUNERAL HOME HOTLINE WORKS
We know time is limited when funeral planning, so we designed the Tribute Store Funeral Home Hotline to save you time. When you call the hotline, you are connected to a person right away and skip any prompts or callers placing flower orders over the phone. This way, you can get the answers you need about flower orders more easily and quickly than ever before. To use the hotline, funeral homes and florists can call 866-303-1880. Or, you can have customers call 866-834-4420. If you don’t have time to call, you also can email orders@tributecenterstore.com. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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How Tribute Store Benefits Funeral Homes and Families Ordering funeral and sympathy flowers has never been easier than with Tribute Store. It’s convenient for your families and has many benefits for your funeral home, as well.
W O R K W I T H LO C A L F LO R I S T S
One of the big advantages of Tribute Store for the funeral home is the fact that we’re able to bypass all the big-box flower shops. We work with any of your local florists of choice. And if you have multiple florists you like to work with, we can easily distribute those orders evenly between those florists. By working with your local flower shops of choice, we can help eliminate orders going to the flower shops you’d prefer them not to go to. If you have multiple locations of your funeral home, we set up each of your locations as its
own individual store, so each location can have different florists from city to city. CONVENIENT ONLINE ORDERING
With so many ways to order flowers online these days, families will find a way to order them online whether you have it on your website or not. By having Tribute Store activated on your website, it’s going to give you the most control over where these orders are going. Another advantage for the flower shops is that we’re typically able to increase the volume of orders they're getting on an annual basis. Most
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of the orders that we capture are coming from out-of-town folks. So that tells us that your local folks are still going direct to your local flower shops and their local flower shops of choice. But the out-of-town folks don’t typically know those local flower shops. So, by directing these orders to your funeral home’s website, we’ll get them to your chosen local flower shop. NO CONTRACTS
One of the biggest advantages of Tribute Store compared to big-box flower shops is the fact that we have no contracts. There are no monthly fees, annual fees, or wire transfer fees to the flower shop.
The flower shop also has full control over the prices that are going to be displayed on the website. They also have control over which arrangements will be displayed. While we do have 180 different arrangements that are available, not all of them must be used. EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE
Another advantage for the flower shops is the fact that we do all the customer service side of things for them as well as any administrative work. To make things easier, we take care of all credit card processing, and we collect and remit the applicable taxes. With the customer service, we have a 24/7 Tribute Store Funeral Home Hotline. There’s also a live chat feature, and they can email us for help as well. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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T R I B U T E LOA N S
Offer the flexibility your families need. With financing, families can afford to give their loved ones the send-off they deserve. Offering financing directly on your website means one more service you offer families, and it also means your funeral home gets paid up front.
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The Meaningful Funeral | 13
How to Change Before You or Others Are Ready Change can be hard, but it’s also essential. All businesses evolve — and the funeral profession is no different.
While it’s historically changed at a slower rate than other professions, it looks like the rate of change is starting to speed up. Of course, we don’t have to tell you that. Many funeral directors are seeing changes first-hand. WHY FUNERAL PROFESSIONALS NEED TO EMBRACE CHANGE
Change is as much a part of life as death is. It’s inevitable. While the status quo may seem familiar and safe — it’s also dangerous. And the more a business resists change in favor of what’s familiar, the more they increase the risk of extinction. That’s because the status quo limits both growth and the potential for new business opportunities. Your competitors’ products, services, and marketing approaches change. And families’ wants and needs from funeral professionals are changing. The Harvard Business Review, in an article titled Why Good Companies Go Bad, sums up the dangers of ignoring change nicely, saying that “when successful companies face big changes in their environment, they often fail to respond effectively. Unable to defend themselves against competitors armed with new products, technologies, or strategies, they watch their sales and profits erode, their best people leave, and their stock valuations tumble.”
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HOW TO EMBRACE CHANGE AND BE ON TOP OF TRENDS
Despite the dangers of resisting change, many still try to avoid it. Here are some ways to help push your funeral home forward — even if there are factors holding you back from change. Tell your staff what you want and why. If you see an opportunity for change or a chance to implement a new service, let others know and explain to them the purpose and benefits it will bring. Acknowledge ideas and build on them. If you’ve ever seen an improv comedy show, you’ve probably heard of “Yes, and…” It’s a process of moving ideas forward — in improv comedy and in business. Get your team together to brainstorm and build off their ideas for change with the “Yes, and…” technique. You’ll be surprised at what you come up with. Get family feedback. One of the best ways to know if change is needed is to ask the families your funeral home serves. Find out what families want, need, or expect from a funeral service. You can use surveys, polls, or community forums as outlets to collect data and other input from families. Then, take their feedback and put it into action. Start implementing change right now. Author James Clear wrote that successful people create
change before they feel ready. Innovation and change happen faster than ever. It’s important to stay ahead of trends and change, because it’s a whole lot easier than constantly having to catch up to it. Partner with innovators. The easiest way to keep your funeral home ahead of coming trends and changes is to partner with the pioneers and innovators that are within the funeral
profession. Industry innovators often have established traction within the field and can help bring reliable, state-of-the-art services and products. Partnering with innovators also means your funeral home doesn’t have to go about adapting to change alone. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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Preparing Your Funeral Home for the Future To boost your funeral home’s bottom line, you can offer additional services to the families in your funeral home’s community.
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EVENT SERVICES
Both funerals and weddings are significant events in the lives of the family and friends participating in them. Weddings, however, have become a $300 billion industry — all in a relatively short time, too. Bloomberg estimates that in 2013, the industry was around $50 billion. That’s a growth of nearly 600% in three years. And yes, weddings are different for many because they have months and sometimes years to plan. But they also face the same setbacks as funeral planning. An article in HuffPost notes that “The reality is the wedding industry has been rooted in tradition for centuries, the only touchpoint of communication between business verticals used to be the bride or the event planner. So, when technology comes kicking and screaming to be introduced to old school weddings, innovation can be hard to implement.” Sounds familiar, right? Well, weddings have come a long way in adopting new technology and services. And as it shows, it pays off — big time. There’s a lot a funeral director can learn from their distant cousin the wedding planner. When you start to do that, a whole world of revenue opens. HOW EVENT PLANNERS MAKE MONEY
There’s a common theme that we keep hearing at funeral profession conventions from workshops and keynote speakers. It’s that if funeral directors want to guarantee growing profit margins in the coming years, they will need to start thinking more like an event planner. That’s because event planners have excelled at adopting additional services into their overall service package, and it’s helped them earn more revenue without needing to raise the prices of their traditional services. It’s known as cross-selling, and by cross-selling additional services, your profit margin increases. You also gain the opportunity to provide a more unique ceremony. Let’s look at some of the services an event planner offers.
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C AT E R I N G A N D D I N I N G S E R V I C E S
Event planners build relationships with catering and dining vendors in their community, and they help their clients find the best vendors that meet their needs for the event. Funeral directors can adopt similar practices. Many families already gather after a service to reminisce over fond memories, food, and drinks. (Food has a long history in helping heal the bereaved.) But funeral directors should start working directly with vendors to organize these services for families. It’s an easy step to adding another high-value service, and it’s one less thing for a grieving family to do. Offering food is a growing trend for funeral homes. Matt Fiorillo, the owner of BallardDurand funeral homes, told the LoHud Journal News that “Comfort food is a big part of the grieving process. I’ve always wanted to be able to serve coffee and refreshments at viewings and funerals, and now we can. We’ll offer everything from ritzy, glitzy hors d’oeuvres to sandwiches, depending on the clients’ wishes.” “It will be a convenience for people from out of town, who don’t want to leave the funeral home to eat, as well as for families,” he said. “We’re not in the catering business, but I can see us offering a light breakfast before church or synagogue services and during visiting hours.” And many funeral homes aren’t just limiting their catering service to their funeral home’s banquet or reception hall. They’ve also started offering catering services to churches, in the family’s home, and even outdoor picnics.
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Imagine how beautiful, calming, and comforting having an outdoor service would be if it was accompanied by a nice picnic, especially if it was in a favorite location of the deceased. It’s all part of the growing national trend to offer families a one-stop venue for funerals. Jessica Koth, the public relations manager for the NFDA, told the Chicago Tribune that “The nature of funerals and memorial services is changing ... families are planning services that are very different than what has been done in the past ... It’s all about giving families more options, from being able to have hors d’oeuvres and refreshments during funeral and memorial services, to having a luncheon afterward.” HOTEL SERVICES
Hotel services are another service in the event planner’s repertoire, and it should be something that your funeral home considers adding to yours as well. Let’s look at this two ways. For some funeral homes — those who serve a tightknit, rural community, it might not add much in revenue or value. But for many other funeral homes that provide services over a large area, it makes perfect sense to add these services, and they can provide a high amount of value for your families. Let’s talk numbers. Today’s families are more spread out than they have been in the past. An AARP study found that “The families of the 50+ are spread out with children, grandchildren, and siblings living far away...more than one in four [families] does not have any children living [within at least one hour’s drive].”
The Meaningful Funeral | 21
And because modern technology has made it easier to stay in touch with a loved one from anywhere on the planet, that means more families don’t mind the distance. So, today’s families are more spread out across the country than ever before. And when a death occurs, many will have to make a long trip back home. This presents an opportunity for your funeral home to provide another high-value service in the same way event planners do. For families with out-of-town guests, there can be a lot to coordinate, including guest arrivals, transportation, and hotel lodging. By offering services aimed to help coordinate these arrangements, your funeral home takes away the work from the grieving family. And by networking and building relationships with hotels in your area — you can ensure the accommodations are the right fit and meet the family’s expectations. Negotiating hotel rates and renting hotel blocks also can save families money and earn your funeral home a commission from the hotel. A LT E R N AT I V E S E R V I C E S A N D E X PA N D E D VENUE
We’re talking about transforming a funeral home from solely providing funeral services to becoming a full-blown community center. The benefits include more revenue, but also a deeper relationship with the community by serving families through every stage of life’s celebrations. As reported by the Associated Press, funeral homes are the hottest new wedding venue. The reasons behind the trend include a need in communities for places capable of hosting weddings, anniversary parties, and other local events and milestones. There is also a declining membership in churches, pushing
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for an increase in nontraditional venues, and the stigma or taboo associated with funeral homes has changed with younger generations as opposed to their parents or grandparents. Nancy Sanden, a funeral director in Ohio, said in an interview with Today.com that “I think it’s the future of funeral service, having reception centers on site for families to celebrate life and weddings and other major events.” Their funeral home has received both its food and liquor licenses, and hosts several non-funeral events including weddings, graduation parties, first communion parties, and locally organized community dinners. And it’s a great value for families and funeral professionals. Wedding expert Kellee Khalil told Today.com that “The funeral home can make extra money by adding weddings to their revenue stream, and the couple can save, too, because as a harder sell for the funeral home, they’ll likely be slashing the price.” For the funeral home willing to adapt and embrace its new role as a community center, it can expect to see years of financial success and security.
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RESPONSIVE OBITUARIES
Honor lives on every device. The responsive design of our Tribute Walls allows families to honor their loved ones no matter where they are — with photos, messages, virtual candles, flower orders, crowdfunding donations, and so much more!
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The Benefits of Social Tribute Walls on FrazerPowered Websites From scheduling appointments to buying groceries, more people are taking to the internet for their everyday needs. The same goes for sharing condolences for the loss of someone’s loved one. Your funeral home can’t just have any ordinary online obituary. With the right obituary tool, you can let your families do things like write a sympathy message to the bereaved or purchase memorial gifts. This way, everything they need is conveniently located in one place. That’s why Frazer-powered funeral home websites come with social Tribute Walls. With these, families can share memories, donate to crowdfunding campaigns, purchase sympathy flowers, and so much more. Let’s go over all the benefits of Tribute Walls on Frazer-powered websites for both your funeral home’s staff and client families. M O R E WAY S T O H O N O R L I V E S
On Tribute Walls, in addition to finding the obituary and funeral service information, families can post messages and share powerful memories. They also can leave meaningful symbols and light virtual candles to express their condolences.
Many third-party obituary hosting websites make their online guestbooks inaccessible after a certain amount of time. To view them, families need to sponsor the site with yearly or permanent sponsorships. They already lost their loved one; they shouldn’t lose their memories and condolences too. That’s why Tribute Walls on Frazer websites serve as permanent virtual tributes for honoring and remembering families’ deceased loved ones. OPEN THE DOOR FOR CROWDFUNDING C A M PA I G N S
Your funeral home’s staff can easily turn Tribute Crowdfunding campaigns on for individual Tribute Walls if the family wants to reach out to their community for support. The great thing about Tribute Crowdfunding is that it keeps your funeral home in control. Unlike thirdparty crowdfunding sites, your funeral home is in control of the funds raised, so you don’t have to worry about where the funds are going. You can even get more exposure by sharing the
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campaigns on social media. It’s an easy way to support families while helping them cover their funeral expenses. G E T E X T R A R E V E N U E F R O M S Y M PAT H Y F LO W E R S
With Tribute Store, families can conveniently order sympathy flowers directly from their loved one’s Tribute Wall. Since families are already online shopping for flowers whether or not your funeral home offers them on your website, you should take advantage of this extra revenue. Since you’re hosting Tribute Store on your website, your funeral home gets a commission from the flower sales. Tribute Store also makes things easier for everyone involved: your staff, families, and florists. You choose the florists you want to work with, so you can keep your long-lasting relationships with your local florists that you’ve worked hard to earn. We also handle all the customer service for Tribute Store, so your funeral home’s staff doesn’t have to worry about a thing.
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B O O S T YO U R S E O W I T H T H E R E S P O N S I V E DESIGN
Tribute Walls and all Frazer-powered website pages are responsive, so they respond to whatever screen size your families are viewing them from. Since obituaries are the most viewed page on your website, it’s especially important for these to be responsive. Having a responsive design also boosts your search engine optimization (SEO), since search engines like Google favor responsive websites. K E E P T R A F F I C O N YO U R W E B S I T E
Tribute Walls keep website visitors on your funeral home’s website instead of taking them to a third-party obituary hosting website. This way, all the people searching for their loved one’s obituary come across your funeral home and the services you offer. Then, they may keep you in mind for when the time comes. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
FRAZER-POWERED WEBSITES AND TRIBUTE STORE
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 F U N E R A L D I R E C TO R A N D O W N E R O F D U N C A N G R AV E S & L A N C A S T E R M O R G A N F U N E R A L H O M E S
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Why Your Funeral Home Should Activate Tribute Store Every Frazer-powered website comes with a variety of features, including Tribute Store. With Tribute Store, family and friends can easily order floral arrangements for their loved one’s funeral straight from your funeral home’s website. A 2019 poll by Marist College and National Public Radio (NPR) found that 76% of U.S. adults shop online, and 16% of those who do so, do it at least once a week. As online shopping only becomes more prevalent, families will find a way to order flowers online whether or not your funeral home offers them on your website. That’s why we’re sharing even more reasons your funeral home should activate Tribute Store on your Frazer-powered website.
easily choose which flowers are meaningful to them. They don’t have to make the trip to a florist or even make a phone call. Everything can be done on their computer or smartphone from the comfort of their home. With Tribute Store, families can order the flowers directly from their loved one’s obituary on their Tribute Wall. Also, if families order ahead of time, they can have their arrangements delivered directly to the funeral service.
I N C R E A S E YO U R W E B S I T E T R A F F I C
By activating Tribute Store, you’re keeping traffic on your funeral home’s website. It’s also convenient for people who live out of town and want to send flowers to the bereaved family. W O R K W I T H Y O U R FAV O R I T E L O C A L F LO R I S T S
One big advantage of activating Tribute Store is that you get to choose which florists you work with. So instead of big-box flower shops getting all the revenue, you can support your local economy. If you have multiple florists you want to work with, we can set up the option to evenly cycle through them. ONLINE MAKES IT EASIER
Like we said earlier, most families want the option to purchase funeral floral arrangements online. With a few clicks of a mouse, they can
W E TA K E C A R E O F T H E C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E
We know your funeral home is busy with a million other things, which is why we take care of all the customer service for Tribute Store. Families can contact us via phone, live chat, or email. With our 24/7 Tribute Store Funeral Home Hotline, we’re available to answer your questions at any time of day or night. We also take care of all the credit card processing, and we collect and remit the applicable taxes. YO U G E T A C O M M I S S I O N F RO M T H E S A L E S
Since you’re hosting the Tribute Store on your website, you get a commission from flower sales. With this extra revenue, you can use it to improve other facets of your business! T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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What Wedding Planners Do Well and How We Can Adopt Their Ideas Let’s look at wedding planners, their secrets to success, and how your funeral home’s staff can borrow those ideas.
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E D U C AT E T H E P U B L I C
Wedding planners create consistent and cohesive messaging to the public. This really hammers in the notion of their value and benefits during the wedding planning process. It’s a practice that funeral professionals need to adopt. Because today, funeral homes are facing many challenges. There’s already a lot of misconception and myths when it comes to funeral service. On top of that, low-cost direct cremation providers and funeral startups are already making a significant impact on the funeral profession. Today’s families have more options when it comes to how they want to memorialize and honor a loved one. With all the options out there, funeral directors need to make sure families understand their options. You can do that by educating the public in the same proactive ways that wedding planners do. There are plenty of ways to get started. One way is to create educational content and post it on your funeral home’s blog and social media channels. Or, your staff can host education seminars in the community to highlight the value of funeral service. You can also partner with a larger organization, such as the Funeral and Memorial Information Council (FAMIC). Their Have the Talk of a Lifetime campaign is a powerful tool to engage with families and help them start planning more meaningful memorial experiences for their loved ones. C R O S S - S E L L I N G A N D PA C K A G I N G S E R V I C E S
Another idea to adopt from wedding planners is the idea of cross-selling and packaging. It’s the idea of adding new revenue streams and services and packaging them alongside your
more traditional services. Wedding planners are great at this. In addition to their initial planning fee, they also become a one-stop shop — offering floral services, stationery design, catering, travel arrangement services, and much more. This convenience factor is an important reason many people opt to choose wedding planners in the first place. They are great at packaging these services, usually in a tiered good-betterbest service plan. The benefit of a goodbetter-best system is that it clearly outlines the services involved in each plan. Families can choose the plan that provides the most value in their situation. An additional benefit is that this pricing system is easily customizable. Let’s say a family is leaning toward your funeral home’s “good” option, but they really want the memorial book package that comes with the “better” plan. You have the option to meet in the middle of those two plans, choosing pieces from both the good and better packages. By packaging services, you make the decision-making process easier for your client families. E X PA N D I N T O A N E V E N T C E N T E R
Many wedding planners do so much more than just weddings. They’ve expanded into other roles — become corporate event planners, holiday party planners, and other types of event planners. And funeral homes are taking note. Some have chosen to be more than a funeral home. They’ve transformed their facility into the go-to event center in their community. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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How to Choose the Perfect Funeral Flowers There are a lot of different factors to consider when choosing funeral flowers, such as what the family plans on doing with the flowers after the funeral service.
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F L O W E R P R E S E R VAT I O N T I P S
Or if they hope to display the flowers for a while
Depending on the family’s intended purpose for the flowers after the funeral, some flower types may be better suited than others. For example, if they want something they can replant or keep for a long time, they may want a potted plant.
or donate them, they want a flower type that
D AY S
won’t wilt quickly. Below is a chart of some common funeral flowers and how long they may last after being cut.
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
21
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
21
Eucalyptus Alstroemeria Bells of Ireland Carnations Chrysanthemums Orchids Sweet William Monte Cassino Sunflower Roses Lilies Lavender Goldenrod Matsumoto Asters Gladiolus Baby’s Breath Hydrangea Larkspur Snapdragons Stock Daisies Tulips Iris Daffodils D AY S
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Although it varies by flower type, there are some general flower care and preservation tips. Before placing the stalks in a vase of water, cut the bottom of the stems at an angle so they can get water easier, and re-cut them every couple of days. Remove any leaves that would fall below the water line to prevent bacteria growth, and regularly check them for dead or loose leaves. Plus, floral arrangements look nicer without the extra leaves. Disinfect the vase and fill it with roomtemperature water. Then, pour in a packet of flower food and mix it. Don’t set it in direct sunlight, near sources of heat, by fans and vents, or next to fruit. Ripening fruit releases an ethylene gas that causes cut flowers to age faster. Also, remember to clean the vase and add fresh water and flower food every couple of days. If families don’t want to use store-bought flower food, it’s easy to make their own flower food. Most flower food packets contain three ingredients: sugar, citric acid, and bleach.
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The bleach gets rid of bacteria, the citric acid adjusts the pH level, and the sugar is food for the flowers. However, if they don’t want to use bleach, there are some alternatives they can use. Here are two flower food recipes — one using bleach and one using an alternative.
RECIPE USING WHITE VINEGAR
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar • 2 tablespoons sugar • 1 quart lukewarm water
RECIPE USING BLEACH
• 1 teaspoon sugar • 1 teaspoon bleach • 2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice • 1 quart lukewarm water
F U N E R A L F LO W E R M E M E N TO S
After or instead of displaying the flowers in a vase after the funeral, families can make them into special mementos that last forever. You can share these ideas with your families as a great flower memorialization resource. D R I E D F LO W E R M E M E N TO S
There are several methods for drying flowers, although some may work better than others. 1. One of the easiest ways to dry flowers is to leave them in a vase with a few inches of water. The flowers will slowly dry when the water has evaporated. This method works best for hydrangeas and other large-bloom flowers. 2. Another air-drying method is to hang them upside-down. Remove unwanted leaves, tie the stems together with a rubber band, and hang them in a dark area to prevent fading. To hang them, bend a paper clip into a “S” shape and stick one end into the rubber band and the other over a hook or nail. You also can spray the flowers with hairspray or flower spray to help them keep their shape. Typically, only put about 10 of the same flower type in each bundle. If they’re larger flowers, hang them separately instead. This method works best for small, strong blossoms like roses, lavender, and larkspur. They may take anywhere from two to four weeks to dry.
3. If a family wants to make a pressed-flower memento, then this next method may work well. They can dry the flowers by pressing them in a book in between wax paper for about a week. This method works best for flat-headed flowers, like daisies. 4. Families also can dry flowers by microwaving them in a microwave-safe container filled with a drying agent, like silica gel or cat litter. It works best if you cut the stems short. Put a cup of water in the microwave with the container to prevent burning or over-drying the flowers and heat them for about two minutes and an additional minute as needed. It depends on the microwave wattage and the thickness of the flower petals. Afterward, let them cool for 24 hours and leave a cover slightly ajar on top of the container. Then, carefully brush off the drying agent with a fine paintbrush. This method works best for flowers with several thinner petals, such as roses. 5. Another method using a drying agent is to place the flowers in a container filled with silica gel or another drying agent for about a week. Keep the container sealed and in a warm, dry location. If using a drying agent other than silica gel, you may be able to keep the container open. After they’re dry, carefully remove the flowers and brush them off with a fine paintbrush. This method works well for large, delicate flowers, such as lilies.
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Once the flowers are dried, here are a few mementos that families can make with them: D R I E D F LO W E R S H A D O W B OX
Arrange the dried flowers into a shadowbox filled with photos, poems, and other mementos. It’s an easy and beautiful way to honor a loved one’s life. D R I E D F LO W E R O R N A M E N T
Carefully place the dried flowers and other decorations into a clear glass ornament with a removable top. Then, tie a ribbon through the hole or use an ornament hook to display it. F R A M E - P R E S S E D F LO W E R S
For this flower memento, dry the flowers by pressing them in a book or another object. Arrange and glue the pressed flowers onto a piece of paper that fits inside your chosen frame. You can arrange them into a unique shape, such as a heart or a loved one’s initials. Let them dry before placing the paper inside the frame. D R I E D F LO W E R C OA S T E R S
Clean off two pieces of glass tiles to use for the coasters. Then, carefully glue the flowers onto one of the glass tiles. Place the other tile on top and use a rubber band to temporarily hold them together so you can put foil tape around the edges to seal them together. D R I E D F LO W E R B O O K M A R K S
Like the frame-pressed flowers, dry the flowers by pressing them in a book. Glue the pressed flowers onto a bookmark-sized piece of paper. Once the glue is dry, place them between
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parchment paper and put something heavy on them overnight to press it together more. The next day, place them in laminating sheets and use a laminator to create the bookmarks. D E C O R AT E D K E E P S A K E C A N D L E
Pressed flowers also work best for this candle memento. Heat a spoon over a plain candle and use the spoon to gently press the flowers onto the candle. Use scissors to cut off any excess flower parts. F LO W E R P OT P O U R R I
This memento needs a different flower drying method. To make dried flower potpourri, first cut the flowers below the heads and place them on a baking sheet with fruit slices, herbs, spices, or other scents. Combine 10 to 15 drops of an essential oil with one tablespoon of water and sprinkle it on the flowers. Put them in the oven at 200 degrees for at least two hours or until the flowers are dry. Remove them from the oven and sprinkle them with the essential oil mixture again. When it’s cooled down, mix it together in a bowl and reapply the essential oil mixture as needed. MEMORIAL JEWELRY
Families can make funeral flower beads with dried flower petals and polymer clay. Crush the dried flower petals into small pieces and knead the polymer clay until it’s soft. Knead the crushed flowers into the clay and make them into bead shapes and press them through a wire. Put the wire of clay beads across an ovensafe container and bake them according to the temperature on the polymer clay packaging.
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H E L P I N G FA M I L I E S C H O O S E T H E P E R F E C T F LO W E R S
When meeting with your families and choosing the funeral floral arrangements, these are some questions you can ask them: Did your loved one preplan any specific wishes regarding their funeral floral arrangements? Do you plan to have a specific color scheme or funeral theme — such as your loved one’s profession or hobby? What was your loved one’s favorite color? What was your loved one’s favorite flower type? What type of floral arrangements do you want? Would the flower type or flower color meaning influence your floral arrangement decision? If so, what meaning do you want the flowers to represent? Do you want to keep the floral arrangements after the funeral? If so, do you want to turn them into permanent mementos? If there are any floral arrangements you don’t plan on keeping, do you want to donate them to a flower donation program?
WA N T T O R E A D M O R E ?
Visit our blog to learn more about funeral flowers and other funeral profession trends!
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TRIBUTE CENTER
Create one-of-a-kind mementos with a oneof-kind tool. With Tribute Center, you can easily personalize memorial folders, prayer cards, thank-you cards, bookmarks, candles, DVD packaging, and so much more with our collection of more than 500 different themes. Gone are the days of pre-printed stationery!
D O W N LOA D T R I B U T E C E N T E R F O R F R E E !
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Getting to Know Frazer Consultants Meet two members of our Frazer family — Jenna and Cathy — and see what they have to say about boosting your funeral home’s bottom line with Tribute Store.
NAME
Jenna YEARS
One ROLE
eCommerce Coordinator
Being flexible and adaptable to change helps me thrive in a constantly developing environment. Our team consistently makes strides for better and faster operations. For example, one of the features we developed with Tribute Store in the past year was the 24/7 Tribute Store Funeral Home Hotline to assist you with your orders any time you need answers. B O O S T I N G YO U R B OT TO M L I N E
W H AT I D O A F R A Z E R
As an eCommerce Coordinator at Frazer, it is my responsibility to manage the Tribute Store portion of your website. I oversee the Tribute Store staff to ensure orders are processed efficiently and accurately. The Tribute Store team understands how flowers can be an extremely important part of the services for a loved one. They also know the importance of showing bereaved families that people are thinking of them during a difficult time and easing their grief. Our team strives to get every order in the hands of a trustworthy local florist. In addition to managing my team, I collaborate with your local florists to ensure their prices, product listings, and days of availability are set to work well for your funeral home and their business needs.
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Tribute Store not only offers your families’ loved ones the convenience of purchasing sympathy arrangements right on the obituary, but it also allows you to earn some extra revenue. It turns your website’s obituary traffic into a consistent source of revenue for your funeral home. Since you are hosting Tribute Store on your Frazerpowered website, you get a commission on all qualifying orders. M A X I M I Z I N G YO U R T R I B U T E S TO R E R E V E N U E
To make the most of your firm’s Tribute Store commission and earn on as many orders as possible, we encourage you to choose a preferred florist you know and trust. When we have them set up, we will collaborate with them to ensure their prices are adjusted so they receive what they need to make memorable floral arrangements.
NAME
Cathy YEARS
One ROLE
eCommerce Coordinator
W H AT I D O AT F R A Z E R
I am an eCommerce Coordinator at Frazer Consultants, and my job is to reach out to your local florist, with whom you have built strong and lasting relations with, to continue to cultivate that relationship through a new avenue of order processing, which is Tribute Store. My job is to act as a resource and ally in the set-up process and to educate the florist on how this program works, and better yet, how to make it work specifically for their shop by customizing its features! S E T- U P F O R S U C C E S S
Before my employment with Frazer Consultants, I was a business owner. I owned and operated an award-winning flower shop for seven years
before selling it a year ago. My transition into a career with Frazer Consultants was a natural fit for me, and it is a place that I am happy to call home! During my time of entrepreneurship, I was contracted by Frazer Consultants to arrange the bouquets offered on Tribute Store. I helped order, design, arrange, photograph, and write the recipes for all the arrangements offered. My job was to make these arrangements preferable to the florist by using more costeffective focal flowers and foliage, eliminating the problem of over-filling, producing more accurate renditions of what the final product will look like, and so forth. B O O S T I N G YO U R B OT TO M L I N E
How does this translate to profits for your funeral home? Take into consideration the expertly crafted arrangements and the professionally edited high resolution images, as well as the appealing price points. When all these elements are combined, it leads to an exceptionally high conversion rate of consumers purchasing on Tribute Store! This, in turn, generates a larger commission check every quarter for your business and helps your bottom line! 
Tribute Store not only offers your families’ loved ones the convenience of purchasing sympathy arrangements right on the obituary, but it also allows you to earn some extra revenue.
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Behind-the-Scenes: Frazer Flower Network When coping with the loss of a loved one, the healing power of flowers helps express feelings of love, hope, strength, and sympathy to grieving families. At Frazer Consultants, our staff realizes the importance of finding the perfect flower arrangement to convey these feelings, so our Tribute Store is here to make things easier for both funeral homes and families.
We also handle maintenance of the Frazer Flower Network, which is the catalog of floral arrangements, high-quality photos, detailed descriptions, and recipes that florists and funeral homes can choose to offer families.
HOW IT WORKS
B U I L D I N G O U R F LO W E R N E T W O R K
Tribute Store comes free with all Frazerpowered websites and allows families to easily place flower orders from their loved one’s Tribute Wall, a permanent virtual tribute where loved ones can share photos, messages, and purchase flowers and other gifts.
We’ve worked hard to build the Frazer Flower Network with the help of a local florist near our headquarters in Wisconsin. As we mentioned, you can send floral arrangements to any local florist of your choosing.
With Tribute Store, your funeral home gets to decide what florists you want to work with, and we take care of maintaining the website and providing customer service support so your funeral home can focus on helping and comforting your families.
Florists don’t have to be a member of an existing floral network to join the Frazer Flower Network. There are no florist membership fees, and we take care of setting them up in the network. We also take care of all taxes and credit card processing fees when your families place flower orders.
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F R E Q U E N T LY A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S
Below are some frequently asked questions about the Tribute Store and the Frazer Flower Network, so you can rest assured you and your families will be pleased with the floral arrangements and the easy ordering process. How many floral arrangement options are available? We have an extensive arrangement catalog with more than 180 different floral arrangement options, and we’re constantly adding new ones. Florists can adjust the prices of the arrangements or remove any arrangements they don’t inventory. What if I have multiple florists in one location? Not a problem, the orders are evenly distributed to all your chosen florists. Florists receive orders via fax or email, and order notifications can be sent via text message or voicemail. What if a flower is currently out of stock? Florists are provided with contact information for those who have placed flower orders, so if they’re currently out of a certain type of flower, they can contact customers directly to see if they want to choose a different flower of equal value or a different floral arrangement. Also, we take care of any refunds so that your funeral home has one less thing to worry about.
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What if orders aren’t placed in time for the service? Most arrangements can be ordered and delivered the same day if the order is placed before 3 p.m. But if a flower order is placed after the deadline to make it to the funeral service, the delivery is auto directed to the family’s home address. There’s also an auto-populated delivery address for the next available funeral service or visitation, if applicable. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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R E S O U R C E S PA G E
Learn technology and marketing tips for the funeral profession! If you love The Meaningful Funeral, you’ll also love the resources page on our website! It has an extensive collection of eBooks, social media kits, and more to help your funeral home stay educated about the funeral profession and effectively market your services to your community.
CHECK OUT OUR FREE RESOURCES!
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One Easy Way to Grow Your Funeral Home's Bottom Line One of the biggest problems we hear from funeral directors is simply getting paid. It’s a hard topic to approach with families.
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So why not make it easier for everyone involved? By offering families multiple payment options, your funeral home can increase client family satisfaction, gain new clients, and ultimately, increase your bottom line. A N E W F I N A N C I A L R E A L I T Y F O R FA M I L I E S
It’s not just funeral preferences that are changing. Funeral payment preferences have changed as well. And that’s because we are living in a new financial reality for Americans. In the past, services were paid for up front. But multiple factors — much of which stem from the lingering effects of the Great Recession — have changed that. Funeral homes need to realize this new financial reality and adapt. According to a Bankrate survey, many Americans don’t have enough money in their savings to cover an unexpected $1,000 expense. This means families need alternative ways to pay for funeral services. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever for your funeral home to provide them with just that. D I F F E R E N T WAY S T O G E T PA I D
There will always be families that choose to pay for services in full. But what about the families like those in the statistic above? How can your funeral home cater to them? Offer them options. It’s that simple. And funeral homes today have more payment options available to them than ever before. One payment option is online credit card processing and electronic check payment that allows for easy online payments. And thanks to technology and innovation, financing makes funding a funeral incredibly easy, while providing flexible payment options for families. Families also can pay for the funeral expenses with a life insurance assignment. Or, families can reach out to their community with a crowdfunding campaign. For example, Tribute Crowdfunding lets your funeral home host the campaign. All donations go to the funeral fees first and are deposited directly to the funeral home. See how easy it is for your funeral home to get paid? And it gets even easier. Platforms like Tribute Pay offer all the above — integrated directly on your website — in one convenient solution. There is no reason funeral homes should let today’s financial reality hurt their bottom line. Your funeral home can grow your client base simply by letting them pay their preferred way. T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:
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T R I B U T E PAY
Get paid up front! Tribute Pay puts your funeral home in control of your accounts receivable. Offer credit card payments, financing, crowdfunding, life insurance assignments, and electronic checks all in one place, and get paid up front no matter what option families choose.
S C H E D U L E A F R E E D E M O N S T R AT I O N !
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WEBSITES
Leave your old website in the last decade. It’s time for an upgrade. Make 2020 the year your funeral home gets a modern website that’s unique to your firm. Frazer-powered websites give you and your families the features you need, like our revenue-generating Tribute Store and all-inclusive payment platform Tribute Pay.
S C H E D U L E A F R E E D E M O N S T R AT I O N !
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