How Funeral Professionals Can Connect with the Modern Consumer

8/27/2025

We were thrilled to join you all at this year’s CANA Annual Innovation Convention in Phoenix. At eFuneral, we’ve had our ear to the proverbial streets since 2019, continually exploring the shifting landscape of consumer behavior and how building trust digitally can help businesses — especially funeral professionals — connect with the modern consumer on new levels. As we hit Q3 of 2025, I wanted to share some key trends and actionable insights that can help you position your funeral home for long-term success — specifically with two important consumer generations: Millennials and Generation (Gen) Z.

As a busy funeral professional who has constantly adapted and adopted new technologies and fresh ways to reach your current families in times of need, chances are you’re not thinking about how to inspire younger generations — like Millennials and Gen Z — to create their funeral plans. But should you?

As 2019 through today clearly told us, the funeral profession is changing — and so are the families we serve. By understanding what matters to younger generations today, we can better prepare for the decisions they’ll make tomorrow.

By 2030, Millennials will have the most purchasing power of any generation — that’s only five years away! If your funeral home isn’t trying to reach them, you could be missing out on potential business.

But are younger generations even thinking about preplanning their funerals?

Most likely, not quite yet — but their family members are starting to communicate their end-of-life wishes, so Millennials are beginning to understand the importance of preplanning. You need to be ready when they are. Change often happens gradually. By understanding current consumer behaviors of Millennials and Gen Z, you can set your funeral home business up for success in decades to come — when it’s time to tap into these younger generations.

Defining the Generations

Each generation is influenced by the society they were raised in, contributing to fundamental differences in their priorities and how they make purchases. Understanding those differences is key to helping your business plan for the future. We referenced a research guide from the Library of Congress for the breakdown below. However, note that the traits shared are generalizations as each person’s life experience is subjective.

Millennials: Born 1981-1996

For a while, discussing Millennial trends was popular in the media, making it easy for people to think of this group as those who are currently in or freshly out of college. However, members of the Millennial generation are currently in their 30s and 40s, in the middle of their career and often raising families.

Gen Z: Born 1997-2012

Meanwhile, members of Gen Z are the ones who are currently in college or new in their careers — spanning ages 16-26 in 2025. This generation grew up with technology, the internet and social media at their fingertips. Most grew up with a cell phone, possibly even a smartphone.

Millennial & Gen Z Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior across generations constantly shifts with society, marketing trends and advances in technology. While these behaviors will continue to evolve, you can use these insights to inform your marketing tactics to reach Millennial and Gen Z customers.

Millennial Consumer Behavior

Behavior: Similar to their predecessors (Baby Boomers and Gen X), Millennials value customer service — what that looks like, however, is a little different from previous generations. Millennials prefer to feel connected with businesses over social media, and it’s important that the business has an authentic online presence.

Funeral Home Solution: Highlight your employees and celebrate culture on your social media, showcasing your values and letting people’s personalities shine through. Also, it’s not enough to just be active on social media — engage with your followers to move the conversation forward.

Behavior: As a result of growing up during the Great Recession of 2008, Millennials tend to be more minimalistic than other generations and are more likely to spend their money on experiences over material goods. They also place an emphasis on health and wellness.

Funeral Home Solution: When marketing to Millennial customers, consider positioning preplanning as a form of self-care — something that not only improves their quality of life by giving them peace of mind that their final wishes are recorded, but also as caring for their loved ones.

Behavior: How Millennials prefer to pay for purchases varies more than other generations. According to HubSpot’s 2024 Consumer Trends Report, 41% of Millennials prefer to pay in full, 34% prefer to pay on a subscription basis and 26% prefer installments.

Funeral Home Solution: Be sure to discuss preneed pricing options so they can find a plan that’s right for their needs. You can find answers to common preneed funding questions in this blog post.

Gen Z Consumer Behavior

Behavior: Growing up with cell phones and social media, it’s no surprise that Gen Z has a mobile-first mindset. They want their mobile experiences to be convenient, with user-friendly interfaces and seamless checkout processes.

Funeral Home Solution: In a recent blog post unpacking trends in funeral home operations, we shared that more families are looking for digital solutions to make funeral planning quicker and easier. Gen Z is no different. If you haven’t already, consider adding an online storefront through platforms like ours at eFuneral. With customized solutions for each funeral home, eFuneral can help you capture leads, free up staff time and meet the growing demand for digital convenience.

Behavior: Being more connected to the world than any other generation means Gen Z craves ultra-personalized experiences — and they want businesses to understand them on a deeper level.

Funeral Home Solution: Give Gen Z (and others) opportunities to interact with your funeral home in the form of polls, surveys and responding to comments on social media — whether on your own posts, potential customers’ posts or other businesses’ posts.

Behavior: Gen Z is the most racially diverse generation so far with fewer than 50% identifying as white.

Funeral Home Solution: Look into the demographics in your funeral home’s service area and research funeral practices or rituals for cultures not currently represented in your offerings. Consider ways you could expand your services to be more inclusive and reflective of the populations you’re serving. This could be a good opportunity to crowdsource ideas from your community — let their experiences inform the changes you make.

Other Trends to Note

Some trends transcend generational differences. Here are a few to keep in mind.

Consumers Are Looking and Shopping Online

Across generations, 59% of consumers prefer to do independent product research before talking to a person (HubSpot 2024 Consumer Trends Report). And according to the 2024 NFDA Study, 90% of consumers say they would be somewhat to much more likely to engage with a funeral home who posted their GPL online. That means, by the time someone is talking to you, they’re already somewhat educated and likely have an opinion about you or your business. Focus on asking questions to assess what they already know and to personalize their experience to their needs. You can even provide them with an introduction to the guided prearrangement experience by partnering with us at eFuneral; providing you with your very own digital storefront to build even transparency and ease into the process.

Social Media Is #1 for Product Discovery

Consumers increasingly look to social media to find new products and services — this applies to Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X. While Gen Z and Millennials may not be ready to plan their funerals just yet, your funeral home can set the groundwork for attracting those customers when the time comes by meeting them where they are — online!

Start building your online presence and generating reviews now to set yourself up for future success. Roughly 92% of consumers trust online reviews to determine whether to do business with a company. Not sure how to start generating reviews? Leverage partners like Elevia who will help turn your already strong, established presence in your community into reviews for you.

Younger Generations Believe in the Importance of Funerals

In a 2024 survey by the National Funeral Director’s Association (NFDA), 68% of Gen Z respondents strongly agreed it is important to commemorate the life of a loved one with a funeral or memorial service, compared to only 44% of Baby Boomers. While some news sources have predicted Millennials and Gen Z may move away from traditional funerals, NFDA’s study told a different story. One funeral director said, “Younger generations … are even more likely than Baby Boomers to think of funeral directors as important, valuable experts in relevant products and services and trustworthy.”

Funeral home marketing toward Millennials and Gen Z may be new territory, but hopefully the above insights give you a few ideas to start planning for the future. While these solutions aren’t rocket science, they can provide you with how to hone your preneed marketing efforts as you shift your dollars toward the ever-growing younger consumer generations.

If you're looking for reliable methods to connect to client families, look no further than the CANA-Certified Cremation Specialist Training! This training puts power skills first, building connection with families from first call to memorialization -- training that works for any family but keeps cremation at the core. Learn more about this unique training here, registration opens in 2026!

Nick Grant is Director of Marketing for eFuneral Solutions, LLC, a breakout digital solutions company that helps funeral homes maximize share and efficiency through optimized online sales. Prior to joining eFuneral, Nick worked in the agency world as an Account Director for over 13 years helping a wide range of B2C and B2B brands build and implement their strategies to generate leads and grow sales through various channels. Nick has a degree in advertising from Drake University, where he also played on the men's basketball team (GO DOGS!)

The Efficient Director: How to Boost Productivity and Reclaim Your Time

8/13/2025

As a funeral professional, your day is a constant balancing act. Beyond the profound work of guiding families through grief, you’re also an event planner, a logistics coordinator, and all too often, the one chasing down a doctor for a signature at 9 p.m. This immense workload is being compounded by what is arguably our biggest challenge: staffing shortages. Every hour spent on administrative friction is an hour you can't spend mentoring staff, engaging with your community, or providing the unrushed, high-touch service that defines your reputation.

Technology will never replace the guidance of a director. However, when implemented correctly, these tools can drastically improve your team's efficiency. They’re designed not to replace us, but to amplify us, acting as a silent partner that handles transactional work so you can focus on the transformational. This process begins not inside your prep room but on your digital front door—your website.

Auditing Your Digital First Impression

Before a family calls you, they’ve likely visited your website, looked for service options, read your recent reviews, and tried to understand your philosophy of care. With nearly 75% of families wanting to complete arrangements online, a passive 'contact us' form is no longer enough. The first step in building an efficiency engine is to automate your external processes, turning your website into an active, helpful resource that saves your team time.

Here are five ways to start:

Record a 90-second welcome video. This video acts as a 24/7 virtual introduction. It builds trust before the first conversation, making that first call more productive and focused on the family's specific needs. You can hire local videographers to film this for you, but the truth is—even a cell phone video that authentically shows your motivation will do the job.
Make Pricing Accessible and Clear. Industry surveys show consumers expect to see prices online. While you can post your GPL, consider a guided pricing tool that presents service packages clearly and explains them in your own words. This meets the modern family's need for transparency and helps them feel respected and informed from the very first click.
Test Your Online Planning Tools. Go through your online arrangement process from the perspective of a grieving family member at 2 a.m. Is it an intuitive, guided experience, or just a simple data-entry form? A confusing process creates friction instead of solving a problem. A streamlined, intuitive platform allows families to provide complete and accurate information on their own schedule, reducing your team's data entry time and the back-and-forth corrections.
Showcase Your Online Reviews. Families increasingly rely on Google Reviews and other testimonials to make decisions. Actively encourage satisfied families to leave a review (and automate this) so they’re displayed on your Google Business Profile and website.
Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly. A majority of families will first visit your website on a phone or tablet. Verify that your site is easy to read, navigate, and use on a small screen. Is there a clear call-to-action? Is your phone number displayed and will tapping it call you? If there isn’t, you risk losing that family's trust before you've even spoken to them.

Implementing an Efficiency Engine

Once a family has placed their trust in you, the administrative race begins. A modern case management platform is the single most effective tool for reducing this burden. And behind the scenes, process is what’s really driving the efficiencies. When evaluating new systems or your current workflow, the goal is to create processes to make your employees' lives easier and the family's experience better.

Here are five actionable strategies:

Standardize Workflow with Digital Checklists. Before any software can help, you need a consistent process. Work with your team and create a digital checklist for every new case. The best systems automatically generate these task lists, assign them to staff with deadlines, and ensure no detail is ever forgotten.
Use AI to Digitize Handwritten Notes and Forms. Many arrangements start with pen and paper, and AI can bridge the analog-to-digital gap. Modern tools use OCR to "read" handwritten documents from photos. Take a photo of a handwritten form, and AI will automatically extract the vital statistics and populate the digital case file. This turns a 20-minute task into a 2-minute verification process, saving hours of time each month.
Commit to a "Single-Point Data Entry" Policy. Once information is in your system—it should never need to be typed again. A good system ensures that data from the case file automatically populates the death certificate worksheet, the obituary draft, the invoice, and all other necessary documents. If your team is typing the same name more than once, your process is costing you valuable time.
Automate Proactive Family Communications. Map out all the questions your team answers most often for families after the arrangement. Then, use your system to send simple, automated notifications at those key moments. Emails like your “What to expect at the arrangement meeting” to "We have received the signed death certificate," provide immense peace of mind. This builds trust while saving your staff from dozens of back-and-forth communication.
Create a "Digital Hub" for Families. Eliminate the back-and-forth emails and text threads. Establish a secure online portal where a family can collectively review documents, approve the final obituary draft, and provide necessary electronic signatures. This gives the family one place to find everything, streamlining coordination for everyone involved.

A quick note on implementation: The best technology in the world will fail without your team's support. When introducing new processes, focus on communicating the 'why'—explain that the goal isn't to add more work, but to eliminate mundane tasks so they can focus on interactions with families. Frame it as a tool to help them and solicit their ideas to improve their own work, and they will become champions of the change.

Reinvesting Your Most Valuable Asset

Before spending your reclaimed time, it's important to measure your success. Start tracking metrics like the average administrative time spent per case. Seeing these numbers decrease not only proves the ROI of your efforts but also helps build momentum for future improvements.

The true return on investment from this strategy is measured in reclaimed hours. This isn’t about finishing work early; it's about what you can now accomplish for your business and your community. Every hour saved from paperwork is an hour you can reinvest in sitting with a family, listening without watching the clock. It's an hour you can dedicate to training a new apprentice, ensuring the quality of your care for the next generation. It's the freedom to finally develop the aftercare or preneed program you’ve been thinking about for years. It’s the option to go home early and spend time with your loved ones.

The funeral home of the future isn't one defined by its technology, but by the depth of its humanity. That’s actually what technology helps unlock. By embracing these tools, directors are not just becoming more efficient; they are actively preserving the compassionate legacy of the profession for the next generation. The choice isn't between technology and tradition, but in using technology to protect what is most traditional: unrushed, personal, and profoundly human care.

This post is inspired by Zack Moy's presentation at CANA's 107th Annual Innovation Convention titled The Efficient Funeral Home: A Data-Driven Look at Technology Implementation. Save the date for the 108th Convention in Minneapolis on August 12-14, 2026!

Saving time with technology means you can invest in what matters most: your service. Looking for a leg up? Consider becoming a CANA Certified Cremation Specialist that trains on the power skills that builds connection with families from first call through permanent placement. Registration opens in Spring 2026!

Zack Moy is the co-founder & CTO of Afterword, the technology platform that’s simplified funeral planning for tens of thousands of families. A serial entrepreneur with 15 years of leadership in enterprise software, his work has been featured in Fortune, TechCrunch, and Bloomberg. After working at Google, he founded an AI company acquired by Workday. Zack’s insights on funeral technology and regulation were shared in Fortune and with the FTC. He is a frequent speaker at major industry events, including ICCFA, CANA, and NFDA, shaping the future of funeral service. He’s the executive sponsor of the Funeral Data Alliance.