Cremation Sesquicentennial: The Cremation of Baron de Palm

11/5/2025

It was a cold and wet day when the cremation movement made its grand entrance in the US in December 1876. In continuing the story of America’s first cremation, we move to the small hamlet of Washington, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, where an eccentric physician named F. Julius LeMoyne had constructed the only crematory in the country. The determined New York attorney-turned-spiritual leader Henry Steel Olcott had convinced Dr. LeMoyne to use the facility for the cremation of Baron de Palm.

On December 5, 1876, the body of de Palm arrived in Washington and was transported to the crematory in the area known as Gallows Hill on the south end of town where Dr. LeMoyne had constructed his crematory. The building was built on a simple plan – on the left, a larger room was available for conducting services. A door led to the adjacent room which is where the cremator itself was located.

The furnace had been fired to heat the retort beginning the night before, and the following morning when the cremator was heated to just above 2300 degrees Fahrenheit, it was declared ready for use. By that time, more than two hundred local and national health officials, reporters, and onlookers, had descended on and around the crematorium grounds for the event.

Just after 8:00 am, the body was wrapped in an alum-soaked sheet (to prevent immediate combustion while entering the super-heated chamber), and Olcott sprinkled flowers, herbs, and evergreens on the body. Then, after removing their hats, Olcott, LeMoyne, and two associates bore his body to the crematory and, placing it head-first into the cremation chamber, de Palm made his mark on history.

Within seconds, the door to the cremation chamber was sealed and through a peephole those present watched the crumbling remains within.

A correspondent from the New York Sun claimed that no fire touched the body, though no fire touched the body, though some flame could be seen when clothing or the wrapping linen were ignited by the heat. A “glorious roseate” glow engulfed the body, and at one point, contractions caused a slight upward point by the left hand, “as if the spirit of the dead was yearning for above.” Just before noon, the cremation was pronounced complete by multiple officials in attendance.

From the beginning, LeMoyne and Olcott strived to portray the event as a scientific experiment. To demonstrate this, visitors were allowed into the crematory two at a time so they could see the process through the opening. Additionally, following the cremation, a public meeting was held in the town hall where Olcott, LeMoyne, and other ministers and health officials could discuss the merits of cremation.

The following day de Palm’s remains were removed from the crematory and placed in an ornate “Hindu” style lidded vase engraved with “various Hindu motifs and devices” reportedly made of unbaked clay. The urn remained in the care of the Theosophical Society until the remains were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean at an undetermined time.

Many of the health officials in attendance received a small apothecary jar with a portion of de Palm’s remains – an early form of keepsake urn – primarily to show the innocuousness of human remains after cremation.

Though a modest beginning to what is now the most commonly chosen form of disposition, this event marked a significant start to the conversation of cremation on the continent. It would be nearly a decade for another crematory to be built in America, but Dr. LeMoyne’s crematory was not quite ready to forfeit its work.

Into the next century

Two years later, the LeMoyne Crematory would be back in national news again – this time for in its role in the cremation of Jane Pitman, wife of noted Cincinnati stenographer Benn Pitman, the first woman to be cremated in America. While hers was the second in the LeMoyne Crematory, it was the third cremation in America, as the second was that of Dr. Henry Winslow, a physician in Salt Lake City whose friends built a cremator there for his cremation only.

The end would come for Dr. LeMoyne the following year as he would succumb to “a lingering and painful illness” at the ripe old age of 71 and at the reported corpulent weight of 225 pounds. After brief services at his home, his body was borne up Gallows Hill for the last time on October 16, 1879, and the “Apostle of Cremation” was cremated in the crematory he had constructed. Following the cremation, his remains were placed in a one-gallon apothecary jar, sealed with cork and wax, and buried just outside the front doors of the crematory. A monument to his memory reads:

F. Julius LeMoyne, M.D.
Born
September 4, 1798
Died
October 14, 1879
A fearless advocate of the right.

After its first use and the role it played in the beginning of the cremation movement in America, the LeMoyne Crematory would only be used a mere 40 more times before being permanently closed by the LeMoyne family in 1901. Interestingly, only a handful of the cremations that took place there were residents of anywhere closer than Pittsburgh, highlighting its original purpose of cremating Dr. LeMoyne himself.

In the present, the LeMoyne Crematory is under the care of the Washington County Historical Society, which is based in the LeMoyne House in Washington. It still stands, not only as a curiosity, but as a monument to Dr. LeMoyne and the legacy of his achievements.

We have barely scratched the surface in the history of modern cremation and how our practice has modernized and transformed funeral and memorial practice over 150 years of history.

Join us in 2026 to mark the 150th anniversary of the first modern cremation in North America. Reflect on your business’s history, your own practice, and make your predictions for the next 150 years to come!

Jason Ryan Engler is a licensed funeral director and is considered a thought leader in cremation products and merchandising. Known to many as the Cremation Historian, he is the historian for the Cremation Association of North America and is the cremation historian for the National Museum of Funeral History. He is the regional sales manager for the Wilbert Group in Kansas / Northwest Missouri and lives in Kansas City with his miniature dachshund, Otto.

Cremation Sesquicentennial: 150 Years of Cremation History

10/22/2025

In 2026, we will mark the 150th anniversary of the first modern cremation in North America. Over the next year, it’s time to learn and reflect on 150 years of history and to plan for the next 150 years to come!

To get ready for 2026, we’ll first use this post go back a bit further to set the stage for the changes ahead.

1873

With the increase in illness and concerns of cemetery overcrowding, many European physicians were seeking alternative ways to dispose of their dead. Prior to this time, if cremation was conducted, it was only by way of the open air funeral pyre – which had its own disagreeable experiences.

One example was Italian professor Ludovico Brunetti. In 1873 at the medical exhibition at the Vienna World's Fair, he displayed an exhibit demonstrating his experimentation with cremation. In the diorama model, an illustration of which is seen here, he displayed cremated remains in a glass chest.

"Vermibus erepti, puro consumimur igni!"
was displayed with the remains
"Saved from the worm, purified by the consuming flame!"

1874

The cremation movement in America, like many of the movements in this country before it, began in Europe. In 1874, Sir Henry Thompson, member of Queen Victoria’s Royal College of Surgeons, learned of a modern method of cremation at the Vienna Medical Exposition in late 1873.

Upon his return from the exposition, Dr. Thompson put his medical knowledge to use and began a project that would put him to the forefront of what would become modern cremation. In January 1874, a lengthy dissertation detailing his support of the cremation of the dead, soon after spearheading the start of the Cremation Society of England.

This fantastic illustration was published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine in April 1874 and shows an artist’s interpretation of Dr. Thompson (left) witnessing a cremation in the apparatus of Dr. Ludovico Brunetti, the inventor of the apparatus with which Dr. Thompson began his interest in cremation.

1875

Following the publication of Henry Thompson’s “The Treatment of the Body After Death” in 1874, newspapers and civic groups took up the conversation and cremation societies were formed in several major cities – with the New York Cremation Society (NYCS) leading the charge and conversation.

Due to its encouragement as a health measure, many physicians and health professionals of the time adopted the mantel of cremation and many took a vocal stance, becoming akin to religious leaders in their zeal. One American physician who quickly became interested in cremation was Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne, an eccentric character in Washington, Pennsylvania, a small town that is now essentially a suburb of Pittsburgh. Like many other physicians, LeMoyne saw the cremation of the dead as a sanitary necessity and promoted it on those grounds.

Also recognizing cremation’s place as a function of the care of the dead, he approached the local cemetery with an offer to build the crematory on their grounds, which they declined. Instead, he built a small unadorned brick structure on his own property and had a local engineer build a cremator. Originally, the building contained only two rooms, a receiving room, where a small service could be held, and the retort room. Due to the cemetery’s rejection of the idea, LeMoyne planned its use exclusively for his own cremation and for any of his local friends and fellow health advocates.

While Dr. LeMoyne was working on building his cremation facility, several hundred miles away in New York, an attorney named Henry Steel Olcott was facing a cremation dilemma of his own. As a co-founder of the Theosophical Society with noted mystic Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the tenets of the society aligned perfectly with the cremation of the dead.

One of the followers of Theosophy was a man named Joseph Henry Louis de Palm – a purported member of the Bavarian nobility in Germany who had immigrated to America. Baron de Palm, as he would become known, was a character himself. He and Olcott became fast friends, especially with his estate being promised to the Theosophical Society upon his death. In exchange, he had one request of Olcott: de Palm wanted to be the first person cremated in the New York Cremation Society’s crematory.

1876

In New York, the NYCS was one of the strongest societies of its type in the US and its members and directors were, albeit slowly, working toward the establishment of a crematory in the metropolis. The 1876 death of de Palm and his request for cremation once again brought the cremation question strongly into the press as the cremation society had come to an agreement with its legal counsel (Olcott) and was prepared to honor de Palm’s request. However, as more light was being shed on the unconventional beliefs of the Theosophical Society, there was a bit of discomfort from the board about the association of the cremation society with the unusual religion and beliefs of de Palm.

De Palm’s elaborate funeral service at the Masonic Temple was covered by journalists in newspapers nationwide. Unfortunately, the spectacle that the funeral became associated the cremation process with “the occult,” and the more prominent board members of the New York Cremation Society began to waver and back out of their support for the movement. The cremation society did not waver from its agreement alone as Olcott became increasingly frustrated at the lack of energy on the part of NYCS, even going so far as to label them dilettante – all voice and no action. He did not seem to be too far off the mark as the cremation society had not constructed a crematory, nor was the building of such a facility even on the horizon.

Olcott, in his impetuousness, began seeking an alternative. The answer came in the form of that small crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania. After finally coming to an agreement with Dr. LeMoyne, Olcott prepared more earnestly for the cremation to take place as soon as the facility was complete. The press again started to cover cremation-related stories and discussion of its merits was revived.

The success of a social reform depends upon a perfect storm of activity, and all the elements of the cremation movement were coming together to create just such a storm.

What happens next? Will cremation become an option? Will Baron de Palm be the first modern cremation in North America?

Come back next time for the final installment of our Cremation Sesquicentennial and find out!

(Spoiler alert: yes.)

The Key to Staff Retention – Embrace Cremation (Part 2)

10/8/2025

In our last post, we reviewed some consumer data on what they’re looking for in their cremation arrangements. Now, it’s time to talk about making sure that your team is ready when those consumers choose you.

Individual employees bring their own perspective – positive and negative experiences with cremation included. What training do they receive to navigate the disconnect and overcome biases? How are they recognized and rewarded for their success?

CANA asked the best how they accomplish it.

Trend 3 – Cremation Competencies

CANA brought together high performing funeral directors from all types of cremation providers for a focus group to identify what makes them so successful in winning calls as well as revenue per call. They showed us the skills needed to achieve their success.

CANA discovered the success that these funeral directors had with cremation families isn’t any different than they would have to any other family – the skills are the same. Plus, the steps they take with cremation families are generally the same with any other family from initial notification to aftercare. The gap between the professional and meeting the family where they are is cremation-specific and cremation-positive training to overcome biases.

Seven Areas of Success

CANA research with members and their star staff revealed seven key domains of care for families from initial notification all the way through aftercare. Then, we further identified knowledge skills and actions required to master each domain – the work that takes to be great at that step with families. From there, we could define what proficiency looks like – what makes someone good in an area and how to identify where to improve. Add to that, the cremation positive attitude that takes employees to the next level.

Then, professional development can move beyond meeting basic CE requirements. Continuing education becomes a targeted investment in professional development to gain knowledge, skills and actions. CANA offers courses, but so do others. Once you identify the needs of your employees, invest in them and target their development with relevant continuing education. A simple low-cost way to start is to incorporate debriefs into your staff meetings. Ask your staff to share an experience they had since the last staff meeting and how they handled it. This can build trust within your team and share alternative responses that promote peer learning.

For our part, CANA combined the cremation positive perspective with training that targeted the domains. One results of this work was the CANA-Certified Cremation Specialist credential. Professionals who go through this program complete 11 hours of online courses focused on skill development within the seven domains plus two hours of interactive education focused on developing softer skills like empathy. Graduates reported feeling more engaged and connected to their work. They reported “AHA” moments that connected the classes to why they were interested in funeral service initially.

Why is it so hard to find good people?

What we’ve been hearing from our members and conversations on the Convention floor is more than conflict about cremation assumptions, but also generational conflict, expectations not matching up between employers and employees, and work ethic. This is more important than ever for the future of this profession to bridge these disconnects through better communications around expectations.

Knowing the specific skills and actions that go into each domain makes it easier to write job descriptions, to set expectations for staff to succeed, to create staff evaluation forms, to target weakness with training. When you understand what proficiency looks like, it is easier to adjust and discuss expectations. This framework gives managers and employees a common language to identify areas of growth.

When hiring, the position description can communicate your expectations clearly, beyond “holds a license and has a pulse.” A well-written job description not only describes work they’ll do and managers’ expectations for success, but also the company’s goals and values to find people that they resonate with.

Align Expectations

Families have expectations for their provider, so employers have expectations for staff. The key is to make sure that they’re communicated clearly, reinforced in from annual evaluations and quarterly reviews all the way to weekly check-ins. Staff should know from the beginning what their goals are and the values of the company and, if they don’t, who to ask for clarity. Plus, employees crave feedback and reinforcement of why they are doing the work they are doing. Put together, clear expectations, reinforcement of the path to meeting goals, and aligned values helps ensure individual staff are good fit and keep making the right choices in family interactions.

Employee Expectations

Don’t forget that employees have expectations for their work, their work environment, and their success, too.

Employers want many of the things their employees want, of course, but managing people is hard work. The administrative workload of being the boss and the power differential creates a distance that is hard to bridge. Bosses want their employees to do their work, the work they are passionate about and trained to do. But bosses also forget, amongst the paperwork and deadlines, to remind their staff why this is so important.

This image from the Good Jobs Institute mimics Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs but translated for the workplace. Starting from the top, working in death care is inherently meaningful, serving the community during some of their most difficult moments. Supporting opportunities for personal growth by identifying and targeting areas for greater success is why there are CE requirements and why CANA works so hard to provide valuable (yet affordable!) professional development programs.

How you measure and recognize achievement is important when communicating expectations and having them met. Beyond building rapport and trust among your team, helping them each find their place in the larger profession forges that sense of belonging as they connect with people who have similar experiences at live trainings, in-person conferences, peer support meetings, or the like.

Employers seek loyalty in employees but often experience quick departures. If that is your situation, then ask how well you are meeting employees’ higher needs. These capture the “why” of work and – in a service profession like cremation and funeral service – should be easy to articulate if harder to practice. Try not to let the urgent tasks crowd out the important connections.

But don’t neglect the Basic Needs of a good job, either. When the basic needs aren’t met, an employee will quit.

PAY & BENEFITS: In recent years, the shortage of licensees has forced pay increases across the country. When thinking about pay and benefits, here are a few useful tools.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Funeral Director
- 2023 Median Pay $60,580 per year; $29.13 per hour
www.livingwage.mit.edu – this calculator helps you determine the living wage for your community. Rather than paying what you can afford or think is fair, use this tool to ensure you are competitive and offer pay that covers your employees’ basic needs.

SCHEDULES: The key here is predictable scheduling with as few last-minute changes as possible. That might mean cross-training for flexibility or setting clear standard operating procedures to make work as predictable as possible.

CAREER PATHS: Here’s that expectation setting again – how will someone know when they’ve achieved the goals of their role and will advance in responsibilities or pay? What are the opportunities for advancement, and how are they communicated?

SAFETY & SECURITY: More than just basic compliance with local, state/provincial, federal regulations, this is about giving people the time for paperwork and PPE, for empowering employees to speak up when they have a question or concern, and responding to needs as they arise.

Good Job Retention Strategies

There is no one strategy to solve our workforce development crisis. There are many strategies to try and here are a few to consider:

Fairness in scheduling may look different depending on the employee. I heard the owner of a trade removal and embalming service share that she schedules all twelve of her employees for every holiday, including herself. Everybody works Christmas or Labor Day, etc. but in two-hour increments. If the employee gets the call on their short shift, they do the work. If not, they get the rest of the holiday off. It is fair, if not equal. She has other benefits in place, including overtime pay, to promote equality among her employees.

Answer questions – The question – Why? – may be annoying, however it isn’t necessarily challenging. Your employees are less likely to have grown up in funeral service and genuinely don’t know why things are done the way they are. Answer them and ask them why they think things should be as they are. Generational interaction need not be adversarial.

Consider pairing up employees from across generations. Parents and children experience more conflict than grandparents and grandchildren, and this age gap could have benefits in the workplace. Consider matching your youngest and oldest employees for mentoring if not supervision. Or employees of the same age, but different tenure, so your 30-year Gen X veteran is mentoring your Gen X career-changing apprentice. This may help reduce generational conflicts.

Support continuing education and outside interests. Encourage employees to share their experiences at staff meetings and share information about the communities they serve.

In summary, bridging disconnects in cremation assumptions can lead to more engaged employees.

It may seem like quite the leap to think about cremation trends impacting staff retention, but keep in mind: clear is kind. If we can meet families expectations and align their needs with our goals, then communicate them with staff, we unite everyone in the meaningful work of funeral service – including cremation services.

This is part two of a two-part blog post on cremation trends and staff retention. Read part one here.

This two-part blog post inspired by the Wilbert EDU webinar on October 31, 2024, titled Cremation Trends & Staff Retention: A CANA-Inspired Approach with Barbara Kemmis & Brie Bingham. To watch the recording, contact your local Wilbert representative to learn more!

Barbara Kemmis is Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America where she promotes all things cremation through member programs, education and strategic partnerships. After more than 25 years of experience in association leadership, Barbara knows that bringing people together to advance common goals is not only fun, but the most effective strategy to get things done.

Brie Bingham joined the CANA staff in 2015 as Membership Coordinator with little experience in associations of funeral service. Now, she is a proud Certified Funeral Celebrant, CANA Certified Crematory Operator, and continues to grow her knowledge of the profession and her role in CANA. Brie coordinates CANA's blog, The Cremation Logs, manages member benefits, and that things keep working behind the scenes so CANA Members can stay focused on their business and their communities.

Funeral Homes and TikTok: A Guide to the Opportunities and Pitfalls

9/24/2025

For months, the fate of TikTok has been in limbo, as questions have swirled around whether it can continue operating in the United States.

In case you haven’t been following the news, many have expressed concern that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, could be forced by the Chinese government to hand over sensitive American user data or even spread propaganda via the app itself.

As a result, if you’re a funeral home owner or even an individual who has heard about the platform but never used it, you’ve probably put the entire idea of creating a TikTok account by the wayside.

But not so fast.

Apparently, there’s a pending deal to transfer TikTok’s U.S. operations to a majority American ownership group, with Oracle overseeing the app’s algorithm. It’s increasingly looking as though TikTok’s U.S. operations will be overseen by a joint venture with mostly American investors.

With all this said, according to ChatGPT, only about 1 in 400 funeral homes currently have a TikTok channel, which may suggest that your time is better spent elsewhere.

However, we all know that you shouldn’t do something simply because competitors are doing it. I’d argue the corollary is also true: You shouldn’t toss an idea in the garbage simply because not many other funeral homes have a TikTok presence. In fact, that might be one of the very reasons to create an account.

Let’s drill into some of the other reasons a funeral home might want to establish a TikTok account.

Why a Funeral Home Might Benefit from TikTok

In addition to establishing your funeral home as innovative and different, creating a company page on TikTok could help you:

Reach younger audiences: TikTok skews younger (Gen Z, Millennials). If you’re trying to build awareness of preneed services, those are two groups you want to reach before they face immediate at-need situations.
Humanize your brand: Funeral homes that post authentic, behind-the-scenes content (introducing staff, showing how you prepare services, answering questions about grief and traditions) often generate strong engagement.
Thought leadership: TikTok is becoming a place where professionals share educational content. Positioning your firm as approachable and knowledgeable can differentiate you.
Viral potential: TikTok can catapult a small account into high visibility with just one well-crafted video.

Risks and Challenges

So, am I saying to scoff at the naysayers and create a TikTok account tomorrow?

Not at all.

My personal recommendation would be to focus on making your company Facebook page robust – and then consider other social networks such as LinkedIn, where you can forge valuable connections with the professional community, which can be critical when it comes to making referrals or recommending solid job candidates.

But once you’ve established your funeral home and yourself on those networks, consider others, such as Instagram, X, Bluesky and – yes – even TikTok.

Before dipping your toe into the TikTok water, however, it’s important to be aware of some of the challenges, which include:

Tone sensitivity: Death is emotional. If content comes across as flippant or “trendy,” it could backfire badly. Funeral homes need to strike a careful balance between being approachable and being respectful.
Consistency: TikTok requires regular posting to stay visible. Sporadic or half-hearted use won’t produce results.
Local versus national audience: TikTok is not hyper-local. You may attract followers from across the country, but at-need services are local. That makes TikTok stronger for brand awareness and preneed positioning, not immediate lead generation.
Staff time: Creating video content takes more creativity and effort than posting static images on Facebook or Instagram.

Best Practices If You Do Invest

Setting up and running a TikTok account is no small matter, so be sure to consider if you can devote the necessary time to doing it.

If you make the plunge, try to have fun while ensuring you make no major gaffes that will impact your brand to the downside. One thing is certain: I promise you will learn new things along the way – and you’ll likely be able to apply some of what you what you learn to other areas of your business.

I’d also recommend:

Lean into education: For instance, a short video might start with, “Here are three things that people don’t realize about planning a funeral in advance.”
Tell stories: Without breaching confidentiality, share narratives about traditions, community impact, or the “why” behind what you do.
Use a consistent spokesperson: A funeral director or staff member with a warm, approachable personality can become the “face” of your page. For instance, at Ring Ring Marketing, in addition to myself, we often lean on our social media director, Savannah Evanoff, who is brilliant! (Seriously, if you don’t follow her on LinkedIn, you need to do so now.)
Think evergreen + seasonal: Balance timeless content (like FAQs) with topical content (holidays, awareness months, cultural practices).
Drive them home: Use captions/links to funnel viewers back to your website, Facebook page, or in-person seminars where actual conversions happen.

Bottom line:

One of the great things about TikTok is that it is not saturated with funeral homes — so the opportunity to stand out is real.

If your firm has the bandwidth to create tasteful and educational video content, it could pay off in brand awareness and preneed leads, even if the direct local at-need ROI is harder to measure.

If you don’t have that bandwidth, you’re better off doubling down on Facebook to extend your local reach as well as other social networks like YouTube and LinkedIn before focusing on TikTok.

Welton Hong is the founder & CEO of Ring Ring Marketing, which has helped over 600 small businesses grow their revenue through online marketing strategies. He is also the author of “Making Your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes.” Visit RingRingmarketing.com and follow the company on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X.

Compassion for Others, Bringing Mindful Techniques to the Workplace

9/10/2025

As we entered 2025, you may have set a goal to take better care of yourself, only to find that the excitement of “New Year, New Me” has faded, and your resolution has taken a back seat. This is a common challenge, especially for those in the funeral industry, where the demands of the job can leave little time for personal well-being. The reality is stark: In 2023, the age-adjusted death rate in the United States was 750.5 deaths per 100,000, with a total of 3,090,964 deaths recorded (Murphy et al., 2024). As funeral professionals, we are expected to master emotional labor, which involves managing one’s emotions and expressions when interacting with others. In addition to physical labor, the emotional labor of our work often leads to burnout, compassion fatigue, and a range of stress-related issues.

Funeral directors and embalmers face immense pressure to provide impeccable service and manage personal and financial stress. These pressures can lead to emotional exhaustion, where compassion fatigue manifests as numbness and reduced empathy toward others. This is often a consequence of overuse of compassion skills and lack of self-care.

Likewise, burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged, repeated, and unmanaged stress such as unrealistic time pressures, lack of support, unmanageable workload, unpredictable work schedule, and dealing with heavy grief daily.

The signs of stress in this field are all too familiar: physical and emotional exhaustion, increased anxiety, headaches, stomach issues, anger, irritability, relationship issues, and negative coping behaviors, including drug and alcohol abuse, may emerge along with decreased job satisfaction.

This article will explore simple strategies to reduce stress and incorporate self-care routines that can help restore balance to your life. One such practice is mindfulness—where you connect with your inner awareness to identify stressors, explore healthier coping strategies, and use self-reflection to continuously recommit to your self-care throughout the year, rather than simply setting a goal and forgetting about it.

Stress in the Workplace

We’ve all heard about the adverse effects of workplace stress, and a quick online search will show how much it can impact a business. Chronic stress and constant pressure can lead to burnout, with signs like increased tardiness, forgetfulness, low morale, and a toxic work environment. This affects not only team dynamics but also customer interactions and, in the long run, employee turnover (Glomb et al., 2011).

The Cleveland Clinic (2021) points out that when stress becomes a regular part of our lives, it can cause problems like cortisol levels not lowering, leading to adverse effects such as a weakened immune system, headaches, digestive issues, and weight gain. Stress can change how we view things and affect our interactions with coworkers, customers, and competitors. While emotions come and go, our mood and outlook can be more challenging to shift, especially when stress becomes chronic. Recognizing ongoing stress is essential because it can lead to anxiety and depression and impact our ability to adapt to unexpected situations on the job (Centers for Disease Control, 2024).

While stress is a normal part of life, the constant pressure we face at work can make it overwhelming. That’s where practices like mindfulness come in. Taking time for self-care and creating a plan to manage stress can help reduce burnout and improve work performance and personal well-being.

Begin with your planned end in mind.

One of the best ways to start a self-care routine is to take some time to engage in mindfulness and find out what your stressors are and what self-care means to you.

Mindful self-compassion.

Mindfulness is paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and emotions on purpose and without judgment of what is happening at that moment (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). To practice mindfulness, we can incorporate a more formal routine of activities like meditation, breathing, or yoga to help us become more aware of our thoughts and emotions when we are not engaged in formal meditative activities (Potter, n.d.). When we become more self-aware of how we go about our day, we can become more compassionate with ourselves and care for ourselves like we would our loved ones or families. The care we give ourselves by establishing boundaries for moments to reset helps generate the energy and compassion to continue supporting others (Neff & Dahm, 2017). Here are three ways to use mindfulness, play, and compassion to bring more self-awareness into our lives.

Visualize your care.

Visualization is a great way to bring a feeling of calm and help you come one step closer to putting some time between stress and work. Start by taking a slow, deep breath through the nose, holding the breath, and slowly letting the air out of your mouth. As a mindful practice, close your eyes and imagine what you see, feel, touch, taste, and hear during a hobby or activity you enjoy. What are some of the things that you find yourself doing to engage in fun or joy?

Affirm your needs and do... even a little.

Once you imagine these activities or ideas, write down statements or affirm that you deserve a few moments of care. Affirm aloud or to yourself with statements like, “I need a 10-minute break so that I can show up the way I want to for myself and my family”, “I’m taking a walk, and the warm sun and a breath of fresh air is what I need right now,” or “Planning time for myself, is just as important as the plans I make for work.”

Saying these things or writing statements that resonate with you is the second step in moving closer to better self-care and reducing chronic stress. The last part of this is to do what you are affirming. Even if you don’t put these things into practice right away, you might take that break eventually, so try one of those activities you imagined.

Commitment and beyond.

The true goal is to have more mindful self-compassion and self-care for yourself which can improve your work life and, hopefully those around you (coworkers, families, clergy, etc). While these ideas are great, they require action and continual commitment because life can become complicated, and we might lose sight of our personal goals. According to the change cycle, slipping out of new practices within the maintenance stage is common and may be frustrating. Setting regular times to reflect on your work-life balance, understanding why you stopped your practice, recommitting, and sharing your experience with a trusted person can ensure that the change becomes a permanent part of your lifestyle (Salerno & Brock, 2008).

Here are a few other mindful activities to explore for your mindful self-compassion and care:

Try a yoga session, mindfulness course, or self-compassion training.
Write journal entries about what you are grateful for. Or reflect on times you’re hard on yourself and what advice you have given to a friend under stress, and see if that might apply to you.
Try breathing practices or guided meditations.
Connect with a friend or family member when you’re overwhelmed. Sometimes, they help remind you of the self-care you committed to, or they can listen.
Try talk therapy with a mental health counselor if a friend or loved one is not an option.

September is Self-Care Awareness Month, so there's no better time to take steps today to take care of you. This post from from Dr.s Dickinson and Redmond is filled with ideas to help you get started, even with a busy funeral professional's schedule. Looking for more? The monthly calendar from Action for Happiness offers daily inspiration. Dr. Redmond offers free, guided meditation and other resources on her website. Finally, explore the referenced sources below for more information.

This post is republished from an article in Vol. 61, Iss. 2 of The Cremationist magazine. Members can read this article and any other advice in The Cremationist archive. Not a member? Consider joining your business to access this and all archives of The Cremationist plus the many resources referenced here to help you find more resources for your professional success – only $539!

Dr. Lucia Dickinson is a dedicated professional in funeral service and higher education. She works for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and is an adjunct professor at Northeast Texas Community College. Licensed as a funeral director and embalmer since 2011, she has extensive experience in various funeral home and cemetery roles. Dr. Dickinson holds an MBA in Human Resource Management and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Research interests in funeral service, leadership, organizational theory, and intersectionality.

Dr. Chez Redmond, a seasoned higher education practitioner and mindfulness advocate, currently leads the TRIO Student Support Services program at the University of Central Oklahoma. With over 16 years of experience in higher education and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Dr. Redmond possesses a strong foundation in pedagogy, federal grant program management, and personal development. Her areas of interest include contemplative practices, federal guidelines, and mental health and well-being.

References

CDC. (2024, August 16). Providing Support for Worker Mental Health. CDC: Mental Health. https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health/caring/providing-support-for-workers-and-professionals.html
Cleveland Clinic. (2021, December 10). Cortisol: What It Is, Function, Symptoms & Levels. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22187-cortisol
Glomb, T. M., Duffy, M. K., Bono, J. E., & Yang, T. (2011). Mindfulness at work. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management. (30)115-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0742-7301(2011)0000030005.
Kabat-Zinn, J. Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York, NY: Hyperion; 1994.
Murphy, S.L., Kochanek, K.D., Xu, J.Q., Arias, E. (2024). Mortality in the United States, (NCHS Data Brief, No. 521). National Center for Health Statistics. https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc/170564
Neff, K. D., & Dahm, K. A. (2017). Self-compassion: What it is, what it does, and how it relates to mindfulness. In B. A. Gaudiano, Mindfulness: Nonclinical applications of mindfulness: Adaptations for school, work, sports, health, and general well-being (pp. 495–517). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Potter, D. (n.d.) Palouse Mindfulness: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. https://palousemindfulness.com/index.html
Salerno, M.A and Brock, L. (2008). The change cycle: How people can survive and thrive in organizational change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

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.

Fatal Assumptions that are Killing the Customer Experience

7/23/2025

Last evening I had dinner with a good friend. We proceeded through our typical topics of family and travels after which she conveyed her disastrous treatment by store personnel after her purse was taken from her cart. Completing her saga of the poor customer interactions she suffered, she added, “Foxy (solely ideated from my last name), I immediately thought of you. You've dedicated your career to improving customer experiences. Why are they still so terrible?”

Splendid question, and one I continually ask myself.

At first glance, it appears that we have failed. All the noise: books, seminars, training exercises and cheerleading about the customer experience have not produced significantly better customer experiences on a consistent basis. However, an important evolution of thought has taken place over the last couple of decades. We’ve transitioned from focusing on front line personnel as the provider of customer experiences to understanding that the entirety of the organization provides customer experiences. AND, most importantly, we’ve come to understand that company culture is the milieu from which all customer experiences spring.

Hope is Not a Strategy but a Perfect Mindset to Begin

Despite or perhaps because of stories of insolent cashiers, phone calls not being returned, car repair hell, endless waits in a physician’s office, frustrating phone systems without human access, indifference, there is a huge opportunity. McKinsey & Company states that declining customer satisfaction rates across a range of companies suggest that many companies have lost their focus on the customer. There are certainly exceptions to these bright spots. You can name a few. However, many other organizations are still operating under potentially fatal assumptions.

Potentially Fatal Assumptions

Assumption #1—Our Service is Good

Just a dollar, that is all I want for every time I’ve been told by an organization that they are “known for great service.” When asked to defend that statement, anecdotal evidence prevails. A random call from a customer, a five star google review or the fact that they have received few or no complaints, are the answers given most often. Many companies assume that if there are just a few or no complaints their service is at an acceptable level. After all, why would an organization put resources into improving service if they believe it’s fine?

Assumption #2—Service Matters but not That Much

Another reason companies choose not to allocate resources to improve the customer experience is a failure to understand that experience quality actually impacts the bottom line. Multiple surveys of CEOs present data where the CEOs state that the customer experience is a top priority, yet, few put actual resources, either human or financial, into improving it.

There is a tendency to sense that service matters but to believe that it does not matter that much, at least not enough to impact real growth and profitability.

Let’s be candid. Resource allocation, that part where expenditures are made to improve the customer experience, is a harder dollar to spend than expanding marketing efforts or upgrading your physical environment, or your website.

Without a commitment of resources, a service initiative is merely “lip service,” like saying your health is a priority, while puffing on a cigarette.

Let’s get to the Heart of the Matter

Imagine you wake up in a different country, especially one that differs from North American culture, you are likely to notice indicators of the local culture right away. Language, dress, road rules, values, menu items, behavior, and definitions of crime all vary across cultures. In Singapore, for instance, selling or importing chewing gum is banned to maintain public cleanliness. Cultures reveal themselves clearly.

In parallel, when an organization intentionally embeds values, speaks a language of customer focus, has engaged employees, creates policies and processes with the customer in mind, generates performance standards at each and every touchpoint, AND hires to standards with the customer in mind, the customer will notice a positive difference. They will ‘feel served.’ Yes, I used that term intentionally. There is a difference between ‘getting served,’ and ‘feeling served.’ People remember how we make them ‘feel.’ When a customer ‘feels served,’ they are more likely to recommend you, buy more, casually talk about you. They’ve become loyal, and loyalty is a matter of the heart.

The most significant concern any organization can have today, is whether their customers “feel served.” In the behavior sequence, feelings precede action. Said another way: How people behave is critically affected by how they feel. Customer retention depends on this fact. Customer acquisition, through promoters and referrals is an outcome.

Getting Started

Each employee inside an organization owns a part of whether the customer feels served. The customer will only feel served however when all the impressions from all the touchpoints scream loudly with one voice.

If you are wondering how to begin to create the culture described here, start with a few questions and get your entire staff involved. Good starter questions are:

What systems, processes and policies need to be in place for our customers to feel served? Which ones need to be changed?
How would you rate the customer experience we provide on a scale of 1-10? What can we improve upon?
How would you rate the internal customer experience on a scale of 1-10? What can we improve?
What tools and resources do you need to do your job better?
What does the leadership do well? What can leaders improve upon?
When our customers feel served, what have they experienced?
What touchpoints is each staff member responsible for and how can they be improved?

Please note that a culture which automatically cultivates loyal customers does not happen overnight, without struggle and without a strategy. It is only possible when leaders are on board, committed to change and relentless in their drive to bring their aspiration to reality. The leader’s heart is really the heart of the matter.

Are you creating or killing customer loyalty? Joan Fox takes the stage at CANA's 107th Annual Cremation Innovation Convention to present what it really takes to succeed with customers and grow your business.

There's still time to register! Join Joan and CANA in Phoenix on August 6-8, 2025, register here. Teams of 2 and more save $200!

The author, Joan Fox, has provided speaking, training and consulting solutions for some of the world’s best organizations for more than 30 years. She has noted expertise in improving the customer experience, organizational culture and leadership teams. Joan is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Chronicles of Sir Vival: Customer Service Under Siege, endorsed by Ken Blanchard. Her clients include AT&T, IBM, Xerox, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Wells Fargo, Safran Landing Systems, Johns Hopkins, Mitsui Sumitomo and numerous others.

Successful Succession Planning

7/9/2025

When discussing succession planning, I always like to start by asking: How many of you are actively engaged in succession planning? If the answer is anything less than “everyone,” it’s a missed opportunity. Succession planning isn’t just for business owners; it’s critical for managers, employees, and everyone in between. It’s about fostering redundancy, nurturing talent, and preparing both individuals and organizations for a seamless future. Done effectively, succession planning allows you to focus on the most critical tasks as an owner, manager, or employee.

Starting with the End in Mind

A successful succession plan begins with a clear vision of the future. Ask yourself:

What’s your path forward?
As an owner, when do you envision retiring? Will you step back partially or fully? Will you remain involved in the business in any capacity?
What’s the future health of your business? What does it look like one year, five years, or ten years from now?

Assessing Your Business as a Living Entity

Think of your business as a significant relationship. Is the future bright, or are there issues brewing? Here are some key questions to consider:

Are you the sole keeper of your business’s critical knowledge and processes?
Are family dynamics, such as involvement of children, creating complexities?
Do key employees play a central role in your succession plan?
Are you reinvesting in your business, or are you depleting its resources?

The answers to these questions can significantly shape your succession plan. Ultimately, your goal is to build equity in your business and ensure its longevity, even if you step away. To assess your progress, consider having a business valuation done along with a business assessment to assist in crafting annual strategic plans. These tools can help you determine whether your business can thrive without you.

Four Pillars of Business Success

When evaluating businesses, I focus on four key areas:

Customer Service
- Measuring satisfaction through meaningful surveys.
- Fostering a culture of customer experience (CX) by implementing training. programs. A recommended resource is The Customer Service Revolution by John DiJulius.
Workplace Culture
- Utilizing effective onboarding and employee development tools to strengthen your organizational culture which will enhance productivity and employee satisfaction.
- Holding regular meetings, including daily huddles, to boost morale and align goals.
- Conducting employee satisfaction surveys.
Marketplace Position
- Having an effective pre-need and aftercare follow-up program.
- Hosting lunch-and-learns and other events.
- Engaging with key influencers to amplify your business’s story.
Financial Health
- Maintaining robust accounting and budgeting practices to ensure financial stability.
- Ensuring the correct balance sheet metrics of cash, receivables, and debt load.

Maximizing Business Value

A well-planned succession strategy aligns with periods of high opportunity and low risk, translating to high value. Businesses with strong life expectancy typically attract the best offers during a transfer. Here are two critical metrics that highlight the importance of effective succession planning:

Case Count Trends
Consider three funeral homes, each with a 500-call volume:

One sees an upward trend.
Another is stable.
The third is experiencing a decline.

Even with identical call volumes, their values differ significantly based on the trend direction. Positive trends generally enhance value, while declines diminish it. The mere notion of trending indicates that you need to start now to impact the future positively as it takes time!

Average Sale
Rising cremation rates and low-cost competitors can impact average sale prices, affecting a business’s overall value. For example, a $100 decrease in average sale at a 500-call firm can equate to a value loss of $300,000 or more. Conversely, increasing average sales can yield substantial gains.

Analyzing performance within your team can reveal disparities in how individual employees contribute to or detract from the business value through their own individual average sale. Aligning compensation with these contributions is essential. (i.e. Incentive Compensation Plans).

The Challenge

In conclusion, ignorance may feel blissful, but it’s far from strategic. Knowing your business’s value today, yesterday, and tomorrow is crucial. By proactively creating a vision and tenaciously pursuing it, you can dictate your success. Succession planning isn’t just about transferring ownership; it’s about ensuring that your business thrives long after you’ve stepped away.

For additional guidance or questions, reach out to Johnson Consulting.

A funeral home is more than a business—it’s a legacy. But what happens when it’s time to pass the torch? This August 6-8, at CANA's 107th Annual Cremation Innovation Convention, Jake Johnson leads a motivating session. Exit with Success: Succession Planning and Your Business is designed to help funeral professionals take charge of their future, their value, and their exit strategy.

Success isn’t just about luck; it’s about preparation and perseverance. By working hard, you can create your own “luck” and ensure a thriving future for your business. Join Jake Johnson at CANA’s 107th Annual Convention this August 6-8, 2025. Special rates are available for teams to learn, grow, and implement strategies together. Plus, the schedule is redesigned to ensure you can explore the Valley of the Sun in the cool mornings and evenings and fully savor the networking and learning in the air-conditioned Convention hall during the heat of the day. Visit cremationassociation.org/CANA25 to learn more and register today!

President & CEO at Johnson Consulting, Jake Johnson began his career at Keystone Group Holdings (now Dignity Memorial Network) as Associate Director, Corporate Development. This job included financial analysis, bank and equity partner presentations, along with accounting and system setup with acquired funeral homes. Jake then went on to work at Palm Mortuaries and Cemeteries in Las Vegas, NV, which at the time handled 6,500 funeral home families and over 2,200 cemetery cases out of 6 locations. Here Jake conducted funeral directing, funeral arranging, funeral home management, cemetery operations management, and sat on the executive board. Jake’s ability to problem solve business issues contributes to his success in currently owning a funeral home and cremation center in Sun City, AZ, along with a small-town funeral home in Batesville, IN.

Cremation Trends and Staff Retention: A CANA-Inspired Approach (Part 1)

6/18/2025

Do you feel like cremation came out of nowhere? Meaning: has consumers’ preference for cremation has taken you by surprise? Or that the cremation rate in your business has grown unexpectedly?

The truth is that, in the US, cremation has ranged between 1 to 2% growth each year over the past 50 years. In Canada, after a period of accelerated growth, cremation rates are slowing to below 1% ̶ which may be the US pattern in a decade.

And yet we hear that cremation came out of nowhere: not just from members, but also reporters. They are looking for causes of cremation growth like economic recessions or the pandemic – big disruptors to the status quo. But when you look at the entire timeline of cremation, you see that it took nearly a century for the national rate to hit 5% and then less than 50 years to exceed 50%.

However, just because CANA research shows that the growth rate is constant, the population is not. During the first 100 years of cremation’s history, from 1876 to 1976, there were 3 million cremations total. During the last 50 years, since 1977, there were 33 million cremations in the United States as of 2024. Within many of our lifetimes and careers that population growth means that cremation has increased quickly and, yes, almost seemed to come out of nowhere.

Time for a Mindset Shift

This means that attitudes about cremation – consumers’ preference for it, profitability for your business and services to offer – need to be adjusted at this point in your career. Case in point: when CANA says cremation, we mean the legal form of disposition and not “direct cremation” and all of the biases that go along with that construct.

If you have ever said or heard someone say, “I don’t believe in cremation” or “I hate cremation,” then you have succumbed to the bias that has developed in our profession against cremation, reducing it to misguided preference, decreased profitability, and no service. We challenge you to consider your reaction.

Trend 1 – Reasons to Cremate

Over and over, CANA’s research confirms that cremation is the new tradition and personal preference for a majority of the US and Canada. In a 2022 consumer survey, price was the second reason cremation was chosen, but that’s as much about value and being a savvy spender.

For the consumer, the cremation experience is often more about focusing on the life lived than the body and related merchandise. Consumers’ opening question may be price to determine if you are the provider they can trust, or it may be the one differentiator they have to determine what makes one cremation provider different from another. But, as an experienced funeral professional, you know they have more questions beyond that one and a story to tell about their person and their memory. Do you give them a chance to do that?

CANA has been one of the few “cremation positive” voices in the profession, considering cremation to be preparation for memorialization and one of many forms of disposition. But too often funeral professionals’ assumptions about cremation often come through the questions asked, the ones that go unasked, and the language they use about cremation.

So, ask yourself this question: “When experiencing first contact with a consumer, what’s the first question I ask?” After offering condolences, do you get contact information, demographics of the deceased, or determine burial or cremation?

If you answered yes to any or all of the choices above, those choices do make good business sense. Their response tells you your next business action: refrigeration or embalming? Which veterans benefits or discounts may be applicable? With whom do I follow-up?

What if the first question assumed service? Assumed a celebration of life? That the family wants the body at the service? What if the last question you asked was about disposition?

What impression would that give families?

Change Your Assumptions

If funeral professionals are going to make assumptions, they should assume service. Assume that the person making cremation arrangements loved their person. Assume that their questions are more than about price, and that they’re willing to craft a personal experience. Assume that cremation is the new tradition in their family – and you have been selected to help them.

Trend 2 – Preference for Service

There are myths, biases, assumptions on both sides of the arrangement table. The best solution to overcome them is curiosity: ask questions and listen to the answers. Then, answer their questions with openness and honesty.

While preparing for focus group research in 2019, CANA made some wrong assumptions. We tasked the research company to gather two groups of focus group participants. We defined them as the

Direct Cremation Group – chose cremation and did nothing, and
Cremation with Service Group

The research company soon called us back to alert us to a problem: They had no difficulty finding families who had held a service, but they couldn’t find a single person who chose cremation then did nothing.

You see the mistake we made, right? We forgot to specify that they “did nothing with their provider.” So, even if you assume service, you can’t assume they’ll choose your firm – they’re doing it themselves.

By assuming that every cremation family will do something for their person, your job becomes persuading them to choose you.

Meeting a Family Where They Are

Too often, “Burial or Cremation?” becomes “Funeral vs. Cremation” on both sides of the arrangement table. Instead, research shows again and again that language matters. So, consider swapping it to “funeral or celebration of life,” expanding the timeframe from the traditional three days to all of the options that cremation offers, including the locations in your community that would host a gathering.

By now we have described the disconnect and challenged you to question your assumptions. Are you ready to meet cremation families where they are?

If you are training employees on demographic information or disposition before all else, are you implying that these are the most important pieces of the arrangement? If you are compensating employees on commission and merchandise sales, are they starting off the conversation about service to drive sales arrangements? How can you set an expectation that families can talk about their new traditions or be creative in their service planning?

Now that you have a better sense of consumer expectation, are you and your employees and colleagues equipped to meet them?

Check back for part 2 of this post where we focus on how you can rise to meet these trends with some of our own!

Want a hint about what's to come in part 2? CANA's Certified Cremation Specialist training targets power skills – communication, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and adaptability – to raise the level of care, service, and compassion for every family. How? See for yourself!

Don't miss your chance to become a CANA-Certified Cremation Specialist in 2025! Registration closes July 1, but coursework is online and on-demand to earn your certification on your schedule.

Level Up Your Power Skills

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