Death Doulas may seem like a new or progressive idea, but they are as old as death itself. In many cultures throughout history, mental, spiritual, physical and emotional support have been a fundamental part of the transition to death. Today, such support is rare, especially in Western cultural settings which tend to avoid discussions about death. A survey by The Conversation Project concluded that 90% of people say that talking with loved ones about end of life is important, yet only 27% have actually done so.
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In April, Ashley Johnson led a Crucial Conversation about death doulas as part of The Art and Science of Cremation: Crucial Conversation Series in April 2021. Because the topic is so intriguing, we wanted to follow up and share her experience and insight in the blog.

My death care career was inspired by growing up in a low socio-economic neighborhood that lacked advocacy on how to deal with end-of-life practices. When death happened, families were not mentally, emotionally, and financially prepared. As a result, they were not healing from this trauma.

My interest in funeral service started as a child, I would read the Sunday obituaries instead of the comics. I was motivated to become an end-of-life doula when my childhood friend was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 27. I was doing the task of an end-of-life doula for her without knowing it. Once she transitioned, I saw fit to provide others in need of education, service, and companionship and continue this journey. Everyone deserves “good death” and families need proper closure.

After more than a decade in the death care industry, I launched Loyal Hands, an End-of-Life consulting agency I founded to provide death doula services in Orlando, Florida. I joined CANA in 2018 and began working with the Membership Advisory Group to build my network of deathcare professionals.

End of Life Doulas, or EOLDs also called Death Doulas or Death Midwives, enrich the dying experience for patients, family members and friends, while strengthening the relationship between medical (the doctors, nurses, social workers) and non-medical support (the family or caretakers). We are trained professionals who provide assistance and guidance with holistic services to individuals and their families during transformative life changes.

Doula-client relationships engage the difficult and complex emotions while navigating the signs and symptoms of the dying process. An end of life care team is made up of multiple different professionals ranging from doctors, nurses, social workers, and End of Life Doulas to foster a culture of equity in order to facilitate a good death. We strive to be a support system for those who are terminally ill, elderly, or healthy and their families as they plan for their transition. A death doula's work ranges from logistical planning for the time before, during and after of death; conducting rituals or comforting practices; helping the dying person reflect on their life and values; and explaining the bodily functions of dying to caregivers.

Doulas are an active part of the Death Positive movement, a social and philosophical movement that encourages people to speak openly about death, dying, and everything in between. Death Positive seeks to eliminate the silence around death-related topics, decrease anxiety surrounding death, and dismantle the foundation of inequality, racism, and social marginalization at end of life.

NEDA is a great organization because it helps inspire positive, creative end of life practices for the dying, their loved ones, and the agencies involved which includes funeral homes, hospice and palliative care.

Consumers and deathcare-related businesses can find an end-of-life doula at the National End of Life Alliance website. Because the industry is currently unregulated, it is recommended that people interview an end of life doula before hiring them, just as they likely would a birth doula.

Death doulas are NOT competitors with funeral service but rather complement the death care industry by providing additional support and community resources for deceased and their families. There are laws governing what death doulas can and cannot do just as with traditional death care. Funeral directors interact with families post death while end of life doulas are present with families before, during, and after death occurs.

In my own work with funeral homes, I have provided respite care to the families immediately after the death and provide periodic follow ups and aftercare. It’s the customer service that keeps families coming back. As we all know, people will not remember what you said but they will remember how you made them feel.

The difference between hospice and death doulas is that death doulas do not provide medical care. Instead, death doulas work in conjunction with hospice programs to provide interpersonal, social, logistical, and spiritual guidance that complements the care they receive in hospice.

Hospice care is regulated by Medicare rules, limiting the time staff is allowed to spend with patients and families. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) has just put together an End-of-Life Doula Council to share with hospices and families the ways in which Professional End of Life Doulas can assist their work. NHPCO is encouraging hospices to hire doulas to complete the hospice team by filling in “the gaps in care” and allowing for the best end of life experience.
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Death doulas also step into other areas where hospice and funeral homes may need help, such as:

Death Doulas are here to serve humanity. We serve anyone ranging from young, elderly, terminally ill, healthy, caretakers and even pets. End of life doulas complement the care from hospitals, hospices, and funeral homes by filling in the gaps that occur during the dying process.

Every doula is different. Some assist only the healthy, some assist only the dying. This is why it is best to interview doula to see what their specialty is. Doulas may also be celebrants, hospice staff, or even massage therapists. Keep in mind each doula has their own specialty. Some may prefer to work only with advance directives while others may prefer legacy projects, but all are dedicated to supporting their client and community in this transition.

End of Life Doulas are not simply a trend or a fad. Roughly 10,000 people turn 65 each day in the US, so more and more elders—as well as those with life-limiting illness—will need our services. Families are bringing new values, preferences, and opinions that are changing the world of funeral service. They are thinking differently about how they want to honor their loved ones and have new perceptions of the funeral service profession.

Death care is changing rapidly, with ongoing expansion of the industry. There is a demand for change in the way we care for the deceased, both physically and emotionally. Death doulas help bridge the gap between families and death care businesses. Having a death doula is helpful when a family has little experience with death or when they are afraid of confronting death. The death doula can act as a liaison between the family and the funeral home, helping to educate families about the options available to them and easing what can often be a difficult or painful arrangement process.

We offer a variety of services that include helping a person write their own obituary; assisting with legal paperwork, including advance directives, health care proxies, and wills; creating a peaceful, loving atmosphere at death; and, most importantly, providing grief care before, during, and after death of a loved one. Death doulas can help families reduce confusion and mistrust when interacting with death care professionals. Doulas also educate people to know that they have choices. Funeral professionals, including doulas, want loved ones to be able to honor those who have died as much as they were honored in life. We all encourage creating a ceremony and a final resting place that reflects who the deceased was and what they cared for. We ultimately want to bring families and communities into the death space and normalize it.

There are so many benefits that death doulas can provide death care business. We can help obtain earlier referrals and connect the dying to a funeral business. Doula services increase satisfaction which leads to more referrals and reduced intake stress. Connecting with local death doulas can be as simple as a google search because most end-of-life doulas offer a free consultation to help people find the right match. You can also browse through the National End Of Life Doulas Alliance (NEDA) directory to find an End of Life Doula in your area. 

More than 90 percent of online experiences for consumers start with a search engine. Whether these consumers tap on their phone to query Siri or type a key phrase into Google's browser bar, the result is the same for your deathcare firm.

If you're not drawing a clear line between search engine results pages and your own website or offers, you're missing out on revenue opportunities.

This is one reason content is king—and has been for years. But it's no longer enough for content to don a crown and hold court over your marketing strategy.

The king has lots of competition for search engine optimization, and if neighboring kingdoms (aka your competitors, if you're still humoring this extended metaphor) are generating better quality content, your SEO performance could suffer.

And by "suffer," I mean your pages won't show up at the top of the search results—or potentially at all. Which means you have less of a chance of connecting with people who might be interested in cremation and related services now or in the future.
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What's a king to do about this conundrum? Luckily, Google itself publishes a battle plan that helps you create high-quality content that's more likely to perform in Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs. It's called the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.

Google publishes these guidelines for its human search quality evaluators. Actual humans (yes, that's rare these days) review pages to determine whether they meet the needs of a potential search in a high-quality manner. The higher a page is rated by evaluators, the higher it might potentially rank in search results.
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Evaluator scores aren't the only thing used to rank a page—Google algorithms are complex, after all. But the evaluator guidelines do provide important clues into exactly what Google considers important when it comes to content

The guidelines comprise roughly 170 pages of small text, which is obviously a lot of information to get through. But you don't have to read everything in the evaluator guidelines to understand how to create great cremation services content. Consider this quick formula for high-quality content from Google:

PAGES MUST HAVE A PURPOSE

High-quality content serves the purpose of the page. If your page doesn't have a purpose (which might be to inform, entertain, or assist readers), the content can't be high quality.

Or as Google puts it, pages "created with no attempt to help users, or pages that potentially spread hate, cause harm, or misinform or deceive users, should receive the lowest [quality] rating."

REMEMBER THE E-A-T ACRONYM

​When pages do have a positive purpose, Google rates the quality of their content according to "E-A-T." The acronym stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Per Google, E-A-T content…

Google likes the word satisfy. It appears in the evaluator guidelines more than 130 times in various forms. A high-quality page satisfies the needs of the searcher and the promise you made in meta descriptions and headings.

If you promise a complete guide to preplanning, your content should certainly be more than 500 words and cover all the questions someone has about that topic.

If your link is a buy link for an urn, the page should include everything a person needs to make a final purchasing decision. The shopping cart process and customer service options should also satisfactorily meet the needs of your cremation clientele.

Ultimately, Google's SERPs have one job, and that's to match searchers with pages that best meet their needs. By creating high-quality content that follows the above formula, you increase the chances that Google thinks your page is a good bet for the relevant keyword searches.

In turn, that increases your chances at winning the click, driving more traffic, making more sales, and proactively competing with the other kingdoms in your niche.

Consumers have driven the popularity of cremation and funeral directors, cemeterians and crematory operators are doing their best to keep up with demand. In May 2019, Homesteaders Life Company and CANA set out to explore a consumers’ experience with cremation from women who personally made the arrangements for a loved one. Our goal was to explore beyond multiple choice responses to get to the question “Why?”. When we dig down to uncover motivations for their decisions, we can attempt to understand their experience from beginning to end. Put simply, we sought to better discover the cremation experience.

We listened to the perspectives of several groups over the course of three months. All participants were Baby Boomer-aged women living in Phoenix, Arizona or Nashville, Tennessee who were arranging a cremation for the first or second time. As the women described their cremation experiences, they realized that they often had very different experiences and learned from each other. They expressed a desire for more information or education about cremation, since this was often a new tradition in their families. There were many insights gleaned during the focus groups, but we are highlighting just a few in this post that stand out.

The focus group participants raised several questions, many of them related to handling of “ashes.” Participants suspected some rules existed, but weren’t sure what the rules were or where to find them. In general, the women tended to do what they wanted, but they carefully watched over their shoulder just in case it was improper – or even illegal. That is definitely not the best cremation experience.

Often, these women learned from friends or their own experiences rather than having a go-to resource. Google was mentioned more than once as a starting place to research information on cremation options. Many women noted that they were pretty familiar with “traditional funerals” but that they weren’t as knowledgeable about what cremation entailed. It’s a newer tradition, and they felt that not as much information is available to help them understand the process.

Where did these families get ideas for the service? The internet. Where did they find a cremation provider? Mr. Google. They didn’t have to wait to sit down with a funeral director to get a price list of goods and services. They researched online and put together a preliminary budget well before meeting at the funeral home.

If they didn’t like the urns or jewelry on display in the arrangement room, they turned to – you guessed it – the internet: Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, and other retailers they know and trust that feature product reviews and recommendations on these keepsakes they probably haven’t bought before. Not one woman described returning to the funeral home to purchase cremation jewelry or an urn after the service. This was qualitative research, and not quantitative, so it is possible that many families do return to the funeral home for merchandise, but this research did not suggest that is common.

So what’s a local cremation provider to do? You may want to consider additional ways to reach out to consumers and help them understand all of the options available for service and memorialization. Be the expert in cremation. Become the trusted information source in your community. Don’t be afraid to talk about cremation and the options it provides. Consumers will choose cremation whether you talk about it or not. It’s better to be the expert than leave the consumer to figure it out without you.

Funeral professionals speak a different language than cremation consumers. Over the years, funeral professionals and society decided that euphemisms were gentler and kinder.

But sometimes euphemisms are confusing and the situation demands specific language to describe a process or professional practice. Death care, much like other professions, has developed its own jargon to describe its work, particularly with cremation to establish its differences to burial and related practices and products. However that jargon may be confusing rather than increasing understanding when talking with consumers.

How can we connect with consumers if we are speaking different languages? The table below highlights some of the language disconnects uncovered during the research.

This language disconnect was painfully obvious from the first minutes of the first focus group. The most common example is one of the most common terms in cremation: “ashes.” Today, mortuary science and funeral service students are taught the terms “cremated remains” and “cremains”, which are also widely used by funeral professionals. And yet not one single focus group participant used any term other than “ashes.”

In the arrangement room, funeral professionals rarely correct a consumer they are serving, but rather translate “ashes” to “cremated remains” in their head, or simply mirror the language used by grieving family members to provide comfort and promote understanding. But what about a website or other marketing materials? Should written consumer-facing language use common terms like “pick up the body” instead of “first call” to build common ground and understanding? More and more death care providers are doing so for reasons ranging from SEO to increasing sales.

The focus group participants quite unexpectedly raised a particular topic on their own: preplanning. Preplanning, advance planning, prearranging – whatever you like to call it – was never part of the research’s list of topics to explore. Nevertheless, it was something the women brought up during the “Queen for a Day” exercise that occurred near the end of each focus group.

The participants were crowned “Queen for a Day” and asked to issue a decree. They could make any change they wanted and the whole world would have to follow their order. This was intended to encourage them to describe their ideal cremation experience. Not surprisingly, the most common decree was to bring back their loved one. The second most common request, however, was a complete surprise: they decreed that everyone preplan, prepay and discuss their wishes with their family member in advance.

Why was preplanning so important to these women? Like many family members, they wished they would have known more of the details their loved one wanted for their celebration of life. While they may have known their loved one wanted to be cremated, they may not have known much more than that. What about a venue? What about musical selections or special readings? What about thoughts on what to do with the “ashes” after the ceremony?

Perhaps if the women had known more about the “new” tradition of cremation they would have tried to ask their loved one more questions. Better yet if their loved one had preplanned, those questions would have naturally been raised and answered. What a relief the focus group participants would have felt knowing that they were fulfilling all of their loved one’s final wishes, not just the desire to be cremated.

Prior consumer research tells us that some people feel it’s not necessary to preplan when a cremation is involved. Actually, the opposite may be true. If cremation is a new tradition within a family, how will the survivors know what to do? Imagine this scenario: a husband wants to be cremated but he and his spouse never get around to talking about it. Then the husband dies and the spouse simply turns to what is most familiar and selects a casketed burial instead of cremation. Preplanning isn’t tied to the type of service, disposition and permanent placement chosen. The whole point of planning ahead is to formally document the deceased’s wishes, that way the family can truly honor them and is spared the pain of merely guessing what those wishes were.

The existing language disconnects discussed earlier are also a good example of why preplanning is beneficial. Any clarifications of what different terms mean can be addressed in advance. The result is a much more satisfying experience for both the funeral professional and family at the time of need instead of trying to find common language during a time of extreme stress.

Aside from wanting their loved one back, these women expressed a desire for people to talk about their final wishes in advance to make the at-need arrangement process easier. Please encourage all families, regardless of what type of celebration of life they want, to preplan (and prefund if possible) before it’s too late.

Is this research still relevant during a pandemic? It stands to reason that the insights gleaned are still helpful. During this pandemic, millions of families have experienced the death of a loved one. In 2019, the US experienced 2.8 million deaths, but preliminary counts indicate the national number exceeded 3.1 million in 2020. Conventional wisdom states that most families experience a death every 7-10 years, so many adults may only plan three or four funerals in their lifetime. But during the pandemic, nearly everyone in this country knows someone who has died – whether friend, family member or celebrity.

Preliminary numbers indicate that cremation rates in the US jumped nearly 3% in 2020. The focus group participants may offer insight as to why. The women described cremation as simpler, as you make the choice to cremate in the moment and that is all that is required – no casket, clothes, or cemetery needed right away. Cremation is legally considered to be final disposition, so they can take the cremated remains home with them and make other decisions at their pace. This possession is also appealing, particularly for a spouse or child who can keep their loved one close. The decision for permanent placement in a cemetery or scattering can come later, even generations later, which may be particularly helpful under pandemic restrictions.

CANA and Homesteaders Life Company set out to understand WHY women are choosing cremation and to better understand what cremation is or is not in the consumers’ mind. What we heard is that their loved one requested cremation and they had to figure out and plan what that experience was for their family and friends. Despite a desire for more education and confusion about language, these women had no regrets. In fact, they were highly satisfied and wouldn’t change a thing about their experience.

Resilience comes to mind as month eight of the COVID-19 pandemic looms. How are we doing? Will our families, our communities, our schools, our businesses and our art and culture bounce back, even with dramatic changes? How will we adapt and what intentional evolution must occur in the wake of COVID-19, institutional racial injustice and a deeply scarred economy? What role does communications play in how resilient we are individually and as a society?

Resiliency is the ability to adapt well after adversity, trauma, tragedy and high stress. Many times, our resiliency helps us become stronger or more resourceful after enduring adverse situations. Resilience does not mean we won’t feel the pain of our struggles.
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The ADP Research Institute (ADPRI) recently released results of two studies of human resilience. Marcus Buckingham, who is the ADPRI Head of Research, People and Performance, co-authored the study. In a Sept. 29, 2020 Harvard Business Review article about the findings, Buckingham says that leaders can enhance people’s resilience by communicating honestly. He says,

In effect, Buckingham’s research corroborates the oft-repeated crisis communications mantra, “Tell the truth. Tell it fast. Tell it yourself.” Buckingham writes, “Instead of downplaying the reality, tell it to us straight.”
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Buckingham is an author, motivational speaker and business consultant. He is the author and co-author of many books, including, First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths. His research and experience relate directly to the workplace. The recent ADPRI study designed and developed a Workplace Resilience Scale to understand how resilience plays a role in the world of work.

​Open, honest communication is the foundation of trust. Strong two-way communications channels foster workplaces where people feel valued and team leaders and members work together to match people’s skills and interests to career paths that result in more people loving their work.

Words matter. What we say to one another and the respect with which we deliver our messages are critical. We need to choose our written words wisely, too.

Because written words are more permanent, they sustain the life and culture of an institution. One of the most resilient documents in the world is the U.S. Constitution. Our nation’s founders chose their words well. They also created a process for ratifying Constitutional amendments that have strengthened the document and our nation for more than two centuries. The Constitution itself is a model of resilience – it adapts and grows stronger through adversity and challenge.

Listening may be the most crucial component of communication. By listening, we open our minds and learn. In these times, it’s more important than ever to listen. Listening is a gateway to understanding and building resilience.

If resilience results from learning through adversity, then 2020 is the mother of all learning experiences. Building resiliency does not blunt the pain, and that itself is painful to accept. Many, many people are hurting right now, and we need to acknowledge that. We must take care to not de-value or disrespect the untold numbers of personal tragedies happening all around us.

One possible glimmer of hope from the train wreck that is 2020 is that if we can work together to forge personal and collective resilience from the wreckage, maybe we can bounce back together, stronger. May it be so.

CANA has a history of studying cremation emissions and technology. Early CANA members built crematories on cemetery property with architectural beauty as a priority over fuel efficiency. It was common practice for the crematory to be custom-built below a chapel and columbarium to accommodate the funeral, cremation process and memorial placement of the urn in one building. These setups put the needs of the grieving first to promote memorialization. Fuel efficiency was an early topic of discussion, but the focus was on making a crematory business work efficiently.
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Post-World War II, as manufacturing techniques improved and demand for cremation equipment increased, crematory manufacturers moved toward assembly line production with homogeneous construction and parts. Machines were manufactured at the plant and shipped around the country, or the world, for installation and service. This proactive practice continues to present day and typically places uniform function over beautiful form.

In 1996, when the national cremation rate was 21.8%, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) turned its attention to regulating crematories. CANA and the US EPA formed a working group to examine scientific studies on emissions and make informed recommendations to federal environmental regulators. The working group decided that the current studies were too few and varied so they commissioned and oversaw a study at a CANA-member site, The Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. Called “The Woodlawn Study,” its findings resulted in classification of crematories as small source emitters since deceased human bodies are distinctly different from solid waste (such as garbage and treatment plants) and should be regulated separately. The study also determined that states should continue to regulate crematories rather than the US EPA.
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There is a persistent myth that human and pet crematories are unregulated, but that is false. Now, in addition to zoning, licensing, and other business regulations, emissions are regulated by state environmental protection agencies through air permits. Every state manages this differently; however, crematories are most definitely regulated at the state, county, city, etc., levels. These layers of regulation create significant barriers to entry for new crematories, including businesses who want to improve or expand existing operations.

We know that the environment is on everyone’s minds, not to mention the safety of our communities. There are many factors that play a part in crematory operations and emission. For example, the science of combustion accounts for the fuel sources – the gas that powers the cremator, residual heat from previous cremations, the plant matter of the casket/container, the tissues of the body, and the oxygen in the air – to get as close to Complete or Perfect Combustion as possible, resulting only in carbon monoxide (CO) or dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and water (H2O). Complete Combustion is impossible since there are so many variables to manage throughout the cremation process, but modern cremators, and best practices in the crematory, get as close as possible.
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In addition to combustion, there are other variables that impact emissions, including:

Because each deceased human is unique, each cremation has a unique set of variables that ultimately determines emissions. Regulations often outline limits and ranges for operations, but people generally want to know specifics as they relate to other energy users and emissions.
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Questions:

FUEL USAGE BY CREMATORIES

​In the chart below, a number of conversions are represented to make comparisons. Most crematories and homes use natural gas as a fuel for heat. This fuel is converted to cubic feet and then to British Thermal Units (BTUs) which measures energy needed to heat one degree. SUVs run on gasoline which is converted to cubic feet.

Whatever part you play in the cremation journey, you can do your part to make a difference! Here are some ideas on how anyone can lessen the environmental impact of cremation and any funeral practice.

FOR EVERYONE

FOR THE FUNERAL DIRECTOR

FOR CEMETERIANS

FOR CREMATORIES

Cremation is the new tradition with greater than 55% of Americans and 73% of Canadians choosing it in 2019. While crematories are widely available, areas with lower cremation rates may need new and expanded crematory businesses to meet the growing demand. As a business owner, it’s important to meet your communities' needs with options and information. As a citizen of the Earth, it’s important to do our part in preserving it for the future.

In March 2018, Chick-fil-A opened its largest restaurant in its history on Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan. Chick-fil-A fans showed up in droves with a line stretching down a full city block.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. All over the country, at various times throughout the year, campers huddle in tents overnight to be one of the first customers at one of a multitude of Chick-fil-A’s Grand Openings, with the first 100 customers receiving free Chick-fil-A for a year. As the New York Post said, “Chick-fil-A is on fire. The fastest growing chicken-sandwich franchise is poised to become the third-largest fast-food chain in the country in 2019, replacing Subway, according to Kalinowski Equity Research.”

With all of the fast-food choices in the world, Chick-fil-A has created a brand that people not only recognize but connect with on an emotional level. So, what is it that differentiates Chick-fil-A from all other fast-food restaurants and what can this restaurant chain teach us about branding in the cremation industry?

When analyzing the funeral industry, and particularly the cremation space, what business similarities do most cremation providers have? They all offer caskets, urns, flowers, GPLs, and standardized practices. Unfortunately, there are far too few differentiating characteristics within cremation service providers. The challenge of all businesses, but especially in businesses that have common product and service offerings, is how to distinguish themselves from the competition.

When considering the success of Chick-fil-A, it is important to ask what it is that differentiates its brand amongst their competitors. Here’s a test: see how quickly you can answer these questions:

As a consumer, you should have quickly been able to identify the red logo with a chicken hidden in the letter “C.” In addition, the cow has been campaigning for you to “Eat Mor Chikin” since 1995. And last, “It’s my pleasure” is the simple line that uniquely positions Chick-fil-A in its delivery of exceptional service. All three of these differentiating factors help establish the company’s brand and identity. The company has clearly defined a distinct image, message, and brand.

With this example in mind, what are some ways a cremation service provider can distinguish itself in the cremation space and begin creating a unique brand image? Ultimately, it comes down to superior branding, in addition to the unwavering quality of service. Following are strategies you can incorporate to create a thriving brand with a distinct identity in a competitive market.

More than just the Chick-fil-A cow mascot, it is the people that truly make your experience at Chick-fil-A a memorable one. They play a vital role in differentiating Chick-fil-A by going the extra mile to clean up your table when you are done eating, taking your order before you even reach the drive-through menu, or simply handing you a card for a free sandwich when they make a mistake. Creating brand ambassadors by providing exceptional customer service is what differentiates Chick-fil-A from all other fast-food restaurants. Who differentiates you or your firm in the market place?

Speaking with hundreds of firms around the country, most of them feel they do a “good job” at getting out into the community and representing their firm. However, we live in an at-need world, and, when the phone rings or when we are on coroner rotation, we have to go and serve.

Many times, the constant pressures of the at-need business pull us away from opportunities to further the brand. This is known as working in the business and not on the business. To combat this, you must dedicate time to get out into the community and represent your brand.

In some firms, the owner takes on this responsibility. In others, it may be shared by a couple of individuals. Whomever you choose as your brand ambassador, it is important that someone is visiting the hospice centers and the nursing facilities, attending community functions, etc.—someone who will become the face and voice of the firm. This means not only being a recognizable face in these places, but being the face of a firm that cares, provides exceptional service, and sacrificially gives back to the community. Over time, your firm will become known as part of the fabric of the community. You will see your brand grow because people will know they can trust you and the brand you represent.

The following story within the cremation space demonstrates the absolute necessity of having a brand ambassador. A little over ten years ago, a recent college graduate had an idea for entering the cremation market in the Pacific Northwest. He found a location to start his business and began to hustle. He attended every chamber of commerce function he could. He met all the hospice organizations, and he got to know the officers and deputies of the local police department and sheriff ’s office.

Everywhere he went, he carried a few packages of peanut M&Ms in his pockets. As he would visit with people, he would give them a package of M&Ms. He became known as “The Candy Man.” Because he dedicated the time and hard work to develop the relationships, this young entrepreneur grew his brand from serving zero families to over 1,800 families per year, and the brand is still growing.

Be proud of who you are, and get out to tell your story. Be a dedicated brand ambassador who cares for people and offers them a unique experience that puts service and care for others above all else.

What kind of promise do you think Chick-fil-A offers? As a customer, it is fairly easy to define. They promise to deliver higher quality fast food with exceptional customer service. The consumer understands they are not getting the cheapest fast food, but they are receiving a great value for their money.

How do you define your firm? What drives your business and the services you provide? What makes you unique and separates you from other firms? If you have not asked these questions about your business, you will not be able to differentiate your brand from the many other cremation options in the market.

An effective brand promise goes beyond the rational benefits of a product or service and strives to capture the emotional rewards that your firm can uniquely deliver. It is not a slogan or a headline, but a way of describing the commitment you are making to your customer base as to the type of experience they are going to have with your brand. In addition, a brand promise gives you a tremendous opportunity to create differentiation and excitement around your services and offerings.

The challenge with creating a brand promise is keeping it. You can print all the grandiose words you want about your brand; however, those words are empty if not delivered upon. A firm that continues to disappoint on its brand promise will begin to develop a much different brand reputation—one that will be difficult to recover from. Kept promises will define your brand. Here are three “must-dos” for your brand promise:

Our world is busy. Coupled with this, the transient nature of families makes it more and more difficult to maintain significant, long-term brand communication with our customer base. Consumers today are arriving at firms with information they feel makes them well informed on funeral-related issues. Unless you are at the top of the search engine listing and have the highest reviews, the likelihood of you receiving the call from a son who lives five states away for his mother who just passed away in the care facility a few blocks away is nearly impossible.

Digital marketing is equally—if not more—important than all other marketing, advertising, and outreach activities. Digital marketing helps capture the calls that will never come through the telephone. The firms who understand and adapt quickly will flourish in the future economy. Death care is not immune to the shift in how consumers select and make purchases, so it is imperative to seek out industry experts to help drive your digital marketing strategy.

There is probably nothing simpler than a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich, waffle fries, and fresh-squeezed lemonade, but the company has earned the loyalty and trust of millions of customers across the country. The way Chick-fil-A gained our business in the beginning required countless attempts through advertising, tireless delivery on a promise of quality, and consistency. The concepts of developing a brand are simple but not always easy to execute. By developing a brand ambassador, your firm will become the go-to firm for cremation needs.

Creating a brand promise that differentiates your firm will establish you as a business that truly cares for families. Aligning your brand pricing with your promise will create value in your offerings, and families will come back again and again. Finally, by implementing a digital marketing strategy, you will reach more families in your market that you knew existed.

These are simple strategies, but they are not easy. If you implement them, you will differentiate your firm and will help it thrive in the industry, and over time you will be a leading cremation service provider no longer hungry for growth but leading the way in serving families.

On top of our individual concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, we are inundated with good and bad information, helpful tips, fake news, political sniping and unfounded scary rumors. We are staying home and doing what the CDC and health officials recommend. And we are afraid.
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We crave “leadership of frankness and vigor,” and yet that attribute may seem in short supply today, although there are occasional glimpses. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt expressed that phrase in his first inaugural speech in March 1933 in the depth of the Great Depression:

We expect leaders to lead. We will follow leaders who are frank and through vigorous action show that they care about us. We will support those leaders and we will do the right things. We need leaders who communicate reassurance and offer light in an ever-darkening world. As we face unthinkable conditions, that may seem difficult right now. However, it is imperative that leaders speak realistically and frankly, while remembering to be positive and appropriately hopeful.

Whether you are the leader of a family, a community organization, a corporation, a nonprofit or a government, your job is to convey leadership through actions and the words you choose. You need to make hard decisions, be honest in your communications, and all the while “be careful not to scare the hell out of people,” as Dinesh Paliwal, President and CEO of Harman International, told Wall Street Journal.

This is particularly important in the funeral and cremation professions. In a recent webinar coordinated by webCemeteries.com, industry leaders reminded participants about the pivotal societal role that funeral professionals play in serving families. They note that in times of war, terrorist attacks, economic depressions and recessions, and now global pandemic, funeral advisors are called upon to comfort families in what is already an extremely stressful time.

At this time of crisis, funeral profession leaders say it is imperative to adhere to the values and principles of service to families that have always driven the funeral profession. Address your fears and the fears of families. Establish rapport and build the trust that families need at the time of a loved one’s death. Reassure families you will be with them and then live up to that promise, even if you must rely on videoconferencing instead of face-to-face meetings, and photographs and virtual tours of your properties, instead of in-person visits.
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Adapt, and demonstrate caring responsibility in the worst of times, they say.

History’s strongest leaders have led us honestly and communicated their commitment eloquently in times of crisis.
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President Abraham Lincoln, who saw seven Southern states secede between November 6, 1860, the day he was elected, and his inauguration March 4, 1861, appealed to Americans’ “better angels,” as he worked to prevent our nation from tearing further apart. Lincoln ended his inaugural address by saying:

Leaders in the funeral and cremation professions can address their own fears, then help fill the emotional tanks of colleagues, families and friends, offering a beacon of hope

Perhaps the leadership and words of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, provide the most apt instruction for today’s COVID-19 pandemic. During the Crimean War, between 1853 to 1856, more soldiers were dying from infections than from battle injuries. Nightingale and her team of nurses reduced the death count by two thirds by improving the unsanitary conditions at a British hospital.

“Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection,” Nightingale said.
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Even more illuminating today are these words from this “Lady with the Lamp” who said,

Communications with frankness and vigor, indeed.
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Be safe. Help others to move past the fear. Be that inspirational leader.

More than 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin said, "It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it."

A version of that is still true in today's digital marketing world. It can take many online mentions and a buildup of goodwill to develop a strong reputation. And while a single slip — or even a single negative review — won't bring the metaphorical walls of your deathcare firm down around you, online reputations can be fragile things.

One way cremation providers and other deathcare businesses can safeguard their online reputations is via proactive review management. That means actively encouraging clientele to leave reviews online while also interacting with those reviews in positive ways.

It's no longer an option for any business to ignore the presence of online reviews. Local service providers in any industry are especially beholden to reviews. That's because almost all people (97 percent) read reviews as part of their research when choosing a local company.
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Here are some other stats that drive home the message that reviews are must-haves for successful online marketing:

Simply getting seen online isn't always enough. Plenty of celebrities have had their careers derailed by scandals that pushed them into the limelight more than any of their positive achievements did.

You obviously don't want to be the deathcare firm that goes viral because your online reviews are terrible to the point of hilarity. But you also don't want to get fewer calls because a few online reviews make you appear less caring than your competitors.
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The first scenario is unlikely; the second is very likely if you're not proactively managing online reviews. Here's why:

The takeaway here is that the overall quality of your reviews matters. And because it's unethical (and also banned by Google) to put measures in place to stop people from leaving negative reviews, cremation service providers and other deathcare firms must take additional actions to protect their online reputations.

The first step is to provide stellar service to all families. I'm sure you're already doing that, so I'll cover the other two steps for proactively managing your online reputation via reviews:

1. TRY TO GET MORE REVIEWS.
It's a numbers game based on the law of averages. If you need a 3.3-star rating or higher to help ensure people feel comfortable contacting your crematory, a handful of reviews can be dangerous. But if you have a large number of 3-star to 5-star reviews, you can weather several 1-star reviews without your average rating suffering.

A regular stream of reviews also demonstrates that your firm is active and serving plenty of clientele. Around 40 percent of consumers only pay attention to reviews from the last few weeks for exactly this reason.

Other reasons to chase more reviews include:

2. INTERACT WITH YOUR REVIEWS
Leaving the review machine to its own devices isn't an option even after you've achieved a significant number of reviews. People expect to see businesses responding to reviews. Engaging with negative reviews in an effort to correct an issue actually helps increase your brand reputation in many eyes.

Plus, not all reviews are fair or true, and you can take action to report fake reviews or address untrue statements so other consumers are aware of your side of the story.
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The conclusion is this: Crematories and other deathcare firms can't be passive about online reviews. They've become a critical part of online reputation, and how consumers view you through the lens of their internet search often determines whether or not they reach out to you for preplanning or at times of need.

When I started in this profession, in 1991—remember there was less use of the internet then—funeral homes and cemeteries relied on loyalty and location to promote their businesses. Funeral directors and cemeterians were all involved in the local rotary clubs and chambers of commerce to connect with their communities. I’ve known a few funeral directors who even attended services at more than one church each week. That’s my memory of community outreach programs of that era.

In 1996 or 1997, I was working for Wilbert Corporate. One of our licensees in Minneapolis called me and said, “Julie, come with me tomorrow night because one of my clients is having their first-ever cremation seminar for consumers.” He and a Batesville representative were planning to talk about burial for cremation. I was so impressed with what I saw. That night, from 6-8pm, McReavy Funeral Home in Minneapolis had about 50 consumers come in, mainly couples, and the Batesville representative talked about cremation in general and the different things that you could do, and the Wilbert representative talked about burial as one of the final placements for cremation. Then, in one of their visitation rooms, they had products set up with coffee and soft drinks, and consumers could roam and talk. I was so impressed, I still talk about it to this day because I’m passionate about education, and to see that back then was wonderful. And that is just one example of effective community outreach.

Now, you all know that we live in a transient society and there are a lot of people who do not currently live in their hometown, so getting your company out there is more important than ever. When CANA asked me to facilitate this presentation, I started doing a little investigating. I was very surprised and happy to see some of the unique, creative community outreach programs that our profession is putting out there. You should all be really proud of yourselves. These events help to educate consumers that never would have known the different things that you do, so they can go, have some fun, learn something, and visit your business in happier times.

I have gathered some examples from CANA members on their successful community outreach activities. We’ll focus on events hosted by companies ranging from smaller firms to larger cemeteries. Our hope is that you don’t sit there and say that you can’t do that because you don’t have the time or the staff, but get sparked by interest and inspiration to do something—even something smaller in scale.

A lot of the things we do, because we have so many active senior centers in our neighborhood, is to either visit them or have events at our locations. We have found that, when we get them out of their element, you can have a lot of fun and you can educate them. Afternoon Movies is exactly that. We partner with a senior center, they promote it by email, newsletter and bulletin to their members, and we meet up at the movies about a half hour before the show time. Then, we introduce Mountain View and educate the seniors on the value of preplanning. We keep it fun and they love the chance to see the movie for free, so they’re happy to listen. A lot of the local movie theaters are happy to let groups in on an otherwise slow Tuesday afternoon. We buy the tickets, popcorn, and soda, and they get the movie and information.

This is no surprise. 

– Jerry Roberts, Flanner Buchanan Funeral Centers & Crematory: Indianapolis, Indiana

A lot of people haven’t been to a funeral home or cemetery in a long time, and they don’t want to go. You’ve experienced this: they consider it to be gloomy and depressing. By providing community outreach events in our profession, what we’re doing is bringing the community in in happier times. That way, when they see you, they’re not only going to think that this is where you go only when there’s been a death. You keep a connection with them throughout the whole year besides just when there’s a death of a loved one.

Some of the establishments are embracing celebration events that are not death related such as weddings or other family gatherings hosted in their venues. These are bringing people in for a non-death situation — it says you can have fun here too.

To many, traditional media means an ad in the local paper or a direct mail piece, but this is not where you’re going to get the most impact. Email newsletters are good, but only reach the people who already know you. I always opt for websites and social media, and you’ll all agree, these are the avenues that we should use to promote our events. Some funeral homes and cemeteries will include “events” or “community” in their main navigation to place these activities front and center.

With social media, you can reach the community and let them know what you’re doing—and it’s less expensive than traditional media. Plus, it offers the opportunity to talk to the community – to thank them for participating in an event, for supporting you, etc.
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In closing, a lot of these programs might be intimidating. You may think you don’t have the resources, you’re not big enough, etc. You have to start by thinking that you can try just a piece of it, just a small component at a time. As Tony Robbins says:

Mountain View Funeral Home and Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona is, in my opinion, the most beautiful cemetery in the East Valley of Arizona. We have 52 acres, but only 24 are developed. So we have space for 150-200 years to come.
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Like most cemeteries, originally all the spaces were for traditional burial. The sections for cremation were added in later. The cremation rate in Arizona, both by percentage and total number of cremations, is near the highest in the United States and predicted to surpass 70% by 2023. Cremation has changed the way people look at permanent memorialization on both sides of the arrangement table.

I am not at all embarrassed or ashamed to say that we are a for-profit cemetery. We’re always looking for new ways to generate income and to give our families what they’re looking for and what they want. You know that if they don’t see what they want, they—in many cases—do nothing.

Because of the growth in the demand for cremation, a lot of what we’re doing at Mountain View is first working to change the mindset of our funeral directors and our cemetery staff to do a better job feeding into our cemetery. The first thing we did to work more efficiently is set up a two-up system, very similar to what you see in a lot of other combo businesses. This means that we have a cemetery professional go into the arrangement conference with the funeral director. When the funeral director steps out to make the final contract for the cremation, we make sure that that family is not left alone during the arrangement. Instead, the family service counselors take the family out to the cemetery to see what we have available.

It starts very simply, because right inside our funeral home we have a glass-front niche. It’s a matter of coming out of the building, taking four steps to the left, and introducing the families to the idea of memorialization.

From there, we direct them to our golf cart up front and we immediately take them to the cemetery. We don’t do a lot of talking. The beauty of the majestic cemetery speaks for itself. What we will do is point out areas in the cemetery that specialize in housing cremated remains.

At that first niche, just to the left, most of our cremation families will say, “Oh, no, no. We don’t need any of this. We’re taking Mom back to Iowa where she’s from.” We tell them, “We understand that that’s what you’re planning to do. However, it’s not fair to you if we don’t take you through the options we have available.”

Many times people tell us they’re taking the remains with them, but in the end that’s not what actually happens. Sometimes they realize that because they’re here, this is Mom’s new home. This is where Mom retired, this is where she wanted to be for the duration of her life.

What are people looking for? A lot of the families we serve have chosen cremation because they don’t want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars. So we want to give them something that’s affordable. We’re finding ways to expand our cremation garden. We have added in a green cremation area because a lot of people say, “Oh, we just want to scatter Dad,” so we offer them the option to do this in the cemetery.

We’re doing a memory vase memorialization package. The memory vase is just for vased flowers right above a bio-degradable urn that goes directly in the ground. They don’t need an urn vault, just a 12-by-12, 3-inch-thick granite base. These memory vases are affordable, and they do not take space out of our inventory because they’re spacers that weren’t in our inventory to begin with. We identified little nooks and crannies of space where there’s nothing, and now we can beautify our cemetery with flower vases.

The memory vases provide a way for us to generate more income, but, more importantly, they’re a way to get the families to come back. When they come back, when they visit, it gives them a reason to come in. It keeps us in touch with them. That way, when we have a Memorial Day service or a Veteran’s Day service, we have a way to be able to get in contact with these people to invite them to these events we have and then talk to them about, “Well, what about yourself? Have you preplanned your funeral? Have you preplanned your cremation?”

We do a lot of things to find out what people want. We do a lot of “park-rangering” – we just go up to people in the cemetery, give them a bottled water, and start a conversation. You would be amazed how many people will say, “I’ve been visiting my husband for twelve years and you’re the first person that’s ever come up and talked to me.” So it’s just a matter of being friendly and saying hello. I’ve never had somebody say, “Leave me alone.” Of course, you have to use some discretion, too.

You also start to see patterns of people who come in on a regular basis. Sometimes you’ll see a family come in on the weekend and it might be a special occasion, such as a birthday, so we don’t approach them right when they first arrive. We wait maybe a half an hour or an hour. When you see them wandering around, looking at other graves, that might be a good time to walk up.

I do a monthly training with my team and include “Best Practices” for park-rangering: these are the things you want to do, these are the things you don’t want to do. For example, if you’re doing a graveside service you are not to be out there handing out your business cards to everybody. You can keep your business cards with you, and if somebody approaches you and says, ‘Hey, I’d like to get some information’— and that, believe it or not, happens a lot—then you’re allowed to give out your card.
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Most of that conversation comes at the end of an interment, where people are standing around. They like to see the vault lowered into the ground, they like to see the urn placed. We talk to them and make sure to say hello because they’ve already met us at the arrangement.

I start all of my weekly staff meetings with a victory story. We go around and every person has to tell a success story about something that’s worked for them. The people around think, “Oh, maybe that does work!” because when you hear a real-life story, with a real name attached to it, suddenly it becomes contagious. I want each one of them to have buy-in with their victory stories because they’ll have a passion for the things they were able to sell.

Nobody wants to be sold and nobody wants to be pushed into something they’re not interested in. But they will buy when they see value and they see something they like. But they’re never going to know that if you don’t take them on a tour and show it to them.

When you do a tour, it’s not always about the person who died. It’s about showing the family the possibilities. If you’re not taking them on a tour, you’re doing that family an injustice. More people will make a decision when they see how beautiful your cremation waterfall is in person. They can’t visualize it on their own.

If you say to a family, “Were you thinking of being buried in the cemetery?” they’ll say, “No, that’s why we chose cremation.” Instead, you can say, “Take a quick ride with me, let me show you something you might be interested in. We’ve developed things specifically for families like you,” They won’t refuse, they’ll follow you because they don’t do this every day. They don’t know what they don’t know.

We’re developing a very specific cremation tour, not showing our gardens that are all burials, but taking them to key cremation places. “Have you ever heard of a cremation boulder? This is what it looks like. We have areas where we can place it,” and then taking them to show them where the areas are.

The family they’re meeting with on the funeral home side may or may not buy in the cemetery, but they may have a relative who will. We keep saying, “In our business, it’s not about the family you’re serving today. It’s about all their friends and relatives that you should be thinking about serving tomorrow.”

On meeting the opportunities and challenges of an expanding demand for cremation:

• Plan for the future. Be prepared for what is coming, do not wait for it to get here. If you run out of space because you have not planned ahead you are not serving your cemetery or the people that want to be there.
• Continue to make cremation interments an EVENT for families. Do not minimize the interment process simply because it is easier to inter cremated remains compared to a casket.
• Be open to suggestions from families, have a policy IN WRITING —and STICK TO IT—regarding the disposition of cremated remains.
• Diversify as much as possible and promote the value of the experience at least as much as the goods and services.
• Offer everything. When a family says they want to take dad home, ask “Why?” and why they do not want a permanent placement?
• Always ask the family to take a tour of the cemetery before they make a final decision about what they are going to do with Mom or Dad.
• Provide as many options as possible
• Listen to the changing needs of your customers and adapt by providing solutions that are important to them. Provide more choice and options for people.
• Price it to make money. We in the industry have made cremation inexpensive, not consumers. And they do not mind paying for service and quality.