MEETING FAMILIES WHERE THEY ARE

On April 28th I had the pleasure of joining CANA, my Foundation Partners colleagues and two of our partners in an incredibly informative webinar entitled, Meeting Families Where They Are: How to Leverage Cremation Trends to Your Advantage. I was very impressed with the practical and actionable advice and solid tips shared by our presenters.

What I also found interesting was the wide range of cremation experience among the more than 220 CANA members who registered for the event. Nearly 20 percent of registrants are relatively new to the cremation space, with cremation representing less than 25 percent of their current business, while another 18 percent are fully invested in cremation services, which make up more than 85 percent of their business.
​
Wherever they fall on the cremation business spectrum, they received valuable takeaways that will help them fine-tune and advance their businesses. And the good news is you can too by viewing a recording of the webinar here. First, however, I wanted to share a few highlights of the session and my take on the lessons learned.

​THE CREMATION VALUE PROPOSITION

Our Foundation Partners Group CFO Tom Kominsky kicked things off with a review of the value proposition around cremation and the flexible options and revenue opportunities associated with cremated remains. He began by debunking the popular belief that cost is behind the growing preference for cremation. He cited a recent survey of our cremation families, in which simplicity was almost as important as cost when selecting cremation. Flexibility and environmental concerns were also important considerations.

That said, Tom went on to acknowledge that increasing cremation rates present challenges for many funeral homes and he outlined a number of opportunities to mitigate the financial risk. They include the sale of jewelry products made of and for cremated remains, and upscale options for permanent memorialization. He also discussed optional services, like catering and additional car rentals, that can drive up average cremation revenues.

---

I wholeheartedly agree with Tom’s assessment, which is supported by research showing that ancillary product and service offerings for cremation families represent a massive opportunity for funeral home owners.

The findings he shared about environmental concerns also resonated with me. As managers and owners of funeral service businesses, we need to be keenly aware of this environmental trend and look for ways to weave environmental responsibility into the fabric of our operations. Funeral home owners who recognize and stay ahead of the growing environmental movement will be well-positioned for success.

That’s why we were proud to announce that all cremations across Foundation Partners locations will be carbon neutral this year, thanks to a new carbon offset program we implemented through Terrapass to support projects across North America that reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

​THREE KEYS TO CREMATION BUSINESS SUCCESS

Meredith Waterston, a third-generation funeral director with the Cremation Society of Minnesota, shared three keys to her family’s cremation business success.

1. Watch trends and embrace change: Meredith’s father Kevin and uncle Mark saw that people wanted simplicity so they made it easy for families to pre-arrange and pre-pay for cremation services.
2. Invest in your future: Founded at a time when the cremation rate in Minnesota was just 6 percent, they carefully watched trends and invested in expanding their facilities to keep up with growing demand. And, in 2017, they joined Foundation Partners Group, which is providing the added resources needed to serve a cremation market which now exceeds 60 percent.
3. Never stop promoting your brand: From day one, the Cremation Society of Minnesota put a lot into advertising their services through TV, radio, print and now online ads that have helped them grow to more than 6,000 calls a year.

We’re extremely proud of our partnership with the Cremation Society of Minnesota and look forward to partnering with more cremation-forward funeral homes in the Midwest and throughout the country.

THE SEISMIC SHIFT TO ONLINE SHOPPING

We all know that the pandemic has accelerated the flight to online shopping but educating families and selling funeral services online requires a new mindset and a new approach. Angelique Simpson, professional development director for Matthews Aurora Funeral Solutions, offered tips to prepare your teams for the changing demands and expectations of today’s families, and illustrated how your average revenue per contract has the potential to increase when you have an effective online portal. Her advice ranged from why it’s imperative that your staff be knowledgeable in every aspect of your online offering, to making sure that your online platform enlists large clear photo images of all of the best products and services you have to offer.

According to Angelique, the key to successfully advancing your business is investing in your team with professional development. Making the shift from face-to-face family meetings to online chat and telephone communications requires training.

Our own, Foundation Partners experience bears this out. Like most of you, pandemic lock-downs required our teams to make pre-need and at-need arrangements over the phone or online. And state and local restrictions that limited gatherings prompted us to reassess our tools for remote attendance. Updating our e-commerce capabilities and bringing on new remote attendance systems required an efficient operational plan and a huge training effort that reached each of our 160 locations across the country.

​ACTIVATE YOUR TEAMS AROUND THE SHIFT TO CREMATION

At Foundation Partners, we take a three-step approach to rolling out new tools and procedures in our funeral homes: Pilot, Listen and Adapt.

Pilot – We identify offerings that are resonating in the market and test them in select locations. We partner with vendors and have them educate our teams to test new items. And then we incentivize our teams to offer these new products and services to families.

Listen – We ask our funeral home team members for feedback as they present different options to families. What’s working? And what’s not working?

Adapt – As we learn what is and is not resonating with our families, we adapt to meet their needs.

This is something you can do within your locations, regardless of the size of your business.

BUILD, OUTSOURCE AND PARTNER

I’d like to leave you with these final thoughts that I shared with the professionals who attended the webinar. As leaders of our organizations, it’s our job to make sure we have the right organizational structure and the capital in place to adapt to the changing market. The way I see it, we have three options.

1. We can build in-house capabilities. If we do, we must determine exactly what we’re going to build, how we will support it and how we’ll pay for these new capabilities. For example, if you decide to build a retort, you must not only have the capital but also understand the ins and outs of local regulations and retort maintenance requirements.
2. We can outsource to others using their facilities and capabilities to augment our own. If we decide to outsource certain functions, we must first decide what we are going to outsource and then find the best-in-class partners that meet our needs. For example, if we need a retort overflow partner, how do we ensure that they are reliable and will not tarnish our brand?
3. Lastly, if you’re at the point in your career and business lifecycle where you are considering retirement or selling your business, it’s critical that you find a partner who understands these trends.

If you’re thinking about succession planning, now is the perfect time to arrange a complementary, confidential financial analysis with Foundation Partners Group. Click here to request a call or call Jason Widing, our vice president of business development at (503) 200-0605

---

Kent Robertson is President & Chief Operations Officer of  Foundation Partners Group. He is an experienced entrepreneur and corporate leader who demonstrates his company’s commitment to partnership, relationships, innovation and compassion on a daily basis. Prior to joining Foundation Partners Group, Kent was Founder and CEO of Fenix Parts, a company specializing in auto parts recycling with annual sales of more than $120M.  Prior to Fenix, Kent spent more than 20 years working with Stericycle, the nation’s leading provider of healthcare waste services. He can be reached at 888-788-7526 or [email protected].