True personalization
To talk about some of the components that go into creating that "wow" factor, we'll deal with the current industry buzzword, personalization. Today's consumers are informed, educated, inquisitive and not easily impressed. They're best satisfied when a tribute service is uniquely planned to honor their loved one.
Picture boards and memory tables are only the most minimal, entry-level pieces of personalization. To really customize a meaningful tribute service, consider some of the following:
· Location of the service. How about a tribute service (with permission) at a park or on private property? At a golf course? Funerals used to be in the home. Why can't we have a funeral service at home, or a visitation at home?
· Both the means and route of the last ride. The last ride can be especially meaningful if you drive past the deceased's home or other favorite special place. Are we asking the family, "Would you like us to go past your house on the way to the cemetery? Would it be meaningful to drive by Dad's workplace? You mentioned that Dad stopped every day at Finney's for a beer on the way home. Do you want us to drive past there on the way to the cemetery?" These are little things that take a little more time and can really be meaningful to people.
We've used fire trucks, tow trucks, horsedrawn wagons and motorcycle hearses. We don't own a motorcycle hearse, but we can rent one. When those guys show up in black leather boots, it's really cool, and if you have a biker service it really makes an impression.
· Meaningful music. This could be anything from bagpipers to the person's favorite music, whether it's Sinatra, Motown, country western, classical or Led Zeppelin. Whatever it is, we'll play it. We pay through ICFA for the music licenses, which are an exceptionally good value.
· Professional tribute folders and portraits. What is the message sent when funeral homes provide ugly, third-rate, cheap memorial cards and thank-you notes? Unprofessional product equals unprofessional image. We offer more than 40 designs of quality, personal tributes, with matching thank-you cards, matching Mass cards, matching portraits and matching casket cap panels.
Have you ever seen people place family pictures in a casket? It happens all the time. If there's a family portrait, we can put it on the inside of the casket; that's what really personalizes it.
Are good tribute folders pricey? Yes. Will people flinch? No. Include them in a package. Nobody's going to tell you what a beautiful property you have, they're all going to talk about that folder. A friend of mine called me one day and said, "I ran into a lawyer at Rotary, and he said, 'You handled the service for my best friend two weeks ago. That was a really nice service. In fact, I took the tribute folder and I put it in a frame and it sits on my desk.'" When was the last time somebody took something from your cemetery or funeral home and put it on their desk in a frame?
A firm that's not embracing these types of options is not really offering personalization and doesn't understand the concept of event planning, of creating a meaningful tribute.
Measuring customer satisfaction
How do you measure customer satisfaction and the value of service enhancements? We do a survey. On the day of the service or preneed appointment, a letter from me is mailed with a survey and postage paid envelope for returning the survey to me.
Everyone gets a survey—at-need, preneed, regardless of whether there was a sale. I want to know what our prospective customer thought about the presentation and my representative.
It's a short letter; it's a simple survey—one page, just a few questions, lots of white space. Its purpose is to provide a way for our customer to comment. It enables us to address any mistake, misunderstanding or failure to meet expectations.
How many of you have ever filled in a survey and sent it off? How many of you received a response, especially if you wrote something nasty on it? You wonder if the survey went in a black hole or if anybody read it.
We send a thank-you note. When I get up at 4:30 in the morning I have my stack of surveys and I read through them and highlight things of interest. If somebody just checked things off, I write their name on the note and sign my name.
The note says, "I received the survey you completed. Thank you for taking the time to offer your comments. I'll share them with my associates. If there's anything further we can do to assist you, please don't hesitate to ask. With appreciation and kindest regards, my associates and I remain respectfully at your service."
If you write a note of any kind on the survey—a positive note (if you write a nasty note you're probably going to get a three-page letter explaining or groveling for forgiveness)—I'm going to write you a personal note on the back of the thank-you card, mentioning the arranger's name and thanking you for taking the time to provide your comments.
Our survey asks if we can share your comments with others. Almost everybody checks off "yes." So what do we do with all those nice comments? Everybody likes to hear something nice about his or her work. These families aren't happy because I took care of them; they're happy because our staff took care of them. So we include all the nice comments on a payroll insert every other week.
What else can we do with those comments? Advertisements about our satisfied clients.
At the end of the day, it's all about taking the time to understand the people we serve, their life experiences, how they feel, and what they value. And then doing more for them than they ever, ever expected us to do.
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Copyright ICFA 2006
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