Homesteaders Blog

Lessons for Funeral Service Professionals from the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail runs through the mountains of Tennessee about 20 miles from my home. Known to the hikers as the “A.T.”, it spans nearly 2,200 miles from northern Georgia to Maine and touches 14 states. Because each hiker has their own pace, it takes an average of four to six months to complete the entire hike. Every year, more than 3,000 hikers attempt this feat, which is referred to as a "thru-hike" of the A.T. Only about 25% of them are successful.

10 Ways to Manage Your Funeral Home’s Google Business Profile

Did you know that Google holds over 90 percent of the world’s search engine market share? This means when consumers search online, nine times out of ten, they use Google to do so. But how can you improve your funeral home’s chances of appearing in potential customers’ Google search results when they search for “funeral home near me?” You have the control to create or optimize your existing Google Business Profile.

Understanding Customer Lifetime Value for Your Funeral Home

Customers have high expectations from the companies they choose to do business with – and many of the items they value are related to the experiences those companies provide. According to a 2022 survey conducted by Salesforce Research, 88% of customers agreed that the experience a company provides is as important as its product or services. In addition, most customers (73%) agreed that they “expect companies to understand my unique needs and expectations.”

The Complete Guide to Implementing A Funeral Home CRM System

Evaluating and implementing a funeral home customer relationship management (CRM) system requires careful upfront planning, time, resources and buy-in from your staff. But the rewards outweigh the risks if your staff fully adopts the system.

How to Evaluate If A Funeral Home CRM System Is Right for Your Firm

Evaluating if your firm needs a customer relationship management (CRM) system begins with analyzing your current funeral home operations to identify areas of improvement and opportunity. In most scenarios where you feel your firm could grow or become more efficient, a funeral home CRM system can help. Discover seven questions to help you evaluate your current operations and identify if you should pursue a funeral home CRM for your firm.

4 Low-Cost Ways to Personalize a Funeral Service

Funeral trends continue to change as consumers get more creative in how they honor loved ones. With many online options to share content, those ideas spread even more quickly. Personalizing a service helps families find comfort in happy memories of their loved one’s unique characteristics and stories. And when families prearrange their funerals, they can add even more personal details without the time constraint of planning an at-need funeral. Offering your suggestions for customization will help you earn your clients’ satisfaction, referrals and positive reviews. People who attend the services will also take note of the extra care you took to make the experience meaningful.

Steps for Branding, or Rebranding, Your Funeral Home

What do client families do when a death occurs and they don’t have a go-to funeral provider picked out? They Google it.

Tips for Hiring Preneed Professionals

Hiring new employees can be both exciting and daunting. In addition to your day-to-day tasks and taking care of the families you serve, you must find time to advertise for the position, screen résumés and conduct interviews; not to mention the additional pressure to make sure you find a candidate who will fit your company culture.

How to Turn Funeral Home Employees into Leaders

“No one is stepping up and showing any leadership. I still have to do most of it myself.” As John* inched closer to his retirement date, he had hoped that his children (who are funeral professionals) would start taking on more responsibility to help families, work with vendors and volunteer for countless other tasks. But when you talked to John’s children, they would frequently complain that their father would not allow them to take on these new responsibilities.

Then John contracted COVID-19, forcing him to miss work for three weeks. In hindsight, he wishes he had let his children take on more responsibilities earlier. Instead, he had less than a day to prepare them to run the business without him and found out the hard way that they were not ready to take over day-to-day operations.

3 Steps to Align Your Funeral Home Marketing Strategy to Your Customer Journey

In the first and second posts of this three-part series, we discussed what a funeral home marketing plan is and why it’s necessary and how to lock down market share in your community using a market analysis. The final post in this series will cover high-level considerations and marketing tactics you should account for when aligning your firm’s marketing strategy to your customer journey. Specifically, we will explore each stage of the marketing funnel and help you consider how to use appropriate digital and physical marketing tactics and messaging at each phase to move consumers through the funnel.