Funeral Home Staff Training and Seminars

There is no “one size fits all” training application that can simply be viewed via streaming video that will address the unique needs of your organization.  Each business has special needs that require a custom tailored approach when it comes to employee training.  There are as many factors that create the need for an individualized training solution as there are funeral homes.

 

Training is the most critical and powerful tool within your control when developing and maintaining a motivated workforce. Having a highly trained workforce gives your business a definitive competitive advantage. The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy has created the most comprehensive management and employee training program in the industry. Our programs are efficient, relevant, highly effective, and personally tailored to:

•  Educate, encourage, and energize staff members at every level

•  Establish and promote an environment conducive to employee development, focusing on teaching management coaching skills and leadership

• Keep your employees current on industry trends and providing them with proven techniques to grow your business

• Improve group morale and individual effectiveness

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy offers multiple solution options to meet the needs of your organization.

1.    On Site Group Training – Our experienced educators can provide your firm with a custom training program at your location

2.    Semi-Annual Offsite Training Programs – We offer regularly scheduled training events at our West Los Angeles location

3.    Individual Training and Coaching– Are there areas that you or your employees need additional training on?  We can help. 

 

Funeral Arranger Training

Each funeral arranger should be viewed as a company within your company. However a funeral arranger behaves in front of your customers and their abilities when conducting their presentation of your various services and merchandise options has a significant impact on your funeral home’s bottom line.  However, funeral arrangement presentation and customer service skills are as equally important as an arranger’s ability in securing payment for goods and services.

In order for your company to obtain the highest standard in funeral customer service, sales, and receivables, your staff should complete a training program designed to specifically address each individuals strengths and weaknesses. Depending on our individual employee evaluation results, a custom arranger training program will be developed to focus on the areas that best serves their needs.   Performance areas that will be evaluated and improved through this program include funeral customer service excellence, burial arrangements, cremation arrangements, collections, and workplace communication.

 Our team will conduct monthly, quarterly, and annual follow-up meetings with you. The key focus of these meetings is to review progress, performance evaluation, and identifying top performers for positive reinforcement as well as addressing additional training and coaching needs for those staff members considered to be underperforming.

 

Individual Improvement and Behavior Modification Training  

 The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy is the only funeral Industry consultation firm with the capabilities to provide a Court Approved, Certified Stress and Anger Management Courses.  We understand that it is common for Funeral Service Professional to seek assistance from time to time in dealing with the unique stresses brought on by the challenges of working in a funeral home.    

 

We at The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy understand that no person is perfect; and that there are situations that arise that cause business owners and managers to require that a valuable employee complete a self help program as a condition of employment or to help that person become the best employee that they can be. 

 

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy employee training experts are able to assist you in developing the appropriate and most beneficial training programs for your individual employees and your organizations needs.

Seminars

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy Team is available to assist your business or Industry association by offering informative, entertaining and cost effective seminar solutions.  Our seminars are led by some of the most respected experts in the funeral industry or their ancillary fields. We provide seminar speakers who present diverse content with the most up-to-date information concerning the funeral business to assist you and your organization. Each seminar provides a professional, yet relaxed setting, where an exchange of practical information, insights, and ideas can take place.

Funeral Home Management Services

There are critical times when funeral home owners would benefit from the services of a professional temporary manager.  Our firm has assisted funeral home owners meet their businesses needs by providing them with the precious resource of time.  Owners are able to keep their business moving in the right direction by utilizing our management gap coverage.  There is any number of reasons why you may want to use this unique service.

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy Team has assisted funeral home owners when they themselves or their employee manager has required time off to receive significant medical care.  Additionally we provide owners with the luxury of time while conducting new employee recruiting efforts to find new management when circumstances prevent a seamless transition.  There are also those occasions when funeral home owners wonder if they own their business or if their business owns them.  Our temporary management service provides Proprietors of smaller, family owned funeral homes the ability to go away on a much needed worry-free vacation. Whatever your reasons might be, for whatever time frame necessary, we can assist you.

Funeral Home Management Consulting

Customized Consulting Program

The funeral and cemetery industries are encountering new and significant challenges in today’s economic environment. It is more important now than ever before for you to make sure that your business is operating at peak performance.

Funeral homes, as an industry, are not identical businesses that all struggle with the same challenges or require the same solutions. Our funeral home clients should expect management solutions that are focused on the specific areas of their business requiring change. The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy Firm creates customized programs tailored specifically for the needs of your business.

Achieving your goals begins with an in-depth Performance Analysis of your funeral business that details the strengths and weaknesses of your overall business. 

 

Performance Analysis

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy Performance Analysis will generally take six to eight weeks to perform and will require site visits, owner and manager interviews, surveys and possibly interviews with all employees, and all the tasks needed in order to complete a  comprehensive analysis of your business

 

Strategic Plan

Once our analysis is complete, you will have an accurate portrayal of your funeral business’s current operating performance. Our findings will be presented to you in person. All of our recommendations to you will be detailed in a comprehensive Strategic Plan. Our customized Strategic Plan establishes Business Performance Objectives detailing the specific Tactical Actions needed to achieve those objectives.

 

Implementation Sequence

At the conclusion of your Customized Consulting Program our firm will provide you with a strategic Implementation Sequence that will contain all of the information that you will need to implement our recommendations to increase your businesses performance, deliver an unprecedented level of customer service, achieve consumer recognition as the funeral industry leader in your marketplace, and provide your employees with an optimal work environment all while maximizing your businesses financial performance.

 

Funeral Home Professionals Recruiting Services

Three of the biggest problems in the hiring process are:

1) Candidates providing overstated or misleading information,

2) The excessive time it takes to sort through resumes, and

3) Interviewing weak candidates.

 

As a business owner you know all too well that resumes are incomplete and too often they are deceptive.  During the hiring process business owners and managers will waste a lot of time reviewing stacks of resumes, trying to determine which are truthful, and wishing that they contained more of the information that is important to them.

A candidate with “average” ability can become very good at “fudging” the truth, as a result, you end up interviewing way too many candidates and hiring way too many mediocre employees.

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy offers professional recruiting services that will save you the many hours of time that you will waste studying resumes and prescreening candidates over the phone.   Our services save you a lot of time, but more importantly, you will only interview the very best candidates. 

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy firm will provide you with a thorough report for each candidate, written in an easy to understand format, not in “human resources doublespeak.”  Your custom report will contain a recommendation to hire/promote (or not), an executive summary if warranted, identification of dozens of primary strengths and weaker areas, and an interpretive career overview which explains how successful candidates have been and how they work with different kinds of people.   you will receive our report and we will then conduct a conference call where we will provide you with the “color commentary,” and answers all of your questions.

Funeral Home Selection Room Merchandising

Would it make sense for funeral homes located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Eugene, Oregon; Lubbock, Texas; and Los Angeles, California to have identical selection rooms, offering the exact same product for sale?

One size does not fit all, and at The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy we do not believe in cookie cutter solutions for our clients. Every funeral home serves a unique community that brings different needs and concerns to the table. 

The merchandising strategy of your selection room should focus on maximizing your businesses sales.  Merchandising in not merely determining the best place to display an item in a selection room,  a comprehensive merchandising plan will have selection, presentation and price working seamlessly to make the product selection process as easy as it can be.

Does your consumer base require that your company offer a full range of the highest quality metal and hardwood caskets displayed in your selection room? Do you currently display a wide array of cremation urns in every material from bronze to biodegradable materials? Our firm will work with you to design a custom tailored merchandising plan that offers the families that you serve a diverse group of products to select from, while maximizing your return in the process.

Just as each family coming to your funeral home for assistance is served individually, and not simply provided with a pre-packaged service void of personalization; The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy believes that your selection room should not be a “boiler plate template.”   Your funeral home’s selection room should reflect the uniqueness of your facility, staff, and the quality of services that you provide, as well as the personality of your community. 

Whether weighting the options ranging from traditional fixtures to a virtual selection room, we will be able to develop a custom merchandising display system that will create a comfortable and calming environment for your families to discuss and choose their selections.

 

Funeral Home Selection Room Design

Is your selection room not being used as often as it once was?  Is your business realizing diminished returns on your selection room sales?  Are you contemplating making a considerable investment in updating your selection room(s)?

 

If you are, then consider the all of your options.  According to Marty Strohofer, Director of Creative Marketing at Aurora Casket, “the typical cost to build empty additional space would be around $200 per square-foot, so say the value of a somewhat typical 30’x30’ room is $180,000. Add to that the inventory of merchandise for sale, plus the cost of fixturing, slatwall or display furniture. You could calculate the investment of that room to nearly a quarter million dollars.”  He also makes the point that, “Most families dread walking into this room.”

 

Numbers often speak for themselves.  Mr. Strohofer published an editorial which included the example below.

 

Frequency of Selection Room Use                                  100 Times/Year

Duration of Each Use                                                     15 Minutes

Total Time Used Each Year                                             25 Hours/Year

Cost of Space ($200/square foot; 30’X30’)                 $180,000

Inventory and Fixturing Cost                                           $30,000-$50,000

Total Selection Room Investment                                 $230,000

Cost Per Each Use                                                        $2,300

Cost Per Hour of Use                                                    $9,200

 

There are a variety of cost effective methods available for your funeral to use when merchandising your selection rooms. The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy has assisted clients lower their expenses, increase their profit, open-up cash flow and introduce new streams of revenue by transforming traditional selection rooms.

There is no generic template that is offered by any company, whether they are casket industry titans or technology service providers, that can be implement in every funeral home and guarantee maximum returns. 

Your business is your primary concern.  What is the primary concern of the casket company?  Do you believe that there is a casket company out there who will send a representative into your funeral home, and have their sales representative look you in the eye and say, “I don’t think you should carry our products,” or “Your business model is better served by going with a blended vendor selection room, doing so will give you the greatest return on your investment”?

There are nearly endless options that The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy can develop for your funeral home, and for far less cost than our competitors.  Whether you opt to employ technology based solution located in your arrangement office in the form of a virtual selection room, or opt for the more common slattwall design, it will costs you nothing to contact us and obtain an opinion not being delivered by a vendor.

 

Funeral Home Vendor and Product Evaluations

Creating a merchandise display that stimulates consumers into selecting an item for purchase is vital.  However, the decision you face on which products and brands to present is a more important business decision than how the products are displayed.  Being able to maintain full control over your businesses merchandising and sales methodology is critical in this current economic environment, and especially while funeral industry market trends continue change at a rapid pace.

Families come to your funeral home relying on you and your staff to understand their needs and to guide them through the unfamiliar and often overwhelming array of funeral industry merchandise.  By retaining control over the products on display, your funeral arrangers are better able to make the product selection process easier for everyone involved.

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy is able to provide your business with a thorough evaluation of national, regional, locally based vendors and artisans.  Our evaluation process will assist you in determining the best business partnerships to pursue in order to meet your communities needs while maximizing your profits.

Funeral Home Customer Satisfaction Analysis

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy objective is to assist you and your staff in delivering an unparalleled level of customer service, and achieve consumer recognition as the funeral service leader in your marketplace.

Customer Service Satisfaction Survey

Each family that you serve as a client will receive a family satisfaction survey crafted to obtain specific feedback about the arranger, facility, service, and other critical aspects of their experience. The results of the surveys are reviewed monthly and you will be provided with a report. Using these reports you will be able to identify areas that require improvement and training.

Non-Customer Survey

Have you ever wondered why families have opted to do business with your competitors?  The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy is capable of determining the factors that were important to those who have recently had services provided by other funeral homes in your market place.  This unique service will teach you exactly what factors are driving the decision making process of your consumer base. 

Funeral Home Retail Price Structuring

Setting the right price is a crucial step toward achieving the ultimate goal of your business, to earn a profit. Funeral homes may be staffed with kind and caring service professional, however they are in business to make a profit.  figuring out how to price your products and services may not come easily.

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy can determine which pricing strategy to use in setting the right prices to maximize your businesses profitability. Before implementing a custom developed pricing structure our team of industry experts will determine the cost of goods being offered and the cost of operating expenses.

The basic truth is that the funeral industry is not changing to meet the expectations and demands of the buying public, and that is a significant problem. In the last decade thousands of funeral homes have gone out of business, leaving tens of thousands of funeral service providers to worry about their economic security.  An alarming number of funeral homes are suffering from drastically shrinking margins, and unfortunately many funeral business owners are looking for solutions from the same out-dated business practices that have sent our industry into its present state of decline.

Developing a new pricing structure for your business that focuses on consumer values is the most efficient and effective way to operate a profitable funeral business.  In a growing number of regions across the country funeral homes are learning, what other professional service providers learned decades ago, that superior profits can only be generated by selling services, not merchandise. Funeral merchandise (caskets, vaults and urns) have become widely available from alternative sources including popular national retail outlets (including Costco and Wal-Mart) and trusted internet retailers.  As a result, it will be increasingly difficult for a funeral home to realize the traditional 200-300% markups on these retail products. Additionally, funeral directors are faced with growing cremation rates and families who have no “need” for a traditional casket.

Currently, many funeral homes are suffering from high overhead and shrinking margins.  These funeral homes find themselves in a precarious position because their current business model is not viable, and many of the services currently being provided are being done so at a loss due to an unsustainable pricing structure.

 

Funeral Home Financial Services

succession plan

A succession plan is the first and most crucial step in the transfer process of your business.  there are many choices and decisions that must be made to ensure that the transfer plan accomplishes your personal and retirement objectives, while minimizing both income and estate tax liabilities. The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy has the experience to help you, and is caring enough to explain all of the options available to you, and help you understand the financial and retirement implications of each option.

Funeral Home Business Valuation

Knowing the value of your business is critical information, and it is important to understand exactly what it is that increases the value of your company. Our funeral and cemetery valuation team studies the facts as they are, then prepares and provides you with an in-depth profile of your funeral business. Additionally, we go above and beyond a simple valuation, and compare your company to the current industry market. This revealing examination offers you a clear indication of exactly how much your funeral home or cemetery is worth at any given time, in any type of market environment.  Furthermore we provide you with the information as to which direction the industry is trending, giving you greater insight allowing you to make the best business decisions.

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy Funeral and Cemetery Business Valuations process includes the following services:

•  An In-depth review of your business, including its history, its present state and how future business trends can impact your bottom-line.

•  Detailed demographical trends of your market area

• Study of the death trends in your market

• Analysis of your companies critical and non-critical assets

• Analysis of your Funeral Home or Cemetery sales statistics

• A top to bottom review of your current payroll, benefits packages,  and overall employee costs to compare your firm with the industry standard

• A comprehensive analysis of historical financial statements to project the cash flow of your business

•  Assess your  cemeteries inventory and acreage needs

•  Prepare a company asset versus business value study

•  Perform a comprehensive assessment of your local market

• Provide you with a definitive range of value based on our findings

 

Funeral Home Crisis Management and Litigation Support

 

It has been said the “All Press is Good Press,” but when it comes to owning a funeral home, The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy knows that “bad press” will not just tarnish your reputation, but also damage your business for years to come.  You have paid thousands of dollars over the years in insurance premiums to protect your business’ financial assets.  However, The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy is here to protect or rebuild your business’ professional image should your funeral home fall upon misfortune.

Sometimes accidents happen, as heartbreaking as that might be to contemplate. Other times litigation or allegations arise without warrant or reason. Sometimes funeral home employees or owners find themselves in legal trouble.  You and your firm will have an attorney to help guide you through the legal processes of litigation; The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy will help you in the court of public opinion.  Our seasoned team of public relations specialist has the most experience at crisis management in the business.  This division of our firm is remarkably talented, particularly skilled, and uniquely qualified to assist you and work in concert with your legal team to protect your reputation, and the business’.

The Ryan M. Lee, Mortuary Consultancy has assisted professionals weather the media storms caused by alleged professional misconduct, civil and criminal litigation, as well as sensationalized personal issues.

If you have purchased a funeral home or cemetery in need of reputation rehabilitation, our team can craft marketing and public relation campaigns to re-brand the business.  If you are in need of these services, call us at once, time is not on your side.