Although a sense of loneliness is a natural product of the loss of a loved one, everyone assumes that a funeral director must also by default have a lonely job.
Those funeral directors who try to do everything themselves often find themselves overwhelmed and very much alone. Especially if they have two or more funerals in the same week, they are swamped by clerical responsibilities, run themselves ragged coordinating every activity and detail, and may not be able to physically “be there” when their grieving clients need them most.
The solution? Make it a “Team Effort.” Bring in a receptionist to be the professional, caring voice that people hear when they call. Yours is professional, but may not come across as well when you are tired, stressed, or juggling the phone call while meeting with a client. The first impression for your funeral home should be one of pleasant organized concern. Stop trying to do it all yourself. Get a receptionist.
Train your receptionist to handle scheduling, common questions and specific logistics concerns that people might have. Depending on how much typing and filing needs to be done on a regular basis, consider hiring a part time secretary or administrator. This will free you up quite a bit. Don’t stop there. If your business has picked up enough to warrant having an assistant, either part time, full time or as an intern, contact online universities that have funeral director training programs to see if they can post your job offer to their students and alumni.
If your budget doesn’t allow hiring anyone, seek out volunteers from the community and local churches for the clerical and receptionist positions. Schedule them to each work a few hours a week to cover all your business hours. Approach the local colleges and business schools. Offer intern opportunities for their students, with the possibility that this could become a paying part or full time job at some point.
Over time, your “team” will understand the intricacies of the funeral home business—both the administrative and the emotional. They will become a real asset to you not only for the work they do, but also as you discuss together the individual needs of families that walk through your doors. The more perspectives you have available to you, the more effective you can be in ministering to the grieving family members.
Don’t believe the myth that technology has no place in this high-touch industry.
A recent study suggested that a funeral home spends approximately 23 hours on a traditional funeral service. Of those hours, only 6.75 hours required the time of a funeral director (in Ohio). The rest were clerical tasks or coordination activities that could be handled by a reasonably trained administrator or part-time person. Technology is the perfect solution to eliminate those tasks from your (and your staff’s) To-Do list.
Don’t do it all yourself.
See the prior item and recognize that investing in training your people can free up your time tremendously.
