In your client families’ point of view, value is their overall satisfaction with their funeral experience.

The term “funeral experience” is broad, but it can be broken down into many different things. Whether it’s the funeral, aftercare, or another funeral element, many things make up a valuable funeral experience. And everyone places more or less value on different things, as each family’s situation is different.

So, how can your funeral home provide a valuable funeral experience for all your client families? We’ll go over some options below.

Adding Value to the Funeral Experience

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” As this saying goes, people expect what they pay for to be something quality and worthwhile. When a family pays for their loved one’s funeral, they’re trusting they’ll get a valuable funeral in return. By going the extra mile, you can exceed their expectations and create a valuable funeral experience.

For example, these are a few ways to create valuable funeral experiences:

• Provide them with tools for personalization — tables, displays, TV screens, etc.
• Offer personalized mementos and suggest some DIY memorial crafts.
• Show your support and comfort them with caring words or even a handwritten note or card.
• Give them care packages filled with basic necessities like canned goods and toiletries to get through the first few days of grief.
• Create informational brochures that lay out your arrangement and payment options.

It also may help to ask yourself these questions:

1. What makes my funeral home unique?
2. How can I best provide families with more valuable experiences?
3. What special skills do I have that can help create valuable funeral experiences?
4. From my experience funeral planning, what do families want from a funeral?
5. What can I do to make funeral planning simple, yet meaningful for families?

Value Doesn’t Have to End with the Funeral

Adding value doesn’t have to stop when the funeral is over. There are many ways your funeral home can continue to create valuable experiences long after the funeral.

For example, these are a few ways to continue creating valuable experiences:

• Create an aftercare program to help families with grief and adjusting to life without the deceased. You can even include online features for those who prefer online resources.
• Host events to bring your community together. For example, host a remembrance dinner or a community walk/run to raise money for a worthy cause like Alzheimer’s research.
• Check in with families after the funeral. It can be a phone call, text message, or whatever they prefer. If they’re struggling with grief, invite them to your funeral home to talk about their grief.
• Invite families to your funeral home’s educational grief events and grief support groups.
• Provide families with online resources such as grief blogs and a grief email subscription.

Value Is Different for Everyone

Remember that when it comes to value, it’s different for everyone. Your client families all have different religious beliefs, personalities, and other traits that make them unique. However, you can use these traits to help create valuable and personalized funeral experiences.

By exceeding families’ expectations, you can give them a valuable funeral experience to honor their loved one. The preplanning process, funeral service, aftercare, and memorialization all give your funeral home ways to give families valuable experiences. And by giving families a valuable funeral, they’ll likely recommend your funeral home to their loved ones in return.

How does your funeral home create valuable funeral experiences? Share your thoughts in the comments below!