Researching articles for Funeral Director Daily has taught me a few tricks.  For instance, when there is an article I want to read and I Google the article to get it on my screen but a “Pay wall” pops up I usually can find my way around it for at least enough time to read and print the article.

Last week a really good current (May 15) article from the New York Times popped up in my searches titled “Profits are stagnant.  But the Funeral Industry is not dead yet”.   As I tried to access the article I kept running into paywalls, until I finally found a “free view” and printed the article off.

The content of the article will be another story for another day, but as I was fumbling around with the New York Times website I was reminded of my time on the regional Wells Fargo board and a discussion about rewarding and retaining our best customers.  You see, as I was manuevering around the Times website I was offered an “Introductory online subscription” for $1 per month for the first year (12 months).  That’s a total of $12 per year where a current customer was listed at a price of $300 per year for the same service. . . . and, the offer stated, “Not available to current customers”.

We all know that is an introductory offer and the Times is trying to acquire customers who will eventually pay $300 per year with the offer.  However, if you read that and were a current customer paying $300 per year. . . “How would it make you feel?”  Some might feel unappreciated.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

That’s the position that we found ourselves in at Wells Fargo when customers of competitor banks would call us and say that they had a large certificate of deposit coming due at the competitor and what would we offer, as an interest rate, to have them move the deposit to Wells Fargo.  Let’s say our going rate was 4%, then maybe we would offer 4.25-4.5% for them to transfer their deposit.  To make a long story short our best and most loyal customers would hear about this and wonder why they didn’t get that rate  — it became a “retention” issue with our best customers.  The situation was eventually alleviated by giving the best rates, that were not publicized, to our longest and most loyal customers through a mailing when their current certificates were ready to expire.

That’s somewhat of a long intro but the crux of this article will be about “Retaining” your best clients.   You see, some marketers put the number of anywhere from 5 to 25 times as expensive to acquire a new customer as it is to retain an existing customer.  Another number that marketers use is that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a larger than 25% increase in profitability.

Related –– Here’s an article from Forbes on “Customer retention vs. Customer acquisition”

We’ve all heard the words before — Perks, Rewards, Loyalty Programs, etc.  —  But, does your funeral home put something into practice to reward your “Best customers”?  Do you even know who your “Best Customers” are?  Who are the advocates for you in the community. . . and how can you reward them to stay that way?

“Customer Acquisition” is really expensive in the funeral home business.  You maybe don’t think about it. . . because it is not just your advertising expense that is your “customer acquisition” cost.  You try to acquire customers through many means — including the physical structure aesthetics of your business, the lawn care, the fleet of automobiles — and what about your time and money spent at Rotary Club, or the Chamber of Commerce.  We could go on and on.

So, what are you doing so those acquisition costs turn into customers you can retain?  Or, is your retention so shaky that a new funeral competitor also joining the Rotary Club could take an acquired customer away from you?

Think about what you can do to “retain” customers you have “acquired” and your business will continue to grow.  Do you do special events for those who have pre-arrangements with your firm. . . . Do you provide an “Aftercare Club” for those who are widowed? . . . .Do you continue to memorialize and pay respects to those who are deceased with survivor participation with Christmas and Memorial Day events?

Those are some of the “traditional” customer retention opportunities and as we move from the nexus of “traditional” to “technological” in Death Care my guess is the ability to offer certain technological benefits to your client familes —  such as Sunset App  —   will also help with retention.  Sunset App allows families the ability to find and collect all kinds of monetary accounts and assets linked to their loved one free of charge. . . . To learn more about how to give this opportunity to the families you serve click here for more information.

You’ve spent a ton, both in cash and time,  in acquiring customers . . . . make sure that you retain them.

Related Article —  “50 Loyalty Program Name Ideas to Keep Customers”  Bon Loyalty blog

A couple of interesting statistics from the Bon Loyalty blog:

• Marketing Metrics found that the probability of selling a product to a prospect is 5-20%
• Marketing Metrics found that the probablity of selling a product to an established client is 60-70%
• An “emotionally linked” client has  306% more value to your business over a lifetime than a non-emotionally linked client.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’ve never been a big participant in a great number of perks or loyalty programs. . . .But, I’m enrolled in the programs at my convenience store/gas station, credit card, hotel, and airline of my choice.  All of those businesses acquired me as a customer at one time or another a long time ago  —  and because of the programs that they reward me with it would take some doing to have me change preferred vendors.

And, here’s another perspective  —  Even though I served on a board of Wells Fargo, when that bank, including our local branch, made personnel and protocol changes I questioned their committment to me.  I visited another bank, moved my accounts, and have been a loyal customer at that bank for twenty years.

Make sure that you honor loyalty and that can build your funeral home into a bigger and bigger business  — acquire that customer and then make sure that your services and offerings retain that loyalty.  Never let your customers question your committment and loyalty to them and they will reward you with their loyalty.

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