Simply as a member of a community I was again reminded this past week that transformation, and especially technology transformation, continues to happen at a rapid pace in the Death Care profession.  Last week I intended to go to a visitation of a deceased gentlemen who for the most part of my funeral director career volunteered as a caretaker of a small cemetery in our greater community.

The gentleman was a very nice person, humble as can be, and everytime I would see him in the community he was always friendly and would inquire as to the well-being and interests of my children and wife.  Simpy put, I wanted to make sure that I went to his visitation to pay the respect to him that he deserved and wanted to share these comments with this wife and family.

Well, I woke up Sunday morning and by habit checked the obituaries of the funeral home I used to own.  I then realized that I missed the gentleman’s visitation and funeral.  It happens . . .  But the reality of that is I did not get to visit with the family in-person as I believed I should.

At that point in time I had to look at my “next best option” to communicate my condolences and thoughts to the family.  Luckily, as most funeral homes have now, my old funeral home allows “messages” to the family on the decedent’s obituary page.

That’s what I did . . . and appreciate that the funeral home had that type of simple technology available to me.  And, I’m glad that they had kept up on that technology so I had a “next best option” to communicate with the family.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

More Realities —  It’s interesting because on Sunday at church I also saw the President of a local bank I will call ABC Bank.  ABC Bank was sold to XYZ Bank last summer and the transformation of accounts was completed in the last couple of weeks.  ABC Bank was my mom’s historical bank and I’ve been a client there since 1974 when as a 16-year old my mom brought me there to open a checking account  — so that’s a client relationship of over 50 years.

ABC Bank was not my business bank and is not my main bank today, but I have retained that personal checking account to pay monthly bills and have automatic withdrawals taken from it.  In that regard, it has been a foundation of my personal financial bill-paying system my entire adult life.   When I think of my ties to that bank — automatic withdrawals to savings accounts built my retirement and paid for my children’s college education from it.  There’s a lot of history and sentiment that I have with that bank.

However, when I saw the bank president at church my thought process was that he will soon be the president of the bank where I “used to” have a checking account.

You see here is what happened just this month. . . . I use an “external” bank transfer from my main bank to ABC Bank once per month to pay those bills and have money in the account for automatic withdrawals.  It was done overnight — i.e. I initiated the transfer on Wednesday and the money was in the account ready to pay bills on Thursday.

Well, once set up with the new XYZ Bank system I initiated the “external” transfer on a Wednesday and the money shows it is out of my regular bank account that night.  However, XYZ Bank does not acknowledge the receipt of that transfer for five days  —  making my money unavailable for five days.

That is maybe not the biggest issue in the world to worry about. . .so the money gets there 5 days later.  One answer is to initiate the transfer five days earlier and everything is fine.  Or, another thing to do is to go online and tell my automatic withdrawal accounts to take that money every month out of my main bank account instead of XYZ Bank and then simply close the XYZ Bank account.

The point is, either through a policy decision or the lack of technology to process “external” bank transfers in what I consider a timely fashion, XYZ Bank is now going to lose a customer that they have had for over 50 years.

Why that should matter to you —  Transformation, especially among technology is happening extremely fast in the Death Care world.  It’s almost so fast that there is a “dizzying” effect on all of it.  I was happy that I was able to send a condolence to a family whose visitation and funeral I missed  —  and, quite frankly, I expected to be able to do that from the funeral home website.

However, in just the last couple of months I’ve received information on technology improvements such as preneed prompts from online funerals, obituary writers for families from funeral home websites, and the ability to offer recorded services online with no fear of music license offenses.

My guess is that your families expect all of that and more.  From your website can a consumer:

• Get a mobile phone calendar reminder about attending a funeral or visitation so you don’t miss one like I did?
• Check their preneed balance?
• Pay a bill?
• Plan their services including knowing the price?
• Buy a preneed plan?

We live in a day of a new consumer mindset.  I believe that if a consumer can’t find the information that they want on your website or if your reaction time is slow or late, you will risk losing that consumer forever.

It’s happening all the time. . . .Saturday night of last week I was on my own for dinner as my wife was gone.  It was a great day watching college football and college basketball for me.  I decided to order a pizza to be picked up and brought home.  I have three choices within two miles of my home — Caseys, Dominos, and Pizza Hut.  What was my deciding feature for which one I purchased Saturday night? . . . . . It was the amount of time from order to ready for pickup — not price, not flavor, but reaction time.  And, if a pizza restaurant didn’t list that on their website I just disregarded them.  Technology is transforming pizza sales, too!!!

Final Thoughts — Transformation is happening. . . and, it is happening everywhere.  The consumer mindset is different and that consumer really wants answers when they search.  And convenience really matters — it is almost hard for me to believe that I will admit to ordering my evening meal almost simply on convenience.

This past week, WalMart and Target reported 3Q2025 results.  They were strikingly different — Target’s sales declined 1.6% and WalMart’s sales increased 5.8%. . . .There might be some argument about “what type” of customers shop at each store and how the growing “K-Economy” has affected those customers.

However, WalMart CEO John David Rainey thinks it is more than just that.  Remember ten years ago when you could first make a WalMart grocery order online and have it delivered the next day? . . . .Here’s what Rainey said about that, “Walmart — by way of 4,700-plus US stores — is regularly delivering orders to people’s houses in less than 30 minutes. . . . Walmart has leveraged its mighty financial position to invest aggressively in its supply chain, allowing it to be a more trusted destination for shoppers than Target.”

My suggestion. . . . Make the investments necessary to turn that “new consumer” into your client.  And, you need somebody in your trusted corner who understands the technology as well as someone who relies on that technology to be fair, but critical and honest, in their reviews of what you are offering your community.

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