February 2020

Page A16 FEBRUARY 2020 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A 1-888-MKJ-1566 | www.mkjmarketing.com “If I build a new funeral home, howmany calls will it do and where should I put it?” Glenn Gould CEO, MKJ Marketing Call the only person in funeral service that has done over 800 studies. mymortuarycooler.com Are you state compliant? Order Direct at 1-800-782-8249 Free UPS Ground Shipping www.mccordcasketsandvaults.com By Matt Black Embalming Tips & Tools Communication So, where might we be able to fine tune our skills and obtain more details? Communication is defined as imparting or exchang- ing information or news. As the funeral industry has changed, our focus has understandably changed as well from merchandise to a greater emphasis on service. We are expected to provide even more compassion and customer support 24/7, 365 days a year. For generations, funeral service business communi- cation has been solely a face-to-face interaction with the families we serve. Our reluctance to change can be summed up in the age-old axiom, “But we’ve always done it that way.” But times and technology have changed. The families we serve have embraced communication methods that a significant portion of our industry have been slow to adopt. Numerous generations are employing text, Facebook, Messenger, group Skype, and more to com- municate with one another. While these methods are becoming increasing normal ways for individuals and families to communicate, they are leaving many a fu- neral director and/or funeral home out. Do you offer alternative communication options such as chats or emails? Among the areas of concern regarding communication between the consumer and the funeral director is the practice of death notifica- tion calls that go to voicemail. Do you like a call that what they want and the other 94% want services with cremation prior to or after the disposition. Engaging in clear communication with the family about the many cremation options available is of ut- most importance. Each family we deal with is different in their grief needs, beliefs, education, and background in dealing with the passing of a loved one. As funeral di- rectors we must seize this opportunity to educate, com- municate and create an opportunity for the living to celebrate their loved one’s life. We shouldn’t limit these opportunities to the manner of disposition. you deem important being placed on hold or forwarded to a generic voicemail? The average consumer is unaccus- tomed to dealing with the funeral industry. The bereaved are looking for and deserving of open communication providing accurate and compassionate support. A lack of focus on service and instead communication about mementos is an element of the funeral service that is commonly questioned. A famous quote from the 1967 movie, Cool Hand Luke frequently rings true in our world, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” As funeral directors, are we truly communicating and listening to the consumer and families that we serve? When we hear cremation , do our minds automatically as- sume direct disposition with no service? We know that cremation is, at its simplest, just one of several choices for disposition. An appropriate statement, shared with me by The Dodge Company COO Tim Collison and subse- quently shared with many of my customers when they lament the increase in cremation is, “The only difference between a cremation and a traditional service is the direc- tion the hearse goes after the funeral.” The funeral director is uniquely positioned to commu- nicate the many and varied options, including open cas- ket viewings that can be included when a family selects cremation for final disposition. I recently reviewed re- search about cremation from Funeral and Memorial Infor- mation Councils (FAMIC). According to the research, only 2% of families prefer no ceremony when final disposition is by cremation. Additionally, 4% of families have no idea Matt Black has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer in the State of Pennsylvania for over 20 years. He represents The Dodge Company in Central and Western Pennsylvania. In addi- tion to being a graduate of the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortu- ary Science, Matt also holds degrees in Bio-Medical Engineering Technology and Industrial Management. Matt has also attended the Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming Skills, Springfield, MO, and is licensed in eye and corneal enucleation. He has presented at Dodge Embalming Seminars as well as numer- ous local seminars in Pennsylvania. He can be reached by email at mblack@Dodgeco.com. www.nomispublications.com Funeral Home & Cemetery News Contributors share insights and exchange ideas. Blogs Carriage Services closes acquisition of Oakmont Memorial Park and Mortuary and Fairfax Memorial Park and Funeral Home HOUSTON,TX— Carriage Services, Inc . announced that it closed the acquisition of two large funeral firms. The compa- ny has acquired Oakmont Memorial Park and Mortuary in Lafayette, CA from StoneMor Partners , as well as Fair- fax Memorial Park and Funeral Home in Fairfax, VA. Mel Payne , Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stat- ed, “We have long known about Oakmont being a uniquely beautiful cemetery, which has a lush mountainside landscape and provides spectacular views of nearby Mount Diablo and Briones Regional Park. The business was founded in 1956 and serves the East Bay Area including Oakland and many com- munities in Contra Costa County where we have a group of funeral chapels that offer strong collaboration synergies. Oak- mont is best known for its beautifully designed and construct- ed high end cemetery projects to satisfy the burial and memo- rialization needs of the affluent area markets that it serves. “Several of our best field leaders, including the Managing Partner of our wonderful combination business Conejo Mountain in Camarillo, CA, as well as a top Sales Man- ager at our largest cemetery, Rolling Hills in Richmond, CA, previously worked at Oakmont during its peak per- formance years. The upside performance potential of Oak- mont, when realized over the next several years under Car- riage’s framework of leadership and support, is expected to generate high returns on the premium price we are paying for what our people describe as an A+++ property.” Mel Payne further stated, “Fairfax Memorial Park and Fu- neral Home was co-founded in 1957 by four men includ- ing Cornelius H. Doherty and his son Cornelius, Jr . (Neil) , and today is led by Neil’s son, Michael (Mike) H. Doherty . Fairfax Memorial Park was founded as a Cath- olic cemetery under the name Calvary Memorial Park but in 1976 Calvary acquired the adjacent non-sectarian cemetery Fairfax Memo- ry Gardens and combined both cemeteries under the name Fairfax Memorial Park. The funeral home was completed in 2003 and to- day Fairfax Memorial Park and Funeral Home is recog- nized as the premier funeral home and cemetery combi- nation business in the large and rapidly growing subur- ban area immediately west of Washington, DC. “I had long been aware of the pristine and wonderful repu- tation of Fairfax Memorial Park and Funeral Home but first met Mike and his wife about ten years ago at an industry con- ference. Over the years we have spent quality time together at industry conferences and I along with other members of our operating leadership team have had the opportunity to tour the property at various times to learn about its amazing histo- ry under three generations of visionary Doherty Family lead- ership. It is truly an honor for Carriage to have been quickly selected on the front end of their process by Mike and his Board and other legacy shareholders as the succession plan- ning solution for Fairfax Memorial Park and Funeral Home. “We secured Carriage’s first presence in the Washington, DC/Northern Virginia market in 2014 with the Ever- ly Wheatley Funeral Home in Alexandria and Everly Community Funeral Care in Falls Church, which were FTC mandated divestitures related to SCI’s acquisition of Stewart Enterprises . We subsequently identified the rap- idly growing greater Washington Metropolitan Area as a large, highly attractive strategic market in which we would like to acquire a much larger portfolio footprint over the next ten years. In 2018 we acquired the wonderful and large Covenant Funeral Homes with chapels in Freder- icksburg and Stafford, and now the addition of Fairfax Me- morial Park and Funeral Home represents the crown jewel of this geographic capital allocation strategy. “Fairfax currently performs about 850 cemetery inter- ments and 900 funerals annually, whose combined reve- nue represents the largest single business acquired in the 28-year history of Carriage. Moreover, Fairfax offers the highly unusual opportunity of having such a ‘Best in Class’ reputation, strong competitive standing and demographic profile that the business should grow much larger over the next five, ten and twenty years and enable us to deploy sig- nificant amounts of new investment capital into construc- tion of new and innovative inventory projects to satisfy the huge potential for cemetery preneed property sales at in- vestment returns well in excess of our cost of capital. While such a rare and uniquely located signature property and business comes with a premium price, we expect Fairfax to be immediately accretive to our earnings and, in combina- tion with rapidly improving performance from our exist- ing portfolio and three other acquisitions, to enable Car- riage to achieve several important milestones.” Carriage Services is a leading provider of deathcare services and merchandise in the United States. Carriage operates 189 funeral homes in 29 states and 32 cemeteries in 11 states.