Have you ever thought about how many people within your community know exactly which funeral home they would select if they had to make a decision today?

Do you know what funeral home you would want to work with if you were forced to plan a funeral today?

Working within the world of funeral planning, this is a topic that I think about quite often.  I know what my own personal experiences are — but when I started to ask friends and family what they thought, it turned out that many of them actually didn’t know what funeral home they would turn to.  In a way, this was surprising, as I used to assume that everybody simply had a go-to “neighborhood funeral director” that they turned to.

This got me thinking — just how many people are undecided as to which funeral home they would turn to if they had to plan a funeral right now?

Using Ask Your Target Market, an independent market research platform, my company asked the following question to over 600 individuals over the age of 35 located throughout the United States:

“If you were to plan a funeral service for a loved one, what best describes your current situation?”

I was pretty intrigued (although, based on my earlier conversations, maybe not too surprised) by the findings:

  • Only 26.8% of respondents knew exactly which funeral home they would select.
  • 22.7% of respondents had some idea of which funeral home they would select.
  • The majority (50.5%) of respondents had no idea what funeral home they would select.

So what does this mean?

It’s apparent that some people do have relationships with funeral directors — and working with that funeral director when they’re in that time of need is a no-brainer for them.  But out of the 600 people that we surveyed, more than 50% had no idea which funeral home they would work with.  Perhaps it’s due to the way that many families move from city to city.  Perhaps it’s a reflection of how younger generations are less loyal to certain businesses than their parents were.  Perhaps it’s because choice-hungry Baby Boomers are coming of age to plan funeral services for their parents.

Whatever the reason is — it appears that times aren’t changing.  In many ways, they’ve already changed.

Mike Belsito is an Internet entrepreneur from Cleveland, Ohio with a background in product innovation, ideation, and startup business development.  Mike is the Co-Founder of eFuneral, a Cleveland-based online platform that helps connect funeral planners with the funeral homes that can best serve them.  He also serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence for the City of Lakewood, Ohio — a 50,000+ residential community located in Northeast Ohio.

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