Is your preparation really paying off?

Jason Murphy,
Director of Family Services,
Sunset Memorial Park

When your cemetery staff gets ready for a meeting with a family, how do they prepare? Do they just gather all of the necessary materials and paperwork to complete a sale? Or do they go a step further and do their research?

Instead of robotically presenting your entire memorial design collection to a family and letting them decide which is right for them, teach your team how to research the family coming in to design a memorial. Even before the appointment, how much can they learn about the person's passions, hobbies or interests? If they were a piano teacher, flag the music-related emblems in our emblem catalog. If they spent every summer at the beach, flag the ocean Collage background.

Instead of asking the family to decipher all of the options, train your staff to think creatively and guide the family toward their best options. When you are able to bring a families attention to their true passions in life, they tend to focus less on the price and more on the value of the memorial.

The key is to make sure you are putting in the time and effort that it takes to be fully prepared. It can truly pay off for both your cemetery staff and the families you serve.


This article originally appeared in Modern Memorialization, Trigard Memorials' weekly electronic newsletter featuring information for the funeral industry. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.trigard.com/thursdays.