Will families really pay more for personalization?

Drew Edwards,
General Manager,
Sunset Funeral Home

Cemeteries and funeral homes are always looking for better ways to serve our client families. We always want to provide services and products that rise above their expectations.

At Sunset Funeral Home, we recently swapped out a couple of caskets in our selection room. These new caskets had more features that allowed for more personalization than our standard line of caskets. These caskets had all the bells and whistles, but also a larger price tag. In order for us to hold our margin, we had to price these caskets higher than other caskets made of the same material.

At first, I wasn't sure if we would ever sell one of these new caskets. Would families be willing to pay $400 - 500 more, even though the basic casket was same as others? Would they be willing to pay more to personalize?

To my surprise, the answer was yes. This leads me to believe that whether selling caskets or beautiful bronze memorials, we need to offer as many products with as much personalization as we can. We have to set our own preferences and assumptions to the side and give families options. After all, if we don’t offer it to them, someone else will.

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.