In the ever-evolving funeral service profession, successful business management requires more than traditional accounting practices—it demands specialized industry knowledge, comprehensive performance tracking, and a deep understanding of the customer experience. In this month’s Insider Perspectives and Stories I was joined by Ryan Hill, Director of Accounting Services for Johnson Consulting Group and Vince Roberge, Sr. Business Consultant for Johnson Consulting Group to discuss how funeral homes can leverage data-driven strategies to enhance their operations and growth.
Unlike general CPA firms, specialized funeral service accounting provides unique advantages for funeral business owners. Ryan highlighted that Johnson Consulting Group utilizes industry knowledge in every aspect of their accounting services, beginning with a customized chart of accounts specifically designed for funeral service operations. This specialized approach allows for deeper understanding of the products, services, and associated costs particular to funeral homes.
“We take great pride in having a deeper understanding of both products and services that we sell in this industry,” Ryan explained. This specialized knowledge helps clients achieve various goals, whether that’s driving more sales through strategic pricing adjustments, preparing an operation for succession, or positioning a business for growth.
Budgeting in funeral service requires forecasting that accounts for both predictable patterns and unexpected volume fluctuations. Ryan emphasized that Johnson Consulting Group tailors budgeting services to each funeral home’s unique situation, with some clients requiring more frequent budget reviews than others.
At minimum, Ryan recommends an annual budget that accounts for inflationary cost increases, comparing prior year performance to current projections. The budgeting process considers significant industry-specific factors such as rising insurance costs, regional trends, changes in call volume, and competitive factors.
“Our goal, specific to budgeting services with our clients, is to prepare them for the future,” Ryan stated. “If by doing so we shine a light on uncomfortable topics or market conditions, we honestly believe it would be better to take a more proactive approach to solving those issues or concerns instead of just reacting as it happens.”
Both Ryan and Vince stressed that having a purpose-built case management system is absolutely critical for funeral homes wanting to leverage their data for impactful business decisions. These specialized systems help automate procedures, drive standards throughout the organization, and enable team members to better serve families.
Software transitions can be complicated, costly, and time-consuming. Having accounting professionals who are familiar with both the current system and the new case management software makes a significant difference in setup and data integration. This specialized support during system transitions provides tremendous value to funeral homes navigating these changes.
A key benefit of working with professionals who have funeral service knowledge and experience is gaining access to meaningful benchmarking data that puts a funeral home’s performance in context. Ryan shared that they help clients compare their volume, average sales, arrangement types, and profitability metrics against industry standards, which provides valuable perspective for funeral home owners.
Ryan identified cost control and proper pricing as the most common financial blind spots for funeral businesses. By analyzing operational costs in relation to current and projected volume, funeral homes can better align their spending on facilities, advertising, automotive expenses, and other key areas with their actual needs and regional norms.
Vince introduced our Performance Tracker X as a ‘comprehensive customer experience management tool’ that integrates with case management software to provide meaningful insights into what happens in the arrangement room. This tool measures not just customer satisfaction but also correlates this data with arrangement details and contract information.
“We believe customer experience and client family satisfaction is priority number one in the funeral home,” Vince emphasized. “It’s not just the right thing to do for funeral directors and funeral homes to exceed expectations of their client families. It’s why people come to work in funeral homes. They want to have those meaningful impacts. But also, it’s good for business.”
Vince shared that over two-thirds of families choose a funeral home because of some prior experience—whether they were served directly by the funeral home in the past, someone they knew was served well, or they relied on online reviews. This underscores why creating “wow experiences” that exceed expectations is so crucial for organic market share growth.
The integration of financial data with performance metrics creates a powerful management tool that gives funeral home owners a complete picture of their operations. Vince compared this to the dashboard of a modern vehicle with multiple sensors measuring different aspects of performance.
“We need to be able to use all these different metrics and gauges in the appropriate way to make meaningful decisions,” Vince explained. By examining customer satisfaction data alongside financial statements, market share data, and employee feedback, funeral homes can make more proactive decisions rather than merely reacting to issues as they arise.
Vince provided a systematic approach to translating customer feedback into actionable business changes. He emphasized the importance of documenting service standards—the non-negotiable interaction standards for each touchpoint in the customer journey—and the supporting processes that help deliver consistent experiences.
When service defects occur, Vince recommended examining whether the issue stemmed from process breakdowns or from what he called “service aptitude”—a team member’s ability to exceed expectations regardless of circumstances. By developing service aptitude through training and utilizing customer feedback, funeral homes can continually improve their service delivery.
We also discussed current trends in funeral service preferences by client-families. Vince noted that the profession continues to see an increase in cremation without service or ceremony, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic. To address this challenge, he recommended focusing on funeral directors acting as educators who weave elements of ceremony into even the most basic cremation arrangements.
Vince also shared that across North America, the average “value score” in funeral service is 4.7 out of 5, indicating that families generally feel they receive good value for what they pay regardless of the service type. This data point can help funeral directors approach arrangements with confidence when making recommendations about celebration-of-life options.
And if you’re looking for a success story Vince shared a few examples. He talked about how data-driven recommendations significantly improved clients’ financial performance, including developing strategic pricing approaches based on cost analysis and customer feedback, implementing incentive plans geared toward improving cremation case mix, and using survey data to identify which organizations are referring families to the funeral home
As final advice to funeral home owners, Vince recommended taking stock of the tools already at their disposal and using them to their full potential “The challenges that this profession faces are not small,” he acknowledged, “but the tools that we have now are not the tools that we had 20 years ago. We have technology… there is a way to use these tools and data to make meaningful business decisions and to guide our business into the future.”
By combining specialized funeral service knowledge with comprehensive financial reporting and customer experience tracking, funeral homes can develop data-driven strategies that enhance both their service quality and their bottom line.
Join us on June 25th at 2PM where I’ll be joined by Mark Harrison, President of Certified Safety Training. We look forward to seeing you then!
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