With variants hanging on and case numbers still in flux, it may be difficult to imagine a completely post-Covid world. However, we have faced many moments of adversity throughout human existence. If there is one thing we know for certain from history, it is that life goes on. Not surprisingly, there are many questions about the changes to come. How will we work? How will we play? What will business look like in a post-Covid world?
Sorting it out
Although there was a noticeable shift toward remote work prior to Covid, the global pandemic made working from home more common than not, at least temporarily. Even some professions we never would have guessed could be performed from a residential bedroom or basement were suddenly doing just that. We went from accepting that doctors would never again make house calls to having video calls with our doctors from their living rooms. The unexpected quickly became the expected.
As we move forward and businesses are able to fully open, there is a sorting game going on. Some jobs can stay remote or adopt a hybrid schedule, while other businesses need that in-person, brick-and-mortar connection every day. The funeral services business is an interesting question mark in this mass sort. Traditionally, most funeral services are planned in a funeral home and carried out in a funeral home, in a place of worship, or at a gravesite. However, while humanity is busy rethinking everything else, it is also rethinking its end-of-life planning decisions.
The next phase: flexibility, flexibility, flexibility
After a year and a half of situational flexibility, adapting is now a way of life, and death, even more so than it was before. We have already witnessed some of this flexibility in the funeral services business: live-streamed funerals, less immediacy and more creativity when it comes to funeral services, off-site visitation locations, and an increased demand for cremation. As people settle into a new way of life, both personally and professionally, the traditional brick-and-mortar funeral services concept of the past is no doubt fading.
Maintaining flexibility to meet new demands means offering an array of choices when it comes to funeral planning. If you do not have the right innovations in place, the funeral home down the street likely will. With the advent of all-online funeral service options, your competition pool may even expand to include out-of-town and out-of-state funeral service professionals when it comes to the ceremonial portion of services.
How to compete and thrive in an endless-options world
You can take comfort in the fact that the whole world is changing with you. Very few, if any, professions will be returning to business as usual. Still, the funeral services business has a history of providing long-standing traditions to families, so the thought of creating an even longer menu of innovative options, especially when you have already been catering to new trends, can feel daunting. Johnson Consulting Services is here to guide you by offering a few tips for taking on the challenge of post-Covid business:
- Options can be simple. A world of choice doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, simplicity will likely be appreciated in an option-heavy world.
- Be prepared for and open to the unexpected. As people adopt a more home-based work life, they may expect most businesses to offer home-based options. Funeral planning will likely become even less about the building and even more about the service and the production. Post-pandemic, you may find yourself still meeting over Zoom with families or even making house calls.
- Modern means memorable, mobile, and media-based. Before long, the family members planning funerals will have grown up completely immersed in mobile media and expect funeral services to follow suit. You have no doubt delved into this realm, but be prepared to delve even further.
- Profit margins are still there, but you may have to shift where you look for them. The profit once found in ornate caskets may now be in multimedia production.
- Stay positive. Stay motivated. Change is inevitable, so accepting it and moving forward gracefully is the best response for both your business and the families it serves.
Still feeling overwhelmed by what the future holds? JCG is always here to help.