Let’s face it – there are plenty of uncontrollables in funeral business right? People not showing up on time, start time delays, weather – you name it. Unfortunately, those things do make an impact on funeral home customer experience whether we like it or not. This is why your staff must control the controllables, and it all boils down to performance.
Any successful funeral business needs to measure performance if they want to stay ahead of their competition, while also retaining families they’ve already served. Measuring performance helps owners and managers to identify areas where they can improve their services and maximize their profits. It can ensure that you are providing quality services while also improving your bottom line.
However, in order to do this, you need to make sure you know exactly what you should be tracking and how.
KPIs You Should Track for Your Funeral Staff’s Performance
Of course there are plenty of aspects you could be measuring within your business, the options are really endless. Tracking everything and anything can become overwhelming. At JCG, we believe that success in any firm boils down to two things: family satisfaction and profitability.
Family Satisfaction
Everyone wants to think that the families that they serve are happy. Afterall, you didn’t get any complaints – right? If this is your mentality, you aren’t alone. The day-to-day grind can make it seem like your families are satisfied. However, if you don’t have the tangible data to back up your claim that your families are happy, the harsh reality is you really don’t know. It’s important to measure your interactions with families and team members in order to determine your team’s progress and development.
Remember this, losing just one family costs your enterprise value anywhere between $30,000 – $50,000!
Profitability
How profitable are you so far this year? Don’t worry – many funeral home and cemetery operators can’t answer that question with full confidence. It’s critical for you to measure each of your staff’s sales in order to know how to set goals to get to the next level. This means digging deep into your sales contracts and analyzing them from different angles of your business for the best possible outcome.
Tracking Funeral Business Performance Metrics
Understanding exactly what funeral business performance metrics to track allows business owners to identify necessary changes that need to be made, and what is working well, including staff that should be recognized and rewarded for their work. With this data, funeral businesses can also allocate resources according to what best serves family needs, making them more profitable.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) helps measure funeral home customer experience and loyalty levels towards their firm, and how likely they are to recommend it to someone else. It’s a great tool to use if you want to get an understanding of what your customers think about your staff and facilities.
It’s important to note though, that the NPS Score is NOT the only score you should be tracking, as you will be missing other key performance indicators.
Online Reviews
Monitoring and collecting your online reviews to review with your staff can be an effective way to motivate continuing great performance, while also opening up conversations to talk through any issues. Responding to negative reviews immediately is a great way to show families that you care as well.
The other key value to online reviews is that it drives families to your business. The more online reviews you can obtain, the more likely somebody will visit your business.
Case Count
It’s important to monitor how many calls you’re getting per month so that you can set realistic business goals.
Average Sale
The median sale your team produces is also an important metric in order to set yourself up for success. This helps you determine what your yearly profitability is going to be.
Income Statement (profit/loss statement)
Without tracking your P&L’s, it’s incredibly hard to determine if you’ve been successful for the month. This helps with the creation of budgets, guides spending, determines benchmarks, and more.
Sales By Arranger
Your team will be motivated by tracking their success month over month. This allows them to set goals and be rewarded based on their progress. You may find when tracking this that there is room for improvement and extra sales training might need to happen. If you happen to have multiple locations, it is extremely beneficial to track each one as well.
Creating an Action Plan
Now that you know what you should be tracking, it’s important to know exactly what to do with that data to make the right decisions for the future of your business.
Benchmarking
After assessing your financial health, it’s time to determine where you want to go. Doing your research to compare your success with other firms of your size can give you a framework for how well you are doing, or if you and your team need to step it up.
Create an Incentive Compensation Plan
Once you have your sales team’s numbers, it’s time to set goals for them. If you have a great staff and want to keep them, the best way to do this is to create an in-depth incentive compensation plan. This provides extra motivation for them to get rewarded for their performance and be part of the overall goals of the business.
Avoiding Burnout
Tracking all of this on top of your day job is impossible. We know the day-to-day grind gets in the way and staying on top of these numbers can feel overwhelming, even though it’s critical for your business health. That’s why we’ve poured so much time and resources into our Performance Tracker X to make your life easier.
Our funeral and tech experts designed this tool to make tracking the customer experience and profitability within funeral homes a breeze. With the ability to send surveys, monitor sales, create online reviews, and more, you have the power to improve your bottom line at your fingertips.