In the funeral business, the family experience is the top priority; however, it’s not always obvious how families feel about their services. Unlike other professions, people seeking funeral arrangements are working through grief, not to mention the multitude of logistical and financial concerns that arise in the wake of a loss. Due to this, they might not readily offer up detailed feedback.
Gathering feedback is crucial to improving your business and offering the best possible customer service. For funeral professionals, it’s essential to develop a strategy for collecting and monitoring feedback through surveys. When creating your own surveys, here are some concepts to keep in mind.
1. Multiple Choice Questions
Utilizing multiple choice surveys is a proven strategy to get pointed feedback from families. This type of question allows you to ask about specific components of your business or find out your NPS score.
Sample questions might include:
- On a scale from 1-5, how would you rate your overall satisfaction?
- Would you recommend us to your friends and family? (Yes or No)
- How did you hear about our business? (Be sure to list out all possible channels to understand how your marketing is working. Examples: Online, Friends or Family, Other)
Another benefit of multiple choice questions is the ease with which a client can complete them. Remember, people are busy, so the easier you make it for them to complete your survey, the more likely they are to do so.
2. Open-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions require a heavier lift on the part of the respondent, but they offer richer and more in-depth insights into how your business satisfies families. While multiple choice gives you pointed feedback about components of your business, open-ended questions provide a platform for families to note aspects of your business that you hadn’t considered.
For example, perhaps your multiple choice questions touch on your staff, pricing, and overall satisfaction with the service. However, upon introducing an open-ended question, families might point out that your location is hard to find (which you might never have considered asking about!).
Some open-ended questions might include:
- What about our service offerings did you like or dislike?
- How would you describe our staff?
- What could we have done to make the service more meaningful for your family?
3. Personalization
While you can find a number of generic survey templates online, you’ll want to create a customized survey that reflects a funeral home experience and its services.
You might also consider personalizing the survey to the specific respondent using their name and only inquiring about the specific services they received. This way, you’ll get more responses and more relevant feedback (Example: Low cost cremation versus full service providers).
4. Honesty
In most cases, clients want to feel heard. If a person had an exceptional experience with your business, then they’ll happily point to the people or components of a service that made this happen. If an experience underwhelmed them, then they’ll likely want to address it.
As such, you should not only encourage people to express their honest opinions, but you should respond to their opinions, especially the negative ones, with compassion and concern. If a family who had a negative experience feels like their issues were taken seriously, then they’re more likely to return or recommend your business.
Paper vs. Digital Surveys
In the past, funeral businesses relied on paper surveys administered through the mail. However, today’s digital surveys offer greater flexibility, lower costs, and a higher likelihood of responses.
What’s the Cost of Losing a Family
It’s inevitable that we all get a family where something goes wrong, whether it’s our fault or factors beyond our control. The reality is that the revenue contribution to your bottom line can easily create a business value loss of $20,000 or greater. Consider that when analyzing the cost associated with sending surveys. Most people would agree that when you look at it that way, sending surveys is not an option but a necessity.
With Performance Tracker X, funeral businesses can survey families via email and track the results through customizable dashboards. The key to a successful funeral business is happy families, and by collecting valuable feedback with Performance Tracker X, you can ensure that your services exceed their expectations.