You all might or might not care. but I turned in my final research paper in my History class. I got a 45 out of a possible 50 on it. Still don't know what I got on my prior paper. Anyway if any of you want to read it, I have put it here for you.
AMERICAN VIEWS ON FUNERAL DIRECTORS
I wasn't sure what to do for this paper. Until I heard on the radio, the results from a survey that ranked funeral directors below journalist and above politicians.
That got me to looking for the results of that survey. I was never able to find it. but I did find the results of gallup polls that included funeral directors from 1977 till 2005. All the polls ranked the funeral directors very high. My research also found a lot of negative press about funeral directors, things from newspaper stories about the illegal things funeral directors have done, books about the how the funeral industry takes advantage of people, TV special reports, websites slamming funeral homes with one that is very anti funeral home. It seems like there are two camps out there when it comes to the American views of how funeral directors are thought of when it comes to how ethical and honest we are. Some put us in the top ten highest rankings and others that group us with the Enron executives during that big scandal.
This creates a very perplexing question. Why are we ranked so high in the polls, while others are doing what they can to show that funeral directors are just taking advantage of death. One website alone lists 18 documents, 13 books, 6 TV specials, and 6 news articles claiming that funeral directors are only concerned about how much money they can get out of you. Even when you go to funeralwire.com every day 1 or 2 news stories about some funeral home or funeral director caught doing something illegal. Yet in 2005 the gallup poll put the funeral directors number 7 of the top 10 highest rated professions in regards to honesty and ethics. With 44% of the people polled rating the funeral director honesty and ethics as high to very high. That has been the highest rating ever for funeral directors since they showed up on the poll in 1977.
So should we be worried? Yes we should. While it might not effect us on a national level the items I am going to break down could have a very big effect on all of us on a local level. and what we can do to prevent being effected by it. Mostly it will come down to ethics, educating the public, and common sense.
The biggest threat to the funeral profession is the media. We have all heard the term “If it bleeds, it leads” which means if it is bad news the media will be all over it. You look at the paper or watch the news and if a funeral home does something bad, be it something illegal or just poor work, it will be all over the news. but when was the last time you ever heard of anything a funeral home did that was good, ie a free funeral for a baby, or a funeral home doing what it can to get a veteran a proper burial instead on ending up in a paupers grave??
I only have a couple explanations as to how well Funeral directors rate in the polls. 1. Some people haven't seen the bad press, or just don't belive the media. 2. People taking the polls were treated right at the funeral homes.
Now I have read a lot of bad things about funeral directors. On the news, in the paper or on the Internet, telling of the illegal things they are done. Not much we can do about the media, except hope they will tell about some of the good things we do. (don't hold your breath though). But when possible try to get a little publicity out of anything good you get done. You can write an advise story in your local paper dealing with some of the more frequently asked questions. Also it might be a good idea to avoid the press during times that would upset people. Like during removals. We did a removal for a murder / suicide and the deputy told us a TV crew was on the way. We moved as quickly as possible to make sure we were gone before the TV crew got there. People do not need to see a funeral home removing a body and invading the families privacy.
The news media isn't the only media we have to worry about. Website preaching the evils of the funeral business. Some claim to be consumer advocates, and are honestly doing what they believe is a public service, but they sometimes lack many of the facts. Some of them have their own agenda's, trying to sell the idea of home funerals or selling caskets retail.
I recommend you look at those other websites, See what they are saying about us. Read or watch the news when it is about a funeral home or funeral director. See what happened, see what they say. and think about what is said and how it can be avoided.
On one website the writer complained how so many funeral homes are so expensive, but there were a few with the lower costs. The big funeral home with a staff of 20 or 30, a fleet of vehicles, and a big chapel. People might say I won't be using all those cars, and the service will be at their church. Whither you use those items or not the owner of the funeral home still have to make payments on the vehicles in the parking lot, and the mortgage payment on the chapel that is sitting empty. Plus all the other costs of keeping the funeral home open. Versus a small funeral home with a small staff, small chapel, only 3 vehicles, and no fancy bells and whistles. People that don't use common sense and need to be educated.
A lot of the complaints about funeral homes, besides the high cost, is about ethics. Sadly their are those out there that will commit criminal acts no matter what is done to prevent it. Hopefully none of us will do that. Beyond that it is the little things. A matter of ethics, not just the big things but the little things, be it making the family feel welcome and comfortable. Many people complain about feeling that the experience was cold and business like. Not using guilt to get them to get a more expensive casket. Taking your time to find out what they want, and doing what you can to make it happen, not maneuvering the family to get what you want them to get.
Give the families accurate and factual information, Doing what you can to make sure they understand you. When they want a sealer casket, because they think it will preserve the body longer, let them know that a sealer does not prevent decomp, that is just helps keep the elements outs such as water.
Let the families know they can shop around. They will know you aren't trying to hide anything, they will know that you are looking out for their best interest, odds are they won't bother to go anyplace else, but they will appreciate the thought, and if they do check out another funeral home. unless they have way better prices odds are they will come back to you.
I can not say it enough. Make the families feel welcome. Treat them like they are family. I have read about people saying they were treated coldly. I have heard it myself. I just heard it again with the last funeral we did. It was a ship in from out of state. They were so grateful of the way we treated them after the other funeral home treated them so coldly. That was not the first time I have heard that.
Do what you can to make sure that families have nothing but good things to say about you. Remember the axiom, “if someone likes what you do they will tell 5 friends, if don't like what you do, they will tell 20 of their friends.” That will bring in more business, and will not be giving fuel to those that do nothing put try to paint us as scam artists.
Those are the things that keep us on top of the polls, instead of people drawing their opinions from the media and websites that do nothing but preach the evils of funeral homes. They point out the greed of some funeral homes. When one funeral home asked if they could charge the family for disposing of the trash from a casket when the family bought a casket from a third party. That question was asked of the FTC and is a public forum, and made public by a consumer advocative group. What type of picture does that paint of all of us. I have taken the trash out from a casket delivery. We reused the plastic covers to cover our cots, and it took me 2 minutes to carry the rest of the trash to the dumpster in one hand. This example points out the greed of one funeral home, and the stupidity of making a statement like that in a public forum. At the same time painting a picture that all funeral directors are like that. This also shows that we have to be careful what we say in public.
We all remember the crematory that about five years got caught dumping bodies in the swamp behind the crematory. More recently in the news a funeral director was caught selling body parts illegally. We also have the problem of even fictional shows like CSI doing stories that relate to the actives of funeral directors, doing things like selling body parts or reusing caskets, or putting more than one body in a grave.
GALLUP POLLS:
http://www.gallup.com/search/default.aspx?q=funeral+directors&s=&b=SEARCH
http://www.gallup.com/poll/20254/Nurses-Remain-Atop-Honesty-Ethics-List.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1654/Honesty-Ethics-Professions.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/7357/Effects-Years-Scandals-Evident-Honesty-Ethics-Ratings .aspx
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-19-20 01/0001473102&EDATE=
ANTI-FUNERAL WEBSITES:
http://www.funerals-ripoffs.org/
http://www.fool.com/foolu/askfoolu/2002/askfoolu020619.htm
http://www.funerals.org/alert/
http://www.funerals.org/index.htm
http://www.finalpassages.org/
http://gravematters.netfirms.com/homefuneral.htm
NEWS STORIES
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=297
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=294
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=288
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=285
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=279
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=265
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=256
http://www.funeralwire.com/external_news.php?linkId=249
