When should Celebrants visit FDs?

Apr 22
When building your funeral celebrant business you have to build trust.

If you get a booking from a single visit to an Funeral Director, this is lucky.

It will take on average 3-4 visits to build trust, rapport & credibility with a funeral arranger.

What is the best day to make a "passing visit"?
Research, insights & experience suggests it is Tuesday.

In this blog post we investigate why Tuesday is the best day for funeral celebrants to make "passing visits" to Funeral Directors and Arrangers. 
Most Funeral Homes or offices of Funeral Directors are closed over the weekend. It is normal for offices to be staffed only from Monday to Friday only. 

However, death is not a weekday activity. Being a funeral director is also a 24/7 business. 

FDs will employ staff to be "on call" overnight and over the weekend. Why? Because when a person dies at home or more commonly in a nursing home, the family and/or the nursing home management will want the person who has died to be "taken into care of the funeral home" as soon as possible. Not only is this for health reasons because of the natural decaying process that happens with the body as soon as someone dies, but also it is to be discreet. The most successful funeral directors have agreements with their local nursing homes to "take into care" those people who died at night when there are no visitors on site and other residents are asleep in bed. When was the last time you saw a dead person being removed from a house or nursing home? It is rare because funeral directors are expect at doing this discretely and often during the cover of night. 

If people live alone and have died at home, it is also very common for these people to only get found by friends, relatives or neighbours at the weekend even though they may have died mid-week. Consequently, this also increases the call to FDs sometimes by families (sometimes by the Police) on the weekend so that the deceased can be swiftly collected. 

The exception to this is when people die in hospital or it is a "sudden death". In these cases, the people who have died will be taken at first to the hospital mortuary or the local coroner's mortuary. Eventually, the deceased's body will be released to the family's chosen funeral director. This FD would normally collect the person from the mortuary midweek when they are less busy. 

So in summary, Monday is when most Funeral Directors and Arrangers have to sift through their "new arrivals", gather information and make contact with families to arrange their initial meeting.  

What does this mean for funeral celebrants?

Tuesday is therefore the best day for celebrants to do their "passing visit" to funeral directors to have a quick chat and a catch up. 

Remember, this is not to pressurise them. 
It is not to offer biscuits or anything else that could be perceived as a bribe. 
It is the chance to network and get the arranger or FD to know you, to trust you and to understand that you are a professional who is here to stay. Making your visit on a Tuesday means you are more likely to be in the forefront of the arrangers mind when recommending a celebrant to a bereaved family later in the week. 

Most busy funeral homes will not have time to speak to you on a Monday.

Wednesday and Thursday are then normally the days most commonly booked up with meetings with Next of Kin and bereaved families. 

Friday is the most busy day for funerals and the day is often full of the comings and goings of transportation and conducting the funeral. And busy funeral arrangers are looking forward to the weekend!

At the end of the day, you can only do what you can do. However, it is advised that you plan into your diary when you are making 3 or 4 "passing visits" to Funeral Directors you have already had an appointment with to introduce yourself. 

For many, if you don't put it in your diary, it wont happen. If you are worried and wondering why you are not getting many funeral bookings and you are not making regular "passing visits", then you have just answered your own question. 

If you have a choice...make it Tuesday.
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