2023 Agenda

Every business has long-term goals. To achieve those goals, two things need to happen: retain your key employees and have an exit strategy. Entrepreneurs have built their businesses through hard work and sacrifice. These owners deserve a great exit package, and a great exit package means knowing what your business is worth. This presentation will focus on rewarding key employees as well as price and common business valuation mistakes. (1 CE hour)

Prepare your firm for online pricing, the new normal. Learn how to implement online pricing and what benefits transparency has to your firm. Explore how you can compete in areas other than just price. If you aren’t listing your prices online now, join us to learn why it’s an essential business benefit. (1 CE hour) (Translation available: Spanish)

For decades, improv comedy theatres like Second City, The Groundlings, and The Upright Citizens Brigade have offered training on how the principles of improv can relate to, and improve, business performance and customer service. Learn how you can take the basics of improv comedy and adapt them to the various scenarios funeral directors often encounter to enhance customer service, improve funeral plan execution, and help navigate unforeseen circumstances. (1 CE hour)

Have you noticed a growing number of families don’t automatically value funeral service? Building on the latest research and data, learn why consumer norms are shifting and how preneed is the best way to innovate the customer journey. With a focus on proactively educating and connecting with families, find out how to increase your reach and build lasting brand awareness with preneed experiences that are nothing short of remarkable. You’ll discover why consistently engaging today’s customers will transform how they start experiencing your funeral home. (1 CE hour)

Helping families feel comfortable with the idea of interacting with a funeral service professional begins with that professional’s ability to connect. The need to ease anxiety and discover what each family values and how family members want to honor the life of their loved one can only be met through first building trust. When a high level of trust is achieved, that connection will open the doors for understanding bereaved families’ unique needs and desires for providing care and memorialization for their deceased loved one.   This workshop reinforces how to understand what families need from funeral service professionals, how to better build trust with families, and what can be done to develop a customized approach for relating to families. (1 CE hour)

The generational transition is happening with baby boomers approaching 75. Millennials are moving into the primary planner role, and they make purchasing decisions differently than their parents. Unlike previous generations, they’re forming an opinion before stepping foot into your funeral home: from visiting your website, reading Google reviews, and scanning your social media profiles. Your funeral home is perfectly curated to create a welcoming and safe environment, but without the proper online presence, you may never be given the opportunity to show the next generation of planners what makes you unique. (1 CE hour)

When a child dies, the need for support for both the family and the community is overwhelming. It does, however, provide an opportunity for funeral service to shine in a way that will be remembered forever. Join us as we discuss creative and innovative ways that your funeral home can reach out to community partners such as hospices, healthcare systems, schools, grief centers to create awareness and provide support following the death of a child. (1 CE hour)

Danny will take the audience to a place of laughter, reflection, and learning as he works the audience to participate in the session. Using a question and answer “live interview” format with selected audience members, Danny and Alan will facilitate a discussion on a variety of topics, including recruitment and retention, tips to increase sales volume and cash flow, merchandising, caseloads and staffing, and motivational leadership. Our role as leaders is not to provide information…it is to facilitate transformation. (1 CE hour)

With changes to the FTC’s Funeral Rule looming, now’s the best time to reevaluate your internet presence. How can you best prepare to meet (and exceed) the potential new requirements on your website? And how can you support your digital visitors while standing out among the other homes in your area? Afterword has analyzed over 14,000 funeral home websites across America, and in this data-driven talk, we’ll present our insights on how you can create the best experience for your visitors. From website layouts to button placement, GPL formats to featured testimonials, and SEO to privacy guidelines, we’ll share case studies and specific recommendations you can follow. Discover how you and your business can go beyond the FTC Rule requirements, help families see what makes your home unique before they ever visit in person, and increase your chances at winning new families’ business. (1 CE hour) (Translation available: Spanish)

Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) was legalized in Washington State in 2019. This unprecedented change in law has been a point of concern and contention within the industry. As licensed funeral professionals, we were not given access to research or training. Still, we felt that it was our responsibility to be well informed on this new disposition method. Our team abandoned tradition and comfort for innovation and uncertainty out of complete necessity. Return Home began conducting research in January 2019 and has formulated a process that can be explained with complete transparency. Becoming properly informed on NOR is vital to ensure full service for families and continued education as new states pass legislation permitting NOR.

As professional embalmers, we must work diligently to continue learning from our personal experiences, and to discover techniques and tricks of the trade from others. Discover 50 helpful hints that are tried and true that will refresh your mind and improve your knowledge and skill set in the prep room. (1 CE hour) (Translation available: Spanish)

Funeral Directors already fulfill some of the most important recording and reporting responsibilities in the U.S. National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), by faithfully completing the Death Certificate. Overall, procedures for recording decedents’ demographic characteristics are working well. But there is room for improvement. The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics studies the degree of accuracy of race assignments in national mortality data. Among whites and blacks, less than 1 percent of decedents had incorrect race assignment. Among Asian Americans, the rate of incorrect race assignment has improved, from 7 percent to less than 3 percent. But among Native Americans, that rate remains unsustainably high, at 40 percent. How can the NVSS collaborate with Funeral Directors to improve that rate? (1 CE hour)

The typical funeral home in the United States is owned and/or operated by an individual of the Baby Boomer or early Generation X age range. The up-and-coming Millennial generation, which will soon become the successors in these businesses, act and operate very differently and are changing how businesses operate and are carving new paths in almost every industry, including deathcare. Owners and managers are now getting their first experience with the newest generation entering the workforce, Generation Z, which has vast differences from Millennials. Discover tools and tips for how to motivate and get the most productivity out of your younger staffers, while dispelling misconceptions and falsehoods about the younger generations. (1 CE hour)

PAWS Pathway is our life path through pet loss where our pets have imprinted on our hearts with their paw prints, kisses, and cuddles, and we honor their memories through our future words/actions. This is a personalized way of going through pet loss that honors the human-bond and always embraces your special bond with your pet, while learning to acknowledge and grow through your grief. PAWS Pathway can be utilized through both Anticipatory Pet Grief and Pet Loss and helps one feel supported and embraced among others in a disenfranchised society. We’ll focus on the common obstacles of pet loss and help others find ways to help with their emotional and physical pain, including discussing anticipatory grief and understanding your pet’s quality of life. (1 CE hour)

The decisions made by federal legislators and regulators in Washington DC impact your business every day. It is vital that NFDA remain the strongest voice for you, your business, the funeral profession, and the families we serve. Having a strong advocate keeping up with the ever-changing federal legislative and regulatory landscape and how it impacts your business and profession is vital to your success. Join NFDA’s federal lobbyist for a comprehensive review of federal legislative and regulatory issues facing funeral service today that will dictate the viability of your business and the funeral profession. (1 CE hour)