Great Ideas from Great Funeral Homes

Over the past several years, I’ve had in-depth conversations with 100s of funeral home owners, yet I still learn something new from almost every interaction. This week, I interviewed a dozen highly rated funeral homes to learn about what they are focusing on right now. Some of these funeral homes have been serving their communities for over a century, now in their fifth generation of family ownership, while others are just a few years old, still led by their original founders. Therefore, there are ideas here that can hopefully benefit funeral homes of all sizes and ages.

I’ll start this article by explaining the common focuses and ideas that I heard in most of my interviews, and then I’ll touch on something unique from each funeral home.

The 3 Most Common Focuses I Heard

When I asked these funeral home owners what they are focusing on right now, there were 3 answers that I heard almost every time. In no particular order they were (1) offering unorthodox services, (2) providing deep personalization, and (3) being different.

By offering unorthodox services, I don’t necessarily mean things like deep sea burials or alkaline hydrolysis; I mean providing ways for families to come together to remember and celebrate their loved ones in non-traditional ways. For example, several of the owners that I spoke with have renovated their funeral homes to be more like event spaces with bars or areas where families can gather together over a catered meal. A common line that these funeral directors shared with me is that families often come in and immediately say that they don’t want a service. When asked why they don’t want a service, most of the time the families go on to explain that they don’t want a solemn service that follows customs or religious traditions that they don’t affiliate with. When the families learn that they have options to have a more casual gathering, similar to a wedding reception or a family reunion dinner, they are often surprised, but very interested.

These wonderful funeral home owners went on to explain that often these “reception-like” gatherings naturally transition into informal services where family members and friends share stories of their loved one’s life, resulting in many tears, but also laughter as they celebrate their life. A common concern that I heard from the directors is that simply cremating a loved one and putting the urn in a closet while opting out of any kind of service, gathering, or celebration makes the healing process so much harder. They expressed that these more casual “reception-like” services are a great way for families who don’t want a traditional service to gather together and begin their healing process.

The next common focus I heard was providing deep personalization for every service. Now I think we all understand what a deeply personalized service might look like, but I want to touch on how these funeral directors have been able to consistently deliver personalized services that touch the families in a meaningful way. According to them, it all comes down to really getting to understand and know each descendant at a deep level before even beginning any kind of arrangements or plans. These directors explained to me that this process of asking the families about their loved one’s life and interests not only helps them know how to provide a better service, but that it is also an important step in the family’s healing process as it gives them time to share and reflect on the positive aspects of the person’s life.

The final common focus is being different. Many of the funeral homes are already different by offering unorthodox services and providing deep personalization but many of them go beyond that in ways that are unique to them. I’ll touch on some of these examples below.

Great Ideas From Each Funeral Home

Michael Turch - Mountcastle Turch Funeral Home & Crematory (Woodbridge, VA)

Michael is the owner of several successful funeral homes and crematory brands in Virginia and has an awesome story of starting as the car washer and lawn mower and then making his way up to owner. One thing he is focused on right now is providing a comfortable place for families to find closure as they witness a loved one’s cremation. He’s built a new modern facility that allows families to witness a cremation in a clean environment rather than going to a crematory in a place like a garage or industrial park. The other thing he is focused on is creating a way for families to have immersive services. He renovated one of his chapels to include multiple projectors that display scenes and videos of the descendant’s life on every wall of the chapel creating a powerful environment.

Matt Hollebeek & Lee Karelse - Heritage Life Story Funeral Homes (Grand Rapids, MI)

I’ve met hundreds of second or third generation funeral home owners, but Matt and Lee are the first ones I’ve met (that I’m aware of) that are multigenerational from different families in the same funeral home. Matt and Lee’s fathers used to be business partners and have both passed the business down to their sons, Matt and Lee. Matt and Lee put a big emphasis on telling the full life story of every descendant they serve. They do this so well that they often have people come up to them at services saying things such as, “it seems like you and {name of deceased} go way back, how long have you known them”. When in reality they never met them, but rather took the time with the family to deeply understand who they were serving. They’re also added a bar/beverage center right in their visitation room to allow people to gather in ways they feel more comfortable with.

Ziyad Zakaria - Lighthouse Family Mortuary (Greeley, CO)

Ziyad (Zach) shared 2 ideas with me that I thought were quite unique and inspiring. The first one is that his funeral home has what they call the “Lighthouse Family Fund”. It’s a fund that families from the community contribute too to cover the expenses of burying children. Zach and his team never charge to take care of children or use their facilities, but the fund goes toward cemetery expenses such as vaults and plots. This is Lighthouse Family Mortuary’s way of giving to the community and families readily participate in it. The second idea is that the funeral home makes yearly payments to their local grief center so the families they serve can receive free counseling from the therapists at the center.

Terrance Stafford - Stafford & Simon Family Funeral Home (Orlando, FL)

Terrance and his brother opened their first funeral home in 2023 and have grown so quickly that they opened their second location in December 2024. Terrance and his team focus on being themselves and not being afraid to show their personality. In addition to always staying true to who they are, they’re focusing on growing their brand by being different. For example, their fleet of vehicles are all white with Tiffany blue tops so when they drive through town, everyone knows that it is Stafford & Sons.

Angela Torres - Lasting Impressions Funerals & Cremations (North Richland Hills, TX)

Angela was drawn to the industry after seeing how good her grandmother (that Angela cared for for 17 years) looked at her funeral; however, at the beginning, no one supported Angela getting into the industry. Since starting out on her own, Angela has built a successful business but is currently focused on continuing to grow it. Her city is growing, but so are the amount of competitors in the area so she is focused on reaching the families in her community in meaningful and effective ways.

Twyla Boudreaux - Boudreaux Family Mortuary (Houston, TX)

Twyla and the Boudreaux family are focused on making sure that individuals are prepared for their time of passing so they can be properly honored and celebrated. Twyla has seen that families have a hard time affording end of life services so she is focused on helping families in her community understand life insurance and pre-need options.

Charles Dannel - Dannel Funeral Home and Crematory (Sherman, TX)

Much like the 3 most important things to look for in real estate are location, location, location, Charles Dannel and his team say that the three most important things for them to focus on are service, service, service. They’ve also recently turned their funeral home into more of an event center which has allowed them to serve families in ways that they previously couldn’t. For example, one of their families chose to have a large catered dinner in their event space and there was so much energy and joy in celebrating their loved one that they could hear the family from every corner of the funeral home.

Marcus Bankhead - Urban Undertakers of Saint Louis (St. Louis, MS)

Marcus’s funeral home had an interesting start - Marcus’s grandfather passed away less than 30 minutes after Marcus officially received his establishment’s license so his grandfather was his first call. His business has since grown over the past 3 years because they provide individualized service and focus on being different. For example, they’ve found that some families feel more comfortable making arrangements in public places so they give their families options to meet in a co-working space or in private arrangement rooms at their funeral home.

Michael Lanza - Provenzano Lanza Funeral Home (New York City, NY)

Michael and his family focus on being kind and having empathy. They believe that if they do that, they will always have families to serve. They take great pride in being able to serve families through their profession, however, they recognize that there is a shortage of people entering the industry. When asked if he had anything else to add to the conversation, Michael added that he would like to encourage people to come and join the profession.

Tyler Anderson - Ganderson Brothers Mortuary (Lake Mary, FL)

Tyler and his family are focused on making their funeral home more than just a place of death. They are focused on making it a part of the community that people can come to outside of times of losing a loved one. For example, every Tuesday night they have a dance class in their funeral home and they regularly host Bible study and grief counseling as well.

Earl Wendt - Wendt Funeral Home (Moline, IL)

Earl’s family has been in the funeral industry since the mid-1800s and they are one of the oldest funeral homes in the nation. Earl and his team are now focused on adapting to the cremation market and finding ways to keep things simple and their overhead low while providing quality service to their families.

Navaz Jasavala - Lodi Funeral Home (Lodi, CA)

Navaz shared a process they are implementing that I thought was very wise. They noticed that cremations, especially direct cremations, can feel more like a transaction and less sensitive to the same grief all clients share. They've evolved the way that they release the urn by using a private room set up with simple flowers, candles, and soft lighting. When a family comes to receive their loved one, instead of just passing the urn over a desk, the director leads the family into the room and gives them the opportunity to spend some time with their loved one before they take the urn home. It gives families the air of a private memorial and conveys to them the level of care and effort the funeral home makes, regardless of the services they chose.

In summary, most funeral homes I interviewed are focused on (1) offering unorthodox services, (2) providing deep personalization, and (3) being different. However, each funeral home has its own way of being different and connecting with their families.

I hope that some of these ideas that your peers have shared caught your attention and are ones that you can begin implementing at your funeral home.