APSE Cems and Crems Seminar 2015 - Creating a Future Service - Alan Sheldon
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Looking at the future of Cemeteries and Crematoria local government frontline services.
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APSE Cems and Crems Seminar 2015 - Creating a Future Service - Alan Sheldon
- 1. Creating a Future Service Alan Sheldon Bereavement Services Manager 17 April 2015
- 2. What is a ‘GOOD’ service?? Who will tell me?? Why should I Listen??
- 3. Are we a business? Are we a service? We are currently a politically sensitive business in the service industry!
- 4. Lets take Dacorum Borough Council as an example? Population of Dacorum Borough is 144,847 The Borough had 1,243 deaths in 2013 4 Cemeteries totalling 37 Acres A new cemetery at master planning stage 25 acres Member of Cremation Board West Herts Crematorium Our customers are telling us that they are happy but we only carried out 309 full earth and cremated remains burials in 2013! So what happened to the other 900ish?
- 5. What do we offer We looked at our four main areas of service delivery • Burial • Cremation • Memorialisation • Bereavement Care
- 6. Who are our customers? Who are our service users • Funeral Directors • Memorial Masons • The Bereaved • Clergy What about • Faith Groups • Bereavement Care Organisations • Hospitals • Care Homes • Other Authorities • Private Sector • Management Services • Your local Community
- 7. What have our customers said • Service is good in general • Compared well with some of our competitors • Compared poorly with some of our competitors • Increased access to service • Communication not good • Extend burial times • Allow mounding of graves in Muslim section • Allow larger memorials • Provide lined graves • Limited range of services • Improve use of Chapels
- 8. • Engage with our customers • What do we do with that feed back • Identify the customers who are not using our services and ask why? • Use that data to adapt and encourage them in • Advertise our services • Self monitor (Performance Management) • Benchmark (think about national and industry standards) • Report your findings as part of future planning How do we know if our service is good?
- 9. Business Plan or Service Strategy • Business Plan In its simplest form, a business plan is a guide—a roadmap for your business that outlines goals and details how you plan to achieve those goals. Doesn’t have to be a long, formal document, simple achievable goals with set milestones is often easier to embed. • Service Strategy I would prefer to call this a Customer Service Strategy. Fortune magazine defines service strategy as “knowing exactly which customers you want to serve and figuring out what kind of service will loosen their purse strings.” Do we need a business plan or business strategy
- 10. How do we get from GOOD to GREAT? • Review our administration process • Review our business plan • Review our customer service strategy • Improve our offer • Improve access for user groups • Improve our communication processes • Market our services • Increase our range of services • Increase our income • Better use of chapels This is a long term project which all the team must buy into for it to work
- 11. Developing A High Performance Bereavement Service Delivering change what are the challenges • How do we implement these improvements? • How can we fund the improvements? • How could embed continual improvement into the organisation? • What does the future of our service look like?
- 12. What is the future for DBC Bereavement Services • Develop areas for new burial. • Develop more user friendly processes. • Rebrand and market our new improved services. • Distribute information to a wider group. • Encourage the Cremated Remains customer back to Dacorum. • Green Flag Awards. • Develop Relationship with NHS Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group. • Be active part of the national drive to continually improve burial and cremation services in the UK.
- 13. Issues for the future • Lack of Burial Space • Poor digital management system • Poor maps of cemeteries an grave • Customer Relationship Management • Behavioural Change • Political resistance to development • The ‘weakest link’ ?? • Investment options • Funeral Poverty – Public Health Graves • Trading and charging – can we increase our income • Reuse of graves • Projected increase in death rate • Get away from our ‘Always done it like that’ culture
- 14. What does GOOD look like in five years time? No one knows!!!!!!!!! What will DBC be doing? • Continually develop our customer relationship • Better accessibility and communication • Develop our services to reflect the needs of the bereaved Things to keep and eye on • Funeral Poverty • Projected increase in death rate are you ready?? • Pet funerals • Trading and charging • Grave Re use • Lack of Burial space
- 15. Can we transform our bereavement service from good to great? We will look after our customers, before some else does it for us! We are committed to delivering a quality Bereavement Care Service.
- 16. A thinking point for the future Funeral Poverty Should the state pay for funerals?? I leave you with a simple calculation • There were 1243 deaths registered in DBC in 2013 (ONS) • There are just over 50,000 households in DBC (DBC) • He average cost of a funeral is £3,551.00 (Royal London – Are we losing the plot) • Total cost to supply funerals just over £4.4 million • The affect on the council tax to fund this would be, • £88.28 per year • £7.36 per month • £0.24 per day
- 17. Thank You Alan Sheldon (AICCM) Bereavement Services Manager Woodwells Cemetery Buncefield Lane Hemel Hempstead HP2 7HY 01442 228066 07770 832327 alan.sheldon@dacorum.gov.uk cemeteries@dacorum.gov.uk
Editor's Notes
- Or should this read Creating a service with a future
- Ask the audience to give their opinion of a good service? Ask how they performance manage their cemeteries? I am an experienced officer, I know what is good and bad in this service.
- Service What defines a service (ask audience)? Noun - the action of helping or doing work for someone Verb - perform routine maintenance or repair work on (a vehicle or machine). Can we charge for a service? Business What defines a business commercial activity. Can we charge We are being asked by central government to be more entrepreneurial in our approach. Should we compete in the wider market place.
- We know that the cremation was the favored option Why don’t they bring their cremated remains back to the borough A local competitor has 7000 roses so the market is there, we have none?? £210 for 10 years £147,000 per annum £1,470,000 every 10 years
- Burial Full Body, Woodland (one cem), Muslim (one cem) C/R Burial (with a flat plaque) Family plots (one cem) selling really well Mem Leather plaque system in one chapel (wasn’t in fees and charges) Trees (only new trees offered in one area) No marketing either on line or paper based B/C No access to leaflets Staff had limited knowledge of the care and assistance available in the area Service had no identity No quiet room
- Business Plan Service strategy What services are required to support the business goals or business plan.
- Greater range of services Gardens of Remembrance, above ground chambers for C/R, communal benches, memorial walls, woodland C/R section, Improve comms Handbooks, grave owners, memorial masons, funeral directors, memorial brochure, online booking and payment, Improved signage, ISO CRM
- Lack of Burial Space We have recently purchased 29 acres for new cemetery, we need 52 acres to facilitate the current burial rate for the current life expectancy of the current population Digital Management System Our current digital management system is not fully operational and support from the company has been very poor The whole system will be reviewed and findings handed to our procurement and legal sections to ensure that the contract obligations have not been breached on either side. Poor maps Our current maps in some cases date back over 100 years and no updates have been added to ensure that they reflect what is on ‘or in the’ ground CRM As an industry we don’t follow up sales, as for customer feedback, keep in regular contact with our customers. We sell them a grave and then don’t speak to them until we have to Behavioural change This is not only with our own teams but with user groups and the bereaved, this will be aided by better communication and information Political resistance Politicians are looking for returns on investment be that social or economical so it is important to demonstrate how this will benefit one or the other or better still both The weakest link You can only develop in a way which meets with the capacity and capabilities of you business and its user groups, ie no point in having E-booking if some of your FDs don’t have access to computers Investment Options Consider all investment options,
- I’m not saying that this is a solution I am saying that we should consider all options. Jews have a similar system funded through the synagogues and so do the Muslim burial councils.