Regardless of the profession or industry that you find yourself in, it’s important to set and track goals to measure performance.

KPIs, otherwise known as key performance indicators, provide critical insights into your business’s success. They inform you of your current strengths and opportunities for improvement to focus your efforts on.

Here are 5 key KPIs that your funeral home should be tracking to make sure that you’re successful for years to come.

Annual Case Volume

Be sure to track how many cases your locations are managing per year, otherwise known as annual case volume. This provides insight into market fluctuations, population changes, and new consumer trends and demands. If your case volume is increasing or decreasing, it’s important to ask why.

If your ACV is increasing, you should consider:

• If you need to hire more employees to meet growing demand
• If your data management software pricing is going to increase with larger case volume
• If there are certain levers that you’re pulling (Facebook Ads, reviews, etc.) that are contributing to the increase

If your ACV is decreasing, you should consider:

• If there are new competitors in the area that you need to account for
• If there are new services that you need to be providing to families
• If there are new marketing channels that you should explore to educate communities on the value of funeral services

If you’re looking for a conservative benchmark, the NFDA estimates that the average NFDA-member funeral home serves 113 families per year. Based on 2021’s historical deaths and how many funeral homes operate in the United States, the average case-to-funeral-home ratio estimates to be around 146 cases per year.

Annual Pre-Need Cases

If you’re a funeral home owner or manage multiple locations, you know that pre-need cases are a revenue stream that your team needs to continue to focus on – otherwise known as annual pre-need cases. For that reason, be sure to keep track of how many pre-need arrangements you’re able to generate on an annual basis, and measure the median APNC.

If you’ve identified that this is an area where your funeral home could improve, brainstorm new and creative strategies to promote your pre-need services so you can help more families.

Revenue Per Service

While families are at the forefront of your ‘why’ as a funeral home, we cannot provide services to families if we aren’t paid for our services. For that reason, we also have to ensure that the funeral home is profitable. For that reason, you should pay close attention to your RPS, revenue per service.

What is the median value of each contract your funeral home generates? We recommend that you set a baseline goal for each type of service (traditional burial, direct cremation, etc.) and explore ways that you can work on increasing your funeral home’s revenue per service.

Some simple revenue streams that your funeral home could look at exploring include:

• Offering more personalized keepsake options to families
• Offering funeral live streaming options to families
• Offering to take care of aftercare for families
• And much more

Customer Satisfaction Rating

After every service, you can send a survey to families that can be filled out with real-time insights. You can create this survey using free options like Google Forms or Survey Planet. You should include one question that asks customers how satisfied they are with your services, from 1-10. This KPI is also known as your customer satisfaction rating.

Track this data over time, and pair it with open-ended questions that allow families to submit new ideas on how your funeral home can improve. This KPI helps you quickly identify patterns that contribute to higher ratings or lower ratings.

From there, your team can brainstorm new opportunities for improvement and new ideas that help take your business to the next level.

Employee Turnover Rate

As a business owner, it’s important for you to provide your staff with ample support and development opportunities. Otherwise, you may face high employee turnover and staff shortages. Because of this, your funeral home ought to measure your employee turnover rate.

In order to calculate your turnover rate, simply divide the total number of employees who have left per year by your average number of employees in a year. Then multiply that number by 100 to find your correct percentage.

A turnover rate between 10% to 15% is considered healthy for small firms. Here are some ideas to help with your staff turnover rate:

• Offer modern tools and funeral software for your employees to use
• Provide enough support to prevent employee burnout
• Welcome new ideas for different generations of funeral service employees
• Implement a small employee recognition program

Reach Your Goals With Gather

Goal setting for funeral homes is vital to success. At Gather, we love funeral directors. We’re committed to making life easier for both you and the families you serve. We offer the following solutions for funeral homes, crematories and trade businesses of any size:

• Case Management Software
• QR Body Tracking System (and Certification Course)
• Custom Funeral Home Website Design
• Funeral Live Streaming Setup

Schedule a free demo with our team today and see how you can make funeral home management easier for everyone involved.