Cremation rates are rising, tech is lagging, and staffing shortages are growing. See how funeral homes must adapt to survive.
A month ago, I started researching funeral homes and the death care industry. Before this, my experience with funeral homes was pretty limited—I had only attended two services I was old enough to remember, neither of which I had any hand in organizing.
I’m a young millennial—individualistic, money-conscious, and unsure of my life plans, let alone any death plans. Like many in my generation, I’m terrified of making phone calls. In other words, I’m an old-school funeral director’s worst nightmare. I preface this by acknowledging that there’s still much I have to learn about the death care industry. But as a human, I am inherently a future consumer of funeral home services, and I am not alone in my preferences. Besides millennials, Gen Xers and even the Boomers are changing ideologies and behaviors when it comes to death care services.
With that in mind, here are the four things that surprised me the most after a month of research—and why they matter.
Funeral directors do it all
I recently interviewed a funeral director to try to get a better understanding of the business from an insider perspective. At 10 a.m., I logged onto Zoom. My interviewee joined the call from his car—he had just left a family's home after discussing service options. Halfway through our interview and now seated at his office desk, he started folding a large stack of thank you cards for a different family while answering my questions. After our meeting, he immediately had to leave to personally deliver some cremation remains to yet another family.
Before this research, I never made a habit of thinking about funeral directors. If you had asked me, I would have assumed they mainly met with families, explained their options, and coordinated services. The mental and emotional toll of caring for grieving families certainly seemed like a full-time job in itself.
Now, I think about funeral directors almost daily, and it’s apparent that in between caring for grieving families, funeral directors juggle an overwhelming range of responsibilities. They personally retrieve the deceased and transport them to the funeral home, manage marketing efforts, hire staff, maintain websites, handle accounting, and so much more.
Funeral directors are therapists, event planners, businesspeople, IT support, customer service reps, and sales people all in one.
When I asked what he needed most, his answer was clear: time. Funeral directors work an average of 50 to 60 hours per week, often being on call 24/7. 50% of funeral directors quit within 5 years, with burnout cited as a major reason. Staffing shortages are now one of the biggest challenges funeral homes face—a problem that will only worsen if the industry doesn’t adapt.
Cremation is on the rise—and funeral directors are worried
Cremation has skyrocketed from 5% in 1972 to 61% in 2023, and the trend isn’t stopping. This may be a small win for Earth, but for those who have spent generations caring for families through traditional funeral services, it’s a major financial blow. Direct cremations bring in 62% less revenue than traditional burials, creating a real threat to the industry's traditional business model.
The good news? Funeral homes that adapt can still thrive. While a direct cremation has historically been seen as a low cost option for customers and perhaps a drag on funeral homes, 77% of cremation families still want some kind of memorial event for their loved one, yet nearly half of funeral homes don’t offer services for them. That means funeral homes are actively turning away business.
Even more concerning? There’s a massive gap between what funeral directors think families know about cremation memorialization—and what they actually know. Funeral directors assume nearly all families understand their options, but studies show that only half of consumers do. This disconnect means many families may be missing out on meaningful ways to honor their loved ones simply because they were never fully informed.
With cremation rates already exceeding 80% in some states (e.g., Nevada, Washington), funeral homes must rethink their approach. Those that bridge the education gap and offer personalized cremation services will not only survive—they’ll provide greater value to grieving families.
Most funeral homes don’t provide pricing online
As I dug deeper into the industry, I was surprised by how difficult it was to get even the most basic information—starting with pricing. When I first tried researching funeral costs, I assumed I could just check funeral home websites. But most didn’t list prices at all.
This lack of transparency caught me off guard. If a restaurant lists its fish of the day as “Market Price,” I usually just pick something else. Why? Because I don’t want to ask and feel awkward saying no if it’s too expensive. The same logic applies here. Consumers expect to compare prices easily before making a decision. When they can’t, it creates frustration and mistrust.
Repeated studies have shown that consumers have a low level of trust in the funeral profession: only 55% of consumers rate the profession as an honest one, a similar rate to other little trusted institutions like government agencies, auto dealers and internet providers. Some funeral homes may fear that posting prices online may end up driving prices down and hurting business over time, but other studies have found that there is no meaningful correlation between online pricing transparency and funeral prices across the US.
I’m not alone in expecting price transparency. 90% of consumers expect to be able to view prices online, yet as of a 2022 study, only 18% of funeral homes list full prices online. With the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) considering new regulations requiring online price transparency, change may soon be mandatory. Those who embrace transparency now will build stronger relationships with modern consumers.
Funeral home technology is far behind the times
Ironically, just a few weeks into my research on the funeral industry, my grandmother died. I had already learned that funeral homes tend to lag in adopting new technology, but experiencing it firsthand only reinforced that fact.
The ceremony was beautiful. It was a Buddhist service that involved a group of monks chanting in Vietnamese with the family kneeling and bowing, sometimes with incense and sometimes with food as offerings. Afterward, my uncle discovered that the camera he had set up to record had run out of battery. My aunt turned to me, hoping my phone had captured a video—but I had only set it up for a FaceTime call for my COVID-ridden father to attend virtually, and it hadn’t been recorded.
This situation could have been avoided had the funeral home offered us livestreaming and digital memorial options. During COVID-19, the percentage of consumers expecting live-streamed funerals doubled from 25% to nearly 50%, yet many funeral homes still don’t offer it.
One of the top-selling add-ons for funeral services is a memorial DVD—a simple photo slideshow set to music. The problem? Almost no one owns a DVD player anymore. I certainly don’t. My parents do, but they haven’t used it in the last decade.
People want digital keepsakes of their loved ones, and they’re even willing to buy DVDs despite the decline of physical media. But this won’t last forever. If Netflix hadn’t pivoted to streaming in 2007, it might have suffered the same fate as Blockbuster or RedBox. Similarly, funeral homes that embrace modern, digital memorialization and technology will remain relevant, while those that resist innovation risk fading into irrelevance.
The Future of the Funeral Industry
The funeral industry stands at a crossroads. As consumer expectations evolve, so must the services that help us honor and remember our loved ones. The rise of cremation, demand for transparency, and need for digital solutions aren’t just trends—they’re reflections of a deeper shift in how we process grief and celebrate life. Funeral homes that embrace this change will not only survive but will continue to provide the comfort and connection that grieving families seek.
Death is inevitable, but the way we commemorate it is ours to shape. The question is: will the industry rise to the occasion?
Tell Us What You Think
We’re always looking to learn more about the funeral industry—so we want to hear from you!
Funeral professionals: How are you adapting to evolving consumer needs? What do you wish tech companies and outsiders understood about your business? What challenges are you looking for solutions for?
Consumers: What changes do you want to see in funeral homes? What’s the most valuable thing a funeral home can offer you?
Drop your thoughts in the comments or reach out—we’d love to hear from you!