Funeral directors and families are far more digitally aware than at the beginning of the pandemic, and huge numbers of families search online for a local funeral director. Declan Maguire explains how the SAIF Digital programme is helping Independents meet the needs of increasingly online customers.
Funeral directors and families are far more digitally aware than at the beginning of the pandemic, and huge numbers of families search online for a local funeral director. Declan Maguire explains how the SAIF Digital programme is helping Independents meet the needs of increasingly online customers.
Malcolm Flanders [00:00:04] Welcome to the Partnership Podcast. The latest SAIF education day opened with Declan Maguire, Scottish SAIF's second vice president, introducing SAIF Digital as a pilot programme to support independents with all aspects of online engagement. Today we'll be talking to Declan about how the programme is progressing, and the wider importance of digital support and the work you do as independent funeral directors. We'll look at the guidance and advice available at a time when what you do digitally, and online, impacts more families than ever before.
Malcolm Flanders [00:00:39] So Dec, nice to see you. How are you? And Happy New Year, by the way.
Declan Maguire [00:00:43] And to you and it's great to be back, Malcolm.
Malcolm Flanders [00:00:46] Excellent. Right, now look, I was there at education day, when you introduced SAIF Digital as a pilot down in Leicester. Could you explain it for our listeners, and update us on how it's progressed since November?
Declan Maguire [00:00:59] Sure. I think we could probably go back to how we started the whole process, and I think it was last July, and we started to look at where the association or society should be, moving forward, especially with regulation, and also to probably look at the changes and challenges that Covid brought to the profession. And one of the key areas that we found, that we haven't really got to addressing yet, is supporting our members in their marketing, their digital marketing, and specifically how to arrest the decline of business, or to drive growth in their business.
Declan Maguire [00:01:34] And so we decided that the best thing to do was to bring forward a kind of a pilot programme, and take a number of funeral directors, and we've started with 20, although demand after the education day went through the roof. So, the number of people who are waiting to come in, and be enrolled, and have an audit done has increased significantly. But we wanted to test it out, and look at the process that we go through when we are working with the members, and how we can identify their challenges when it comes to digital engagement, and also look at what services and supports we can put in place to help them through that journey.
Malcolm Flanders [00:02:12] I'm with you. So tell me, can you do this online, or do you need to go and visit the branch physically?
Declan Maguire [00:02:17] No, we can do it online. It was important for the test, I wanted to get across at least 50% of those people who had enrolled in it. I've managed to do that, which has been great. Because it's important we do sit, and have the conversation, and understand where their challenges are, in terms of time, is it a finance thing or, is it just an understanding of how social works, or how digital works?
Declan Maguire [00:02:39] And that goes across so many different aspects of the kind of digital marketing. It can include the website, search engine optimisation, social media, pay per click. There are so many areas. So it was really good to understand where they were at, what level they were at, and then build a programme that could work with somebody who has no digital presence, really, they might not even have a website, or a Facebook account, up to those who are quite... I've seen some that are very competent, very on top of things, who do research, the latest information, but they might need a source of expertise, that doesn't really exist at the moment. And we wanted to create that.
Malcolm Flanders [00:03:22] Excellent. Okay, thanks. So here we are, middle of January, and we know we've got the SAIF AGM coming up in the spring, so can you describe SAIF Digital's planned next steps then? Where do you go from here?
Declan Maguire [00:03:34] Well, we're now halfway through the audit stage, and essentially what that means is, we will audit the business. We'll go through every single aspect of their digital presence. And we're, I think, around about 50% through now. We've gone through audits with various members, and we're starting to help them make the changes they need to make to their online presence, to engage better with customers.
Declan Maguire [00:03:54] The next stage is obviously to complete that. And on, I think it's the 17th to the 20th of March, we have our first SAIF AGM in two years, which is very exciting. And myself, and Karen Trickett from Golden Charter, will be launching SAIF Digital to the full membership, which is incredibly exciting, and I'm very proud that we've got to this stage, with a couple of bumps in the road, but that was always to be expected, and that was the purpose of the kind of pilot period was to say, "okay, we need to shake out the flaws and get this running smoothly." So, the AGM will be an exciting, exciting time.
Malcolm Flanders [00:04:32] Excellent. Looking forward to it. So more broadly, digital can mean different things to different businesses. What do you think are the main ways funeral directors can benefit from digital engagement, and thinking about your own business, can you describe where you've felt it's helped you most?
Declan Maguire [00:04:48] Sure. Well, I think we've seen certainly over the years, there has been an increasing number of people who will go online to look for a funeral director. And if we look at the number of funerals, compared to the number of searches online for the term 'funeral director', it's approximately 50%. Now, that's in 2020. So, that's increased significantly. And I think we have to probably look at Covid for that, that certainly accelerated the digital activity from the consumer, towards funeral directors. And, as we see that happening, it's so much more important now than ever, that you have got a great digital presence.
Declan Maguire [00:05:27] And there's a number of ways to look at that. I think first and foremost, search engine optimisation is vital. If you're not coming up on a Google search, or a Bing search, you're not going to get the phone call. So you have to be there. You have to be present. And that's something we address first, when we're talking to, especially people within the test group, is to make some small changes. And they're small things. It doesn't take a lot to do them, but they have to know to make those changes first.
Declan Maguire [00:05:55] The next stage then is looking at the website. We look at how the website works, function wise. Is it mobile friendly? That is a big thing. A significant proportion of people search for funeral directors using their mobile phones, or their tablets. So we have to make sure that when you land on the website, it's easy to use, the contact details are clear, and also we've started to discover, as part of this process, what are people looking for when they land on the page? Because, on average, you know, it varies, but generally speaking, people don't spend too long on there. They're looking for something immediately. We need to make sure that each member has got that in their website, first and foremost.
Declan Maguire [00:06:32] The next stage is obviously social media. That's another key area, because social media, I like to think of it as it's almost a retention tool, where you've got people who have already engaged with you. If they follow you on Facebook, and they can see your updates about staff, about, say, funerals that you're doing in the area, they continue to be engaged with you, and they stay aligned with your business. And that's a really important thing to do.
Declan Maguire [00:06:57] Last, but not least, is pay per click. It's what gets you at the very top. There's always adverts at the top of every single search online. More often than not, people will see those first. So if you do invest some time in pay per click, you will see rewards in it. But again, one of the things that we did notice, there's so many different agencies, across the UK, who provide this service, but they don't really get funerals. And that's the key, they might be helping the local hairdresser, or some other businesses, but funerals are different. And I think that's something that a lot of agencies haven't really got to grips with. So, we want to say here's your central point of intelligence, the support, that we can bring to you, and help you build that presence.
Malcolm Flanders [00:07:41] Gotcha. That was excellent. Thank you. Okay, so if we can hone in on regulation, digital engagement touches on that in several ways. Of course, what independents do on their websites is very relevant to CMA price transparency rules. And for Financial Conduct Authority, the FCA, we know our own funeral director portal, mygoldencharter.co.uk, will be a key hub for those who offer our plans to do so compliantly. Would you agree that digital work is fundamental to both types of regulation?
Declan Maguire [00:08:11] Absolutely. It definitely is. I think we touched on this in our last digital podcast. We spoke about the audit trail, and the transparency process, are absolutely vital. And they keep you legal. That's the most important thing. So there is, as part of our programme, marketing is our first step in this, but we will be looking to roll out some support guides, as we have in the past as well, through the webinars, to help members make sure that they are compliant. Because the last thing we want is for something that's simple, that they should be doing, is not put in a digital process, and they keep the records that they do need to keep, in order to show that audit trail, yeah.
Malcolm Flanders [00:08:49] Got you. Thank you. So again, this is a big topic. If you were to hone in on what funeral directors should prioritise in the digital space, what would it be?
Declan Maguire [00:08:59] It's a great question, yeah. That's probably been one of the most interesting outcomes from the pilot period, is looking at what we can do. To revitalise, or to redo, someone's entire digital process, it takes time. It takes time from the funeral director, it takes time from our team to do that. So what we've decided to do is to break into two stages. We're going for the easy wins first. So the kind of changes they can make, that will have an immediate impact on their business presence online. And then we go to the slightly more tougher things. That might be a website redesign, it might be starting pay per click.
Declan Maguire [00:09:32] So I would certainly say that online presence, first and foremost, is getting your search engine optimisation running, and getting the right terms in there. And the reason behind that is that the sooner you do it, the better. Because it can take 3 to 6 months for that to get picked up by all the search engines. So the sooner we can meet those changes, the better. And we will be addressing this in the next issue of SAIFInsight, and we're going to give a couple of tips in there, as to actually going to your web designer, if you have one. If you don't, e-mail us, get in touch with us and we can help you. But we want to know what's currently there, and we want to add in some small tweaks and changes.
Declan Maguire [00:10:08] And I think one of the biggest areas that we need to address, and it is so vitally important, is the increase in direct cremation. You know, during Covid, it's increased significantly. There is no doubt about that. We need to look at how we deal with that. One of the, probably, outcomes from some of the consumer research that we've seen recently is, there is a perception from the consumer that traditional funeral directors don't provide this service. And that's just not true at all. So we need to get on top of that. And one of the ways we can is to make sure that direct cremation is part of the search engine optimisation, the metadata. The words behind the website. Because if it's not, and someone in your area types in 'direct cremation', you're not going to come up in the listings.
Declan Maguire [00:10:49] So that's one big area we want to get to first. But as I say, stage one will be the easy wins, and we'll look at some of those in SAIFInsight, and at the AGM as well. Stage two's the bigger projects. But yeah, we'll go for stage one. That's something you can do yourself, but we're always there to help.
Malcolm Flanders [00:11:07] Yeah. Okay, and just a follow up question, I was just thinking through as I was listening to you. From a business perspective, how do you personally reconcile the cost versus benefit? So, if a funeral director you're talking to is worried about the cost, how do you sell the benefits of improving his or her digital competency?
Declan Maguire [00:11:26] Yeah, yeah, that's a very good question. I get asked that quite a lot. I think there's two ways to look at it, and you can do that, you can look at analytics. And analytics is another part of our project moving down the line. As part of the pilot test, we did look at the analytics of the test group, and we started to see, probably where they were getting success in some areas, and where they were getting failure. Some of them already engaged in pay per click, and it was very clear to see, that they were getting a much higher traffic rating since they started that.
Declan Maguire [00:11:58] The question then was, was the website bringing people onto the phone? Because that's where you want them. That's how we communicate primarily. Outside of that, I don't think there's any doubt, looking at the number of searches online, if one in two funerals in the UK have searched online for a funeral director attached to it, that's where the market's going.
Declan Maguire [00:12:18] As much as we have to accept that retention is probably one of the bigger incomes for a funeral director, recommendation's important, location's important, funeral plans are important. But there's a concept I coined, some time ago, called 'floating funerals', and essentially, these are funerals that don't have a funeral director attached to them, by tradition, or by recommendation, or by location. And there's a lot of reasons for that, and we will go into that at the AGM, but those are funerals are up for grabs. So if you're not investing in your digital web presence, then you're not in the running to get them.
Malcolm Flanders [00:12:57] Got you. Okay, thank you. All right, now, finally, if a funeral director is looking for advice, or guidance, on these issues, where would you suggest they go?
Declan Maguire [00:13:05] I think first and foremost is saifdigital.co.uk. There's a landing page that we've set up, with a form, and it's an enrolment form. They can just fill in the form, and we'll get in touch with them. It's as simple as that. If they want to e-mail us, they can get us at info@saifdigital.co.uk. Or, Slack, of course. Slack's been a big project in the digital space in the last 12 months, and it's going very well, which is great. They can contact us there. They can just go on and search for 'SAIF Digital', and we'll have a couple of people on there, who'll pop up, and they can have a chat online.
Malcolm Flanders [00:13:39] Fantastic. Dec, thank you ever so much, and we look forward to seeing you and Karen on stage at the SAIF AGM in March. Well done, sir, nice to see you.
Declan Maguire [00:13:49] Super, thanks Malcolm.
Malcolm Flanders [00:13:55] Thank you for listening to the Partnership Podcast. All of our previous episodes are available online at goldencharter.buzzsprout.com, including the four part FCA regulation mini-series that closed out 2021. You can also find us on a range of podcast apps, and you can contact me directly if you have anything to contribute, or suggest, at malcolm.flanders@goldencharter.co.uk. Thanks again and I'll talk to you next time on the Partnership Podcast.