This position provides customer service in all areas of helping client families achieve customer satisfaction in all aspects of the services and goods offered to the public by the funeral home/cemetery. The funeral director strives for a zero complaint rate by providing exemplary personalized services at a difficult time. The funeral director counsels, and hence implements the choices concerning funeral/disposition options made by the family regarding all aspects of death care. The funeral director is the primary contact with a client family and interacts with the family to fulfill their death care needs. THIS POSITION IS ONE OF PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY AND DEPENDABILITY. The funeral director is ultimately responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction and fulfilling the full range of needs is minimally met and routinely exceeded. This position also requires people who establish a strong personal and business relationship with customers. EVERY POTENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR THIS POSITION MUST BE EITHER A DUAL LICENSED FUNERAL DIRECTOR AND EMBALMER, AND HAS GRADUATED FROM A COLLEGE OF MORTUARY SCIENCE ACCREDITED BY THE AMERICAN BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICE EDUCATION, PASSED THE NATIONAL BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF FUNERAL SERVICE EXAMINING BOARDS, SERVED A STATE INTERNSHIP, PASSED THE NECESSARY STATE FUNERAL LAW EXAMINATION. This position is not an apprentice level position. The funeral director is a listener, advisor, supporter and facilitator. They are accountable for servicing families in a professional and timely manner. Respectful service and attention to details are integral to success in this position. The ability to function as a team member, where individuals work together and share equally in the exchange of ideas, concepts and process outcomes is vital. ITEMIZED LIST OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: • Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families and friends. • Direct preparations and shipment of bodies for out-of-state burial. • Complete all funeral/cemetery related forms: a. Death Certificate. b. Burial/Transit permit. c. Internment orders. d. Vital Statistics. e. Disinterment permit. f. Statement of Goods and Services. g. Funeral contract. h. Casket price list. i. Outer enclosure price list. j. General Price List. • Making removals/first calls • Proper release of remains. • Taking custody of personal effects. • Arranging and furnishing transportation for family for arrangement conference. • Perfecting arrangements/service details at funeral home office. • Knowledge of and presentation of all funeral/burial/cremation products. • Arranging and furnishing transportation for family after arrangement conference. • Arranging with active casket bearers. • Arranging for honorary casket bearers. • Arranging for musicians. • Arranging for clergy. • Arranging for church facilities. • Arranging with lodges/societies. • Arranging with cemetery. • Arranging with crematory. • Taking family to cemetery for grave selection. • Returning family from cemetery selection. • Arranging for opening of grave. • Ordering outer receptacle for cemetery. • Checking to make sure grave has been opened. • Notification to distant relatives and friends. • Notification to nearby relatives and friends. • Writing obituary notices/classified death notices for newspapers. • Creating all video/DVD presentations for visitations and funeral services. • Secure photograph of deceased. • Secure completed copy of the death certificate. • Filing the completed death certificate. • Obtaining certified copies of the death certificate. • Secure burial clothing. • Having burial clothing cleaned and pressed. • Phone answering etiquette skills. • Telephone shopping skills for consumers. • Government compliance/Regulatory Issues. a. Federal Trade Commission. b. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. c. Americans with Disabilities Act. d. State funeral/embalming statutes. e. Liability for funeral expenses. f. Preneed funeral contracts. g. Disinterment. h. Wage and Hour Law. i. Federal Truth-in-Lending Act. j. Social Security. k. Veterans Administration l. Personal insurance assignments • Overseeing public calling hours. • Floral arrangements. • Setting up funeral equipment. • Cleaning up facilities after funerals. • Delivery of equipment to the bereaved residence. • Furnishing transportation for: a. Remains to cemetery/crematory. b. Bereaved family. c. Active casket bearers. d. Honorary casket bearers. e. Clergy. • Military arrangements. • Setting up public address systems. • Securing American flag for veteran’s funeral. • Furnish Aftercare services. • Organizing funeral procession. • Oversee placement of casket. • Receive and usher people. • Maintain financial records, order merchandise, and prepare accounts. • Adherence to all professional, municipal, provincial/state and federal licensing authority, regulations and rules applicable to the provisions of the funeral profession. • Office duties such as operating fax machine, computer, multi-line phone system, debit and credit card machines, typewriters, postage meter and scale and stereo/video systems as required. • Wash and clean all funeral home vehicles as required from time to time. • Assist with the general maintenance of vehicles, the facility and property; receive caskets and other funeral home supplies as well as place into inventory and carrying out any other responsibilities that may be reasonable delegated by management. • Answer phones, preparing reports as necessary and participating in staff meetings. • Any other duties as directed by management. SUCCESS INDICATORS: • Product knowledge and arrangement presentation skills. • Bereavement counseling skills. • Compassionate, empathetic personality. • Communication, relationship skills. • Tact. • Confidentiality. • High level of compassion and integrity. • DETAILED ORIENTED. • Professional. • Ethical. STANDARDS OF SERVICE: 1. Reports to: 2. Training/Education: a. High school diploma. b. Funeral Director and Embalmer: • Graduate of an accredited college of mortuary science by the American Board of Funeral Service Education. • Obtained the National Board certification from the International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards. • Current valid State Funeral Directors and Embalmers license. • Certification by the Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice within five (5) years following probationary period and formal employment starting date. • Valid State drivers license. 3. Retention: a. There is a 90 day probationary period for this position to become permanent. b. Performance evaluation will be conducted bi-annually in January and June. c. Employee is considered an at-will employee. 4. Working conditions: a. The job is frequently expected to lift; carry, push or pull objects more than 60 lbs. (without the assistance of mobile, powered equipment). b. Physical effort requiring manual dexterity is occasionally required. c. Physical work pace and/or exertion can create an amount of physical fatigue. d. On a daily basis the work involves short to intermediate to long period of non-interrupted mental/sensory attention. e. Some of these duties may involve long hours and need to be done on weekends, evenings, nighttime and holidays. At time some duties may require you to work outside in inclement weather. Some duties may also require you to be exposed to difficult death situations and crisis intervention. f. Odors may cause discomfort and/or irritation to eyes and respiratory passages. g. There is necessary exposure to dangerous chemical, disease, carcinogens or radioactivity. h. The work deals with the intense emotions of others, personal dealings that are emotional and draining. i. The need to work unscheduled hours or to be called in before scheduled hours of work often cannot be anticipated. j. This position has minimal to no control over workflow and service demands. 5. Knowledge: a. Customer and personal service – knowledge of the principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting funeral home quality standards for services and evaluation of customer satisfaction. b. English language – knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar. c. Administration and management – knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning (funeral arrangements), resource allocations, human resources modeling, leadership techniques, and detailed coordination of people and events and resources. d. Clerical – knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures, and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, credit card machines, DVD and stereo/video creation, completing applicable forms (Death certificates, etc.) and other offices procedures as required. 6. Skills: a. Social perceptiveness – being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do. b. Service orientation – actively looking for ways to help people. c. Speaking – talking to others to convey information effectively. d. Active listening – giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. e. Coordination – adjusting actions in relation to other’s actions. 7. Abilities: a. Oral expression – the ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. b. Oral comprehension – the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. c. Speech clarity – the ability to speak clearly so others can understand you. d. Speech recognition – the ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. e. Problem sensitivity – the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem necessarily, only recognizing there is a problem. 8. Activities: a. Getting information – observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources. b. Assisting and caring for others – providing personal assistance, emotional support, and other personal care to others. c. Performing for or working directly with or in front of the public – performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving clients, and graciously receiving and greeting clients and the general public. d. The ability to refrain from visiting controversial places in the larger community. e. Coordinating the work and activities of others – getting members of a group, a family, a church to work together. f. Communicating with people outside the funeral home – Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to clients, the public, government officials, and other external sources. 9. Styles: a. DEPENDABILITY - essentially this job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable and always fulfilling obligations. b. Integrity – job requires being honest and ethical. c. ATTENTION TO DETAIL – job requires being extremely careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks. Goal of zero error rate. d. Concern for others – job requires being sensitive to others needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful to others at all times. e. Stress tolerance – job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
Rebekah Anderson Giuffre
(937) 746-6455
(937) 746-3505
rebekah@anderson-fh.com