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Planning a Funeral

Hello, my name is Damian. Until last year, I had never planned a funeral. However, when both of my parents passed away within weeks of each other, I suddenly had to plan two. I was experiencing such grief that I didn't know where to start. Thankfully, my friend put me in touch with a fantastic funeral home who guided me through the entire process. They looked after the bodies, recommended a church and helped to arrange transport for guest. I decided to start this blog to help others who need to plan a funeral. I hope you find the information useful.

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Key Strategies That Multicultural Funeral Services Should Apply for Success

by Christopher King

Traditional funeral homes only offered services to a particular culture or religion. However, it is no longer the case today since modern funeral homes are designed with multicultural needs in mind. Rather than cater to one culture, a well-designed and professionally run funeral home can easily cater to several ethnicities. Nonetheless, you should understand that catering to more than one culture requires a funeral director to be strategic in their approach. This article highlights critical strategies that funeral directors should apply when running a multicultural service.

Choose a Few Cultures — One of the most common mistakes funeral directors make when they decide to offer multicultural funeral services is catering to many ethnicities. Thus, you will find a funeral home offering Asian, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and even non-religious funeral services. It is often the case when a funeral home fears missing out on the perks that come with catering to niche markets. While there is nothing wrong with providing multicultural funeral services all under one roof, catering to many cultures at once can be overwhelming. Therefore, it increases the likelihood of making mistakes and disrespecting the cultures you offer funeral services to. Thus, limiting your services to two or three cultures is advisable for ease of management and quality service delivery.

Universal Funeral Home Design — Most funeral homes serving a single culture or religion have unique features distinguishing them from multicultural service providers. For instance, funeral homes catering to Christians have a chapel with a cross at the entrance. Similarly, a Buddhist funeral home features permanent Buddha sculptures. If you want to make your funeral home multicultural, you should make the facility as neutral as possible. It means you should avoid symbols or designs that associate your funeral home with a particular culture. For example, a plain chapel equipped with seats only offers you the flexibility to customise services around a client's religious beliefs and cultural practices.

A Culturally Diverse Team — Another area most funeral homes err when opening doors to different cultures is keeping their team intact. If you want to provide quality multicultural funeral services, you need a culturally diverse group. Of course, your current team can learn more about the different cultures you are looking to serve. However, working with a culturally diverse team guarantees respect and dignity in everything you do. For instance, a culturally diverse team means you can facilitate funeral services in multiple languages since you have translators at your disposal. Employing staff from different cultures also allows you to identify and correct mistakes before clients have a chance to do it.

For more information about different types of funerals, like Asian funerals, contact a local professional.

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