Vent

Kristine

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2002
2,801
1,380
113
Middleville
State / Prov
michigan
received a call from a good customer, funeral flowers we delivered for a service today were not there. Confer with my driver and yes, delivered to flower room - no issues.

Call the funeral director, yes he remembers them and recognized the names on the card. BUT placed them in the wrong viewing room. :(

of course I refund my customer her $ and will be sending flowers to the home tomorrow. and the FD doesn't even offer to split or pay..................
 
As far as I can tell, this is not your fault. I realize this is your customer but by you refunding her money & sending more flowers to her it is, at least to me, an admission of guilt. You did nothing wrong, you did your job. This is the FD fault & it is his responsibility to make it right with your customer. You are making it aok for the fd. I know you probably want good relations with the FD but it is not fair for him to walk all over you. I would call him & ask him what he could do about this as your customer is very unhappy. This situation does not look good for him or his business. Please try for your own sake.
 
  • Like
Reactions: shannonlovesflowers
Happens here several times a year. I call owners/managers of the funeral home and insist that they write an "apology card" to the customer(s). I also remind them that your customer might be their customer one day, then say "do you want to lose a 10K funeral over this". Thye will buckles and write one....................................Hijack: Yes, baby is cute
 
  • Like
Reactions: FANCIES
we've had this happen about half a dozen times over the years. I hate to say it but i've never let the funeral home pay for the loss. I'm just way too afraid of alienating them. s##t happens
 
  • Like
Reactions: Carol Bice
the FD offered to get the flowers back from the other family and get them to the correct family. But I do not want to waite for that to happen - what if it's not till next week? I told him if he did get them back to give US a call.

and yes, my customer knows it wasn't our fault, but she wants us to make it right. So if that is what it takes so be it.
rather have a happy camper and I will deal with the FD instead of making my cust do the dirty.
 
Even though it's not your fault, kudos for making your customer happy. That's how you keep and or build your reputation. Good for you.

Funeral Directors are human too and make mistakes. Believe me.

V
 
Yes, we are all human, but we fix our mistakes, we are held accountable. And that FD should be held accountable.

If I dropped the ball I would expect to make it right. In fact I'd offer to make it right.
 
Kristine you did good, you did what it takes to make your customer happy...I can understand not wanting to piss off the fd by asking for the money, but at least ask him to write an apology, and yes explain that these poeple may only be there for a service, but they are your customers for hopefully life....explain that you will be replacing the flowers with an arrangement to the home and would appreciate if he did his part and write the apology with acknowledgement of his mistake, that way you both win with outstanding service and stand up practices....
 
we've had this happen about half a dozen times over the years. I hate to say it but i've never let the funeral home pay for the loss. I'm just way too afraid of alienating them. s##t happens

This is exactly the way I feel. It happened to me many times over the years, but, it is not worth bad feelings with the FD. He can tell every person that walks through his door how awful you are and there is nothing you could do about it.

It is really lousy to have to beholden to the FD, but, maybe necessary to survive.
 
I agree completely..........even though it was the FD's fault........the fact remains that the Funeral Director is an important asset in this volatile economy and I would let the customer know fully what happened and then OFFER to correct the situation as best I could.

I want to keep that customer happy with me so they will continue to shop with me.
 
Kristine, that just so totally sucks! I had it happen, too, I know exactly what you are thinking. I ended up refunding the entire amount to the customer, because the family lived out of state and she had wanted it at the funeral.

Just like my break-in, through no fault of my own, I still end up the loser but at least I can sleep next to myself at night! If the FD does not take it upon himself to apologize to the family, then nothing you say will cause him/her to do so. This is one of those personal responsibility things that they used to teach way back when.
 
something I wanted to share with you all......there are only 2 or 3 independent funeral homes in our entire metro area now, and most are aligned or owned by one of the conglomerates.(over 40 fh's)
Two or 3 shops, 1 for sure, way outside of our area, signed "kick back" agreements of up to 40% to snag the business, and I have washed my hands of the entire process.
Our business dropped almost $40,000.00, and were were VERY perplexed, BUT, you KNOW, there IS life after funeral work, and we have "recovered" almost $36,000.00 of those lost sales to other product sales, and no longer feel we are in a corner, because we don't have a particular form piece, or an exact colour co-ordination to fill these orders......we've run down own sympathy stock, have NO NEED to carry much of it now, and DON'T have to make "emergency" runs to suppliers all over the place, the fuel, the time, the anxiety, and I MUST admit, I DON'T "miss it"!!
I TOTALLY miss the integrity we had with our funeral homes, BUT, have NO USE for the corporate mentality, when it comes to the sympathy business!!
Did it hurt...yes, of course, will we be better off??.....I'm finding that we are on the way......
I WON'T buckle to the kick back schemes any more, and I WON'T give them any breaks anymore either..what's good for the goose, is ALSO good for the "next" goose......
 
Did it hurt...yes, of course, will we be better off??.....I'm finding that we are on the way......
I WON'T buckle to the kick back schemes any more, and I WON'T give them any breaks anymore either..what's good for the goose, is ALSO good for the "next" goose......

This sounds just like me after I cut the wire service loose!