Funeral trade association calls for regulation
The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors has today issued a press release stating its position on the subject of regulation. SAIF members received an e-mail yesterday advising them that ‘after careful consideration we have decided that regulation across England and Wales is a good thing and welcome it’. The ‘careful consideration’ appears […]
Beyond’s response to the responses to the CMA
The chaps over at Beyond have detailed their thoughts about some of the responses to the recent Competition and Markets Authority Funerals Market Study. Specifically, the responses from the National Association of Funeral Directors and Dignity PLC. NB Beyond say in their introduction that they have a ‘few critiques’ concerning these submissions – it looks […]
Thoughts about Dignity PLC from a reader
Over the weekend, one of our many readers posted a comment on a previous blog post about Dignity PLC’s report on what they tell us people ‘assume, want and expect from funeral directors. We thought this comment deserved elevating to a post in its own right. So here it is. (Sorry about the illustration of […]
And here (belatedly) are the details from that Dignity report
Yesterday we wrote about the media coverage of Dignity’s findings in their research ‘Time to Talk About Quality and Standards’ and our thoughts about this. Before writing, we spent some time looking for the full report online, unsuccessfully. Last night, Dignity kindly sent us a link to the full report which can now be found […]
Dignity PLC tell us it’s time to talk about quality and standards…
Well, well, well. The people in the Dignity press department are having a busy summer. Two national newspapers have published findings from the recent report commissioned by the funeral giant that operates under ‘over 500 distinct local brands with varying levels of local brand equity’ (source Dignity Investor Presentation June 2018). Here’s a line from […]
Marketing people, please read!
Our good friends at Life. Death. Whatever. have written a brilliant piece today about the current shock / horror media coverage of the advertising campaign for a funeral price comparison website that was rejected by Transport for London because of the potentially offensive nature of the adverts. Read it here. We echo everything said in […]
Honour restored at Honor Oak Crematorium
Guest post by Louise Winter Back in April last year, we exposed the condition of the conveniences at Honor Oak Crematorium in South East London – peeling paint, a toilet held together by chewing gum and floors covered in used tissue paper. Earlier this year, I was delighted to be invited back to Honor Oak […]
If it seems too good to be true…. the sad end of the promise of Ecolation
Over time, we have received a number of well informed comments on a post written back in February 2017 on Ecolation, the supposedly innovative alternative to cremation. It became apparent that we, along with many others, had been taken in by a sales pitch for something that wasn’t at all what it seemed. The slick […]
Going Green at Brookwood Cemetery
It’s been twenty five years since the inspirational Ken West MBE opened the very first natural burial ground at Carlisle cemetery, and here at GFG Towers we felt that this landmark anniversary needed to be acknowledged. Members of the Good Funeral Guild felt so too, and, under gentle pressure from Stephen Laing we have […]
Those whacky funerals….
Guest post from Jonathan Taylor, independent funeral celebrant in Totnes. We are always delighted to receive guest posts from long time readers of the GFG blog, and this one is very topical given the obsession with ‘whacky funerals’ from the media (most recently the Nigerian man who buried his father in a brand new car, […]
