Preparation is powerful

words: Jo Parker, National SAIF Vice President
Jo Parker

Our President is on a much-deserved holiday and in his absence, I have been asked to write a few words for this month’s edition as your Vice President.

I have a single branch business in Kent providing approximately 300 funerals a year for families in Tonbridge and neighbouring villages. Over the last few months, we have seen a calm within our business and, with funerals back to 80-plus at the crematorium, it really does feel like we’re getting back to some sort of ‘normal’.

I have made the most of this quieter time to, like most of you, ‘get my house in check’ following the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) legal order. Having at first felt vexed about vast amounts of A3 posters in my beautiful reception area, A4 posters in my shop window and the appalling wording for the standardised price list, I, like many of you, am now preparing to comply.

It’s time to be creative

I’m sure we all agree with the reasoning for the CMA intervention and have all struggled equally with the application of their findings, but here we are. And thanks to the exceptional work that has gone on for the last few years behind the scenes by the SAIF CMA task group, we are making the best of what was being suggested by the CMA.

SAIF will continue to work with the CMA after the September deadline, feeding back funeral directors’ concerns and public responses and pushing for changes and tweaks where needed. However, in the meantime, we need to get ourselves ready.

We are all businessmen and businesswomen who, because of the very nature of what we do, think on our feet and have all learned over this last 18 months to be more inventive to be sure that our clients get what they want within the scope of what is tasteful and allowed. So, let’s do this! Let’s get creative. Turn your posters into works of art. Be sure that you display the standardised price list, but make sure your ‘additional price list’ is clear, concise, and prominent. SAIF is here to help with contacts for IT and design as well as all the dos and don’ts.

Don’t leave it until the last minute, start now so that you have the best of what you can produce by the deadline and let us see the results!

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