April 2000
The Director - Features
The Best-Practices Funeral Home
Part I: Defining a Best-Practices Funeral Home
What does your ideal funeral home look like? In The Best-Practices Funeral Home—Part l: Defining a Best-Practices Funeral Home Jim Pinkerton describes his vision of the "Best-Practices Funeral Home" and the best-practice concept, which is intended to help funeral directors identify customer needs and implement changes that best benefit the customer. He also explains what funeral service can learn from healthcare and the manufacturing segment of the economy.
Part II of this article, which is in the April 2000 issue of The Director, explains the history and concept of Total Quality Management, which is instrumental in developing a best practices strategy. Part III of this article, which is in the May 2000 issue of The Director, explains how to evaluate your funeral home using the best-practices concept.
Pinkerton is a former member of the NFDA Executive Committee, former chairman of NFDA's Occupational & Environmental Issues Committee, and a past president of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association. He currently serves as vice chairman of the Pennsylvania State Board of Funeral Directors.
