Changing the way the UK plans and organise Funerals – One Coffin at a Time
It's predicted that the cost is set to keep increasing, 6.7% per year, it really makes sense to plan now. The more you think about your funeral, the less your loved ones will have to when the time comes.
Comparethecoffin.com created by Steven Mitchell after having experienced his first involvement with organising a funeral thought there had to be a better way of doing this.
3 key points from the experience:
Unless you have a definite plan the funeral director tends to take over and you end up with their plan instead of yours”
The coffins seem quite expensive for what they are (mark-up is between 300%–600% on the wholesale prices).”
How do you choose a Funeral director anyway??
ComparetheCoffin.com, has a Coffin Shop, and Free Planning tools, a Future funeral plan for yourself or secondly an Immediate plan to organise a funeral you need now or imminently.
The Immediate plan gets sent to over 400 registered funeral directors, those who wish, contact you directly offering their services and the user can decide which one to use, providing an e-Bidding platform, but the decision should not be made on cost alone, but the best fit for the person/family. Comparethecoffin.com has no favourites, we only need to know where to send the coffin.
The planning forms are very comprehensive and ask questions that a lot of people would not have thought of. E.g. Do you want music playing while your body is prepared? Who do you NOT want to come to your funeral?
It not been an easy first year, uncooperative funeral directors spreading rumours of poor quality coffins, others charging families a ‘corkage’ fee to use their own coffin, not to mention delivery drivers – one coffin was delivered to the Joke shop across the street from the funeral director by accident. Afterwards everyone saw the funny side.
When organising a funeral less than 1-in-10 people go to more than one funeral director and people aren’t in the mood to discuss money and also they don’t want to appear cheap.
So comparing is hard, Comparethecoffin.com makes it easy.
After funerals the customer is sent a feedback form to collect information both on the coffin and the service they received from their funeral director,
We offer clear impartial, emotion neutral advice and ensuring they get the best possible value funeral plan and coffin.
There are approximately half a million funerals in the UK alone, our target is 2% of the market i.e. 10,000 coffins a year and a similar number of Future plans per year.
Lastly we also hope to go live shortly in Holland, Germany and South Africa shortly.