The ‘Sunday’ programme, which aired last Sunday night 8th October had a segment on Funerals, and highlighted a number of aspects including the increasing number of corporate owned Funeral Homes in New Zealand, and DIY Funerals including Coffin clubs.
I thought it important that those of you who are local were made aware that we, Kapiti Coast Funeral Home, out of the 3 Funeral Homes on the coast are the only ‘non corporate’ and the only one out of the 3 that is locally owned and operated here in Kapiti.
Our independence from the corporate structure has enabled us to develop a ‘fair charging’ system using our ‘progressive fee calculator.
I developed this some 30 years ago. In short, when a family wish to do DIY parts of the funeral we then implement a ‘part charge’ that is only charged on the work we do for them.
This progressive, or calculated, charging system is always used with DIY type funerals and can make things a lot cheaper; but there can be snags. Like any DIY intent comes the old saying ‘good intentions are nothing without actions’, so it is with families who ‘intend’ to do things themselves, but time, emotions, or interruptions get the better of them. This is when we are often asked to complete tasks and then charge accordingly.
We do, however, have pre-selected ‘set professional fees’. These can be selected when a family want us to ‘do everything’. This approach may ultimately be cheaper than us charging and accounting for every unit of time we spend. Families who choose Kapiti Coast Funeral Home have a choice of doing some DIY elements themselves or for us to look after everything.
I love working with families who wish to do parts of the Funeral themselves, and feel this can be a way of keeping the costs down for them, but also can be a very healing way to participate in the whole process without the stress of having to ‘do it all’. Anyone wanting to talk to us in person about how to ‘keep the costs down’ please feel free to contact us. I love being part of and working with those in our community of Kapiti.
