A funeral service manager plays a vital role to ensure a client’s end-of-life decisions around burial or cremation, or service or celebration are carried out. They also coordinate with family and friends of the deceased to ensure the service is a respectful and appropriate celebration of the person’s life. Additional career titles may include a mortuary operations manager or sales manager.
Watch a video to learn what a funeral service manager does.
How to Become a Funeral Service Manager
According to O*NET OnLine over 55% of those surveyed held at least an associate’s degree with just under 15% achieving a professional degree. A little over 10% had completed their bachelor’s degree. You can earn an associate’s degree in funeral service or mortuary science to gain the education necessary to become a manager at a funeral home. You may start off your career as a funeral service worker in order to gain experience prior to becoming a manager.
Job Description of a Funeral Service Manager
These managers handle the logistics of a funeral, including keeping within the budget identified for the service or quoting prices for the service and products purchased. These managers must have excellent communication skills as they also meet with the family and friends to determine the details of the funeral, collect the obituary, select any casket or urn needed, and to plan the services that will be held. When collaborating with any decision-makers regarding the service, they would also educate clients on various services the funeral home offers, products, and their cost.
Along with coordinating the service, they also handle the day-to-day operations of running a funeral home and the staff that work there. They would also work closely with any vendors that are providing services to the deceased and their family to include cosmetologists that prep the deceased for an open-casket viewing.
Funeral Service Worker Career Video Transcript
As a mortician, undertaker or funeral director, you will be a bridge for those who wish to make plans for their future death, as well as those who have recently survived the death of a loved one and wish for closure. Morticians and undertakers may help clients resolve insurance claims, apply for veterans’ funeral benefits, arrange transportation for mourners, decorate the sites of all services, and find resources on overcoming grief among many other diverse tasks.
Funeral service managers conduct the general matters of running a funeral home, such as allocating expenses, handling marketing and public relations, and managing staff. For those looking to become a funeral service worker, the key to success is by obtaining an associate’s degree in mortuary science. Funeral directors and embalmers are legally required to obtain a license everywhere, except Colorado. Additionally, funeral service workers are expected to do an apprenticeship of 1-3 years under the guidance of a licensed funeral service professional.
As a funeral service worker, you may need to coordinate funeral services within 24 to 72 hours of death. For many funeral service workers, this means working long, unpredictable hours in the evening and on weekends. For funeral service employees, the work is never truly done. As a mortician, undertaker, or funeral director, you will be a member of a robust, growing industry that provides vital services to those who need them.
Article Citations
National Center for O*NET Development. 11-9061.00. O*NET OnLine.
The career video is in the public domain from the U. S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
