Death care services are highly personal, but there are some consumer behaviors that are shared by many people. This is certainly the case when it comes to choosing a cremation provider, especially when direct cremation is the disposition of choice.
When the Johnson Consulting Group (JCG) analyzed nearly 114,000 funeral service contracts from 2024 they came across some interesting insights about what influences funeral home selections. Their 2025 Trends & Insights report clearly shows differences between cremation and burial as well as variations among different types of cremation.
Our experts dug into the data to get an idea of what motivates people to choose one funeral home over another, and some of the results are surprising.
First, the Not So Surprising Stat – Previous Experience is the Most Important
Across the board, being previously served by the funeral home was the top factor for all six types of disposition that were analyzed. Depending on the type of disposition, 19% to 31.4% of consumers choose a funeral home strictly because they had already worked with them.
But it appears to be a matter of sticking with what you know, not a matter of service quality. When people were asked if they were satisfied with the services they received, only 89.8% of people who chose a funeral home they had already worked with were happy. It was the second lowest satisfaction rating out of the 11 specific factors that were analyzed.
Prices Aren’t as Important as Many People Think
It’s not surprising to find that the price of death care services is a big determining factor when people are choosing a direct cremation provider. After all, one of the key benefits of direct cremation is that it’s the least expensive type of disposition.
While price isn’t the most important factor, it does factor into the decision more for direct cremation than other types of cremation and burial. A total of 8.8% of people who used direct cremation stated that price was the biggest factor, significantly higher than other forms of disposition. For example, the next highest was immediate burial with 4.9% of people rating price as the most important point.
Online Reviews and Being Highly Recommended
After checking the prices of services, many consumers are looking at online reviews and recommendations for a direct cremation funeral home. Even though online reviews wasn’t the most important factor for most people, it is much more common with direct cremation compared to all other death care services. People who choose any type of cremation took online reviews into account more than burial.
But there’s a more important metric at play. Even though just 3.5% of those surveyed said online reviews were the deciding factor for choosing a direct cremation provider, it was the point with the highest related customer satisfaction score. Almost 96% of the people who based their decision on online reviews said they were satisfied with their decision.
And being highly recommended was important 12.9% of the time with direct cremation, making it the third most common reason for choosing a provider. It too was a point with a very high customer satisfaction rating of 95.3%.
Website Presence is Becoming More Important
Like many other industries, death care has gone digital. Website presence isn’t as pivotal for funeral homes as it is for other types of businesses, but that trend is changing quickly. And direct cremation is where it matters most.
Even though website presence was only the 9th most common reason out of 12 factors, it was way more important for direct cremation comparatively. We believe that it’s a factor that will only become more important, especially now that the FTC has made Funeral Rule updates and funeral homes are required to post prices online.
Facilities and Proximity Matter More For Cremation
Ironically, facilities and having a convenient location matters more for the type of disposition that provides more flexibility and can be arranged remotely. Both were bigger considerations with cremation services than burial services.
Convenient location was the second most common deciding factor for all types of disposition, but it was used more consistently with cremation, particularly direct cremation. In total, 15.6% of respondents based their funeral home decision on proximity.
And it would seem like facilities would matter most to people arranging a traditional burial, but that isn’t the case. The funeral home facilities mattered more to families that were arranging traditional cremation and cremation with a memorial. This could be an indicator of how funeral homes are beginning to pivot their business model to appeal more to people who are choosing these types of disposition.
Contrasting Consumer Behavior: How People Choose a Funeral Home For Traditional Burial
To highlight how consumer behavior can vary within the death care industry, we wanted to provide specific insight into how people select a funeral home for a traditional burial. The process is very different in this situation.
Instead of taking to the internet and gathering information, consumers that plan to have a traditional burial rely on their previous experiences and the reputation of the funeral home. A person is much more likely to use a funeral home because they’ve already used them before or attended a burial that the funeral home performed.
However, the biggest difference between burials and cremations is pre-planned arrangements. About twice as many people choose their funeral home based on pre-planned arrangements for burial compared to cremation. The real kicker is that pre-planned arrangements had the lowest satisfaction score with only 84.3% of people being satisfied. This suggests that funeral homes need to put forth more effort when the services are already arranged, or that consumer expectations may be higher when everything has already been worked out in advance.
At Cremation.Green families can find the absolute best prices on eco-friendly cremation and green burial services. Give us a call, text or email at your earliest convenience to discuss why we’re a funeral home that you want to work with.
