Taking Care of What Comes After the Funeral With a Compassionate Approach to Detail
Service Corporation International (SCI) is the leading provider of funeral and related services in North America annually providing more than 450,000 families compassionate care following the loss of a loved one (SCI, 2021). Providing funeral, cremation, and cemetery services ranging from the simple service to the most elegant event is our focus. During one of the most difficult times a family can experience, SCI’s network of brands meets the needs of every family on a personalized basis. Our variety of products and services allow our customers to take care of all their loved one’s final arrangements with one provider utilizing the expertise of our entire network of businesses. In addition to embalming, cremation, and burial products and services, SCI providers also specialize in flowers, online and video tributes, stationary products, and catering. Everything families need to memorialize their loved one can be found within the network of SCI and our brands.
SCI’s net income for 2021 was $797,482. This was an increase of 55% from 2020’s net income of $515,907. While net income showed a drop from 2018 to 2019, increases in net income have been realized at a rate between 40 and 55% annually since. This steady growth is expected to continue throughout 2022 (Yahoo Finance, 2022).
An evaluation of SCI’s SWOT Analysis reveals several strengths. Our diverse offerings from our brands including Dignity Memorial, Dignite, Dignity Memorial Premier Collection, Funeraria Del Angel, Caballero Rivero, Advantage Funeral & Cremation Services, Rose Hills, National Cremation, Neptune Society and Trident Society, Neptune Society, Neptune Memorial Reef and LHT Consulting Group, LLC (LHT) allow us to provide services for a wide range of consumer needs in the industry. This provides the competitive advantage that has been responsible for increases in revenue and profit margins. SCI’s brands National Cremation Society originating in 1973 and Dignity Memorial launched in 1999, have established a market presence and strong reputation with a stable customer base. “As of December 2020, it operated 1,400 funeral service locations and 483 cemeteries, including 297 funeral service/cemetery combination locations in North America” (MarketLine, 2022). The sustained growth in net income over the past few years contributes to investor confidence which will allow SCI to allocate funds for additional services opportunities. SCI’s availability of capital for expansion into additional service markets puts us in a prime position for the introduction of a new post memorial market service.
While SCI provides for the needs of families for burial and funeral services following the loss of a loved one, these families experience many needs following the memorial service. After the service many struggle with how to deal with the deceased personal affairs. Arrangements and decisions must be made from the simple to complex regarding how to move on after such a loss. Concierge Bereavement Services as an extension of SCI’s current offerings would assist these families with what do we do now questions. Assisting with the multitude of tasks following one’s death will be an extension of the current services offered by SCl. Consultants trained to assist individuals processionally and compassionately with their specific set of needs following the death of a loved one can be contracted through the existing SCI brand corporations. This extension of services to our established customer base is expected to further enhance SCI’s market share and profitability. The services provided by our Concierge Bereavement Specialists would be as individualized as the offerings currently provided by SCI. They would simply be an extension for families following the cremation or burial of a loved one. The assistance in moving forward following the service would provide a personal value to our customers beyond the cost of the service. Based on current financial data, an increase in net income of a little as 2% would result in an additional net income of almost $16,000 in 2022 for the new offering. Although this increase is initially small, expansion of the Concierge Bereavement Services to all our markets should show expanded profitability beyond the initial estimate of 2% annually.
References:
MarketLine. (2022). Service Corporation International. https://advantage-marketline-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/Company/Profile/service-corporation-international?swot
Service Corporation International. (2021). https://www.sci-corp.com/
Yahoo Finance. (2022). Service Corporation International (SCI). https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SCI/financials?p=SCI
Concierge Bereavement Service 
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