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Nelson Bros in the media

Visiting Down Under

April 2004
By Jen Kiernan
American Funeral Director

It becomes increasingly clear, the more one learns about Nelson Bros. Funeral Services, that Melbourne and Ballarat, Australia, would not be the same without the Nelsons, a family that entered the funeral business back in 1858 when Robert Simeon Nelson opened a general store cabinet works and undertaking business. Back then, he made his own caskets, horse-drawn hearses and coaches.

Until the 1970s, in fact, Nelson Bros. still manufactured all its own caskets plus some motor coaches. Over 150 years and five generations later, many things have changed, in the world and in funeral service, while others, like the success of Nelson Bros. has remained constant. The family has grown and so too has the business. With six locations, 30 employees and approximately 1,200 cases a year, Nelson Bros. has epitomized success.

The current management team consists of Theo Nelson, who recently celebrated his 50th year in the funeral industry, and his three children: Robert has been a funeral director for 20 years, Priscilla works part-time as the director of their Bereavement Resource Centre and Adrian who, prior to joining the family business as the company’s business manager, was a lawyer and a management consultant. The family attributes Nelson Bros.’ s achievement to forward thinking and the ability to always stay on top of a fluxing industry.

However, even though they have been in business for 150 years and the potential to continue on an upward spiral seems inevitable, they freely admit that no matter how many services they do or how much positive feedback they get, this will never excuse them from the fear that a competitor may move in next door and steal some, if not all, of their market share. In fact, according to Adrian Nelson, the biggest challenge to funeral service in Australia is an over-supply of funeral ser vice companies. They have more competitors now than ever before and, although they have maintained the highest market s h a r e, they also know they can’t stop thinking of ways to retain their spot on top. “Newcomers see the aging baby boomers as a cash cow for funeral companies but the reality is that we will not see this peak until 2030,” he said. His solution: focus on the short and medium term just as intently as you would the long term.

The focus of Nelson Bros., long term and short term, has always been on professionalism, quality and care. But even m o re important, said Nelson, is to ensure that “we carry out professional, quality funerals every single time.” There are no second chances when it comes to someone’s funeral. No dress rehearsals. Every service must be perfect, down to the smallest of details. “Our performance at our funerals is our biggest reason why families use our services and is our major marketing tool,” added Nelson.

Another reason why they are on top of the market, according to Nelson, is that “in the age of low-cost, low-ser-vice providers, Nelson Bros. offers the full range of services to families with trained, professional staff. Our standards a re high because we believe that families deserve their funerals to be performed at that high standard.” In addition to their high level of service, he also credits their success to their facilities, which are spacious and comfortable, and their fleet of black Rolls Royce vehicles. “This makes us unique in Australia,” said Nelson.

One challenge that Nelson Bros. has faced over the years is something that American funeral homes are also facing, and that is keeping up with a changing community. Most of Nelson Bros.’s facilities are in the Western suburbs of Melbourne ; the area is home to people from over 100 different nations. Just 20 years ago, the areas were predominantly Anglo-Celtic, but today the community includes people originally from Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Somalia and Eritrea, to name only a few countries, and it also includes religions such as Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism.

If a funeral home is to become successful in such a changing climate, it must become part of the fabric of the community, no matter how diverse that fabric becomes because all cultural changes will eventually “be reflected in our funeral diversity,” said Nelson.

This type of adaptation is nothing new to the Nelson family. When Robert Simeon Nelson became a funeral director 150 years ago in the Victorian Goldfields region of Australia, the community was diverse even then, with a combination of Chinese Buddhists as well as people from England, Ireland and America. “Over the generations as new groups of immigrants come to Australia, we learn and adapt to their culture. The key is to never judge and always work with the families and the communities to understand their requirements,” said Nelson.

And do not ever expect anything. “Even if a family is a Vietnamese Buddhist family,” he added, “there is no typical ‘funeral in a box.’ As with all of our families, we sit down and go through their specific requirements in detail.” The Nelsons have learned a lot about many diff e rent cultures and they welcome the knowledge which makes the job even m o re interesting. Most recently, they have experienced an influx of Jewish people and the staff at Nelson Bros. has been excited to work with yet another culture and begin to understand the rituals surrounding death for the Jewish family. They now perform approximately 120 Jewish funerals a year. Again, being open and accepting of others with-out expecting anything is the way this family business has adapted to change and newness.

Aside from accepting the community as it changes and walks through the doors of Nelson Bros., the company has also found ways to walk out into the community and be-come entrenched in it. They have tried to expose themselves to the community as educators. For example, Nelson is featured monthly on a Melbourne radio talk show; he is the “funeral expert” on the program, answering callers’ questions and concerns about funeral service. The questions range from preneed concerns to questions about how to per-for m a funeral. “Whether listeners end up using our services or not, they are better placed to select a funeral dire c t o r once they think about the issues we discuss. We have noted, though, that a significant number of listeners have since contacted our funeral homes for further information and have p repaid their own funerals with us,” said Nelson. In any case, by putting himself out there as an expert and honestly answering questions about funeral service, an industry that is all too often misunderstood, he places Nelson Bros. in the forefront of the listeners’ minds.

The radio talk show has been a good way for Nelson Bros. to market themselves and put a positive light on funeral service in general. They also attempt to step out into the community in ways that are not directly related to funeral ser vice but still put the name out into the world. For example, they support over 20 lawn bowl teams across Melbourne . This support includes sponsorship days and bags of information. Considering most of the bowlers are retired citizens, they are at an age where planning for their funerals is important to them, according to Nelson.

They also encourage their staff members to involve them-selves in the community by choosing activities that they enjoy. Some are scout leaders and football coaches; others a re church deacons and yachtsmen. Nelson is also president elect of the local Rotary Club, a position that is important to him because he has followed in his father’s footsteps. “Being involved in the community is important to us be-cause it puts a human face to what we do. It shows that we a re still a family business and that funerals are important to us,” said Nelson. “It enables us to educate the community with the differences in funeral service so that at the time they need a funeral director, they can make an educated, rational decision. It also demystifies death and funerals. My approach is very honest and matter of fact when explaining what is involved.”

Community involvement, as so many funeral homes have discover ed, is a great marketing device. Not only do they get the name in front of the public eye, but they also give some-thing that is often so frightening to people a human face and a family feeling. Nelson Bros. takes advantage of this form of marketing as well as other forms too. “The best possible marketing of our funeral homes is by performing perfect funerals every time,” said Nelson. “This is our No. 1 focus.”

Although word-of-mouth and community service activities are the company’s top marketing strategies, they also take advantage of the more traditional newspaper ads which basically just emphasize the company’s brand. In these ads, they don’t overload people with an outline of every service they offer; instead, they just work to get their brand to be recognizable. They work hard to maintain a consistent brand on all their printed material, such as on their signs, ads and web site.

Another challenge to Nelson Bros., which is not uncommon to many funeral homes in the United States, is staff turnover and recruitment. Nelson admitted that they do have a larger turn over than they have ever had before, but compared to other organizations, it is relatively low. He at-tributes the high turnover to a change in culture. Twenty or 30 years ago, for instance, people stayed at one job from the day they stepped out of school to retirement. Today, this is not the case. People change jobs and even careers sometimes two or three or more times throughout their working lives. 

The staff right now at Nelson Bros. is made up of former bank managers, printers and Air Force personnel. These are people who changed their entire career track to move into funeral service. On that same note, Nelson Bros. has lost employees who decided, mid-career, to try something different. “In addition,” explained Nelson, “our standards are unashamedly high and some do not cope with this. You don’ t get a second chance to do a funeral, so everything has to be exactly right every time. We find that some staff members do not cope with this philosophy, but generally this is identified early on.” When looking to hire new employees, their philosophy has always been that skills can be taught, but attitude is more important.

Keeping morale high, according to Nelson, can be a challenge due to the demands of funeral service. In order to keep its employees fresh and happy, the company applies a certain amount of flexible work hours. Staff members are employed on the basis of “annualized hours, which means working a certain number of hours per year,” said Nelson. Although the busy times re-quire “all hands on deck,” the slower times afford employees more freedom, such as coming in late or leaving early. As long as the employee works his/her set annual hours and the job gets done right, the flex hour system is not a problem with the management and has actually worked out well for them.

The flexible hours program is one way Nelson Bros. has helped to keep employee morale high. They have also employed what they call the “Extra Step Award,” which is essentially an employee of the month award in which the winner has to be nominated by fellow staff members. “This pro-vides incentives and prizes for our staff but also improves our levels of customer service,” said Nelson. By crediting employees and announcing their contribution to the company’s success, morale has been heightened thro u g h-out the company. This year, they started something even more innovative where the management team takes the staff, one small group at a time, out for lunch meetings. They try to skew it so that the members of the lunch meeting are not employees who generally interact on a daily basis, thus broadening the scope of the company. They take the group to a nice restaurant to discuss their work, the business and life in general. And, added Nelson, this is a time when the employees can ask any questions at all of the management. This level of respect, bestowed on the employee, has proven reciprocal and an enhancement to the company morale and work ethics.

Many of the issues facing Australian funeral directors are similar to those in front of Americans as well. Issues of market share, marketing and employment cross all boundaries. But one aspect of funeral service that American funeral directors are often afraid of and can learn from the Australian market is cremation. Where the cremation trends in the United States are growing, in Australia they have al-ready grown, to approximately 55 percent. “In our view, however, we do not see cremation as a negative as many in the United States said to me in my recent visit,” said Nelson. In fact, they have found ways to embrace the trend that seems to be here to stay. “It is a method of disposition that does not affect any of the actual funeral products and services,” he added. He even went as far as to suggest that cremation enhances the sale of additional products and services.

One additional service that has be-come popular among the cremation services, as well as the traditional ones, is the offering of refreshments after a service. They offer tea or coffee and a variety of cakes. They have noticed that more and more families will want to hold a service with their loved one’ s body present, at their funeral home. In many cases, families find it more convenient to simply have the reception on the premises as well. Later, the funeral home will deliver the body to the cremator y. Nelson does admit, however, that price competition is not an issue in the State of Victoria since all crematories are owned and operated by the government.

In an age where many family businesses, across all industries and country borders, are failing to reach a second, never mind a fifth generation, Robert Simeon Nelson would certainly be pleased to see where his small general store and undertaking business is now, how it took off and continues to grow and improve. “Overall,” said Adrian Nelson, “we do not aim to be the biggest funeral director in Melbourne but we do aim to be the best.” It appears they have found a way to be both.

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Death never parted the Nelson Brothers - or sons

January 23 2003
By Danny Katz
The Age

Do undertakers hold unusual staff parties?

This is the ninth and final article in my series on unusual jobs. I've written about parking inspectors and creche workers and radio hosts and dog-groomers and circumcisers, and I thought I'd finish with a big, bright, happy finale - today I'm going to write about death. I've always been fascinated by the funeral business, so I decided to visit a funeral home and find out about this kind of work. Is it depressing? Is it enlightening?

Are there really great end-of-year office parties, with disco-dancing in the chapel, and beer-drinking in the mortuary, and Barry from accounts doing his famous Dracula impersonation in the coffin showroom?

So I went to the Nelson Bros Funeral Home in Footscray to get a few answers. This is a big family-run business that started in 1858, and has been passed through generations of the Nelson family. It's interesting how so many funeral homes seem to be old family-run businesses. You never hear about anyone starting up a new funeral business - you'd never meet someone at a party who says: "Well, I've decided to try my hand at undertaking, so I've rented a little shopfront in East St Kilda, I've borrowed my uncle's old Kombi for a hearse, and now I'm just waiting for the phone to ring."

I spent the morning with Theo Nelson, the head of the company, and his son Adrian, the business manager. They were very pleasant and they spoke in the same gentle, soothing tone that they might use to comfort a grieving client - every time I asked a question, I thought they were going to hug me and hand me a tissue. The first thing I wanted to know was, did they think working in a funeral home was a strange way to make a living? Theo said: "Not at all. You see, I grew up in this business because that's what my father did. And my children have grown up in the business, too - so we've never known anything else. This is our world, it's normal."

Adrian agreed: "For as long as I can remember, I've been hanging out here, helping out on weekends, working here on school holidays. I know some people may think this is an unusual career, but as far as I'm concerned, working in a funeral home is just as strange as working in a milkbar."

It was a fair point. I've been into some pretty strange milkbars over the years - the one on my corner has nothing on the shelves but a couple of tins of Edgell Mexi-Beans, and a Bullseye cap gun from the 1970s.

Theo and Adrian showed me around the building. We started in the foyer, which was very tasteful and elegant, with a great big fountain to create a calm, tranquil environment - although it really just made me want to pee.

Then we visited the chapel where the funeral ceremonies are held. Adrian told me there was a lot of planning and timing involved in staging a funeral, and it was very much like staging a theatrical show. I could see what he meant, but it would be a very sad show, with an extremely short season. Then they took me to the coffin showroom. I saw the beautiful Premier Casket for $9400, and the stunning Pieta Maple at $6990 with the built-in souvenir drawer, but my favourite was the tiny brown one with the chipboard sides and veneer finish - it was a bargain at $1500.

The only place Theo and Adrian wouldn't show me was the mortuary. This is the room where they do the embalming, and I was relieved because I have a terrible fear of death - I remember my mother carrying me out of the cinema during Born Free because I got so upset when Elsa the lion died, and that was when I was 15. I asked Theo and Adrian how they felt about being around bodies all the time, and Theo said: "It's never really been a problem for me. I've been in the business for 50 years now, and I trained as an embalmer, so I've seen just about everything. It's part of the job, and at the end of the day, I'm able to switch off, I don't think about work at home." Adrian said he found it difficult sometimes. "I don't like watching the embalming, that's hard for me. But I'm comfortable with the bodies, it doesn't upset me, unless it's someone young, or a tragic death - then I can get depressed."

They agreed that a sense of humour was the best way of coping with the job. Theo said that even the bereaved can sometimes find humour in their tragedy. "My favourite funerals are the ones where friends and family are able to smile together, remembering funny stories about the person they've lost. That's a truly wonderful thing to see."

I asked Theo and Adrian about the money side of things. It seemed to me that this was a pretty successful business, with its six funeral homes around Victoria, a fleet of Rolls-Royces and a big fountain in the foyer that made me want to pee. But Theo told me that money wasn't his main motivation. "My greatest joy comes from helping people, being able to guide them through their grief. I love this job, I love providing this service to the community."

On that note, I thanked Theo and Adrian for their time, and headed off. My visit to a funeral home had been a real eye-opener, and now I felt ready to confront my fear of death - I was finally ready to rent Born Free on video and watch it all the way to the end.

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