How can I find a good funeral director in Norfolk?

Finding a good, reliable funeral director to help you through a time of bereavement can be a real help at a moment of need. Norwich Christian funeral director, Kevin Cobbold, has some helpful advice.

Through our work over many years, we have compiled a list of questions to ask when considering your choice of funeral director. The following questions will help you to decide whether or not you are dealing with a professional, competent funeral director or not.

Ownership:

Who owns this funeral director’s?
Is it the name of the person on the signage or has it been bought up by a national chain? There are two large chains of funeral directors in the country who have bought up small, independent funeral directors but they don’t change the name on the signage. People do want to support local independent companies but they are unknowingly using large chains with expensive boards of directors and shareholders.

Funeral Staff:

What qualifications are held by the person arranging the funeral?
It is a little-known fact that currently people operating as funeral directors do not need to be qualified! It is really important to find out if the people organising such an important event know what they are doing.

How long has that person been a funeral director?
Experience is so important so that everything is as perfect as it can be for your loved one. Lack of experience really shows and can lead to hitches and problems that you really should not have to encounter.

Do you switch to a call centre in the evenings and at weekends or does a member of your staff take the call?
You might think you are ringing a funeral home up the road, out of office hours, but your call has probably been transferred to a call centre in the West Midlands or Southern England who know nothing about your loved one’s funeral.

Facilities and Resources:

Will my loved one stay at one funeral home until the day of the funeral?
The public are generally not aware that larger firms do not always have refrigeration facilities at every branch and sometimes, the deceased may be transported around Norfolk to suit their storage requirements? They sometimes keep deceased people at a central ‘hub’ and just transport people to branches when families request a viewing or for the day of the funeral. It is unfair practice to keep this hidden from families.

Do you have full refrigeration facilities or do you just use air-conditioning units?
People who have died need to be kept at a steady cold temperature that is properly monitored. Air-conditioning units are a poor, cheap substitution for correct facilities.

Do you have sufficient space so that all deceased people are resting in a dignified manner? 
Good funeral directors will provide sufficiently large back-of-house facilities so that each person is kept at a respectable distance from every other. Stacking of coffins one on top of another is appalling practice and shows a lack of dignity and respect.

Do you have your own funeral vehicles or do you hire them from elsewhere?
If a funeral home does not have its own vehicles, they will be working their funeral diary around other funeral directors that they want to hire vehicles from. This restricts the dates and times they will offer you and will sometimes delay the funeral. Funerals in Norfolk should be able to take place within two weeks, subject to the availability of the minister. If you are being told otherwise, you might want to give the crematorium a call to see what dates and times are really free!

Do you have to check with other branches before booking a funeral?
Sometimes directors have to contact related branches to see if vehicles/staff are free  and are unable to give families a full choice of when the funeral takes place. Don’t use a funeral home that prioritises its own needs above yours.

Will you show me your full facilities if I want to see them including back-of-house?
All back-of-house facilities should be clean and tidy at all times. Funeral homes should be willing to show you them without an appointment and without warning. Confidentiality of the deceased should always be maintained during this viewing.

Care of the Deceased:

Is embalming really necessary for my loved one?
Embalming is often unnecessary and is more often than not carried out to benefit funeral directors practically and financially. Embalming is an invasive procedure involving the use of chemicals. It has its place but should only be used if a funeral is going to be significantly delayed or if the deceased person is being repatriated. Funeral directors charge extra for embalming - it benefits them as they don’t need to keep the deceased person refrigerated.

Kevin Cobbold Funeral Services has been awarded the ‘Three Best Rated Funeral Director’ award for Norwich every year for the last five years. The criteria for this award involve a rigorous 50-point annual inspection which includes local reviews, history, business standards, ratings, satisfaction, trust, price and all-round trading excellence.
 
Read about the service Kevin (pictured above) provides on our website.