Whichever funeral directors you choose, you will be making a decision that will invariably be taken at a time of difficulty and emotion.
There is a lot to think about, and deciding upon a funeral director will be just one of the things to deal with, made even harder if you are not familiar with the funeral profession.
Choosing an independent funeral director, rather than one of the big chains, brings a number of advantages. Most independents are well-established family-run businesses, which means you will find they take a person-centred approach to all they do. That’s because their focus is on caring for families during their most difficult time, and that care is steeped in the knowledge and experience they have accumulated over the years.
Alongside this, independent funeral directing businesses are run and managed at a very local level rather than from a remote head office in a city hundreds of miles away. This means we are integral members of our communities and have a unique understanding of local culture.
Additionally, because the business may well have more than one generation of the family working in it (as we do at Porteous Family Funeral Directors), we understand fundamentally the importance of the quality of the service we give, and of our reputation too.
That reputation can only be built over time and through a helpful, attentive yet professional approach. The experience gained over those years enables us to tailor the funerals we provide to the precise requirements of the families we serve. Combine that with lower overheads compared to the larger, more corporate organisations, and you will find that independent funeral directors can be much less expensive.
Indeed, on the topic of price, beware of ‘funerals from X number of pounds’ offers. In our experience, such tactics often omit key elements of a funeral which, once added in, result in a final invoice far in excess of the initial ‘from price’.
As far as service goes, our team is small enough to care, but large enough to cope, so you will see the same familiar, friendly face there to support you and your family from the first moment we meet for as long as you need us, which is often beyond the funeral itself. Independent funeral firms are more than happy to provide ongoing support, ensuring your loved one continues to be commemorated and remembered exactly how you would wish.
Porteous Family Funeral Directors is proud to have been an independent, family-run business for 16 years, and our managing director, Mark Porteous, has been in the profession for more than 30 years. Our commitment is as strong as ever. We are long-standing members of the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) – indeed, Mark Porteous is currently the organisation’s president. Like the whole Porteous Family Funeral Directors team, he is fiercely proud to be an integral part of the community, whose members continue to turn to us when they need us most. And while many of the large chains are beholden to shareholders; as an independent business we’re only beholden to you, the client.
