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Welcome to Module 7 of our online course for funeral directors. This month we’re introducing our new online financing solution for funeral directors.

Following our partnership with zipMoney (a licensed and regulated credit provider, Australian Credit Licence No. 441878), we are now able to activate 3-months’ interest & fee-free finance for funeral directors, directly through the Gathered Here website.

Here’s a short demo video of how it works. As you can see, everything occurs online and the entire process takes only a few minutes.

Why offer customers interest-free finance?

At an incredibly difficult time, the last thing families want to do is discuss finances and investigate accessing funds. The ability to give grieving customers the freedom to pay in their own time is a valuable service to offer.

Imagine a customer in need of funeral services. The customer may have a number of stressful, inconvenient or complicated options open to them to pay for the funeral, including:

• temporarily paying for the funeral out of their own personal savings;
• accessing their superannuation to pay for the funeral;
• arranging for payment via a life insurance policy; or
• waiting on funds from the deceased estate.

What if you could relieve them of this stress and offer a solution where:

• there will be nothing to pay upfront;
• they have 3 months to pay for the funeral; and
• there is no additional cost as the finance is interest-free and they receive a rebate on all fees.

It’s likely that you would attract a new customer and, at the same time, allow that customer and their family the space to focus on what matters most.

Example

The table below sets out examples of how much a customer would have to repay in different financing scenarios. As you can see, in all scenarios, the financing is always interest and fee-free.

Important Note: zipMoney generally only approves finance for prime, near prime or emerging prime consumers. We do not promote the practice of lending money at high interest rates to those who are unlikely to be able to repay.

What are the costs?

Merchant Fee

zipMoney charges a Merchant Fee to funeral directors. In exchange, funeral directors are paid upfront and don’t have to chase payment from customers. zipMoney takes on the credit and fraud risk.

Marketplace Fee

Gathered Here charges a Marketplace Fee to funeral directors, the majority of which is used to rebate customers the fees they pay to zipMoney, ensuring a completely interest and fee-free solution.

Why should the funeral director pay fees?

Unlike other personal loan products, which charge the customer interest and fees, under the arrangement with zipMoney, the funeral director effectively absorbs the cost of the financing.

Why should the funeral director absorb this cost?

Offering interest-free finance allows funeral directors to win additional customers that they would not otherwise have won. And while there’s a fee, it’s a fee on an extra sale.

The results also speak for themselves. zipMoney is used by over 6,000 merchants including some of the biggest and most well-known companies in Australia (such as Fantastic Furniture, Kogan, Open Colleges, Webjet and Kathmandu). Why do all of these merchants agree to effectively pay fees so their customers can purchase on interest-free terms?

The reason is simple: it results in increased sales and increased average transaction size. According to zipMoney’s statistics, merchants who offer zipMoney see an increase in sales of 30% and 80% increased order value.

Conclusion

Our on-the-spot, online finance solution is a first for the funeral industry – and it poses a new approach to how funeral directors have traditionally thought about marketing and customer acquisition. It’s a good example of how technology is shaping consumer behaviours and offering funeral directors new opportunities to succeed.

Next month we’ll look at how funeral directors should analyse the various tools and digital marketing channels available to them with a deep dive into Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

In the meantime, if you’re interested in offering interest-free finance to your customers, or more generally discussing how to position your business for success in the online era, we’d love to chat.

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