Depaul Travel

Archive for July, 2009

el throughout North America presenting workshops on death and grief. I have the honor of meeting funeral directors. I am often impressed by their commitment to families and the creation of personalized meaningful experiences. To share their inspiring stories with you, I offer this ongoing series of interviews with funeral directors whom I believe can help educate everyone connected to funeral service about the importance of striving for excellence in serving grieving families. The following interview is with Rick Allnutt, who owns and operates Allnutt Funeral Service in Northern Colorado.

How Did You Get Started In Funeral Service?

I was working as a hunting guide near Cody, Wyoming after college and needed work to get me through the winter. I thought I’d go to work for my dad and uncle’s funeral homes and then return to Cody each season to pursue a career as in outfitter. Once I got into the business-which was 20 years ago-I never went back to guiding. (But I do return almost every year to Cody to go hunting with some of my old coworkers!) I found that funeral service is very rewarding and much easier on my body than packing horses, shoeing horses and living in the mountains in the toughest of conditions!

What Are Your Current Responsibilities?

As president of the company and chairman of our management team, I oversee our operations manager, chief financial officer, and marketing manager. We spend about half’s day per week reviewing the status of current projects, personnel, finances and potential future projects. The balance of my time is spent traveling Northern Colorado attending funeral services in the communities we serve and participating in public relations events and community boards. My dad still serves on the management team, as well.

When You Think Of Excellence In Funeral Service Customer Service, What Come To Mind?

It is stated directly in our customer service goal in our customer service handbook: “Our goal is to provide quality customer service through the implementation and management of our resources, systems and people, not only to meet the expectations of our current and new customers, but to exceed them. We will do this by focusing on customer service both internally and externally and offering more value for our services than our competitors do.” This comes largely from our ability to personalize services. Having excellent customer service means we listen to the needs of families, we are responsive to their requests and we are friendly, knowledgeable and professional in delivering those services.

What Trends Do You See In Your Service Area And What Are You Doing To Respond To Those Trends?

The trends in Northern Colorado seem to be increasingly limited services for some families and increasingly personalized services for other families. The key is how you maintain facilities, staff and personnel to meet both types of families’ needs and earn a profit in doing so. We have some families that request direct cremation with no services and really don’t even come to the funeral home at all. Then we have the family that desires the use of all our personnel, your facility for several days and all of your automotive equipment. We are fortunate enough to have multiple locations with staff to pull from for the peak times, yet keep staff costs under control when they are not needed. A good bank of quality part-time staff is our best asset when it comes to getting things done.

What Do You Think The Biggest Challenge For Funeral Service Is Today?

I think the biggest challenge for us in our service area is being able to adapt to the extremely fast pace of the changes in our market. We have some large facilities that go underutilized because of consumer preferences. Real estate costs are premium in Colorado, and we must ask ourselves if we are maximizing our assets and getting the best return on our investment. There are plenty of operators in Colorado working in very limited space (some out of their homes), and we have a difficult time explaining our overhead and basic minimum services to families comparing our service fees to these low-cost/low-budget funeral directors. We must continue to be aware of what our costs are in providing services to all families and spreading overhead to them all as they come through our doors. At the same time, we need to be competitive in our fees and watch our costs to produce a fair profit to remain in business. As we enter our 120th year of service in Northern Colorado, our main focus is to remain flexible in all we provide and the way we get things done. I also think that in serving the public, you deal with so many different personalities that you must be an expert at reading people and communicating or you will not be successful at satisfying all the families you serve. If we serve 1,000 families a year, we must have a goal of 100 percent customer satisfaction, and that, as you all know, is quite a challenge!

What Do You Most Enjoy About Funeral Service?

I think for most people in funeral service, the most enjoyable thing we get is the personal gratification from the family well served. The letters and phone calls we receive from families that tell us they were completely satisfied are what we work for. I recently received a lengthy letter from a family that was served by our team in a location, and they mentioned everything we train our staff to do. It’s so nice when the entire team works together to make sure things go right for a family and even nicer when the family recognizes the efforts you all put forth!

What Do You Do For Self Care That Keeps You Renewed As You Serve Families?

Living in Colorado it’s easy to take care of yourself. Just get to the mountains for skiing, golfing, hunting, rafting, hiking, biking, camping, fishing or whatever else comes to mind. I’m a true believer in balancing work and play. I truly love the outdoors, and Colorado is a great place to live for me.

When You Contemplate The Future Of Funeral Service, What Comes To Mind?

I think the future of funeral service lies in creativity and flexibility. We must think way outside the box when it comes to our future. We must consider where locations need to be and what they need to look like. We need to consider who our staff is and how they are used. We must maximize our use of equipment, facilities and staff in a world of rising costs and declining profits. That’s what our management team works on every week for a half a day, and the rest of the time we’re out providing excellent customer service at a reasonable fee. There are plenty of other quality providers doing the same thing in our service area. We all need to be aware that in order to make it into our 121st year, we’ve got to concentrate on providing consistent excellent customer service to each family that asks us to help them through the death of someone dear to them. Pretty basic isn’t it.

The Rocky Mountains spectacular mountain scenery, pristine national parks, fascinating old gold mining towns, and authentic wild-west re-creations attract millions of visitors to the region every year. The Rockies stretch from Canada to New Mexico (more than 3,000 miles) and are perfect for touring, especially during the summer months, when the temperature (during the day) averages a very comfortable 70-80 degrees F. It gets very cold here in winter, so plan your drive for the warmer months, when roads are sure to be open and the attractions are at their best.

If you’re an independent traveler that enjoys touring by car, here’s an itinerary that includes some of the regional highlights. Travel time is about two weeks and the total distance about 1500 miles. Be sure to take your rain gear and of course your camera.

On your first day, take a good look around Denver – especially the lower downtown area, with its trendy shops, restaurants and galleries. If you’ve still got time, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is worth a visit.

Next day, head for Cheyenne, just 102 miles to the north. An interesting place to stay is the Nagle Warren B&B (an 1880s cattleman’s mansion). Be sure to visit the famous Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum, to have a look at their western art exhibitions. Every July, the town celebrates Frontier Days, complete with parade, rodeo and many wild-west themed events.

There’s lots to see in South Dakota, so make an early start and head for Custer State Park, about 264 miles to the northeast. Plan to stay at least a couple of nights. The park, located in the Black Hills, has 71,000 acres of spectacular terrain, terrific fishing, jeep tours to see the bison herds, and panoramic hiking trails. You can stay at the State Game Lodge, or pitch your tent in a pine forest alongside a gently flowing stream.

Back to Wyoming and beyond

Drive back to Wyoming, northwest to Sheridan (235 miles), where a stay at the Ranch at Ucross, Clearmont, (about 30 miles south of Sheridan) features delicious home cooking, and a sing along in the evening around the piano. It’s a great way to get the feel of this ranching area, set between the plains to the east and the Big Horn Mountains to the west.

Start out early and head due west, for the 240-mile trip to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The area is known for its scenic beauty, wildlife, and geothermal activity – two-thirds of the world’s geysers are located in the park! Be sure to book your accommodation well ahead and stay for at least two nights. And watch out for the bears!

The next leg of your journey is a short drive (80 miles) to the magnificent Grand Teton National Park, with its dramatic, jagged mountains, pristine lakes, and glaciers. Here there’s plenty of outdoor activity – boating and fishing, hiking, climbing and horseback riding – so plan on staying for at least a couple of days. For accommodation, you might try the Painted Buffalo in Jackson – a very trendy, friendly town.

Start off early and you’ll get to Steamboat Springs for lunch (385 miles). Along the Victorian boardwalk you’ll find many western-style restaurants where you can sample the renown Rocky Mountain oysters (bull testicles). In the afternoon, take a look through the antique shops or try a relaxing tube cruise down the Tampa River. Then early next morning, before the 3-hour drive back to Denver, go for a hot air balloon ride – the perfect finish to a most memorable trip.

Constantly coming up with unique vacation ideas can really be challenging. Aside from the destination to decide on, there are the itinerary and activities you have to worry about. For every travel opportunity, it is but natural for all of us to want to try and experience something we have never tried before. It will be more worth the trip and be fonder in our memories to have come back from a vacation having explored something new. Springing from this desire are the fitness spa vacation ideas that are gaining a huge deal of popularity to everyone who finds himself or herself tasked to do the travel plans.

The idea of fitness spa vacations is very simple, but it certainly yields a world of rewards. Being able to discover new places while transforming yourself into a healthier and stronger you is just amazing. It is essentially shooting two birds with one stone. On one hand, you get to enjoy and explore a part of the world that you have never seen before. On the other hand, you get to engage yourself in a physical activity. Both are things you wish you could find the opportunity to do more often in your very busy and fast-paced life.

Food has always been a staple on every travel opportunity. Because of that, it has always been assumed that traveling and gaining weight coincide. Fitness spa vacations, however, sway you from that idea, by preparing different programs for you to choose from and, at the same time, meals for you to indulge yourself that are healthy and nutritious.

There are many different fitness vacation ideas that you can get into. All of which promise that you get home from the trip looking and feeling far better than when you were packing your gear and getting ready for it. Fitness spa vacations provide the best locations in the world to explore, the chance to get educated on your health, gain health, lose weight and, most importantly, have fun.

Fitness spa vacations have different tour destinations. It is all for you to decide which part of the globe you wish to experience and to be the venue for your physical activities. The tours alone are inviting. There are those that take you to the rain forests of Costa Rica, the ancient avenues of Rome, the magnificent Yellowstone National Park in the side of Wyoming, the Alps and even nautical adventures via cruise ships en route to the Mediterranean.

The physical challenges you can join vary. They are all dependent on the participant’s physical state and endurance. No activity is forced on any participant. A physical assessment on the participant is conducted by a team of health staff to check on his or her strength and capabilities with the purpose of identifying the activities that will help him or her gain the most health benefits. Hiking and other outdoor activities are complemented by the dozens of training equipment and indoor classes offered in the spa. All outdoor and indoor activities are supervised by professional guides and trainers.

The spas supplement all the outdoor and indoor activities of the trip. They pamper you with all sorts of treatments to relax the muscles that have been working the entire trip. There are facial treatments, body massages and more. These are all administered in cozy and comfortable interior spaces to set both your mind and body in a relaxing state.

It is never a vacation without having to experience the local cuisine. With that in mind, the health coaches as well as the team of nutritionists and dietitians prepare menus that quenches your desire to have a bite of the local cuisine without compromising the health program you have engaged yourself in for this vacation. So, dare to eat all you can and all you want – guilt-free! The meals are guaranteed to be served in appropriate servings and are all to help you achieve your recommended daily nutritional intake.

Thousands of people save up for their travel expenses year after year in the hopes of being able to bring home priceless memories. That being said, going to a fitness spa vacation is one of the best things you can invest in as you gain one of the most important gifts you can ever give yourself: health. After all, health is wealth.