By Jonathan A. Steiner, vice president at Air Esscentials
No matter how beautiful the flowers or flattering the words describing the deceased, nothing can alter the absolute finality of personal loss.
For funeral home directors, owners and managers, you often see customers at the absolute worst time in their lives, coping with the agonizing loss of a loved one. You do your best to soothe them, often working behind the scenes to make an unpleasant life event as pleasant and organized as possible.
In some cases, soft music accompanied by soothing, linear and diffused scents strategically situated throughout greeting areas, lobby, chapel/viewing areas and even restrooms can serve to alleviate the pervasive stress, frustration, anxiety, tension and sadness of the moment and provide a serene spot to go in the mind’s eye where, for even a few fleeting moments, the distraction can relieve the torment of emotional pain.
But how do you provide effective odor neutralization along with reliably diffused calming fragrances for those honoring their loved ones?
Read on as I, a funeral home scenting expert, provide insight on how ambient scenting can enhance your environment, which scents are best for grieving environments, how to effectively combat malodors and discuss of an array of large and small area scent machine options that can help provide evenly, linear scent diffusion for any space, large or small.
Funeral Scents and Common Sense – Enhancing with Fragrance
Over the past 19 years that I’ve been in the funeral scenting/odor control business, I’ve written extensively about the power of scent and how it can improve workplace productivity in office environments, reinforce brand recognition for hotels, heighten energy for workout rooms and fitness centers, or establish a sense of calm and rejuvenation for medical and holistic facilities.
So, how do you approach the delicate matter of helping to alleviate the natural responses that come from the process of grieving as it pertains to scent?
Innately, funeral scents should be light, comforting and fresh.
Some funeral homes use air fresheners, candles and other perfumes to TRY to accomplish this. Unless a family has designated the creation of a special scent to symbolize their loved one’s life force and passion, a funeral home should diffuse a fragrance that is nurturing, uplifting and so unique that mourners are not likely to associate it with any other. It becomes your brand.
Ambient scenting is an artform and can be a tremendous mood enhancer, and the selected pleasant and almost subliminal aroma must be diffused subtly and almost imperceptibly to achieve its full effect on a roomful of mourners. Candles and plug ins cannot accomplish this – only special diffusers large or small can.
The most common scent associated with funerals and other spiritual ceremonies has been incense. By the 5th century AD, scented oils as well as incense became integrated with religious rituals across Europe, including those of both Judaism and Christianity. The secret language of floral scents expressed those feelings that were too painful to vocalize, and they also served to mask the unpleasant odors of decomposition. The aromatic essence of fragrant blooms is integral to almost every type of funeral service.
Today, blends of classic floral scents are often employed to create a favored funeral home fragrance, and essential floral oils can render emotional stress a little easier to tolerate. Many of the aromas for funeral service that I developed over the years now include odor neutralizers that smell amazing. They eliminate any malodor that may arise in your funeral home. They also have a calming and comforting effect on grieving families and their guests.
In terms of aromatherapy, some essential oils that can be diffused to help ease grief and sadness include citrusy, bitter and tart Bergamot; soothing Chamomile; intensely sweet Jasmine; deep piney and citrusy Marjoram; sweet and somewhat metallic, honey; spicy and fruity Rose; pungent, warm and slightly sugary Nutmeg; lemony and woody Frankincense; lemon, earthy and woody aromas and creamy, sweet Vanilla.
Ambient Scenting and Air Freshening Systems for Funeral Homes
In the past some funeral homes sometimes used conventional air fresheners and candles. They alone were not effective enough to neutralize the odors inherent in such spaces or evenly distribute scent throughout smaller and larger interior environments. They could also be a fire hazard should they be knocked over or left unattended.
With nearly 20 years of laboratory and on-site experience, I know full-well that a scent is only as good as the air freshening system diffusing it, and my nearly two decades of refinements have resulted in an arsenal of high-tech, state–of-the-art applications and equipment to suit the odor control and scenting needs of any-sized funeral home.
These applications are all wirelessly controlled from your phone. Set it and forget it. We let the machine do the work. You focus on the needs of grieving families.
A Few Additional Ambient Elements to Consider
Funerals and death are part of the cycle of life, and grief for every culture and tradition known to mankind has its own means of expression.
Catholics stay for up to a week with the loved one’s body and believe that death is the passing from the physical world to the afterlife, where the deceased’s soul will live in heaven, hell, or purgatory. Jewish people sit shiva and create a space that includes covering all the mirrors in their homes during their mourning period. Greeks observe a forty-day mourning period after the funeral, and several cultures follow a body or coffin to its final destination. In New Orleans, this is a celebratory affair where an orchestra playing Dixieland jazz follows the casket to the cemetery. The need to say “goodbye” is as universal as death itself.
The sudden loss of a loved one temporarily shatters all reality and perception. Funeral managers must handle matters delicately and deal with business matters when people are emotionally distraught. The grieving process takes time, and I’ve learned in my funeral service training that there are five distinct stages, but for each person the length and degree of suffering will vary. They are denial and isolation; anger; bargaining; depression and finally acceptance.
The Business of Death and Honoring the Deceased
In a recent Buzzfeed article, Forbes estimated the funeral market industry in the United States to glean about $20.7 billion per year. There are, on average, 2.4 million funerals per year within the United States. Costs for a typical funeral range from $8,000 to $10,000. There are also about 130,000 employees that make a living by preparing the dearly departed for their eternal rest. Additionally, according to the New York Times, the rates of women graduating from mortuary schools are up. “In 1995, 35 percent of students enrolled in the country’s 57 mortuary schools were women; today, it is 60 percent.”
The trend towards personalization is becoming more and more popular in funeral services. This includes so much more than a pastor, priest or rabbi reciting things the family told him or her about the deceased. It means honoring the qualities the deceased possessed, and in the case funeral home directors, providing a soothing, fragrance-enhanced environment.
Identifying And Eliminating Funeral Parlor Malodors
Bad odors in any environment are bad for any business or experience; a smelly, offensive odor wafting through such a sacred time as a funeral service is unacceptable, and you need to guard against that for the sake of your business – but also for the sake of those honoring their loved ones.
Funereal parlor malodors are challenging and very different from others. They are most often directly related to the daily operations of the funeral home, which might include embalming fluid, which can smell astringent. If the embalming chamber is poorly ventilated and a potent fluid is used, nearby rooms may have very unpleasant odors, including public washrooms.
Some other common odors include cleaning products, residue from clients who are heavy smokers, have poor personal hygiene or who wear heavy perfume. Even some floral arrangements and plants sent to the funeral home for the family can have odd and even funky smells.
The prep area in a funeral home is the only room that should have a strange smell. All other spaces should reflect familiarity and a home-like atmosphere. The funeral parlor is not and can never be home, but it can render soothing sounds and pleasing scents to help to simulate a comfortable and homey setting.
Me and my funeral team both understand how to utilize the power of scent to create a caring and comforting environment for funeral parlors. We also know how to eliminate odors. Our patented odor neutralizing additives are used within many of our fragrances and diffuser systems – they effectively neutralize malodors at the molecular level. There is no more powerful solution to remove unpleasant odors within any interior space.
In Conclusion
The business of death and dying in some ways is like any other when it comes to pleasing their customers with their services and offerings. It is the emotional element that sets the profession apart from all others.
In this regard, funeral directors can compete by providing a soothing experience for their clients. Little things can mean a lot when people are coping with the loss of a loved one. The proper scent infused within such a setting can make all the difference in the world.
If you own or operate a funeral home and are looking to enhance your environment, don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly for a one-on-one meeting. You can also call me at 561-644-2023
Thank you all for the work you do for families in their greatest time of need.
Jonathan A. Steiner, the vice president of enterprise sales scent marketing at Air Esscentials, is a seasoned professional with extensive sales and marketing success in senior care, health care, the funeral profession and other fields. He has a mortuary science education and has studied all facets of the profession. You can email him at Jonathan@airesscentials.com. Visit www.airesscentials.com to learn more about the company.
