In this episode we speak with Clare Montagu, CEO of Poppy’s, a funeral director serving Greater London. Poppy’s offers personalised services and has a strong focus on customer care and sustainability. Clare describes it as a mainstream choice, but better.
Clare shares how Poppy Mardall founded Poppy’s in 2012 in response to a series of television exposés on poor care of the dead and exploitative pricing in the funeral sector. Poppy’s was founded to offer dignified care for the dead as well as the bereaved, which Clare emphasises is simply the client service people expect from any other consumer business. One example of client care is that Poppy’s builds funerals around whatever is meaningful to each family, rather than pushing set packages, so only the services wanted are paid for.
Clare describes her route from Chief Operating Officer of a hospice to Poppy’s, and the ethos that defines her role. She explains why it’s important to talk about death and dying and provides some examples of what to say. She also explains how Poppy’s builds and maintains a strong culture for people doing emotionally demanding work, supporting her employees by embedding mindfulness and community into their routines. This in turn enables her team to care well for the bereaved and the dead.
On strategy, Clare explains why Poppy’s emphasises sustainable growth over rapid growth, trading speed for control. To Clare, her employees and their team culture are fundamental to their success, and she feels that rapid growth could lead to detrimental sacrifices in those areas. As part of their measured growth, Clare carefully decides where and when to open new brick-and-mortar facilities. She reflects on how to maintain a purpose-led culture as the business grows and splits across new premises.
Clare closes with a message to anyone arranging a funeral: shop around and demand better, because that is how the sector improves.
Check out the Poppy’s website.
A special thanks to Simon Lucas for suggesting this conversation!
Supported by Norman Broadbent.
Clare Montagu
