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Bereaved individuals often need to undertake several practical or administrative tasks, such as transferring household bills to the name of the remaining spouse, following the death of a loved one. Research suggests that 61% of bereaved adults had difficulties with these tasks.
Crooks and colleagues (2024) sought to explore the experiences of bereaved individuals interacting with private sector businesses.
This qualitative study included secondary analysis of data from 1,133 respondents to the UK Commission on Bereavement survey between September 2021 and January 2022. Adults who experienced a bereavement in the last five years were eligible to participate. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling to complete the online survey.
The survey included three questions that were analyzed in this study, including:
- ‘Did you experience any difficulties with the following practical and administrative tasks following the death?’
- ‘What was the most challenging aspect of these tasks (if any)?’
- ‘What helped you (or would have helped you) to manage these practical tasks?’
The data was analyzed using thematic analysis and three core themes emerged:
- Needs of bereaved people outside of ‘business as usual’ – Survey respondents indicated a lack of awareness among customer service personnel of how to interact with bereaved customers and unclear processes and gaps in service provision. Even when there was a dedicated bereavement department, respondents indicated that employees were unsure of their business’s procedures relating to the death of a customer.
- Admin burden while grieving – Survey respondents indicated an immense administrative burden around contacting private businesses. Challenges with contacting businesses, being left on hold, long phone queues, strict deadlines to complete tasks imposed by the business and requirements to constant provide the relationship with the deceased person were identified.
- The impact and experience of organizational failures – Most survey respondents identified emotional challenges as a result of interacting with private businesses and described the services as impersonal, insensitive and without empathy or compassion. Respondents identified receiving letters demanding payments on accounts held by the deceased, while also experiencing challenges of bank accounts of the deceased being immediately frozen.
The study reveals that some businesses are not effectively addressing the needs of bereaved customers, resulting in a negative impact on their experiences. The authors suggest that businesses:
- consider implementing a trained bereavement department or team – The benefits of this include a more compassionate and supportive experience for bereaved customers, and improved employee readiness to support them as part of their business routine.
- provide accessible guidance on processes – Aligning business processes between businesses may not be feasible, but making the bereavement process simple for employees and customers can make it easier and less stressful.
Source: Crooks, J., Warren, R., & Hudson, B. (2024). Private sector business interactions with bereaved people: UK Commission on Bereavement secondary analysis. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care.
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