Haskell-Hott Funeral Homes (Princeville, Wyoming, Toulon, IL) has seen some major changes over the last five years. With the help of NFDA-provided resources, the firm has made some positive and much needed improvements to the three funeral homes acquired in February 2013.

The businesses have been around, with separate and varying owners, since the early to mid-1900s. In February 2013, Bert and Veronica Haskell did something no other director had done prior – purchased all three funeral homes and operate them under one name, Haskell-Hott Funeral Homes.

The owners changed the business model for the very first time and streamlined how day-to-day activities are run. The Haskells updated the funeral home’s website with a Frazer Consultants-powered one, now create memorial DVDs in-house, worked with a local florist to allow people to order flowers directly from the website, offer personalized and fully custom printing packages for families and expanded the staff in 2016 with a recent female mortuary school graduate. Veronica Haskell became a certified funeral celebrant in 2015, the firm added a professionally trained comfort dog to the staff in 2017, increased community involvement and support throughout the three towns and surrounding areas, provides free preplanning events to educate people about the importance of “having the talk of a lifetime,” sent two of its directors to the NFDA Arranger Training Program in Wisconsin last year, built a grief library, remodeled an old casket room and created a new, updated family lounge and arrangement conference area equipped with a kitchenette, all while making sure the staff is able to have a work/life balance so as to not fall into the typical funeral service burnout.