The Pioneer interview with... Richard Gomersall

Can you be a customer pioneer in the funeral business? Richard Gomersall shows that it is possible

Richard has pioneered in a number of roles starting when he was MD of Co-op Funeralcare where we met and worked with him, then later on, Chair of Kemnal Park Cemetery leading to becoming CEO of GreenAcres Group, a bigger cemeteries and burials business that bought Kemnal Park.

You would think that being a customer pioneer in businesses around the ends of people’s lives might be a considerable challenge.... Read on. 

At Co-op Funeralcare he led the creation of a new category of product, Funeral Plans, an idea sparked by realising there were hidden unmet needs around funerals. Because dying is a taboo subject, most people wouldn’t talk about it, and then when someone dies, the people organising what happens are mainly concerned that they don’t get it wrong. So it doesn’t feel personal, like something that fully reflects the deceased. It can also cost quite a lot, and paying for it can become another burden on the people around the deceased. 

The ideal of a funeral plan was to allow individuals to start saving for their own funeral a long way ahead, taking the financial burden away from those who remain, AND allowing them to understand much more fully ways they can celebrate life and be commemorated or laid to rest afterwards. This might cost more but there’s time to pay for it and then confidence all round that this is what they would have wanted. The Funeralcare business benefits too, with cashflow coming in well ahead of funerals, commitment to go with them, and more being spent on it all when it happens as a premium service not a distress purchase. 

When Richard got involved in GreenAcres, it was a business losing money, owned by VCs more interested in KPIs and targets than the customer. But Richard wanted to make it better for customers at one of the most difficult times they’re likely to experience, as well as making it a successful commercial business model. He had the same insight brought with him from the Co-op, but now applied to a business much more directly involved, and with more types of customer to consider too – funeral directors as one. A programme of listening to find out what each of the groups of customers liked, disliked and really wanted led to a range of innovations and options, more competitive pricing, and comprehensive aftercare.  

And investors have been as pleased as customers, increasing turnover fivefold, from losing money to substantial profits. Numbers of services across their sites rose from 400 to nearly 3,000 a year, and with 100% Trust Pilot five-star ratings.  

Q. You’ve had a wonderfully varied career. Can you tell us a little about it?

Sure. People often remember me for my work in the funeral sector, but I’ve only spent about six years there in total! My background is actually broader – I’ve been in retail and service-led businesses for nearly 40 years. I started with Bass, the brewers, then moved to Magnet Kitchens after their buyout. I made myself redundant there, funnily enough, by recommending a change they followed through on!

From there, I joined Asda in the early ’90s when Archie Norman and Allan Leighton were transforming the business, a brilliant time to learn about being customer-led. Later, I worked at Mothercare, then spent eight years with the Co-op Group. I initially worked on sorting out banking and finance issues. I then went to the home store business and did the merger between the CRS and CWS to form the Co-operative Group. I was then asked to run both the farming and funeral businesses because they needed a fresh approach.

Since 2009, I’ve run my own advisory business, working across sectors – retail, financial services, furniture, and more – mainly in turnaround and board roles.

But… along the way, there was another stint of nearly four years running cemetery businesses first as chairman of Kemnal Park and then as CEO of the Greenacres Group, a broader funeral services and memorial park business.

Q. The common thread seems to be stepping into businesses that are stuck or struggling. What’s your approach in those situations?

I’ve always framed it as ‘turning vision into value’. Either organisations don’t have a clear vision, or they can’t execute the one they’ve got. I focus on what I call the ‘Three Cs’: Customers, Colleagues, and Cash – in that order.

What do customers really want? Not what you think they want, what they actually want. Then, how do you get colleagues aligned behind that? And lastly, what cash is available to enable that vision, or how do you free it up by focusing on the first two Cs?

If you align customers and colleagues well, cash tends to follow.

Q. It sounds obvious when you say it, but many organisations get stuck in strategy or structure. Why do you think that happens?

Sometimes we overcomplicate things. I often describe strategy as setting the destination – the top of the mountain. Then the question is, who’s on the expedition team, what’s in the rucksack and how are we going to get there?

And a lot of it is about clarity and communication. I love the idea that good internal marketing is about clarity, consistency, and connection. If people across the organisation don’t understand the ‘why’ in simple terms, they won’t deliver the ‘how’ effectively.

For example, at GreenAcres, we would hold park action review meetings every month and a standing item on the agenda was how have we met (exceeded) customer needs. The two main KPIs were grow market share by working closely with our partners and communicates and deliver excellent customer feedback because we have delivered what is important. We would communicate this every six months to the broader team through roadshows. We told them what was happening warts and all and asked for their ideas and suggestions to improve things – it worked we grew the business six-fold in 3 years.

Q. Let’s talk about your time turning around Co-operative Funeralcare, a fascinating and challenging environment.

Absolutely. At the time, we were a £200 million business with 600 locations and 3,500 colleagues. One of our biggest challenges was cultural – breaking down Victorian traditions that no longer served the customer.

So a quick story, I visited a funeral branch and asked the lady where the computer was because they were now doing the processing and invoicing at branch level, and she said, oh, it's in the cupboard. So I looked in the cupboard and the computer was still in the box! Six months after rollout, she hadn’t even plugged it in. That meant no invoices were being sent out, which isn’t just a financial issue, but a customer one as families weren’t getting closure. Colleagues were confused. Cash wasn’t coming in...

So how do you tackle that? You have to be bold in many ways. We had to unwind the new processes and rebuild them around what actually worked. Bring the processing back into hubs, put people in who know how to do it and let frontline colleagues focus on what we want them to do – caring for clients.

Q. And there was a lightbulb moment around customer feedback too, right?

Yes, the business claimed 98% customer satisfaction. I didn’t believe it. It wasn’t bad service, but 98%? That’s perfection. It turned out we were sending feedback forms the day after the funeral, along with the invoice. Of course, people were emotionally relieved it went smoothly, but they hadn’t had time to reflect.

When we followed up three to six months later through listening sessions, scores dropped to the 60%. The reason? People didn’t realise what was possible at the time. They were secretly disappointed – not angry, just unaware they had choices.

So, we re-engineered the arrangement process to offer real choice, even when people were grieving. And we empowered colleagues to say “yes” to customer requests – whatever they might be. “Can we drive past the football stadium?” Yes. “Can we bring them on a tractor?” Yes. Unless there’s a legal reason not to, the answer is yes.

Q. This was a huge cultural shift. How did you bring colleagues along?

Most of the frontline colleagues got it right away. The challenge was what I call the permafrost layer – middle management who were used to interpreting instructions conservatively, avoiding risk.

We broke through that by being persistent. We held a big conference, then regional roadshows – interactive sessions followed by informal chats over food. I’d hear directly from colleagues: “They won’t let us do this.” And I’d say, “Who is it who won’t let you? It’s just me and the ops director, we’re both here and we’re both saying yes.”

We followed up with videos and listening sessions. It wasn’t easy, but once you melt that permafrost, the change really starts to stick.

Q. You’ve worked with both large and small organisations. What’s different when it comes to becoming customer-led?

The biggest difference is speed. In a small business, you can sit down with the whole team every week. In a big business, communication takes time, repetition, and planning.

But the challenges are similar: misunderstanding what the customer really wants, fear of change, or getting pulled inward by investor or operational pressures.

The trick is staying outward-focused. Keep asking: Are we still solving a real customer problem? Are we listening?

Q. You now support the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme. What’s your role there?

I mentor a group of businesses through the programme’s 14-week growth journey. It’s very structured. It starts with vision, then understanding your customer, before moving into marketing, finance, ops, and people.

While I don’t push my Three Cs formally, they come up in conversation. And it’s clear the most successful participants are those who really get the customer insight piece and keep coming back to it throughout their growth planning.

Q. Why do you think being customer-led is so hard for many businesses?

Honestly? I find it baffling that more businesses don’t naturally work this way. But if I had to guess, it’s that internal pressures take over. There’s politics. There’s the pressure to cut costs, to please investors. People stop looking outwards.

Some organisations start customer-focused, then forget why they began. They don’t keep refreshing that understanding. They think they already know.

Q. Are there any organisations you admire that do get it right?

A few. Everyone mentions Apple or Disney, and rightly so. But I always liked Transport for London’s whiteboards. That’s customer empathy, every day, right where it matters.

Early EasyJet is another. They removed the frills, focused on pain points, and created something simple and valuable.

And then there’s Future Leaders, a charity I support. They help young people from underrepresented backgrounds access university and leadership pathways. It came from understanding the ‘customer’ - talented kids without role models. That insight shapes everything they do. It’s purpose-led and life-changing.