Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes Inc. Beyond success and service

CEBU, Philippines - Building a name in an industry reluctantly accepted by the greater public can be difficult enough. Doing that plus taking action on a dream to help the whole industry grow can be grueling.Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes Inc. has tremendously advanced from when it was first established 67 years ago by Renato “Oly” Dychangco Sr. in their premiere branch in Junquera St., Cebu City.

Now it has over 22 branches all over the country that prides itself of consistently providing the best service due to its customers.

And the one-of-a-kind service of Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels did not go unrecognized.

They were recently awarded the Pursuit of Excellence Award by the Asia Funeral Expo and the National Funerals Directors Association, a premier award in the funeral industry along the Asia Pacific region. 

Kate Dychangco-Anzani, Vice President for Marketing and Business Development of CFHI Group shared of how grateful they are of winning such a prestigious award which was to recognize companies in the funeral industry that showed “industry know-how, well-established corporate portfolio with clear philosophy and vision, as well as taking sustainable developments into its corporate planning.”

Out of around 50 registrations, only seven in the Asia Pacific Region was selected, Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels included. Others were from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia and Singapore.

Kate said that they are delighted with the award because it recognizes their efforts to provide the best service for their customers, and most importantly the efforts of their father Renato “Oly” Dychangco Jr. who has continued the legacy of his father in growing and improving the death care industry in the country.

In an interview with TF, Mr. Oly Dychangco shared some particulars on the success of CFHI:

How has it been since CFHI started and what pushed you to fight for the industry:

Since around 1970, me and my dad made sure to work together. From that time on, I’ve been in the business trying to make sure that everything is in place and that we have the business professionalized. I felt that my role is not only in company but to uplift the standards of the funeral industry.

Right now I am the President of the Philippine Mortuary Association and that is really the thrust of the association. The mortuary industry in the country ever since before has been low. Even if I talk to my classmates before and tell them what industry I work in, they get scared to shake hands. When I was in the States and I took my mortuary studies there, it was totally different. That was the one that motivated me. I thought, if they have done it in the States, we can also do it here. So when I got back I made sure that I had a lot of changes, trying to pattern it after the US standards.

How’s the acceptance now of the public:

Right now, I am happy to say that it has greatly improved. The funeral industry has been professionalized. Like any hospitality business, if you go to funeral homes, not only with the Cosmopolitan side but in all of Asia, they have followed the standards of the western ways. Just like hotel standards, it’s not only on going about facilities but on the training of the people.

In fact right now, we are strengthening the training we provide in our school (Pacific Center for Advance Studies) not only for the Philippines but also in neighboring countries, like Singapore, Australia, Malaysia. We even had students from Washington D.C. because we invite resource speakers from the States. So, we are not that far behind from the western ways.

Cebu in particular in terms of acceptance, as always is all about quality. So we make sure to continuously deliver that. Number one, we are the distributor of the number one casket factory in the world and we also carry China caskets as well as manufacture our own caskets. So if we talk about good, better and best, we can say that we offer the most reasonable price of good, better and best services.

How does it feel to be receiving such a prestigious award?

We are very grateful and happy. We are one of the fortunate Asian funeral homes that qualified for this type of award. I am so happy that the facilities and the things that we have done have been recognized in a higher level. Imagine, we are still talking of Asia. There are a lot of giant players in Asia on the funeral industry. The whole process was not easy too. There were representatives from the awarding body that came here and really saw for themselves the things we offer. But Cosmopolitan has been in the industry for a long time and the experience has been a great help.

On a personal note, how are you as a businessman?

I make sure that we do everything professionally. We have a management arm that tries to run the show because we feel that running the business should be done in a professional way. Before we could go about without the check and balance and skip the other processes, but now, we can’t do that. 

Your children also work with you in the industry or have companies of their own, what do you advice them?

The thing that I always tell my children is to be honest and number two is to always uplift their integrity. I also tell them that they should make sure that they are always on top of the situation. Sometimes if the business is doing well, they say that there’s no need to improve. But for me, I feel that it’s better to be on top of the situation. Most of the failures in business is on being complacent.

How about for other people who want to achieve your success, any advice?

My advice for those who want to venture into business is again, to always be on top of any situation. Number two, they should give the best value to their customers and another thing is to innovate so you won’t get left behind.

What can the public expect from CFHI in the near future?

We make sure that even at this level now, we will still improve in what we are doing. It doesn’t mean that after the recognition, we will stop already. If the public have noticed we have been continuously upgrading our facilities and services.

We are also trying to better professionalize everything by getting more consultants and get their inputs because sometimes we may feel that we have done the best but when our consultants give us inputs on what they have seen in other parts of the world, we can see that we can still do a lot of things.

Most importantly, CFHI will continue to provide the best quality of service and accommodate the needs of the customers. — (FREEMAN)