We plan to review Western Union this year. While I like the overall offer and that it positions us well with foreign language newspaper sales, the more complex compliance requirements and the slim margin have brought it onto the radar for review.
We plan to review Western Union this year. While I like the overall offer and that it positions us well with foreign language newspaper sales, the more complex compliance requirements and the slim margin have brought it onto the radar for review.
we don’t have any visible signage for western union as our regular customers know about it.I don’t like the western union signage as it will look clutter.
LIke you I am revising our Western Union service. The extra compliance issues we have to meet have made it uneconomical.
Commission would have to be doubled at least. We do service a much larger area with WU then normal. But we only see these customers for WU and they buy nothing else although we do establish a better relationship then with a normal customer.
we had someone who said he do not have any id for us to process a WesternUnion transaction as per compliance.
We opt to turn him down, but he came back like half an hour later waving a piece of paper saying he got his transaction processed elsewhere without the id.
He was like HA HA, you dumb guys lose my business…..
So much for observing the new compliance!!!! but still we would not have taken the risk anyway, better safe than sorry.
I’m not with Western Union.
Is it a service worth while having?
If you treat WU customers right they are very likely to become regulars. I have many pleasant memories of doing WU transactions; customers are surprised and excited when you display knowledge of the country they’re sending money to, they are usually eager to talk about travel and culture, and as the transaction usually takes up to five minutes there is room for that extra yard to create a good impression. Customers have shaken my hand with glee at the end of these transactions.
WU is a bit of a community service also – some countries have banking systems that are corrupt or outrageously expensive for money transfer, and the best way some people can get money to their families is through direct fee wiring. People send money through WU for a variety of reasons, but in my experience there is an overall ethical benefit to keeping WU on board.
Sure, there are problems. Training and labour are factors. Transactions are long and volatile. As comments above have said, the margin is slim.
But I think that if WU is streamlined and implemented with great customer service it can be profitable, community-building and ethical. It is a way for newsagents to create new regular customers, some who may not even speak English well, forge new connections and contribute to Australia’s breathtaking multiculturalism.
What irks me about WU is that the fee is so low for certain “high volume” countries eg $35 fee to send up to $12500 to China.
The cost of the time taken to count the $12500 cash would exceed our commission on the transaction.
We got out of western union a few years ago for the same reasons stated in this blog ie low margins, western union customers rarely buy other products, and the complience issues were to time consuming.
Again what should have been a good traffic builder turned into a lose maker but because without huge turnover of transactions you cannot justify the time involved for such low commissions.
Newsagents need to be free to charge a reasonable fee for services offered or get compensation from the suppliers for services offered at no cost to the customer or at a low margin, this includes checking lottery tickets, home delivery fees, mobile phone recharges so we make more than 5%, we cannot continue to offer services with no compensation.
With it so easy to transfer money anywhere in the world on the internet i would not see any point in getting WU for the small margins. Also for the fact that i don’t want to hold $5000 in cash just to have the persons brother or cousin who sent the money come in a few hours after it is sent knowing i have it and rob me!!
Western Union failed to give us an adequate return for our time.
We also noticed that there were few add on sales from the customers it attracted to our store.