I have had an opportunity this weekend to assess the impact of our decision to cease offering the Western Union service in August 2009. We did 405 Western Union transactions in 2008 and 198 in the seven months for which we offered the service in 2009.
We are benefiting from easier management of sales counter resources, smoother customer throughput and sell time managing cash and follow up paperwork. I cannot see a downside in the data for 2009. While some Western Union transactions included other sales, the loss is too small to register and is covered by growth elsewhere.
Our decision to no longer offer Western Union at my newsagencies came about when we answered the question what do we stand for? – in the context of our counter offer. Knowing how much newsagency customers like to be served quickly once they are at the counter, we knew we must stand for fast, efficient and friendly service for every customers. Western Union was the one service offer we had which was a barrier to achieving this. It was also the service with the potential for the most significant mistakes.
I took some time this weeked to look for a negative impact as a result of ceasing to offer Western Union. I know that decisions can be wrong so I felt it was important to see if that was the case here. I could find no negative impact.
i don’t advertise WU in my shop and only regulars know and i agree with you they don’t buy anything else.