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April 2011 Page 13Tel: 01923 272960THE INTERVIEW - WESTERN UNIONEmail: grocery@flame1.comWESTERN UNIONA LEADER IN INTERNATIONAL MONEY TRANSFER ROUND THE CORNERWestern Union is one of theleading money transfercompanies in the world,offering an easy and convenient way tosend money to families and friendsalmost anywhere on earth. With around445,000 Agent locations in more than200 countries and territories aroundthe globe, a great deal of the company’ssuccess is based on the trading relationshipsit has established over manyyears.Western Union takes pride in beingclose to its consumers and in itsalliances with Agents. Through itsAgents, Western Union speaks its consumers'languages, lives in theirneighbourhoods and shares their cultures,playing a significant part in theirlives. In the UK Western Unionoffers its services in cooperationwith a growing network ofretailers and is looking to grow itsnetwork still further.The Grocery Trader talks toRajiv Garodia, Regional VicePresident for Western Europe.Rajiv and his team are based inLondon.The Grocery Trader – Rajiv, canyou sum up for our readers whatWestern Union does?Western Union does the“classic” money transfer servicethrough Agent locations, but alsovia mobile payments, onlinethrough westernunion.com orthrough bank accounts. To give youan idea about our network, WesternUnion processes over 1 milliontransactions every day. And each ofthese interactions also means thatan opportunity is created forsomeone somewhere in the world.According to our consumer research,currently 85% of Western Union’s consumersare working migrants seekingopportunity abroad.GT - How is the money transferred?How quickly does it reach the person atthe other end?The money is available for collectionwithin minutes from completing thetransfer, depending on time zones andopening hours on the receiver’s side.Consumers fill out a simple ‘To SendMoney’ form specifying the country andbeneficiary, and after handing over theprincipal and fee to an Agent, the MoneyTransfer Control Number is producedand money is ready for collection on theother side of the world!GT - Why would a customer go to aWestern Union location rather thansend money via a bank?A bank can only send money toanother bank. We can do cash to cash,account to account or account to cash.Many of Western Union’s consumerseither do not have bank accounts or aresending money to people, relatives orfriends who do not have bank accounts.And we also offer additional convenience;many of our locations –particularly those in the retail sector –are open well beyond traditional workinghours. Some are even open 24 hours aday, including Saturdays and Sundays.GT - What is the make up of yourconsumer base?The majority are people who moveoverseas to work and send money home.However our consumers include anyonewho has a need to send money quickly,for example in an emergency or forgifting.We have a number of marketing initiativesto show how our services canmeet the needs of a wider range of consumers,for instance encouraging peopleto send money as gifts via WesternUnion at times like Christmas and Easter.We have a diverse range of new channelsand products, such as online moneytransfer, cash-to-account and accountto-cash,and now mobile money transfer.Some of these, especially Internet basedsolutions, are best placed to meet theneeds of, say, a parent who wants tosend money to a child backpackingaround Asia on their gap year, orsomeone wanting to send a gift abroad.GT - You seem to be very proud ofyour Agents’ network. What is so specialabout it?Our agents typically have a deepunderstanding of the communities theyserve. This comes from the long tenureand experience within our category, andvery often the fact that they live in thesecommunities themselves.GT - How do you integrate newAgents in your network? Will you putyour own employees in stores or do youhave to train up the existing store staff?The good news is, there is very littletechnical integration required, once thestore or network is set up with theWestern Union® money transfer technologyand the existing store staff – werefer to them as Front Line Associates -have received the appropriate training.The training is web-based and takes acouple of hours, as the software is veryintuitive and based on zero-training principles.The compliance aspect is a vitalpart of the training, and Western Unionis renowned for best-in-class AML complianceprograms. We also providebranding, in store POS and marketingsupport, looking constantly at how toimprove the customer experience, inorder to make transactions faster andmore efficient, for example by introducingthe Western Union® Gold Card toreward loyalty and minimise paperwork.GT - What characterises the UK as amarket for Western Union’s services?The UK is central to our business injust the same way it is central to theglobal economy. It is a matured economyand still attractive to migrants, who arekey in our customer base. The environmentis challenging but business friendly,and the necessary infrastructure andquality human resources are available.GT - How many agents do you workwith in the UK?We currently work with eightmaster agents and we have nearly12,000 Agent locations in the UK, ofwhich 60% are independent retailers.GT - What kinds of outlets provideWestern Union services in the UK?Legislation in the UK allows us topartner with businesses outside thetraditional financial institutions.There is a wide variety of retail channelsand businesses that offer theservice in the UK. We have signedsome big retail chains, including Co-opTravel and pharmacy groups, as well asa large variety of well established andtrusted local retailers. These could benewsagents, pharmacies, ethnic foodstores, travel agents or bureaux dechange – essentially, anywhere that ourconsumers may visit frequently. We haverecently signed with Martin McColl, theUK’s largest independent retailer of newspapersand convenience stores.Consumers have different requirementsand expectations based on their needs, andwe therefore try to match that with a diversenetwork. Some may prefer to use a wellknownnational brand name, whereas somewill prefer the individual service they areoffered by their local independent retailer.GT - Are you looking for more UKretailers to become agents? What kindsof retailers are you looking to recruit?What POS equipment etc does a retailerneed to have in place?The market still shows huge opportunitiesand we therefore need Agents toRajiv Garodia, Regional Vice President forWestern Europe.facilitate this potential growth. Agentsneed to have a retail location, and ideally- but not essentially - a PC.GT - What benefits are there for theretailer from being a Western UnionAgent?First of all, the retailer gets commissionfrom each transaction, but thebenefits for the retailer go beyond that.Increased footfall is by far the singlebiggest reason why retailers sign up asWestern Union Agents, especially in thecorporate arena. Our research showsthat money transfer is the primaryreason for visiting the store for 4 out of 5customers, and over three quarters ofWestern Union customers purchaseadditional items while there.GT - How do you work with majormultiple retailer clients to maximise thesales opportunity?We make it our business to ensure agood business product fit with theclient’s existing product portfolio.GT - What equipment and signage doretailers get as part of the WesternUnion® package?We provide a standard starter packfor every new Agent. This contains allthe necessary sales collateral, basicpoint-of-sale (POS) materials and merchandisingitems to get them started.We can then have additional POS,based on space availability and theneed of the particular Agent. POS is akey driver and an area in which we aresensitive to our client’s in-storebranding policy. We also offer a webbased transactional software(WUPOS), which could be either astandalone solution or fully integratedwith the agent’s existing platform.GT - What are the steps to becominga Western Union agent?Anyone who is already in business caneither email wurslondonsalessupportuk@westernunion.com or call the businessdevelopment team on 0208 563 6614,who will be happy to help. We pride ourselveson our thorough enrolmentprocess and registration.WESTERN UNION TEL: 0208 563 6614 EMAIL: WURSLONDONSALESSUPPORTUK@WESTERNUNION.COM WWW.WESTERNUNION.CO.UK