When Western Union needed to reach out to foreign workers in Singapore and increase in-store foreign exchange transactions they came to ALIVE. The communities we needed to engage are hugely diverse, fragmented, reticent, and skeptical of corporations. From our first interactions with foreign workers, we found that the choice of remittance provider was driven by a wide variety of personal characteristics and country-specific factors, not just rates. We knew right away that we had to address attitudes and objections that were rooted in anecdotes, uninformed recommendations and misperceptions.
Our strategy was to build trust with foreign domestic and construction workers through conversation, sharing, and mostly by listening. This meant reaching with our ears first and our voices second. ALIVE focused activations around cultural and religious festivals, combining outreach with promotional offers at key times of the year. We recruited and trained 40 brand ambassadors not only in 5 native languages and more than 10 regional dialects. Our customer experience ambassadors supported WU store staff in 21 locations across Singapore helping them to achieve and exceed commercial targets for key remittance corridors.
ALIVE continues to support Western Union in community engagement, seasonal promotions, digital migration and in-store activation.