Beginning as a one-store family business more than half a century ago, Dixons Group is today established as Europe's leading electronics retailer. Operating in 13 countries with major retail brands such as Dixons, The Link, PC World and Currys, the Group has become synonymous with choice, quality, expert advice and outstanding service.

Specialising in hi-tech consumer electronics, domestic appliances, communication products and related financial and after sales services, Dixons Group challenges itself to constantly improve customer service levels. For example, the Group has a purpose-built contact centre in Sheffield dedicated to answering customer queries or questions at all times, while its comprehensive staff training programmes ensure service is a priority in all of its stores.

Underlining its dedicated customer focus, Dixons Group has a state-of-the-art EPoS system to provide a fast and efficient service at the point of sale. Developed in-house and tailored to the needs of the business, Dixon's eclipse solution provides a complete end-to-end system to manage everything from sales and stock to customer orders. As part of the EPoS system, and to further enhance customer service, the Group is currently rolling out Epson PoS printers to 1,200 stores - these have been chosen for their functionality, performance and reliability.

Carl Rayner, In-store Installations Manager at Dixons Group explains: "Fast and quiet receipt printing was essential, as was cheque printing and endorsement functionality. Plus, with a limited amount of space in each store, it was vital that the printers we chose would fit into the available space and complement the store environment."

Three Epson printer models were selected:
TM-H6000, TM-T90 and TM-L90. An ultra-fast receipt and cheque printer, Epson's TM-H6000 perfectly met Dixon's criteria for an advanced yet easy-to-use combined printer. In addition, having previously installed Epson's TM-T88 and TM-290 printers around 12 years ago and been very impressed by them, the 2-colour thermal TM-T90 receipt printer was the natural choice for this project. And using the TM-L90 enables Dixons to print labels quickly and efficiently, helping to streamline the Dixons' returns process by allowing products to be identified at the time of transaction.

"Epson's printers enable us to work in different ways and improve processes, for example, using returns labels for product identification," said Carl. "Having a variety of different receipt printers throughout the store means that all types of transactions - cash, credit card and cheque - can be processed at multiple locations on the shop floor which avoids customer queuing to complete transactions."

The roll-out in The Link ran from June to November 2003 and following successful peak trading, the programme continued in 2004 in Currys, PC World and Dixons. This year Dixons Tax Free and Southern Ireland stores have also migrated to eclipse.

"We turned to Epson not only for its advanced hardware, but also for its dedication and expertise," said Carl. "Timing is everything and we needed to be sure that the roll-out would happen with minimum disruption to stores and customers." He continued, "Epson was totally committed to the project and was on-hand every step of the way to provide support and ensure that we met our challenging timescales."

And now with the roll-out well underway, what have been the experiences of Dixon Group's employees with Epson printers? "The feedback we have had from stores has been excellent. The printers are very easy-to-use and replenish without interruption to customer service," said Carl. "They have met all our requirements in terms of functionality and performance expectations - using Epson hardware has ultimately meant we can give our customers an improved in-store experience."

For further information contact
Ray Cranston, Epson, Tel: 01442 227491
Email: rcranston@epson.co.uk