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Meyer Sound Mexico
In the span of only five years, Meyer Sound Mexico (MSM) has grown from a modest, home-based sales office to a thriving enterprise with three locations and a full-time staff of fourteen. The company's rapid growth can be attributed, in large measure, to a firm belief that customer support is of paramount importance to continuing success. "MSM is about providing customers with solutions," notes general manager Antonio Zacarías on the occasion of the regional office's fifth anniversary. "That commitment is what has gained us the respect we have today, not only in the Mexican pro audio industry but throughout Latin America." Meyer Sound Mexico was established in 1997, when Scott Gledhill, then Director of Latin American Sales for Meyer Sound, could not find a suitable distributor in the country to operate an authorized service center. The small existing service facility, which also operated out of his home, was relocated to new MSM offices in the south of Mexico City. The first employees hired for the new enterprise were Salvador Tovar as service tech, Valentín Vite as sales manager and Zacarías as customer support manager. Initially, product service was the primary focus, as customers in Mexico were eager for a high-quality equipment supplier that could also provide fast turnaround on repairs. Delays of a month or more on USA-made equipment were not unusual. "Today," remarks Tovar, "Meyer service is just an easy phone call away, and we carry a complete stock of replacement parts for immediate shipment or replacement at our facility." Once the service department was running smoothly, the focus shifted to education. Mauricio Ramírez was added to the staff to help create and run the Meyer Sound Mexico School. The first course, on sound reinforcement system design, was based on Bob McCarthy's Meyer Sound Design Reference Handbook, translated into Spanish. Three more courses for beginning and advanced levels have since been added to the curriculum, including the SIM Operator Certification Course. To date, more than 600 sound professionals have completed courses at MSM, coming not only from Mexico but also from Spain and countries throughout Latin America. More than 800 others have attended shorter classes and seminars presented by the MSM team around the world. With the growing popularity of the MSM school, Salvador Castañeda was added to the instructional staff and, together with Ramírez, he developed additional Spanish language teaching materials. "Sound engineers who have taken our courses gain a deeper understanding of system fundamentals and develop better working methods," notes Castañeda. "Once they become aware of the underlying principles, they become more demanding about the quality of gear they choose, and then Meyer Sound becomes the obvious choice." To meet the growing demand for Spanish translations of materials, Luis Quiñones was hired in 1998. With marketing materials and technical manuals available in Spanish, MSM quickly expanded marketing efforts to reach all of Latin America. Further bolstering the expanded effort is Meyer Sound's Spanish web site, with most posted materials provided by MSM. Expansion continued in 1999 with the appointment of Antonio Zacarías to the position of general manager. That same year, two new facilities were added: a warehouse and new home for the service center, and a new Northern Regional Sales Office in Monterey headed by Valentín Vite. That same year, a Technical Design Department was created, headed by newly-hired Federico Peña. The department provides CAD design, 3D renderings and predictive modeling of sound systems using Meyer Sound's powerful MAPP software. Peña's department also handles the many requests for alignment services using SIM System II. More recently, sales efforts have been reinforced with the addition of Francisco Cobos as sales manager, and Gustavo Ferreyro as new projects manager for support of developing sales in new markets. Before the creation of MSM, nearly all Meyer Sound customers in Mexico were rental companies. Today, the customer base has expanded to include nightclubs, theaters, restaurants, theme parks, art exhibitions, government institutions and mobile A/V clients. MSM's high-quality service and dedication to solving the specific needs of customers has paid off at the time of closing a sale. As Antonio Zacarías notes, "We do not sell just for the sake of selling. If there is no possibility of implementing a good design with high-quality results, we prefer not to go ahead. We never sell our customers something that will not meet their needs or fully solve their problems."
Meyer Sound México S. de R.L. de C.V. April, 2004 |
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