Business Profile: Alvarez Cleaning Services, Inc., Pleasantville

Growing up in Ecuador, Bill Alvarez never imagined himself running a successful cleaning business in the United States, never mind establishing a second business as an offshoot.

But that’s exactly what happened to this affable and hard-working entrepreneur who has been serving the area since 2001.

It was Alvarez’s wife, Maritza, who made the initial inroads into the competitive industry, finding part-time work cleaning homes around Pleasantville. What started out as a handful of jobs eventually blossomed into a more profitable endeavor as the couple secured enough work to turn it into a full-fledged cleaning service.

“What makes us different is the fact that we’re family owned,” said Alvarez’s son, Paul, who takes care of bookkeeping and marketing for the company. His sister, Michelle, a high school student, intends to work out of the family’s office during the summer months.

Compared to the larger, franchise-based cleaning companies, Paul Alvarez said his family’s business has the personal touch. Instead of handing calls off to an answering service, Bill Alvarez takes care of inquiries himself, visiting with prospective clients at their homes and offering free estimates to ensure the pricing and the work is done to clients’ satisfaction.

“We get to know what our clients are looking for and what they want to spend,” said Paul Alvarez, who also serves as vice president of the Pleasantville Chamber of Commerce.

Bill Alvarez handles all of the estimates and scheduling of jobs for both the cleaning service and Alvarez Home Services, the handyman service he established in 2009.

Prospective clients will find a dedicated team that includes about 12 full-time cleaning professionals and several part-timers, all of whom are screened prior to employment. Each one is trained in the most efficient and effective cleaning techniques. All are fully bonded and insured.

Alvarez Cleaning handles almost any type of cleaning, from small apartments to office buildings. The company services northern Westchester, in addition to Fairfield County. It also has customers in New Rochelle, Pelham and Yonkers.

The majority of the company’s residential clients use Alvarez Cleaning for general house cleaning, but others turn to the company to handle jobs such as stripping and waxing hardwood floors, shampooing carpets, window cleaning, construction cleanup, home staging/open house preparation and power washing. Its maid service includes laundry and making beds.

Service can be scheduled on a daily, weekly, monthly or as-needed basis, said Paul Alvarez. The majority of residential cleaning jobs take about five hours and are handled by two cleaning professionals.

The family’s handyman service is equally successful.

“Once we had gained our customers’ trust, the handyman service naturally evolved from that,” said Bill Alvarez.

The array of benefits that Alvarez Home Services provides is wide-ranging, from A/C installation, carpentry, caulking, closet design, electrical repairs, flooring, landscaping, mailbox installation, masonry, plumbing, commercial and residential snow removal and tiling and grouting. The company also handles bigger projects like kitchen and bathroom makeovers. Run primarily by Bill Alvarez, the service subcontracts much of the larger jobs to myriad home improvement businesses in the area.

Much of the family’s success has been gained through hard work, but the relationships the family has forged with local businesses and organizations has been invaluable, said Paul Alvarez. The Alvarez family regularly contributes to chamber functions in the village and regularly gives back to a community that has been very good to them.

“The opportunities we’ve gotten here in this town and the great reception that everyone has given us has really helped us out,” Paul Alvarez said. “We’ve been very blessed.”

Alvarez Cleaning Services, Inc. and Alvarez Home Services are based at 84 Washington Ave. in Pleasantville. Call 914-741-1224 or visit www.alvarezclean.com for cleaning services. For handyman services or renovations, call 914-747-1298 or visit www.alvarezhomeservices.com. The company is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.