Q&A with Claudia Meneses, CEO and Founder of Avanti Green Eco Cleaning

Born in El Salvador, Claudia Meneses is Founder and CEO of Avanti Green Eco Cleaning, an environmentally friendly residential and commercial cleaning company serving Las Vegas and Henderson since 2011. Under her leadership, Avanti Green became Las Vegas’ first eco-focused cleaning company and has grown into a multimillion-dollar enterprise serving high-profile clients and government contracts. The company has expanded into carpet cleaning, pressure washing, floor care, porter services and window cleaning, creating a full-service, one-stop solution. A Stanford Latino Business Action Network graduate, Claudia is now preparing to expand Avanti Green nationwide through a licensee model.

Avanti Green Eco Cleaning earned the Green Seal certification. Tell us more about that. How did you position the company to contend for this credential and how does having it help your business grow and attract clients?

This is very interesting because we didn’t become eco-friendly this year. We’ve been operating that way since the beginning. We started the business with the idea of being eco-friendly, so we already have the systems in place.

The Green Seal certification was basically just a way to validate all the efforts that we’ve been doing for all these years. We did it because it builds trust, especially with corporate and government contracts for accounts. It was a very detailed and lengthy process with a lot of documentation, a lot of structure, and a lot of products that had to be in compliance with the requirements. But having it is definitely a game-changer. We haven’t really measured the impact that it’s going to have, but like I said, having it is mostly for validation, because anyone can say they’re green, but very few can prove it.

Your company is cleaning a lounge at the Harry Reid International Airport. How did that come to be, what does it offer and how does that particularly spread your company’s messages?

It’s a VIP lounge that we service. That account came from networking and having a reputation in the industry. We were referred through the Latin Chamber of Commerce. It’s a demanding account and you have to have a lot of discipline. Being at the airport, you have to have a staff that meets all the security compliance, and there has to be reliability because we operate there seven days a week. We’re on a very strict schedule, and we clean nightly after the lounge closes. We do the daily upkeep, and we also do deep cleaning like carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, and steam cleaning the floor. It’s a really important account for us because it’s helped us go to the next level in quality and operating at a very high standard.

You won a contest last year by proposing an artificial intelligence tool to optimize routes. How did you come up with that idea and what need does it fill? 

The idea came mostly from frustration. In the cleaning industry you don’t lose money in the cleaning itself. It’s mostly lost in travel time and poor scheduling. Those inefficiencies can cost you money. The AI route-optimization tool is going to help us cluster the jobs better, protect the margins, and make smarter decisions before we book a client.

Why is AI helpful for cleaning companies like yours?

Cleaning is very labor-heavy and time-sensitive. AI helps us with pricing the projects correctly, scheduling efficiently, and avoiding duplicating jobs. It doesn’t replace people, obviously, but it protects the business so people can thrive. So before you even book, you can literally talk to the AI so it can anticipate what you need, because sometimes people call and they say, “I want a cleaning,” but you have to ask a lot of questions to understand exactly what type of cleaning the customer wants. So with the AI, in your own words you can say what you need and the AI will suggest what services and the cost. So it’s just a really cool tool that will help with our process. 

You expanded your services, adding pressure washing, window cleaning and floor care. You said these services, and new government contracts, helped boost your revenue. Do you plan to widen your services palette further? And what about the way you operate stands out and spurs success?

I think adding the other divisions into our offerings pretty much completes what a customer might need, cleaning-related. I’ve always felt like we needed to offer those services, especially because when a customer needs all the services, it becomes very challenging because sometimes the customer has to plan the services based on the vendor’s availability. So sometimes the client will book a carpet cleaning at the same time that we’re cleaning, so the carpets are wet, so there’s incompatibility with the scheduling. I liked to suggest that if you can, you use one of our vendors that we work with, and I will try to coordinate with them so it can be more efficient. But over time I got to a point where, “Oh my gosh. This is becoming very hard.” 

First we added the window-cleaning, then came the opportunity to get the pressure-washing equipment and later on the carpet cleaning, and we got basically all those services within two or three months. It has worked tremendously well. We can stand out by having all these offerings. It also gives the customer the peace of mind that they don’t have to worry about finding people they don’t know or they don’t trust with us being a one-stop shop to meet all their cleaning-related needs.

Fifteen years is a long time for a business to last, especially when two-thirds of startups never deliver value for investors. What’s the secret to your longevity?

The reason why we’re still here after 15 years is because we didn’t grow the company recklessly. We’ve always grown as the demand grows, training more cleaners, but we never wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t going to be sustainable. We wanted to grow in a way that we could manage, because taking care of our brand, of our reputation, the discipline, and the high standards that we operate with has always been my main priority. Growing little by little over the years has gotten us where we are now.

We do also try to make it appealing for our employees to stay and grow with the company. This is labor-intensive work, and to be honest, cleaning is not a sexy industry. It’s been tough to maintain a staff that stays with us for a long time, which we do have. I’m going to say about 60 percent of our employees have been with us for many years. I’m talking 12 years, 10 years, eight years, five years. 

Why have you decided to expand and why will your methods transfer to new licensees and markets? 

The model that we have—the way we run the business—is process-driven. That makes it transferable because you can replicate the systems, the standards, the way you train, and the way you operate, so it’s something that can be taught to other licensees. We haven’t started on that. First we want to have all the processes in order before we launch in new markets, so it’s still a work in progress. I think we’re going to start later this year or next year, and it only makes sense to start with markets similar to Las Vegas—nearby cities that we have proximity to.

We know interest in cleaner indoor spaces increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Why has interest in eco-friendly cleaning increased post-pandemic and why is the Las Vegas Valley a particularly vibrant market for them?

Well, after the pandemic, a lot of people became more aware of what’s inside their homes and workplaces, and it made people more aware of healthy spaces. They started to be more concerned about air quality, chemicals, safety and sanitizing

The city has gone through a very massive growth. There’s a lot of luxury homes, hospitality and high-end commercial spaces. It’s a very attractive market, and a market that values quality and eco-friendly services. And that’s just the way we’ve always operated.

About Avanti Green Eco Cleaning

Avanti Green Eco Cleaning, www.avantigreen.com, established in 2011, is an award-winning, women-owned, Green Seal-certified cleaning company serving Las Vegas and Henderson. The company delivers residential, porter, and commercial cleaning services, along with specialized offerings including carpet and window cleaning, pressure washing, floor stripping and waxing, and complete floor care for residential communities, commercial buildings, and institutional facilities.