By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
Arizona Tile and Stone Specialist could be called owner Alison Claerhout’s passion project.
She was working in the nonprofit sector in Michigan until she moved to the Valley to be with her fiancé.
“I started looking at businesses for sale,” Claerhout says. “I have my master’s in business, and I wanted to put that to use. I came across this company and I thought it had a lot of potential and room for growth.”
She bought the company in January 2019 and has watched it, in fact, grow.
“It was really exciting to be able to apply my knowledge and education toward something of my own,” she says. “I had ideas on how to change things, expand things, and I was really excited to put those skills to use.”
Running Arizona Tile and Stone Specialist has been a learning experience, as she had to master new skills such as taxes, payroll and accounting.
“The experience I’ve gained as a small-business owner has been incredibly rewarding,” she says.
Founded in 2001, Arizona Tile and Stone Specialist offers deep cleaning, sealing and polishing services for flooring, countertops and showers. They also offer carpet cleaning.
Claerhout says her technicians can do “amazing things” with natural stone surfaces. Arizona homes possess a lot of natural stone surfaces, whether it’s in showers, floors, countertops or patios.
“It’s everywhere,” she says. “It can go south pretty fast on you, if you don’t have it professionally maintained. Our team, for example, can come in and make a worn travertine shower look fabulous. For us to restore something is also a fraction of the price of replacing it.
“We can do a few repairs, too, if people don’t want to tear things out. We can fix chips in countertops. We can do some grout repair. We like to say we’re a one-stop shop for our customers.”
Most importantly, the Arizona Tile and Stone Specialist team is respectful of its customers.
“We have extremely friendly technicians who genuinely care about their work,” she says. “They’ve been trained by our operations manager, who has more than 25 years’ experience in the industry, and they’re passionate about their work. We want to keep the work coming in and the referrals going. We show up when we say we will. We communicate. Let’s face it, flat tires can happen. Problems with machines can happen. If there’s a delay, we tell our customers. We try to keep everyone at ease.”
Serving the entire Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona Tile and Stone Specialist is so renowned in the Valley that its competition refers business to it.
“We have great relationships with our competitors,” she says. “If a customer needs a specific thing they don’t offer, they know we’re happy to assist, while keeping everyone reflected in a positive light. We’re here to help.”
Arizona Tile and Stone Specialist
916 E. Baseline Road, Suite 129, Mesa
480-773-3916
info@aztileandgroutcleaning.com, aztileandgroutcleaning.com
