What the Data Says: A Year of Insights from the Professional Cleaning Index (PCI)
Most residential cleaning owners set their goals the same way: gut feeling, something a peer mentioned at a conference, or whatever last year's numbers happened to be.
There are a few reasons this keeps happening even among smart, experienced owners:
- Nobody has organized industry data in a way that's specific to their size or model.
- It's hard to know which metrics actually matter versus which ones just feel productive to track.
- Without a real benchmark, "good enough" quietly becomes the ceiling instead of the floor.
So what if owners had a full year of real performance data from residential cleaning companies across the country, broken out by company size and operational model, so they could see exactly where they stand?
That's the premise behind an upcoming ISSA Residential session from MaidCentral's Ajia Holiday and Tom Stewart, "What the Data Says: A Year of Insights from the Professional Cleaning Index (PCI)." The two will walk through six core KPIs that consistently separate high-performing companies from the middle of the pack, including a few that most owners aren't tracking at all.
Benchmarks Instead of Guesswork
The Professional Cleaning Index pulls performance data from hundreds of residential cleaning companies every month, organized by revenue segment and operational model. That segmentation matters. A single industry-wide average tells owners almost nothing useful, because a company doing $500K a year and one doing $5M are dealing with completely different operational realities. Once owners can see the benchmark for companies actually built like theirs, the data stops being trivia and starts being a decision-making tool.
The Metric That's Actually a Vanity Metric
One of the more uncomfortable parts of the session is naming the metrics that owners love to track that don't actually predict long-term profitability. Ajia and Tom get specific about which of the six KPIs are real leading indicators, and which ones just feel good to report on without moving the business forward.
Where Companies Leave Money on the Table
Across every size segment the PCI tracks, there's a pattern of the same one or two levers going untouched — not because owners don't care, but because nobody ever showed them the benchmark that would have flagged it as a problem. The session breaks down where that gap tends to show up at each revenue level, and which lever is worth pulling first.
What Attendees Will Walk Away With
Attendees will leave with benchmarks for six core KPIs across company-size segments, giving them a concrete point of comparison rather than a guess. The session also covers which metrics are most predictive of long-term profitability, and which ones are vanity metrics dressed up as progress. Rounding it out is a simple framework for turning industry-wide data into performance targets specific to one's own company, so none of it stays abstract.
Key themes Ajia and Tom cover:
- Turning a year of industry data into real, company-specific performance targets
- Identifying which KPIs actually predict long-term profitability
- Spotting vanity metrics that feel productive but don't move the business
- Benchmarking performance by company size and operational model, not industry-wide averages
Ajia has spent years organizing and translating residential cleaning industry data into insights business owners can actually use, presenting PCI findings monthly and working closely with performance benchmarks across hundreds of companies. Tom, a CEO and industry thought leader focused on scaling residential cleaning businesses through strategy and systems, brings a complementary lens: translating complex concepts into frameworks owners can use immediately.
For owners ready to stop setting goals based on instinct and start setting them based on what hundreds of companies like theirs are actually doing, this session is built for exactly that.
Continue the Conversation at ISSA Residential
Sign up for MaidCentral's monthly PCI report updates and webinar with Ajia to prepare for this session focusing on the past year.
Join Ajia Holiday and Tom Stewart at ISSA Residential for a complete, interactive session featuring additional strategies, real-world examples, and practical implementation guidance you won't find in this article. View the full ISSA Residential Schedule.
Session: What the Data Says: A Year of Insights from the Professional Cleaning Index (PCI)
Booth: 2447 MaidCentral
Register for ISSA Residential and use the code 26JOINUS548106 to get a 10% discount on your All Access Pass.
