KPI's That Count

Most business owners we talk to are drowning in numbers but starving for insight. They can tell you how many jobs they ran last Tuesday, but NOT what it costs to acquire a customer from Google versus Nextdoor.

A key difference between growing and guessing usually comes down to knowing your bottlenecks.

Here's a breakdown of the KPIs we help our customers track inside maid.tech. Come along…

Foundational Numbers

• number of Website Visitors
• number of Form Submissions
• number of Phone Calls
• number of Chats

What are they: Tracking unique number of visitors to the site, # of form submissions and phone calls that come in.

Why they matters The main thing here is to be able to capture the traffic by source. If your lead volume drops and you don't track traffic by source, you're guessing at the cause. Maybe your Google ranking slipped. Maybe your ad got paused and nobody noticed. Maybe your site is getting plenty of visits but your contact form is buried or broken. You can't diagnose a lead problem without knowing what's happening upstream.

Visitor to Lead Rate (VTL)

VTL = (Submissions + Calls) ÷ Website Visitors

What it is: The total number of new inquiries you received in a given period, broken out by where they came from (Google, Facebook, referrals, etc.)

Why it matters: VTL is top of funnel. If this number drops, everything downstream dries up. But VTL alone doesn't tell you everything. A hundred garbage leads from a bad ad campaign isn't better than twenty solid ones from a referral partner.

How to track it: Every lead needs a source. When someone fills out your form, calls your office, or sends a DM, your system needs to tag where they came from. If not, none of your other marketing numbers will mean anything.

Lead Quality Rate (LQR)

LQR = Good Leads ÷ Total Leads

What it is: The percentage of your total leads that are actually worth pursuing. Essentially, you tag these as "Good Lead" versus "Bad Lead" based on whether the prospect is in your service area, has a real need, isn't spam etc.

Why it matters: You dump money into a channel that generates a ton of leads, feel good about the volume, and then wonder why revenue didn't move. A source with 50 leads and a 15% quality rate is worse than a source with 20 leads and a 60% quality rate.

Tag every lead as good or bad as part of your intake process. Don't overthink it — "good" means they're a real prospect you'd actually want to send an estimate to. "Bad" means spam, wrong area, job seekers, duplicates, tire-kickers who were never going to buy.

Lead to Customer Rate (LCR)

LCR = Converted Leads ÷ Total Leads

What it is: The percentage of leads that turned into paying customers.

Why it matters: This tells you how well your sales process works for each channel. A low conversion rate on high-quality leads means your follow-up, pricing, or estimate process needs work. A low conversion rate on low-quality leads just means the leads were junk to begin with.

Cost Per Lead (CPL)

CPL = Marketing Spent on Source ($) ÷ Total Leads from Source

What it is: How much you're paying just to get someone to raise their hand, regardless of whether they convert.

Why it matters: This is useful for comparing channels at the top of funnel. If Facebook sends you leads at $30 each and Thumbtack sends them at $45 each, that's worth knowing — even if Thumbtack converts better. The two numbers together (cost per lead and conversion rate) tell the full story.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC = Marketing Spent on Source ($) ÷ Customers Won from Source

What it is: How much you spent in marketing to win one new customer from a specific source.

Why it matters: This is the number that keeps you honest about your ad spend. If you're paying $1,200/month on Google Ads and it brought in 4 customers, your CAC is $300. Whether that's good or bad depends on what those customers are worth to you — which brings us to retention.

Customer Retention Rate (CRR)

CRR = Customers on Recurring Plans ÷ Total Customers Won

What it is: The percentage of new customers who signed up for a recurring service plan (weekly, biweekly, monthly) versus a one-time job.

Why it matters: This is the single most important number for long-term business health. A one-time deep clean might be worth $300-800. A weekly client is worth $6,000-12,000+ per year. If you're converting plenty of leads but nobody's sticking around for recurring service, you've got a leaky bucket.

We break this down further by frequency — weekly, biweekly, and monthly — because the revenue impact is dramatically different. A weekly client is worth roughly 2x a biweekly and 4x a monthly.

Lost Leads Ratio (LLR)

LLR = Leads lost by reason ÷ Total Leads

What it is: A breakdown of why leads didn't convert. A good system is:

• Budget (No money/too expensive)
• Authority (Wrong persona)
• Need (No perceived pain/business issue)
• Timing (Not ready)
• Competitor (Lost to a competitor)
• Fit (Product fit/missing features)

Why it matters: If you're losing 40% of your leads to price, maybe your estimates are too high for that market, or maybe you're attracting the wrong audience. If scheduling is the top reason, you might have a capacity or availability problem, not a sales problem. If competitors keep winning, find out who and why.

How to track it: When a lead goes cold or tells you no, tag the reason.

Putting It All Together

None of these KPIs work in isolation. Here's how to read them as a system:

High volume, low quality — You're spending money to attract the wrong people. Tighten your targeting or revisit your ad copy and service area settings.

High quality, low conversion — Your marketing is fine. Your sales process needs work. Look at response time, estimate presentation, and follow-up cadence.

Good conversion, low retention — You're winning customers but not keeping them. That's usually a service delivery issue, a pricing issue, or you're just not asking for the recurring commitment.

High CAC on a channel with great retention — Might still be worth it. A $400 CAC on a client who stays for two years at $200/week is a phenomenal return. Don't kill a channel just because the upfront cost is high.

Low CAC, low retention — Cheap leads that don't stick around aren't cheap. Factor in the time your team spent on estimates, onboarding, and that first clean before you celebrate the low acquisition cost.

How Often Should You Review This?

Monthly at minimum. Weekly if you're actively adjusting ad spend or testing new channels. The data is only useful if you're looking at it regularly enough to act on it.

Set a recurring calendar block — even 20 minutes — to pull up your lead report and ask three questions:

1. Where are my best leads actually coming from?
2. Am I spending money on channels that aren't converting?
3. Are my new customers becoming recurring clients?

If you can answer those three questions with real numbers instead of gut feelings, you're ahead of 90% of operators in this industry.

Know Your Numbers

Plug in your real data. See what's working, what's leaking, and where to focus next. Every number updates instantly — play with the inputs and watch how they're all connected.

Ready to let us help you get more customers?

Contact us if you're ready to start your project or have questions.