An independent, ongoing research study into how service business leaders actually rate their own operations.
The Operational Confidence Index™ is an independent research study led by Dennis Stemmle, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management & Decision Sciences at Coastal Carolina University, examining how leaders across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and other service trades assess the effectiveness of their own operations — from scheduling and dispatch to customer communication and day-to-day visibility into the business.
Participants rate their organization across ten core operational dimensions on a 1–10 scale — things like response time, technician scheduling, administrative efficiency, and overall visibility into day-to-day operations — alongside firmographic detail on company size, service area, and revenue. Every individual response stays confidential; findings are only ever reported in aggregate.
The findings feed an annual executive report and industry benchmark data, shared back with participants and published for the broader industry. The goal is a genuine, growing dataset on operational performance in the service trades — not a one-time study, but a benchmark that gets more valuable every year it runs.
The 2026 study is currently in the field. Once results are in, this page becomes home to the executive report, benchmark data, and the findings behind it.
What you’ll find here once published
- The 2026 Operational Confidence Index executive report
- Benchmark data by trade, company size, and region
- Ongoing analysis as the dataset grows year over year
