How to Check if ChatGPT Recommends Your Business (Step by Step)

Most owners have never asked ChatGPT about their own trade in their own town. It takes about 20 minutes, costs nothing, and the answer is usually eye-opening, in one direction or the other.

Here's a method that gives you a fair picture instead of a lucky or unlucky single answer.

Step 1: Write the questions your customers actually ask

Don't ask “Is Bright Pane Pros good?” That tests whether AI knows you exist, not whether it recommends you. Real customers don't know your name yet. They ask for a type of business in a place, often with a need attached.

Write five questions that mix these patterns:

• The basic ask: “Who's the best window cleaner in Boise?”
• Near me, with urgency: “I need my windows cleaned this week near Meridian, ID. Who should I call?”
• A specific need: “Who removes hard-water stains from windows in Boise?”
• A comparison: “What are the top-rated exterior cleaning companies in the Treasure Valley?”
• A trust question: “Which window cleaning company in Boise is licensed and insured?”

Step 2: Ask each assistant in a clean session

AI assistants can remember things about you, like your location, past chats and even your own business if you've asked about it before. That can make your results look better than what a stranger sees. To get closer to a customer's view:

• Use a private or incognito browser window, or log out first.
• In ChatGPT, turn off memory or use a temporary chat.
• Include the city in the question, so the answer doesn't depend on where you're sitting.
• Ask each question in a fresh chat, not one long conversation.

Then ask all five questions in each of the four assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. That's 20 answers. Gemini matters on its own because it's Google's assistant and leans on Google's data, including your Business Profile. Perplexity is useful because it lists the sources behind each answer, so you can see which websites the AI is reading about your trade.

Step 3: Keep score in a simple sheet

Make a sheet with one row per answer and these columns: question, assistant, date, named you (yes or no), position in the list, competitors named, and the reason the AI gave for each name. The reasons are gold: they tell you what the AI believes each business is known for.

When you're done, count. Here's what a tally can look like for a business that's doing fine in one assistant and invisible in another:

In this example, the business is named in 3 of 20 answers. More useful than the score is the pattern: zero in Gemini usually points at the Google Business Profile, and a competitor named in 15 of 20 is worth studying closely.

Step 4: Read the answers like a customer would

For each competitor that keeps showing up, look at what the AI says about them, then look at their website and Google profile. You'll usually find at least one of these:

• A page for the exact town or service in the question
• Reviews that mention the specific job (“screens”, “gutters”, “same week”)
• Prices or price ranges listed openly
• A complete Google profile with services, photos and recent posts
• Mentions on other sites: local news, directories, community lists

Each one is something you can fix. Our list of 10 GEO fixes for local service businesses covers them in order.

Step 5: Repeat it, because answers change

Ask the same question next week and you may get different names. AI answers are generated fresh every time and depend on what the search turns up that day. A single check is a snapshot, not a verdict.

Repeat the same questions in the same assistants at least monthly, and after any change you make, so you can see whether it moved anything. Keep the questions identical, or you won't be comparing like with like.

When doing it yourself stops being practical

Twenty answers once a month is manageable. But the honest picture needs more: more questions, every week, across all four assistants, with competitors tracked side by side. That's a few hours a month of copying and pasting before you've fixed anything.

That's the part Hey Tyto automates. We ask the questions every week, record who gets named, and send you a short list of fixes ranked by impact, with exact steps. You make the changes; we measure what moved. The first snapshot is free.