How to check if ChatGPT recommends your business

To check if ChatGPT recommends your business, ask it what your customers would ask, such as "What's the best bike repair shop in Kaunas?", without naming your business, in a fresh chat, several times. If you're named in most answers, ChatGPT recommends you. Asking "Do you know [my company]?" only tells you whether it knows you, which is a very different thing.

Key takeaways

• Test with "recommend me" questions that don't contain your name. That's how customers actually find new businesses.
• Use a temporary or logged-out chat, so your own history doesn't influence the answer.
• Ask each question at least three times. AI answers vary, so one answer proves little.
• Ask in the language your customers use. Lithuanian and English questions can give different answers.
• Write down who was named instead of you. Those are your real competitors in AI.

Why "Do you know my company?" is the wrong test

With web search switched on, ChatGPT can find almost any business that has a website when you give it the name. So "What is Dviračių remontas?" usually gets a decent answer, and owners conclude everything is fine. But a new customer doesn't know your name yet. They ask "Who's a good bike repair shop in Kaunas?", and that's where many businesses are missing. Test both kinds of question, but the "recommend me" kind matters most.

Step 1: Write down 5 to 10 customer questions

Think about how a customer would ask a friend. Mix general and specific questions, and use your real service and city:

• "What's the best [service] in [city]?"
• "Can you recommend a reliable [service] in [city]?"
• "Which [service] in [city] has the best reviews?"
• "Where should I go for [specific job] in [city]?" (for example, "e-bike battery repair in Kaunas")
• Then two or three questions with your name: "Is [your business] any good?", "What do reviews say about [your business]?"

Step 2: Ask in a clean chat

ChatGPT can remember earlier chats and personalise answers. Use a temporary chat, or log out, so you see roughly what a stranger sees. Make sure the answer uses web search (it usually shows sources); local recommendations depend on it.

Step 3: Ask each question three times

AI writes each answer fresh, so the businesses it names can change from one try to the next. Ask each question at least three times, in new chats. If you're named in two out of three answers, that's a real signal. If you appear once in ten, you're on the edge.

Step 4: Record what you see

A simple spreadsheet is enough. For each answer, note:

• The question and the date.
• Whether your business was named, and in what position.
• Which other businesses were named.
• Whether what it said about you was correct (address, services, prices).
• Which sources it linked to. These show where the AI gets its information.

Step 5: Try the other assistants

Your customers don't all use ChatGPT. Repeat a few of the questions in Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. Each one searches and weighs sources differently, so you can be recommended by one and invisible in another.

How to read your results

• Named in most "recommend me" answers: great. Keep your information up to date and keep collecting reviews.
• Known by name, but not recommended: the most common result. The AI can find you, but doesn't see enough reasons to pick you over others. Look at the sources it cites for the businesses it does recommend.
• Not known even by name: start with the basics. Check that your website isn't blocking AI bots and that you have a complete Google Business Profile.
• Wrong information about you: find the source (often an old directory listing) and correct it there.

The faster way

Doing this properly takes an hour or two each time. A free RecoPulse check does a quick version for you: it asks ChatGPT one question about your business and one "best in your city" question, and shows exactly what it said and who it named. The full report (€19) asks 10 customer-style questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, scores your visibility and gives you a step-by-step improvement plan.