How Do You Check Whether ChatGPT Recommends Your Moving Company?

The short answer: Open ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity and ask the questions your customers actually ask, like “best movers in [your city]” or “who’s a reliable long-distance mover near me.” Record whether your company is named, where it ranks, and which sources get cited. Then fix the gaps: reviews, listings, and clear pages on your own site.

Key Takeaways

• Your customers are asking AI: BrightLocal found 45% of consumers use ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations.
• Use real buyer prompts: Birdeye recommends testing 25 to 50 of them, not just your company name.
• Getting mentioned isn’t winning: in Birdeye’s analysis, 80% of brands are cited but only 15% get the top citation.
• Third-party sources matter: Birdeye found BBB leads home services citations at 8.1%, with Angi at 4.4%.
• Fix the inputs: AI tools repeat what reviews, listings, and your website say about you.

Why does it matter what ChatGPT says?

Because a growing share of your customers ask it before they ever call. Pew Research Center’s 2026 study of Americans and AI found 49% of US adults use AI chatbots, up from 33% in 2024, and 42% use them to search for information.

For local services specifically, the BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 found 45% of consumers use ChatGPT or other generative AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6%. And 40% trust AI platforms for business recommendations. That’s a lot of moving decisions being shaped by a paragraph you didn’t write.

We covered the bigger shift in how AI answer engines work for home service marketing. This piece is the hands-on check.

What prompts should you run?

Run the questions a real customer would type, not your company name. Birdeye’s guide on turning AI mentions into local decisions recommends testing 25 to 50 buyer prompts. You can start with ten. Swap in your city and services.

1. Best moving companies in [city].
2. Most reliable movers near [neighborhood or suburb].
3. Affordable local movers in [city] with good reviews.
4. Best long-distance movers from [city] to [common destination].
5. Movers in [city] who handle pianos or heavy furniture.
6. Which [city] movers are careful with fragile items?
7. Moving company in [city] for a senior downsizing.
8. Last-minute movers in [city] this weekend.
9. Is [your company name] a good moving company?
10. [Your company name] vs [top competitor].

Run each prompt in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Use a private or logged-out window where you can, so past searches don’t skew results.

What should you record?

For each prompt, write down four things: whether you were named, your position in the list, which competitors were named, and which sources the tool cited or linked. A simple spreadsheet with one row per prompt works fine.

Pay the most attention to position and sources. Birdeye’s State of AI Search analysis found 80% of brands are cited by AI, but only 15% secure the top citation. Being one of seven names is very different from being the first one recommended.

Also note which sources show up. In Birdeye’s analysis, BBB leads home services citations at 8.1%, with Angi at 4.4%. If those sites keep appearing in your answers and your profiles there are thin or outdated, you’ve found a fix. We looked at why some sources carry more weight in what makes a citation count.

What does the answer tell you about why you were or weren’t picked?

Read the reasons the tool gives. AI answers often explain themselves: “known for careful crews,” “strong reviews for long-distance moves,” “transparent pricing.” Those phrases usually come from reviews and review summaries.

If a competitor gets praised for something you do just as well, your reviews and site probably aren’t saying it. If you’re described with an old complaint, that theme is still showing up somewhere. Our breakdown of Google’s AI review summary explains how those themes form.

How do you fix what you find?

Fix the inputs, because AI tools can only repeat what’s out there. Start with the three that matter most.

Reviews

Recent, detailed reviews that name the kind of move give AI tools specific things to say. Ask every customer, not just the happy ones, and make it easy for them to mention what stood out.

Listings

Update your Google Business Profile, BBB, Angi, and Yelp with the same name, address, service areas, and services. Consistency helps AI tools trust that the details are right.

Your website

Give each core service its own clear page: local moves, long distance, packing, storage. Answer the questions customers ask in plain language. AI tools cite pages that answer questions directly.

What should you do this week?

Block 30 minutes. Run the ten prompts above in two AI tools and fill in the spreadsheet. Circle the three prompts where you most want to show up and don’t.

Then pick one fix for each: a listing to update, a service page to write, a review theme to encourage. Rerun the same prompts next month. Across 300+ moving companies on Snoball, about 50% of new referrals come from people who have referred before, and the same compounding applies here: the companies customers keep talking about are the ones AI keeps recommending.