What AI tells your customers to check before they call you
Across 780 ChatGPT and Gemini answers, 77% talk about customer reviews, yet only 2 quote a star rating. For plumbers, electricians and HVAC contractors the answers read like a checklist: licence, insurance, emergency service, warranty. And Gemini names the state licensing board where ChatGPT almost never does.
77%
of answers talk about customer reviews
In this article
Short answer: when a customer asks an AI for the best plumber in town, the answer does not just give names, it tells them what to check. Across 780 US answers, 77% talk about customer reviews, and the platforms named are Google, Yelp and Angi. But only 2 answers quote a star rating. For the home-service trades the list grows: licence, insurance, emergency service, warranty.
2 of 780
quote a star rating
23 of 26
Gemini answers on plumbers name the licensing board; ChatGPT, none
AI does not quote your rating. It quotes the proof it tells people to look for. If that proof is written nowhere on your site, the customer goes looking for it elsewhere.
What we measured
The data is the Waseit US study collected on 13 September 2026: 15 trades in 13 cities, two questions asked of ChatGPT and Gemini, 780 answers, 52 per trade. We counted the answers that contain certain words: reviews, licence, insurance, emergency or 24/7, warranty, portfolio, and the names of the platforms.
A word is not an intention. Before publishing, we read random excerpts for every criterion: in the large majority the word is indeed advice ("make sure the plumber is licensed and insured") or a reason to recommend a business ("a nationwide warranty on repairs"). The figures below therefore count answers where the criterion appears, not instructions in the strict sense.
Reviews, yes. The rating, no
604 answers out of 780 talk about customer reviews or ratings. When they name a platform, it is Google in 44% of answers, Yelp in 34%, Angi or HomeAdvisor in 12%, the Better Business Bureau in 5%.
But AI does not copy ratings over: 2 answers out of 780 quote a star figure, both as a benchmark ("4.5 stars and above"), never as the score of a named business. It sends the customer to read the reviews, it does not read them for them.
Trade by trade, not the same list
| Trade | Customer reviews | Licence | Insurance | Emergency or 24/7 | Warranty | Portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumber | 100% | 77% | 48% | 98% | 58% | 0% |
| Electrician | 98% | 85% | 63% | 75% | 54% | 0% |
| HVAC contractor | 100% | 73% | 37% | 71% | 58% | 0% |
| Locksmith | 83% | 69% | 63% | 100% | 10% | 0% |
| Auto repair shop | 100% | 4% | 0% | 4% | 69% | 0% |
| Dentist | 100% | 17% | 10% | 33% | 0% | 2% |
| Attorney | 96% | 19% | 0% | 0% | 10% | 0% |
| Driving school | 96% | 52% | 6% | 0% | 2% | 0% |
| Real estate agent | 88% | 12% | 0% | 6% | 0% | 4% |
| Accountant | 77% | 40% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Insurance broker | 69% | 27% | 4% | 0% | 0% | 6% |
| Wedding photographer | 54% | 0% | 2% | 0% | 0% | 37% |
| Hair salon | 38% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 35% |
| Staffing agency | 33% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 6% |
| Marketing agency | 29% | 0% | 0% | 2% | 0% | 25% |
Three families emerge. The home-service trades get a checklist: of the 208 answers about plumbers, electricians, HVAC contractors and locksmiths, 129 mention a licence, insurance and emergency service together. Care and advice trades (dentist, attorney, real estate agent) are judged almost entirely on reviews. Visual trades (photographers, hair salons, marketing agencies) talk less about reviews and more about portfolio.
Certifications have their trades too: ASE certification appears in 23 answers about auto repair shops, NATE certification in 22 answers about HVAC contractors, where the Better Business Bureau also comes up 18 times.
Gemini points to the state, ChatGPT to word of mouth
The two engines do not give the same advice. Gemini mentions licensing in 43% of its answers, ChatGPT in 20%. Above all, Gemini names the body that issues the licence: the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, Florida's highway safety and motor vehicles department. It does so in 23 answers out of 26 for plumbers, 24 of 26 for electricians, 21 of 26 for HVAC contractors and 25 of 26 for driving schools. ChatGPT, across those four trades, almost never does (3 answers in all).
ChatGPT, for its part, points more often to people you know: 33% of its answers mention recommendations from friends or word of mouth, against 4% for Gemini.
What this does not prove
That AI picks names by these criteria.
We see what the answer advises checking, not how the model chose the businesses it names.
An exact count.
A word can describe a named business rather than give advice, and "reviews" can mean peer reviews for attorneys. Our sample readings support the figures without making them exact.
Complete answers.
Advice often comes at the end of an answer, and our length cap (600 tokens for ChatGPT, 1,400 for Gemini) cuts 49 of 390 ChatGPT answers and 127 of 390 Gemini answers. The percentages are therefore floors.
What an app user sees
, since the app may add web search, nor a change over time: one collection, on 13 September 2026.
What this changes for you
What follows is our reading, not a measurement: if the AI tells your customer to check something, it is better that they find it written on your site, in text, without having to call.
Plumber, electrician, HVAC, locksmith
: write your licence number and the board that issued it, your insurance, your emergency hours and your warranty terms. That is the list the answers recite.
Auto repair, HVAC
: state your certifications (ASE, NATE) in words, not only as a logo.
Dentist, attorney, real estate agent
: your Google and Yelp reviews are almost the only criterion. Keep your listings current, and answer reviews.
Photographer, hair salon, agency
: the portfolio counts as much as reviews. Make it visible on a text page, not only on Instagram.
Our free audit shows what ChatGPT and Gemini answer about your trade in your city, including what they tell people to check.