Ask ChatGPT for a Plumber in Tauranga. Go On. We'll Wait.

Open ChatGPT. Type: "Find me a plumber in Tauranga."

Wait for it.

What comes back is either a business that's sorted their digital presence, a business that hasn't, or in a lot of cases, the AI making something up entirely. Wrong phone number. Old address. Trading hours that changed two years ago.

The thing is, you won't know which one your business is until you check.

Why this matters more than you think

Most NZ small business owners have spent real time and money on Google. Getting a website up, sorting their Google Business Profile, maybe paying someone to improve their rankings. That work wasn't wasted, but it no longer covers the full picture.

ChatGPT now has over 900 million weekly active users. Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot are all answering questions the same way. When someone asks one of those tools for a recommendation, it's not checking your Google ranking. It's pulling from a different set of signals entirely, and right now, less than 20% of what ranks in Google's top results actually shows up in AI answers.

That gap is the thing most businesses haven't clocked yet.

AI referral traffic converts at 4.4 times the rate of organic search. The people asking AI tools for recommendations are already in buying mode. They're not browsing. They want someone specific, and they want to move.

Do the check right now

Here's the exercise. It takes about five minutes.

Open each of these and search for your business by name and by what you do:

• ChatGPT (chat.openai.com)
• Perplexity (perplexity.ai)
• Google's AI Overview (just search your business name or service type in Google and look at the coloured block at the top)

For each one, write down:

• Does your business appear?
• Is the name, address, phone number, and website correct?
• What does it say about what you do?

Be specific when you search. Don't just type your business name. Try "plumber in [your town]", "hauora provider near [suburb]", "best accountant in [city]". That's what your potential customers are typing.

What you might find

Most businesses land in one of three buckets:

You show up and it's accurate. Great. You're in a better position than most. The next step is making sure you stay there as AI tools keep changing.

You show up but something's wrong. This is more common than people expect. A study of 72,000 questions about retailers found AI tools returned at least one incorrect fact, most often a wrong address or old phone number, for the majority of multi-location businesses tested. NZ businesses aren't immune. One wrong detail in an AI answer means a potential customer shows up somewhere you no longer are, or calls a number that doesn't connect.

You don't show up at all. This doesn't mean you don't exist. It means the AI doesn't have enough reliable information about your business to recommend you with confidence. That's fixable.

What makes AI tools trust a business enough to recommend it

AI answer engines aren't browsing your website the way a person does. They're looking for signals across a lot of places at once, and they're checking whether those signals are consistent.

The basics that matter most:

Google Business Profile. This is still the single most important thing for local businesses. Keep it updated: correct address, phone number, trading hours, services, and a few recent photos. Respond to reviews, even briefly. AI tools pull heavily from this.

Consistent name, address, and phone number everywhere. If your business name is listed three different ways across your website, Facebook page, and Google profile, AI tools treat those as uncertainty. Pick one version and use it across everything.

Reviews with specific language. "Great service" is less useful to an AI than "Mark fixed our blocked drain in Tauranga within two hours." The second one tells the AI what you do, where you are, and that people trust you. Ask happy customers to be specific when they leave a review.

Your website actually answering questions. AI tools look for pages that directly answer what people are asking. A page titled "Plumber in Tauranga" that explains what you do, where you work, and how to contact you is far more useful than a homepage with a generic tagline.

Citations from other sites. When other websites mention your business by name alongside your location and services, that reinforces the signal. Local directories, industry associations, media mentions, and even supplier listings all help.

The honest bit

None of this is complicated, but it does take a bit of time to get sorted properly. And it's not a one-off job. AI tools update constantly, and a business that's visible today can slip if nothing's being maintained.

The businesses that are showing up in AI recommendations right now aren't necessarily the best in their trade. They're the ones whose digital information is clear, consistent, and easy for an AI to trust.

That's a gap worth closing.

Want to know where your business stands?

Kia ora, we're Hono. We work with trades businesses, small local operators, and kaupapa Māori organisations who want their digital presence to actually work.

If you've done the check above and found something that needs sorting, or if you're not sure what you're looking at, we're happy to take a look with you.

Book a free kōrero →