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The mystery shopper: who gets recommended in your town

⏱ 20 min6 steps

Remember flipping through the Yellow Pages to find a plumber? Your customers still ask around. Now they ask Google, and more and more of them ask an assistant like Claude or ChatGPT. In this lesson you'll ask what they ask, see who gets named in your town, and walk through your own website as a stranger would. You need your website, or a few lines about your business. If a step goes sideways, it has fixes.

AI Short for artificial intelligence. Here it means a program like Claude that reads what you write and writes back in plain words. All words
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  1. Ask Claude who it would recommend

    This asks Claude to act like a customer who lives near you and search for what you sell. Leave your business name out, so you see what a stranger sees.

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    Act like someone who lives nearby and needs help with something. Search the web and tell me which local businesses you'd recommend, and why. For each one, give its name, what made you pick it, and links to the pages you used. Only name businesses you found a page for. Here's what I need, and where: [what you need and your town]
    1. Paste it into the chat. Replace the part in square brackets with what a customer needs and where, like a plumber for a leaking water heater in Springfield or a birthday cake for 30 people near Springfield.
    2. Send it.

    Write down every business it names. AI answers change from day to day and from person to person, so treat this as a snapshot.

    prompt What you type to Claude. A good one says what you want, how to work and what never to do. All words

    You should see:

    Claude shows that it's searching, then gives a short list of local businesses. Each one has a reason and links to where Claude found it.

    That's not what I see
    My business isn't on the list.
    That's the . Write it down. The next step shows why the others got named, and the lesson "Write the answers AI wants to quote" is about fixing it.finding One thing an audit found, with the link and the words that show it. All words
    Claude named a business that's closed, or one I've never heard of.
    Click its link. If the page doesn't what Claude said, cross it off your list. Claude can be wrong, and the links are how you check.back up Keep a copy of something before it changes, so you can go back if the change goes wrong. All words
    Claude says it can't search the web.
    Reply: Search the web for this, and give me a link for each business. If you use Claude through work, an owner of the workspace may have to turn web search on first.

  2. Ask why they got picked

    Now find out what the named businesses have that made Claude trust them. This prompt also asks Claude to look for you by name.

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    For each business you named, tell me what you saw on its website or listings that made you pick it: things like reviews, clear prices, photos, a license, answers to common questions, or how quick it is to call. Quote the words you saw where you can. Then look for my business and tell me what you found, or that you couldn't find it. My business: [your business name and website]
    1. Paste it into the same chat. Replace the part in square brackets with your business name and website.
    2. Send it.

    You should see:

    A short note on each business with what stood out, then a few lines on what Claude found about yours, or a line saying it couldn't find it.

    That's not what I see
    Claude found a different business with a name like mine.
    Write that down too: a customer's AI could mix you up the same way. Then reply with your website address and ask Claude to look again.

  3. Ask ChatGPT and Google the same thing

    Your customers don't all use Claude. This is the same plain question for ChatGPT. For Google, you'll type it the short way most people do.

    1. Copy the question below.
    Who would you recommend near me, and why? Here's what I need, and where: [what you need and your town]
    1. Open ChatGPT at chatgpt.com, paste it in and replace the part in square brackets, the same as before. Send it.
    2. Open Google and type what a customer would type, like plumber Springfield or birthday cake Springfield. Press Enter.
    3. Write down every business each one names, next to where you saw it. On Google, keep three lists apart: the AI answer at the top if there is one, the map of local businesses, and the ads marked Sponsored.

    If you don't use ChatGPT, skip it. Claude and Google are enough to start.

    You should see:

    ChatGPT gives its own list of local businesses. Google gives a page of results, often with a short AI answer or a map of local businesses near the top.

    That's not what I see
    Google shows ads at the top.
    Ads are marked Sponsored. Write those down in their own column: someone paid to be there. Everything else on the page is what Google picked.

  4. Walk through your own website as a stranger

    This is the . Claude plays a first-time customer on your site and says out loud what it notices, including the moment it would give up.

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    Pretend you're a customer finding my business for the first time. Here's my website or what I'd tell you about it: [paste it or describe it]. Think out loud as you look around: what grabs you, what confuses you, and the moment you'd almost leave. Then tell me the three things to fix first.
    1. Paste it into the same chat. Replace the part in square brackets with your website address. No website? Describe your business the way you'd describe it to someone at a barbecue, or paste the words from your Facebook page.
    2. Send it.

    If Claude can't open your site, paste the words from your home page instead.

    mystery shopper Someone who visits a business as an ordinary customer, to see what a real customer would see. All words

    You should see:

    Claude walks through your site like a first-time customer, saying what it notices as it goes. It ends with three things to fix first.

    That's not what I see
    Claude says it can't open my website.
    Open your home page, select all the words with **Cmd+ACtrl+A**, copy them, and paste them in place of the address. Send it again.
    One of the three fixes doesn't fit my business.
    You know your customers better than Claude does. Ask it: Why do you think that? If the answer doesn't hold up, drop that fix.

  5. Put it on one page and save it

    This prompt turns everything into one page: who gets named, where and why, with your three fixes at the bottom. You'll use it again in "Check again in 90 days".

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    Put what we found into one short table I can save. One row per business that got named, with where it was named (Claude, ChatGPT or Google) and the reason. Add a row for my business, even if nobody named it. Under the table, list your three fixes. Here's what ChatGPT and Google showed me: [type or paste the names from each]
    1. Paste it into the same chat. Replace the part in square brackets with the names ChatGPT and Google gave you.
    2. Send it.
    3. Copy the table into a note or a document. Name it with today's date, like Mystery shopper, October 2026.

    The three fixes are Claude's suggestions. You decide which ones are worth doing.

    You should see:

    A table with a row for each business that got named and a row for yours, with your three fixes underneath.

    That's not what I see
    The table looks messy when I paste it.
    Ask Claude for it as plain text, one business per line. Then copy it again.
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Your challenge

This week, ask your next three new customers how they found you. Add their answers to your mystery-shopper list, next to what Claude, ChatGPT and Google said.

Last checked 2026-10-21

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