Why it belongs in the monthly report
Local business owners increasingly hear that their customers ask AI assistants for recommendations. If your monthly report covers rankings, traffic and leads but not AI answers, the question will come up anyway — usually after the client has tried it once on their phone. A short, consistent section with real data answers it before it's asked, and frames the conversation around evidence instead of anecdotes.
What to include
- One headline number: the share of answers in which the client was named this month, with last month's next to it.
- Per assistant: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity separately — they rarely agree.
- Top competitors named: which businesses the assistants recommended instead. Clients pay attention to this one.
- Sources cited: the directories, review sites and pages the assistants pointed to.
- Two or three actions for next month, linked to what the data showed.
Keep it consistent
AI answers are noisy, so the setup has to stay fixed for month-to-month comparisons to mean anything:
- Use the same category, city and question set every month.
- Compare trends over several months, not single-month swings.
- Keep the same set of assistants in every report.
Explain the limits up front
Clients trust a report more when it's honest about what it can't do. Put these in plain words once, and repeat them in the methodology section:
- The report is a snapshot of what the assistants said when asked, not a ranking.
- Answers vary from run to run and from person to person.
- Answers collected through APIs can differ from the consumer apps.
- No one — agency or tool — can guarantee that an assistant will recommend a business.
When the result is zero
Many local businesses aren't named by any assistant the first time they're checked. That isn't a failed report. It's a baseline, and often the most useful one. Show the client who is named instead and which sources the assistants cite. Then agree on two or three changes and check again next month with the same questions. A move from 0 to a handful of mentions is easy to explain. And because the questions never change, clients can see the improvement is real, not a different measurement.
Be careful in the other direction too. A single good month can be noise. Wait for a second month before presenting a jump as a result of the work.
Turn findings into work
The point of measuring is to know what to do next. Typical follow-ups from a visibility report:
- Unanswered questions: if competitors are named for price, emergency or licensing questions and the client isn't, publish clear pages and FAQ answers on exactly those topics.
- Cited sources: claim and complete the client's profiles on the directories and review platforms the assistants cite, with consistent name, address and phone.
- Reviews: recent, detailed reviews that mention the specific service and area.
- Business profile: correct primary category, full service list, service area, hours and photos.
Doing it without extra hours
Gathering 40 answers per client, every month, by hand doesn't fit in a reporting day. AnswerRoster produces the whole section as a white-label PDF and HTML report under your agency's brand — one report per client brand per month, from $49/month for 5 brands. It's fully self-serve: add your branding and your clients, and download the reports. See pricing or the sample report.