Questions Customers Ask AI: 10 Types to Track

Customers ask AI assistants ten kinds of questions about a local business: best-of, near me, accepts my insurance or payment, cost, open now, comparisons, emergencies, language, reputation and how to choose. Test each kind with your service and city, then track the answers every week.

A one-time look is covered in how to check what ChatGPT says about your business. This post is about the whole question set and about tracking it over time, as one part of the complete AEO guide.

Why does one question not tell you enough?

A business can be named for "best" and absent for "open Saturday." Different questions send an assistant looking for different facts: reviews for reputation, hours for availability, a price page for cost. If your site never mentions Saturday, you will not appear in an answer that needs it, even when you are the best in town.

Some of these questions come from people ready to hire. Those are the ones to watch first, and commercial intent searches explains how to spot them.

The 10 kinds of questions, with fill-in templates

Fill in the brackets with your service, city and detail. The examples are hypothetical and Valley-flavored.

• Best-of. Template: "Who is the best [service] in [city]?" Example: "Who is the best roofer in Edinburg?"
• Near me. Template: "[Service] near [landmark or street] in [city]." Example: "Where can I get a haircut near 10th Street in McAllen?"
• Accepts. Template: "Which [service] in [city] takes [insurance, payment method or walk-ins]?" Example: "Which dental offices in Pharr take my insurance?"
• Cost. Template: "How much does [service] cost in [city]?" Example: "How much does a water heater replacement cost in Mission?"
• Open now. Template: "Who is open [day and time] for [service] in [city]?" Example: "Which tire shops in Weslaco are open Sunday?"
• Comparison. Template: "Is [type A] or [type B] better for [need] in [city]?" Example: "Is a small local company or a national chain better for same-day AC repair in Harlingen?"
• Emergency. Template: "[Problem] in [city], who can come tonight?" Example: "Burst pipe in Brownsville, who can come tonight?"
• Language. Template: "[Service] in [city] where they speak [language]." Example: "Where can I find a Spanish-speaking accountant in Brownsville?"
• Reputation. Template: "Is [business name] in [city] any good?" Example: "Is [your business name] in Mission reliable?" This one tests what your reviews say about you.
• How to choose. Template: "What should I ask before hiring a [service] in [city]?" Example: "What should I ask before hiring a roofer in the Rio Grande Valley?" Assistants often list criteria and then name examples.

How do you turn the ten into your own list?

Pick your two most profitable services and the two cities you most want to serve. Fill in every template for each pair, then drop the ones that do not make sense for your business. That gives you a working set of a dozen or so questions.

Then add the real wording. Check your inbox, your call notes, your direct messages and what the front desk hears. Customers ask in their own words, and those make the best test questions. Keyword research for non-technical owners shows how to collect them.

Ask some in Spanish too. Some Valley customers will ask that way, and an assistant may pull from different sources for a question in Spanish than for the same one in English. For instance: "¿Quién arregla aire acondicionado en Pharr y habla español?" Test both and record them separately.

How do you track the answers every week?

A simple spreadsheet works. Give each row one question in one assistant, with columns for the date, the assistant, the question, whether you were named, how the answer describes you, which competitors appear and which sources it links. Use the exact same wording each time, and start a fresh chat so earlier answers do not shape the next.

Answers can change from one asking to the next, so look at the trend over several weeks rather than any single row. Four assistants times a dozen questions is around fifty asks per round, which is a lot to repeat by hand.

The Growrank dashboard automates the weekly part. It shows the exact answer ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity give your customers, which competitors are named instead of you, and your position in Google's map pack. It costs $39/mo with the first 7 days free, card required, cancel anytime. See the plan.

What do you do with what you find?

• Named for "best" but absent for cost questions: add a page that explains what affects your price.
• Absent for "open now": put your hours in text on your site and keep them identical on your profile.
• Named with wrong details: fix the source (profile, website, directory) rather than arguing with the assistant.
• A competitor named on questions you should win: compare item by item. A competitor shows up in ChatGPT and you don't has the checklist.
• Absent in Spanish: add Spanish versions of your key pages.

Frequently asked questions