What Do ChatGPT and Gemini Say About Home Service Trades?

From October 9 to 31, 2026, ChatGPT brought up certification in 78.0% of its water damage restoration answers, against 14.4% of its answers overall, in the Cheers Market Baseline, our own research panel of home-service questions in 100 US and Canadian cities. Each trade's answers reached for a different kind of proof. Use that pattern to decide which facts to make prominent on each branch's profile and website: lead with the proof customers and assistants need for that trade.

Last verified: November 1, 2026.

I'll call that fact the proof item: a warranty, a certification, a license, same-day service. A mention counts whether the answer claims it for one company or tells the reader to look for it, so "hire a licensed electrician" counts the same as a line about one firm's license. Use these counts to prioritize the facts you publish; what 34,742 answers showed about ratings, reviews and sources covers the September factors.

Put your trade's proof item where the engines read: the profile description, the location page and the outside records. For HVAC and lawn care, no single item stood out.

The fact each trade's answers bring up

We counted 11 business facts in every answer and gave each trade's row to the one that sat furthest above the same engine's rate across all 32 questions, averaged over the three engines.

Water damage restoration has the widest gap: certification sits 45.7 points above the all-question rate on average and 63.6 on ChatGPT alone, the largest single-engine gap we found, with 24/7 close behind.

Plumbing's top item is 24/7, partly because three of its nine questions are emergencies, so the chart shows the runner-up, upfront or flat-rate pricing. One of the nine asks about fair pricing, but upfront pricing also beat each engine's overall rate on the urgent plumbing questions, which don't ask about price.

Do these numbers hold?

Sistrix found ChatGPT switched to a building-block layout overnight on October 8 to 9, 2026, so our first test compares October 2 to 8 with the three weeks after.

Some levels moved with the layout: ChatGPT's warranty mentions across all 32 questions went from 46.6% to 77.4%, garage door's from 44% to 97.7% and lawn care's from 5% to 75.7%. Jumps that size, right at the switch, point to the new layout.

The order inside each trade mostly held. Every trade in the chart kept its leader except water damage, where 24/7 sat slightly ahead of certification before the switch. On ChatGPT, water damage certification rose from 63% and electrical licensing from 45.5% (the chart has the rest).

The second check is our September editions (August 31 to September 20, old layout), which already had the same items high in roofing, pest control, garage door and electrical answers. So trust the order inside a trade, and put a date on every level you quote.

What to write first, trade by trade

Each first line below is fictional, with brackets for your facts; keep it under about 200 characters so the whole description fits Google's 750-character limit, and write only what's true for that branch. A roofing division and an electrical branch shouldn't share one template, because the roofer leads with the warranty and the electrician with the license.

Water damage restoration: who holds the certification

Gemini went further than ChatGPT, at 87.3% of its water damage answers against 42.1% overall; AI Mode sat at 45.0%, against 16.6%.

First line: "[Brand] is an IICRC Certified Firm, and our crews answer water damage calls in [City] 24 hours a day."

That credential belongs to the company; if only your technicians hold IICRC cards, write "Our technicians hold IICRC water damage restoration certifications." Then check that the firm name in IICRC's Locate a Certified Firm search matches your trucks and signs, and see the restoration guide for our September edition.

Garage door: same-day, then the warranty

Same-day service came up in 56.3% of ChatGPT's garage door answers, 65.0% of AI Mode's and 69.3% of Gemini's, against 17.0%, 18.1% and 23.9% across all questions. Gemini also brought up a warranty in 66.3%.

First line: "[Brand] repairs garage doors and openers in [City] the same day, Monday through Saturday, with a written [N]-year warranty on new springs."

Write same-day only if your schedule allows it on the days you name, as a fact about your hours rather than "call now for same-day service." AI Mode linked a booking or scheduling page in 37.0% of its garage door answers in October, so make sure the profile's appointment link books the job.

Roofing and windows: the written warranty

Gemini mentioned a warranty or guarantee in 89.5% of its roofing answers and 94.3% of its window and door answers, against 49.4% overall, and AI Mode in 44.8% and 62.3%, against 20.8%. ChatGPT's 99.8% and 99.3% say less, since its warranty rate ran high in every trade after October 9.

First line: "Every roof [Brand] installs in [City] carries our [N]-year written workmanship warranty, which transfers to the next owner, alongside the shingle maker's warranty."

Describe only the warranty you've put in writing: who backs it, how long it runs, what it covers and whether it transfers, kept apart from the manufacturer's and linked to the full terms (how to write them). If you say "lifetime", say whose, as the FTC's guide asks (16 CFR 239.4), and name a manufacturer's upgraded warranty only if you hold the program status to offer it.

Electricians: the license number

Gemini used "licensed", "insured" or "bonded" in 64.1% of its electrical answers, ChatGPT in 54.0% and AI Mode in 39.1%, against 34.2%, 23.7% and 14.7% across all questions. On the emergency electrical question, ChatGPT's rate reached 91.3%, against 46.5% on the other electrical questions.

First line: "[Brand] is a licensed electrical contractor in [State], license #[number], insured for residential and commercial work across [City]."

States and provinces license each entity separately (where a state doesn't license electricians, the city or county usually does), so each location's description and page needs the right number and an insurance line that matches that branch's work. Put it on the emergency service page too, as text a reader can copy into the board's lookup, not an image; where to publish license and insurance proof walks through each place.

Pest control: the guarantee, and ownership only if it's true

A guarantee came up in 87.7% of ChatGPT's pest control answers, 88.3% of Gemini's and 43.7% of AI Mode's. Family or local ownership had the second-largest gap, and on ChatGPT alone it beat the guarantee.

First line: "Every [Brand] pest plan in [City] includes return visits between scheduled treatments if pests come back."

Use that line only if every plan it covers includes those visits in the written terms, with any conditions on the service page. Write "family-owned" or "locally owned" only if it's true today (for a franchise location, only if its franchisee is), and otherwise name the general manager and their years at the branch.

Plumbing: how you price

Upfront or flat-rate pricing came up in 21.4% of ChatGPT's plumbing answers, 23.7% of AI Mode's and 60.7% of Gemini's, against 12.9%, 16.2% and 40.6% across all questions.

First line: "[Brand] gives a written price before any work starts and answers plumbing emergencies in [City] 24 hours a day."

Describe how you price, never a dollar amount or a discount: Google's description guidelines say the description shouldn't "Focus on special promotions, prices, and offer sales." Prices belong on your website, and whether to publish them there is its own decision. Check the 24-hour line against your real overnight coverage; where to publish emergency hours covers the site side, and the plumbing guide has our September edition.

HVAC: no single item stands out

Financing came closest, at 18.9% of ChatGPT's HVAC answers against 7.3% across all questions, mostly from two questions about deals and replacement quotes, where ChatGPT mentioned it in 80.0% of US answers in October. Our September HVAC guide found the same split.

First line: "[Brand] installs and repairs furnaces, heat pumps and air conditioners in [City], and offers financing on new systems."

Say that you offer financing, and keep rates, terms, monthly payments and deadlines for the financing page, next to the lender's required disclosures. How to publish financing options covers keeping the profile, page and call team on one offer.

Where the engines check the proof

In October, ChatGPT cited California's Contractors State License Board in 56.7% of its sourced answers from the panel's 12 California cities. Of the 1,416 Perplexity searches in our log that it limited to one website, 301 went to bbb.org and 70 to the CSLB.

The CSLB's Check a License search takes a business name, so the name on the record matters. Look each branch up on its state or provincial board (the CSLB, Texas's TDLR, Ontario's ESA), in IICRC's firm search, in manufacturer contractor locators and on BBB, and where a record shows a different name, fix it or add the trade name you operate under. Leave the Google profile name alone: Google's guidelines want "your business's real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront," not a legal entity name or an added service word.

Gemini, ChatGPT and AI Mode compared

In US cities across October, Gemini mentioned certification in 38.8% of answers, ChatGPT in 15.4% and AI Mode in 14.2%. Gemini also led on years in business, at 39.3% against 19.3% for ChatGPT and 20.6% for AI Mode. ChatGPT writes the longest answers (525 words on average, against 359 for Gemini and 271 for AI Mode) and still mentions certification less than half as often as Gemini.

A proof check for each location

Google may soon answer customers from the profile itself. On October 29, 2026, Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google is widening an early-access pilot in which an AI agent, in Google's words, "will answer routine questions from customers, instantly and at no cost" when they text a business from Search and Maps. The report's examples are all restaurants and it doesn't say which profile fields the agent reads, but Claudia Tomina, quoted there, said "The agent can only answer as well as your profile does."

Run this for each branch this week, starting with your trade's row: if the description says "licensed," find the license, and if it promises a warranty, read the written terms before you rewrite the sentence. If you've bought branches, check every "family-owned" and "since 19xx" line against who owns the branch now; the year has to be the branch's own, not the parent brand's founding.

Then hold the description to Google's guidelines: inside the character limit, "No links of any type are allowed," and no focus on promotions or prices. The Maps content policy also keeps "Time-bound promotions, pricing, or direct calls-to-action" out of the listing, so write same-day and 24/7 as facts.

ChatGPT has cited business websites more since its switch: from October 9 to 31, 79.8% of its answers cited the website of a business on its map cards, against 49.0% from October 2 to 8. So write the license number, certifying body and warranty terms on each location page as text, linked to the full terms and the board's lookup. Schema doesn't replace those sentences; Google's page on AI features and your website says "There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add."

If Google's AI drafted your description, check it before you approve it and make sure the first line carries your trade's proof item. Once a month, run your trade's main question for two of your cities on all three engines and date which proof each one brings up; one format change moved some of these rates by 30 points or more overnight.

The full table

The table below and its CSV hold all 16 items for all questions and each trade, by engine, for both periods.

Cite this as: Cheers Market Baseline, 100 US and Canadian cities, ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, October 9 to 31, 2026.

Method

The Cheers Market Baseline is our own research panel: every week it asks ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini the same 32 home-service questions in 100 metro areas, 60 in the US and 40 in Canada. Plumbing has 9 questions, HVAC 10, electrical 6 and roofing 2; garage door, lawn care and landscaping, pest control, water damage restoration, and windows and doors get one each, so each of those rows describes one way of asking.

The main window, October 9 to 31, 2026, has 10,507 ChatGPT answers, 10,492 from AI Mode and 10,506 from Gemini, 31,505 in all. Per engine that's 3,192 plumbing, 3,415 HVAC (3,414 for Gemini), 1,800 electrical (1,796 for AI Mode), 600 roofing (589 for AI Mode) and 300 for each single-question trade. The October 2 to 8 comparison has 3,185 answers per engine (3,184 with text for Gemini), 100 per single-question trade, 200 for roofing and 600 for electrical. We left out answers without text.

A mention is a case-insensitive match on the answer text: "warrant" or "guarantee"; "certified", "NATE", "master plumber" or "master electrician" (not "certification"); "licensed", "insured" or "bonded" (not "license" or "licensing"); "same day" or "same-day"; 24/7, 24-hour or after-hours; "since" plus a year, or a number of years; family-owned, -run or -operated, locally owned or veteran-owned; and "BBB" or "Better Business Bureau". Certified also catches a few unrelated words and ran a little high in a check on other AI answers, which we couldn't repeat here; warranty catches "Google Guaranteed" and satisfaction guarantees, and years can catch a warranty's years.

Each trade's lead item is the fact, of 11 (those eight plus upfront pricing, financing and free estimate), with the largest gap in percentage points over the same engine's all-question rate, averaged over the three engines. Plumbing and HVAC supply 62.9% of ChatGPT's answers, so their gaps look smaller by construction. The October 2 to 8 run leaves out free estimate, which that cut didn't count on AI Mode and Gemini.

Trade rows combine US and Canadian cities; across all questions, US-only rates sat within 5 points of the combined ones on every item, a check that says nothing about single trades. The engine comparison uses US cities only, all of October, with both ChatGPT formats together. Gemini's US place-card share fell from 71.0% in the week of October 5 to 0.0% in the week of October 26, so its rates mix two answer modes. At a 50% rate, the 95% margin is about 10 points on 100 answers and about 6 on 300.

The license-board shares use October ChatGPT answers with at least one captured source. The Perplexity figures come from its search log for the same 32 questions, July 2 to October 14, 2026; Perplexity isn't otherwise in this edition, and Meta's Muse, Siri, Copilot and Claude aren't tracked.

Sources

• What changed in ChatGPT in October: GPT-6, UTM tracking and sources, Sistrix, October 30, 2026. The October 8 to 9 layout change only.
• Edit your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help, undated. The 750-character description limit.
• Locate a Certified Firm, IICRC, undated. The firm-level certification lookup.
• 16 CFR 239.4, "Lifetime" and similar representations, FTC via Cornell LII, undated. Saying whose lifetime a warranty covers.
• Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help, undated. Description rules on prices, links and the business name.
• Check a License, California Contractors State License Board, undated. Looking up a contractor by business name.
• Google Business Profiles AI-Powered Messaging Expands, Search Engine Roundtable, October 29, 2026. The AI messaging pilot and the Tomina quote.
• Maps user contributed content policy, Google, undated. Promotions, calls to action and review requests.
• AI features and your website, Google Search Central, December 10, 2025. No special schema needed for AI features.

Sources read November 1, 2026.

Dylan Allen-Arnegård is the CEO & Co-Founder of Cheers, the done-for-you local visibility partner for established home-service companies and PE-backed portfolios.