Word of mouth moved. Here's how to follow it.
For most local trades, the best leads have always come from word of mouth. A neighbor asks a neighbor, and a name gets passed along. That still happens. But more and more, the "neighbor" being asked is an AI tool on a phone.
That shift is easy to miss, because nothing about your day changes. The phone still rings, just a little less. The homeowner who would have called you got two other names from ChatGPT and called one of them.
What hasn't changed
People still want someone trustworthy, local and good at the job. AI tools are trying to answer that same question. They just answer it with what they can read online instead of what a neighbor remembers.
What has changed
Your reputation used to live in people's heads. Now it also needs to live in writing, where these tools can find it: in reviews, on your own website, and in places like local news, trade sites and community pages.
How to follow it
- Turn happy customers into written reviews. The praise you hear at the end of a job is word of mouth. A Google review is word of mouth that AI can read.
- Write down what you know. You answer homeowners' questions every day. A few of those answers, written up on your website, show tools and people that you're the expert.
- Get mentioned where your community reads. A quote in a local paper's story about storm damage, a tip in a chamber newsletter, a sponsor listing for a youth team. Real local mentions add up.
- Check in now and then. Ask the AI tools who they recommend in your towns every few months, the same way you'd ask around to hear what people are saying.
This isn't about chasing technology. It's about making sure the reputation you've earned is visible in the place people now go to ask.