A customer says ChatGPT gave them an old phone number. Or it described your business as "permanently closed." Or it listed services you stopped offering years ago. It's maddening, and there's no "edit" button on ChatGPT.
The good news: AI tools build answers from other sources, and you can usually find and fix the source. This guide shows how to track down where wrong information comes from, how to correct it, and how to check again. It can't promise how quickly an AI tool will update, because that depends on its sources.
How common is this?
More than most owners expect. SOCi's 2026 study of 350,000+ business locations found that the business profile information AI tools showed was accurate about 68% of the time for ChatGPT (68.3%) and Perplexity (68.0%) (SOCi). SOCi sells reputation software and studied brands, so the exact figures may not match a one-truck contractor. But the direction is clear: errors are common.
Where wrong information comes from
AI tools don't keep a private file on your business. They read the web. Mistakes usually come from:
- Old listings you never updated: previous phone numbers, addresses, hours, owners.
- Duplicate listings created by former owners, employees or lead-gen companies.
- Copies of your information on aggregator and "best of" sites, which repeat what they scraped. In our Texas study, ChatGPT cited ranking sites like ContractorsRanked and BestProsInTown in a large share of answers, and those sites copy public data.
- Your own website, with an outdated footer or old pages still online.
- Someone marking your Google listing "closed" by mistake or on purpose.
- A name change or move that didn't reach every site.
Step 1: Find the errors
Ask ChatGPT the questions customers ask ("What's the phone number for [your business]?", "Is [your business] open on Saturday?"), several times, and record what it says and which sites it cites. See the five-minute test. Then check each source directly.
Use an audit table like this:
| Source | Name | Address | Phone | Hours | Website | Status | Fixed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your website (footer, contact page) | |||||||
| Google Business Profile | open/closed? | ||||||
| Bing Places | |||||||
| Apple Maps (Business Connect) | |||||||
| Yelp | |||||||
| BBB | |||||||
| Angi / HomeAdvisor / Thumbtack | |||||||
| Birdeye review page, ContractorsRanked, BestProsInTown | |||||||
| Other sites ChatGPT cited |
Your master record is one line with the exact name, address, phone, website and hours you want everywhere. Fill the table, circle every mismatch.
Step 2: Fix it at the source
Start with the ones that matter most, and fix each one properly.
- Your own website first. Update the footer, contact page and any old pages. Remove old phone numbers.
- Google Business Profile. Correct everything, including hours, special hours and the "open" status. If it was marked closed, check the profile; verified owners can usually correct this, and Google sends owners alerts about important suggested edits (Google Maps coverage).
- Bing, Apple, Yelp, Facebook. Claim and correct. See the directories ChatGPT reads.
- BBB, Angi, Thumbtack, Houzz. Claim and correct.
- Aggregator and "best of" pages (Birdeye review pages, ContractorsRanked, BestProsInTown). Claim the free profile if you can and correct it. See the best-of sites.
- Duplicates. If an old listing exists that you can't claim, use the site's "report a problem" or merge process, and keep a note of what you sent.
Change the details everywhere, the same way. A partial fix can leave AI tools with two versions.
Step 3: Tell ChatGPT (optional)
ChatGPT has feedback options on its answers (such as a thumbs-down or a report). Using them costs nothing, but we have no evidence they change a particular answer. Treat them as optional. Fixing the sources is what counts.
Step 4: Check again, and wait
Re-run your questions after a few days and again after a few weeks. Some changes show up quickly; others take longer because sites refresh at their own pace. We can't promise a timeline. OpenAI says changes to a site's robots.txt can take about 24 hours to affect search, but that applies only to crawler access, not to every source.
If a wrong detail persists, look at which site ChatGPT cited when it said it. That's the one still showing the old information.
Prevent it
- Keep a single master record and change it whenever anything changes: a move, a new phone number, a new owner, a name change, seasonal hours.
- Update every site in one sitting, using your audit table.
- Check every quarter. It takes 30 minutes.
- Put holiday and special hours in on Google and your website.
- Use one phone number where possible. If you use tracking numbers, keep the main number on the website and listings consistent.
- Review your website footer after redesigns. Old templates often keep old numbers.
When it's not an error
Sometimes ChatGPT is right and the information is simply unflattering: a low rating, a complaint on BBB, an unanswered review. The fix there is the business: resolve the issue, reply politely, and get fresh, genuine reviews. See how many reviews and how recent.
FAQ
Can I contact OpenAI to correct my business? We found no business correction process. Fixing sources is the practical route.
ChatGPT says I'm closed but my Google profile says open. Why? It may be reading another site. Check which sources it cites and look at each.
How long until it's fixed? Unknown. Re-check in a few days and a few weeks.
Find out what ChatGPT and its sources say about you. Run a free scan at localpickai.com. You'll see whether ChatGPT names you, who it names instead, which websites it read, and what to fix first. Free, no signup, about a minute.
