4. My Phone Isn't Ringing: How AI Search Is Changing How Customers Find Local Service Businesses | Marketing and Visibility

If your phone isn't ringing the way it used to, it doesn't necessarily mean something's wrong with your business. It means the way customers choose who to call has changed, and most local service businesses have not caught up yet.

In this episode, Ginny Seeley breaks down how AI search tools are reshaping the way customers find HVAC companies, plumbers, appliance repair shops, and other local service providers, and what you can do right now to make sure your business shows up. You will learn why traditional keyword-based SEO is no longer enough, how your Google Business Profile has become the front door for AI search engines, why answering real customer questions in plain language is now one of the most powerful things you can do for your visibility, and how content marketing works like compound interest over time.

This episode is for the local service business owner who is tired of paying for ads that stop working the moment you stop paying. If you want a marketing approach that keeps building even when you are not, this one is for you.

You can plant your content seeds today and let them grow.

This episode breaks down what AI-driven search really means for small, service-based businesses, why good businesses can suddenly feel invisible, and how answering real customer questions clearly and consistently is now one of the most important visibility strategies available.

You’ll learn:

• Why changes in search behavior often show up first as “the phone stopped ringing”
• How AI tools decide which businesses to recommend
• Why Marcus Sheridan’s They Ask, You Answer philosophy matters more than ever
• What you can do right now to improve clarity, trust, and discoverability

The good news? This is fixable, and you have options.

If you already have a blog, you can absolutely DIY this with the right focus and structure.
 If you want guided support, the Compound Marketing Machine course walks you step by step through creating content that answers real questions and builds long-term visibility:
👉 https://www.outcomeacademy.com/compound 

If you’d rather have this handled for you, we also offer done-for-you content and AI visibility services through Highland Business Center. You can explore those packages here:
👉 https://www.newberncowork.com/services

And if you want a practical, no-fluff way to put everything from this episode into action, we created a workbook to help you assess, organize, and improve how your business shows up in AI search:
 👉 https://www.outcomeacademy.com/aisearchworkbook

This episode isn’t about panic or trends.
 It’s about clarity, adaptation, and making smart decisions in a changing landscape.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• The Outcome Academy Compound Marketing Machine™
• OutcomeAcademy.com

Thanks for listening to The Outcome Academy Podcast.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to keep learning how to work ON your business with systems, strategy, and practical tools, here are a few ways to stay connected:

Website: https://www.outcomeacademy.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ginny.outcomeacademy 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ginny.outcomeacademy/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@outcomeacademy 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/outcome-academy

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Your outcome isn't a wish. It's a decision.

Transcript

If someone in your town asked ChatGPT who the best business like yours is, would your name come up—or would you be invisible without even knowing it?

Welcome to the Outcome Academy Podcast. I am Ginny Seeley. I'm a business strategist and longtime process improvement expert, and I also co-own an appliance service business and a coworking space with my husband, Joe. So I understand what it looks like to juggle growth, leadership, family, and big dreams all at once.

If you're a service-based entrepreneur or executive who wants to stop putting out fires and work on your business—and build momentum with systems, smart marketing, and practical tech—you are in exactly the right place.

Lately, I've been hearing some specific things repeated in some of the Facebook groups I belong to. Things like:

• "My phone isn't ringing anymore."
• "For some reason everything was great, and then suddenly it wasn't."
• "Has anybody else's business slowed down? Because ours kind of just fell off a cliff."

And so that theme I’ve been hearing lately kind of aligns with the way people are searching and how that has changed in the past year or two.

It’s nothing that you did. It’s not a character flaw. Your business didn’t suddenly get hated by the public. It’s not a motivation problem or anything like that, and it doesn’t mean for sure that your business suddenly stopped being valuable.

But what it does mean is that the way customers find and choose businesses has made a pretty big shift. And once you understand that shift, you can respond to it intelligently.

That’s what we’re going to dive into in this episode today—and I’m really excited about it. Because today is about empowering you with knowledge, information, and some tactics that you can use to get to the top and be recommended once again.

For a long time, most customers found businesses by scrolling. They typed short phrases into Google. Then they started clicking through a big list of blue hyperlinks. They’d visit different websites, compare options, look at reviews, and all of those types of things. Basically, we were in charge as consumers of doing all of our own research in order to find a company to do business with.

Now that has changed.

Now the AIs are doing all of that research for us. And they deliver—on a silver platter—one or two most favored candidates to satisfy what you’re looking for.

Now, more people are asking full questions inside of AI-powered tools. Tools like Alexa, ChatGPT, and Google’s AI search feature. And then it just answers the question.

So people are asking things like:

• “Who can fix my dryer fast in downtown New Bern?”
• “My hot water heater just went up—who is the best person to solve my problem in [insert hometown]?”

And here’s the key difference: they’re not getting lists anymore. They’re getting answers—usually two or three business recommendations served up on a silver platter by the AI tool they’re using.

If your business isn’t part of the information those tools trust and understand, you’re not going to show up at all. No clicks. No calls. No chance to compete.

And that’s why this shows up first as: “My phone stopped ringing.”

I want to take a minute and slow this down a little bit. When filters change, businesses that haven’t adapted yet don’t just disappear because they’re bad—they disappear because they’re unclear.

The AI search doesn’t guess. It doesn’t fill in gaps. It doesn’t assume intent. It looks for patterns of clarity and trust. That’s pretty much it.

It’s not about gaming a system. It’s about communicating clearly in a new environment.

So I want to highlight a book I read recently. Last August, our Monday Night Mastermind group decided to go to a different conference, and we tried out The Huge Convention in Nashville. There was a keynote speaker there—Marcus Sheridan—and he shared some philosophies from his book, They Ask, You Answer. I highly recommend reading that book. It puts everything we’re talking about here into really plain language and gives you an idea of how to capitalize on some of these shifts.

At its core, They Ask, You Answer is about this idea:
Customers are already asking questions, and the businesses that are willing to answer them openly earn the trust.

It’s all about a trust principle. When someone goes on AI and asks a question, it looks for businesses that have already answered related questions clearly and consistently—across their website, their Google Business profile, their reviews, their public presence, their blog posts, etc.

So, if your content is avoiding those types of real questions—or it’s only speaking in kind of lists or keywords, which was the old gold standard of SEO—well, now it’s a different kind of SEO. We’re talking about SEO specific to AI search.

There are a few different acronyms and terms for it, but what it boils down to is:
 We’re not just optimizing content for traditional search engines anymore.
 We have to optimize it for the AI search engines.

That means AI is looking for real answers to real questions that people ask in full sentences. And if your content doesn’t do that, it just moves on. It’s not judging you. It doesn’t have feelings. It’s not trying to punish you. It’s just recognizing patterns.

And when you answer the questions people are looking for—you are the one that’s going to stand out.

You may have heard the term content marketing before. That’s just about putting out content to attract attention—of people, of search engines, of customers.

But now, content isn’t just there for visibility. It’s about comprehension.

We want to be tackling really important questions like:

• Who you help
• What problems you solve
• Where you operate
• Why customers trust you

Things like adding a detailed FAQ page to your website are fantastic for this.
 FAQ-style blog posts are super helpful.

Instead of seeing something like Appliance Repair Services in Craven County (which is the county we operate in), you’d say:
“What should I do if my refrigerator stops working and my food is going bad?”

That’s how people are asking. Not just search terms—they’re asking questions. They’re getting more and more comfortable with AI tools. They ask as if they’re talking to a person or a friend. And that’s how AI tools are understanding expertise.

We’ve all focused on our Google Business Profile. And it’s still super important—but now, it’s even more important.

It’s kind of like the front door for these AI tools. It’s one of the primary sources they go to in order to understand your business.

You want to make sure your profile is:

• Fully filled out
• Updated regularly
• Active

That tells AI you’re a living, breathing, functioning business—and it helps you portray trust.

If your Google Business Profile is incomplete, outdated, has no pictures, or shows incorrect hours—the AI isn’t going to know you exist. And it’s going to skip you and send business somewhere else.

To summarize your Google Business Profile optimization, you want to make sure that you go in there and put detailed service descriptions. You want to go in there and add frequently asked questions—and there’s actually a section for this. You don’t have to wait for somebody else to submit a question. You can put in a question you get asked often and then write a really good, detailed answer yourself.

You also want to do regular updates. What we teach in the Compound Marketing Machine is to do this at least once a month. We teach a whole content system in that course. We focus on content marketing with really detailed blog posts as the center of your content.

What we’ll do is post a really great blog post, then create a graphic for it using Canva. We write a really strong, SEO-optimized short description of the blog post and include a link. Every month, we take that fresh blog post and post it directly to our Google Business Profile.

That’s one small thing you can do to make sure you’re updating it regularly every single month.

The other thing you can do is make sure you’re updating it with really good, recent pictures of your team doing actual work.

And then there’s a really, really important piece we’ve talked about before—the importance of responding to your reviews. Whether it’s a great review, a five-star review with no comment, or a bad review, you must respond to every single one.

And you don’t want to just say “thank you.” You want to say something like, Thank you so much for allowing us to work on your Whirlpool washer. We really appreciated your trust, and we thank you so much for recommending us to your friend.

Put as much detail as you can in those responses.

And I always emphasize this—if it’s a negative review, this is your time to shine.

Whenever I look at negative reviews—and I’m sure you do this too—I’m looking to see whether it’s a chronic complainer or a legitimate concern. Sometimes you’re going to get chronic complainers, and people can see that. It’s not a big deal.

But when you take the time to respond with care and empathy, instead of a flippant response, you make yourself look professional and classy.

And if they do have a legitimate complaint and you failed somehow, that is your moment to shine. You show people that you take it seriously, that you’re going to make it right, and that this is not something you take lightly.

No one wants a bad review—but responding with detail, care, class, and confidence is what sets you apart from your competition.

Okay, so how can you DIY this whole idea of showing up in AI?

First, you can write posts that answer real customer questions. I encourage you to write blog posts on your website so it becomes a source of real information and truth for the people looking for answers about the services you provide.

Use natural, conversational language. Clearly connect the answers back to your services, specific to your location if you’re location-dependent. Then take that content and post it—like I mentioned—in your Google Business Profile.

You don’t need fancy tools. If you have a website, chances are you can add a blog page. You just need to be clear and consistent. That’s how you win the AI search game.

Now you might be thinking, That’s great, but I don’t have a blog. Or maybe you do, but the last time you posted was three years ago.

That’s okay. Just start now and move forward consistently.

You can repurpose all of this content. And I want you to know that Compound Marketing Machine walks through this step-by-step. The reason we call it the compound marketing machine is because it works like compound interest.

Traditionally, many of you have relied on Google Ads. You pay for the ad, your phone rings, and the moment you stop paying—your phone stops ringing.

With consistent content marketing, you’re depositing content into a savings account. You add more content, and more content, and over time you build a library of valuable information that talks about your services and educates the people you serve.

That content doesn’t disappear when you stop paying. It keeps earning interest.

In Compound Marketing Machine, we walk you through what to write, why it matters, how to repurpose it, and we provide custom GPTs that help you do this quickly.

Now I want to reiterate something important. Any time you use an AI tool to write content, you must read everything before you post it. Never cut and paste without reviewing it. AI tools make mistakes.

AI is not here to replace your expertise. It learns from information on the internet, but people still want a real opinion, real stories, and a real voice.

There’s a concept right now called a trust recession because so much generic AI content exists. Use AI to help generate ideas, but then add your expertise, your stories, and your voice. That’s how you stand out.

Every time you create new content, push it out across your social media platforms. We cover all of this in detail in Compound Marketing Machine.

If DIY isn’t realistic for you right now and you’re thinking, This is great, but I don’t have time, I want to encourage you not to keep feeding the Google Ads machine.

If content marketing isn’t something you can do yourself, you can absolutely find someone to help you. Just remember—you still must read what they create before posting it.

Through our coworking space, New Bern Cowork, we do offer this service. We create in-depth blogs with SEO-optimized content, summaries, graphics, and everything you need. We deliver the content to you so you can post it on your social media and Google Business Profile.

If that sounds like a better fit, you can find more information at newberncowork.com/services.

No pressure—but if this feels overwhelming, know that help is available.

So if your phone isn’t ringing like it used to, it doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong with your business. It means the way customers choose who to call has changed.

You can take action—and it’s not too late.

You’ve heard the saying: The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago. The second-best time is right now.

So go plant your trees. Plant your content seeds. Keep planting them. Over time, they will grow—and your phone will start ringing again.

This is one piece of your marketing strategy, but it’s becoming more important every day as people continue to embrace AI.

You can always reach me at ginny@outcomeacademy.com. We’re here to help you make sense of all of this and turn it into something actionable.

You can do this. You’ve got this. Go build your compound marketing machine.

As you think about this week, notice where this shows up in your own business.
If you want to go deeper into this work—including the Summit Club Mastermind and other ways we support service-based business owners—you can explore everything at outcomeacademy.com.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.