Homeowners no longer start with Google. A growing share ask an assistant "who should I call?" and act on the first names it gives. We ran that exact test for pool service across four South Florida markets and checked four real local businesses against the answers.
| Market | Companies the assistant named | Local business checked | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami, FL | Established Miami pool service companies: Aqua Pool Service Blue Science Pool Service Sunshine Pool Service Miami Pool Service Pool Troopers |
All Clean Pool Services Aqua King Pool Services |
NOT NAMED |
| Doral, FL | Blue Science Pool Service Sunshine Pool Service Aqua Pool Service & Repair Pool Troopers Tips before you call: licensed and insured |
Aqua King Pool Services All Clean Pool Services |
NOT NAMED |
| Kendall, FL | Blue Science Pool Service Sunny Pool Service Aqua Pool Service & Repair Pool Troopers Tropical Pool Care Crystal Clear Pool Service |
All Clean Pool Services Aqua King Pool Services |
NOT NAMED |
| Boca Raton, FL | Boca Pool Service Sunshine Pool Care Aqua Blue Pools Crystal Clear Pool Service Pools by Greg Boca Raton Pool Repair |
Pool Panthers Eagle Pools |
NOT NAMED |
"Named" = the business did not appear anywhere in the assistant's answer, verified with a phrase matcher (word-boundary, rejects longer different names) so a lookalike company cannot create a false positive.
That is not a design problem and it is not fixed by a new website. Assistants answer from what they can verify: structured business data, consistent name/address/phone across the web, third-party mentions, and pages that answer the question directly. Companies without that trail do not lose points — they do not appear at all.
Method note: this sample used one trade (pool service) and four markets. Results are single-run and model-dependent — assistants vary between runs and models, which is exactly why the re-check matters. No ranking claims are made here beyond the answers quoted above.