- Do drivers really pick a mechanic through ChatGPT?
- Increasingly, yes — especially on high-anxiety repairs. A driver holding a $2,400 transmission estimate asks “is this fair?” and “who else should I get a quote from?” in the same conversation, and the engine answers with two or three local shops and a reason for each. They may still read reviews afterward, but the shortlist forms in that first answer. If you're not on it, the second opinion goes to someone else.
- We already have great Google reviews. Isn't that enough?
- Reviews are an input, not the answer. AI engines read Google reviews, Yelp, RepairPal, and AAA listings, then compose their own recommendation — and each engine weighs those sources differently. Shops with hundreds of five-star reviews still get skipped when a competitor's website answers the driver's actual question better. Tibly shows you what each engine says today and which sources it's citing, so you fix the real gap.
- How is this different from local SEO or rank tracking?
- Rank trackers tell you where your website sits on a Google results page. Tibly tells you what an AI engine says when a driver asks it a question — which shops it recommends, in what order, how it describes each one, and which sources it cited. Shops routinely rank in the map pack and still never get named in AI answers. These are different systems, and this one is where the shortlist now gets written.
- What content actually gets a repair shop recommended?
- In our tracking, engines favor shops whose sites answer money questions plainly: priced service guides (“what a brake job costs here and why”), make-specialty pages that prove depth on Subaru or diesel work, and FAQ pages that address “am I being overcharged?” directly. Tibly identifies which of these your market is missing and drafts them for you, structured the way engines quote them.
- What does it cost to get started?
- Start with the free report: we run your market's driver questions across the major AI engines and show you who's being recommended today, including whether your shop appears at all. If you want it monitored continuously, daily tracking starts at $49/month with no contracts — cancel whenever you like. Most shops run the free report first to see the size of the gap.