Downtown Royal Oak DDA (Royal Oak, MI) ChatGPT Visibility Research

Overview

This research examines how Downtown Royal Oak DDA businesses appeared in ChatGPT responses when consumers asked for local recommendations.

108 eligible businesses were tested across 669 questions. Each business received category-matched prompts designed to reflect the kinds of queries a consumer might actually ask.

This is a point-in-time benchmark collected on October 20, 2026. ChatGPT answers can change. This study measures which businesses entered the AI-generated shortlist at that moment — not future guaranteed mentions.

Key Findings

45% of Downtown Royal Oak businesses (49 of 108) were mentioned at least once.

37% had strong visibility (appeared in multiple relevant responses), 8% had limited visibility (appeared once), and 55% were not named in any tested response.

Discovery questions (like "best florist in Royal Oak") produced a 41% mention rate. Recommendation questions (like "Who should I see for a dentist?") produced a 38% mention rate.

Category Performance

Visibility varied by category. Arts & Entertainment performed best at 67%, while financial & professional services businesses had the lowest visibility at 42%.

These category rates show which types of Downtown Royal Oak businesses entered ChatGPT's shortlist most consistently in this test.

Example Responses

Below are sample ChatGPT answers from the test. These examples show which Downtown Royal Oak businesses were named — and which questions returned no Downtown Royal Oak businesses at all.

• "best cafe in Royal Oak" → Atomic Coffee, Dessert Oasis Coffee Roasters, Cafe Muse
• "Who should I see for theatre in Royal Oak?" → Royal Oak Music Theatre, Stagecrafters Baldwin Theatre
• "best jeweler in Royal Oak" → Miner's Den Jewelers, Ahee Jewelers, Astrein's Creative Jewelers, Tapper's Diamonds & Fine Jewelry (no Downtown Royal Oak business appeared)

Spotlight: "best jeweler in Royal Oak"

When asked "best jeweler in Royal Oak", ChatGPT named Miner's Den Jewelers, Ahee Jewelers, Astrein's Creative Jewelers, Tapper's Diamonds & Fine Jewelry.

No eligible jeweler in the benchmark appeared. The same answer placed Ahee Jewelers in Grosse Pointe and Astrein's in Birmingham.

Methodology

Businesses were sourced from the Downtown Royal Oak DDA public directory. National chains, businesses without websites, and civic listings were excluded so the benchmark reflects local independent businesses.

This benchmark uses the 217 listings in the Downtown Royal Oak DDA directory extract on October 15, 2026. Questions were asked on October 20, 2026.

669 ChatGPT questions were asked across 147 unique prompts. Questions were matched to each business's category and pinned to Royal Oak at the city level.

Each business received approximately 6 questions. Questions were not averaged across multiple runs. This study used ChatGPT (OpenAI) on October 20, 2026.

Downtown Royal Oak DDA is a downtown development authority. Of the 217 listings, 49 had no usable website: 33 had no website listed, and 16 listed only Facebook, Instagram, a city page, a restaurant directory, a locator page, or a page on another company's site. Another 37 were not eligible: 25 national or multi-location chains and 12 civic or institutional listings. Of the 131 eligible members, 23 could not be confidently matched to a Royal Oak Google Business Profile and were not asked, leaving 108 scored. That includes one listing with no place id, and 22 that matched a different business, a building, or an office outside Royal Oak. Questions were pinned to Royal Oak at the city level. They were not restricted to the Downtown Royal Oak DDA district, and no extra map-pin or login location was applied. Each question was asked in one run.

This is a point-in-time benchmark of the ChatGPT responses tested on October 20, 2026. This study uses the 217 listings in the Downtown Royal Oak DDA directory extract from October 15, 2026. Scores are the share of scored members named in those answers. Questions were pinned to Royal Oak the city, so an answer can name a business outside the downtown district. ChatGPT answers can change. This is not a guarantee of future mentions, and it does not mean an unnamed business can never appear.

What This Means for Downtown Royal Oak DDA Members

If a customer's shortlist is built in ChatGPT, neighborhood independents that never appear may never get considered.

This research does not claim that appearing in ChatGPT causes a purchase, nor does it prove that an unnamed business cannot succeed. It identifies an emerging layer of local discovery that Downtown Royal Oak DDA members may want to understand.

CLIXERA can walk Downtown Royal Oak DDA members through these findings in a short workshop or lunch-and-learn. This page is the leave-behind — contact CLIXERA if you want to schedule a community session.