Josie —
This is the short case for getting our Google and directory listings under one roof (a tool called Yext), starting with Houston, then Sarasota, then everyone. Ten minutes to read; we'll go through it on the phone.
Sources: the 30 July entity audit of the Houston office, plus Yext pricing research. To-do list for you and Toyna is at the bottom (its own page, so you can forward it).
1 · What's actually wrong
The July audit swept everywhere the Houston office shows up online. Sixteen sources publish at least one wrong value. Only four get everything right. Here's the phone-number picture:
And the name. Every other office is "AAAC Wildlife Removal of Somewhere". Houston is just "AAAC Wildlife Removal" — which is also the name of the whole company. So data companies and AI tools merge HQ and Houston into one blurry thing, attach HQ's number to Houston, and cite the corporate website instead of Houston's.
Below 5, AI engines have no stable basis for the business. Today: Google, Yelp, MapQuest and PCT Online agree. The BBB record exists but is wrong, so it currently counts against us.
ChatGPT actually gave the right number when tested — it read it off our own site. That means this is a cleanup problem, not a "the AI made something up" problem. Cleanup problems respond in weeks. The one confirmed miss: Claude repeated the BBB "alternate" number. That's a single record we can fix ourselves.
Our Houston site was publishing your home street address and a map pin on the house — even though your Google listing deliberately hides it. I've had that removed. It's mentioned here because a couple of the to-dos are about making sure it doesn't creep back in elsewhere.
2 · Why now
Austin went months without a verified Google Business Profile. No listing, no reviews, no phone calls from that channel — and getting Google to approve one takes relentless, skilled follow-up that a new franchisee can't do and I can't do from a distance.
Matthew's office should launch with a correct listing everywhere on day one, done visibly well, so it becomes the standard the other offices see. That's cheap to do right and expensive to do late.
3 · What Yext is
New office → correct listing on Google, Apple, Bing, Yelp, Facebook and 100+ directories at once.
Change a number, drop a service, close an office — edit once, it goes everywhere. The light switch.
Hunt down old "A All Animal Control" ghosts and duplicates and get them merged or removed, so they stop competing with the real listing.
Yext holds listings in sync only while we pay. Cancel and directories can drift back. Think of it as a utility bill — cheap per month, and worth it as long as we treat it that way. Suppression of bad listings also only holds on the tier that includes it.
4 · What it costs
Yext doesn't publish a price list above a handful of locations; these are list prices from third-party round-ups and are the ceiling we negotiate down from. It bills per listing, not per office — Kentucky with three profiles costs three times Houston. Watch for annual prepay, 5–10% renewal increases, and a possible one-time cleanup fee. Get all three in writing.
5 · What I recommend
Your out-of-pocket for the pilot is about $1,500 a year — Houston top, Sarasota base. If Houston's number confusion clears and the corroboration count climbs at the 30-day re-check, we've proved it on the office you watch most closely, and the network rollout is an easy sell.
6 · Your decisions
Everything else writes a name into a record, so nothing starts until this is settled. My recommendation is the one every other office already uses.
Recommend: "AAAC Wildlife Removal of Houston"Our homepage photo shows it. If vehicles on the road still carry the old number, web cleanup is treating a symptom. One question, cheap to answer, changes the scope.
Just tell meSix sites use our brand name with a different number (936-758-7175) — and an AI recommended one of them as a separate company alongside us. Even if they're legitimately theirs and calls forward to you, they split our signal and compete on our own name. I'd rather this come from you than from me twisting arms.
Recommend: confirm ownership in writing, then "our number or take them down"Houston top tier + Sarasota base tier. About $1,500/yr, paid by you/Corporate.
Recommend: yesI set up a call with you on it to price the base tier across all 28 listings — no commitment, just the number. Then: Corporate absorbs it, or passes through ~$25–35/month per listing. That decides how I frame it at the conference.
Recommend: take the call; pass through per listingEverything that needs a person to log in, call someone, or decide — grouped by who does it (you, Toyna, me). Forward the link.
Happy to walk through any of it. The 30-day re-check is already scheduled once we start.
Pricing sources (third-party; Yext doesn't publish enterprise pricing): Spike · SocialPilot · Vendr. Audit findings: SOP-AIS-004 Entity Coherence Audit, Houston pilot, 30 July 2026. Private link, not indexed.