How to correct a factual error an assistant makes about you.
You cannot email ChatGPT. But every wrong claim has a source, and sources can be fixed. Here is the process we use, and the order that works.
First, find out where it came from
An assistant that says you close on Sundays did not invent it. It read it somewhere — usually a directory, an old article, a review site, or a cached version of your own site. Perplexity shows its sources inline. For the others, the tell is the wording: search for the exact phrase the assistant used and you will usually find the page. A Visiqn report does this for every error automatically and lists the cited URL.
Second, fix the source — not the symptom
- Directories — claim the listing, correct it, and check it again in two weeks. Most large directories syndicate to smaller ones, so fix the big one first.
- Old articles — ask the publisher for a correction or an update line. Many will add “Editor's note: the café now opens on Sundays” if you ask politely and give them the fact.
- Review platforms — update the business details in your owner account; reply to reviews that repeat the error with the correct fact, in plain words.
- Your own site — make sure the correct fact appears in text and in schema, on more than one page.
Third, give the assistant something better to cite
Correcting the wrong source removes the bad fact. Publishing a clear, specific, dated statement of the right fact gives the assistant a stronger source to prefer. A short page titled “Opening hours and how to find us”, with the hours in text and schema, dated, will usually outrank a directory in the assistant's weighting within a few weeks.
How long it takes
Perplexity typically reflects a fixed source within days. ChatGPT and Gemini within two to six weeks, depending on how often they re-retrieve. Claude tends to follow once several sources agree. This is why the quarterly plan exists: it lets you confirm the correction took, rather than assume it did.
Errors you cannot fix at the source
Occasionally the source is a page you cannot influence — a competitor's site, a forum, a scraped copy of an old directory. In that case the strategy is to outweigh it: make sure three or four sources you do control agree loudly on the correct fact. Assistants side with consistency.
Prevention
- Keep one master list of your facts — name, address, hours, services, prices — and update every directory from it.
- Put a “last updated” date on your contact and hours pages.
- Re-measure quarterly; errors creep back when a directory refreshes from an old feed.