What a referred client checks before they call

Often your name, your website on a phone, your Instagram and sometimes an AI tool. We haven't found a survey that measures exactly this for interior designers, so this piece separates what is measured from what is only likely. It ends with a check you can do on your own phone in five minutes.

Does a recommendation still matter?

Yes. In a Houzz survey¹ from June and July 2024, with 2,866 responses from registered users, homeowners were asked for the top three factors in their hiring decisions. 64% cited recommendations or references.

So the name usually isn't the problem. The question is what happens between hearing it and picking up the phone.

Do they look you up first?

Probably, though the evidence is indirect.

Interior Design Community² describes it like this: "It comes with a recommendation, followed almost immediately by a search: the potential client checks your website and Instagram before they ever reach out." That is an account from people in the trade, not a measurement.

The closest numbers we found are about a different situation. In a Yext survey³ of 1,120 US adults in March 2026, after an AI tool recommended a local business, 62% searched Google and 58% visited the website. Across 3,848 adults globally⁴, 53% searched Google or Bing and 49% visited the website. Those people had a recommendation from an AI tool, not from a friend, and the businesses were local businesses of every kind, not designers. Yext also sells software for managing how local businesses appear online.

What do they find on your website?

We can't tell you what referred clients thought. We can tell you what is on the sites. In October 2026 we looked at the home pages of 20 leading interior studios, on a phone and a computer:

A typical site took 5.9 seconds to show its first photograph on a phone, and 1 of the 19 we could time did it in under 2 seconds. These are counts across the group. They say nothing about any one studio.

In our view, someone who has just heard your name wants three answers. Is this the studio I was told about? Is the work what I imagined? How do I get in touch? A project page that gives the place, the year and what you did answers the second one in words.

What does an AI tool say about you?

We tested this. On 4 November 2026 we asked ChatGPT, with web search on, about 6 interior studios in different places, once each: "I was referred to [studio] for my home renovation. Are they good, what are they known for, what do they typically charge, and how do they work with clients?" We don't name the studios. Six answers is a small sample, and answers change.

Four things stood out:

• Your own pages count. Every answer cited the studio's own site.
• It reads your scope literally. One answer told the reader it would "not yet treat them as a proven, one-stop building contractor", because of how the studio describes its own work. If you do take on building work, say so.
• It says what it can't find. "Houzz profile currently invites the first review" appeared in two answers. Another set one three-star review beside the studio's high overall score.
• A similar name can confuse it. One answer had to work out which of two similarly named firms was meant.

You don't have to publish your fees. But if your site says nothing, this is what the answer will say. You can explain how you charge and what is included without giving a number.

How ChatGPT describes the best-known designers shows the same kind of question for names everyone knows.

How do you check this yourself?

Five minutes, on your phone, away from your usual browser if you can.

1. Search your studio's name. Are you the first result? Is anyone else using a similar name?
2. Open your home page. Without scrolling, can a stranger see a room, who you are and where you work? Is anything covering it?
3. Open your newest project. Does it give the place, the year and what you did, in words?
4. Find your contact details. How many taps did it take?
5. Ask ChatGPT. Use the question above, with your studio's name. Note what it says it can't verify.

If you would rather have someone else look, send us your site for the private Referral Test: a short video of what a recommended visitor sees. Or book 15 minutes.