Holiday Hours: Update Google, Your Site and Your Phone

A customer drives twenty minutes to a bakery on a holiday morning because Google said it was open until two. The door is locked and the lights are off. The owner did post a sign in the window the week before, but the customer never walked past the window. The customer checked the phone, and the phone was wrong. That customer does not leave a review about the bread. They leave one about the drive.

Holiday closures are one of the few marketing problems with a fixed date and a fixed fix. You know the holiday is coming, you know whether you will be open, and every place that shows your hours can be changed in a few minutes. This is the checklist we use with small service businesses, in the order that matters most.

Why your normal hours become wrong on a holiday

Most people do not look at your website to find out if you are open. They type your name or something like "pharmacy near me" into Google or Maps, and the answer they see comes from your Google Business Profile. If you only set regular hours there, Google keeps showing them on the holiday. Apple Maps, Facebook and booking tools do the same with their own copies of your hours.

So a holiday closure has to be told to every place that holds a copy of your hours. Changing it in one place and hoping it spreads does not work, because these places do not read each other.

Step one: set special hours on Google, one to two weeks ahead

Google Business Profile has a setting called special hours, made for exactly this. You pick the date, then mark it closed or set the shorter hours for that day. Your regular hours stay untouched, and the next day everything goes back to normal on its own. You do not have to remember to change it back.

• Open your Business Profile from Google Search or Maps while signed in, and choose to edit your hours.
• Add the holiday date under special hours, then mark it closed or enter the hours you will keep.
• Do it a week or two ahead. Edits can take a while to show, and people plan holiday errands early.
• Add the day after too if you open late or close early to recover.

Google sometimes asks business owners to confirm their hours before a well-known holiday. If you see that prompt, answer it. Leaving it unanswered can mean the profile shows a note saying hours might differ, which makes people hesitate even when you are open.

Step two: change the other places that show your hours

After Google, go down this list. It takes about as long as making a coffee.

• Apple Maps, through Apple Business Connect, if you have claimed your place there.
• Your Facebook Page and Instagram profile, which both have their own hours fields.
• Your booking or scheduling tool, so nobody can book a slot on a day you are closed.
• Delivery and directory apps you are listed on, such as food delivery or review sites.
• The footer or contact page of your website, where the hours are often typed by hand.

On the website, a short line at the top of the homepage works better than a pop-up. Something like "Closed Thursday for the holiday. Back Friday at 9." is enough. Pop-ups get closed without being read, especially on a phone.

Step three: the phone, the part almost everyone forgets

When a place is closed, people call to check. If the phone rings out or goes to your normal voicemail, the caller does not know whether you are closed or just busy. Record a short holiday greeting the day before you close. Say the day you are closed, the day and time you reopen, and what to do if it is urgent.

If you have an automatic text reply for missed calls, update its wording too. A text that says "we will call you back in an hour" sent on a closed day is a promise you cannot keep. Change it to say when you will actually be back, and switch it back when you reopen.

Step four: tell the people who come back every week

Your regulars are the ones most likely to show up out of habit. Tell them directly, a few days ahead, through whatever channel you already use with them: an email to your customer list, a post on the account they follow, a note at the counter or on the receipt. Keep it to one sentence with the dates.

If you take appointments, look at the calendar for the days around the holiday now, while there is still time to move anyone who booked on the closed day.

If you are staying open, say so loudly

Holidays also work the other way. When most businesses in your area close, the ones that stay open get the searches. If you will be open, set special hours on Google with the actual open hours for that date. A profile that confirms holiday hours is more convincing than one that leaves people guessing, and someone searching on the holiday is usually ready to come in.

Mention it in a post on your Google profile and on your social accounts a few days ahead. "Open on the holiday, 10 to 3" is a useful message, which is more than most posts can claim.

A two-minute check on the day

On the morning of the holiday, search for your business name on your phone, the same way a customer would, and look at what it says about today. Then open Maps and check there too. If something still shows the wrong hours, fix that place and make a note to set it earlier next time.

Then put the next holiday on your calendar with a reminder two weeks before it. The checklist does not change from one holiday to the next, so the first time is the slowest. After that it is ten minutes that saves somebody a wasted drive and saves you a bad review.

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