Will Your Business Lose Customers This Season?
You might lose customers if you don’t effectively communicate this one thing.
Your business hours.
That seems simple enough. But, will your business’ operating hours change at all in the next month or two? (for example, do you close for any holidays?)
You’re busy, and the busier we get, the easier it is to forget things.
So, take this minute to ask:
What is the best way to communicate changed business hours to my customers?
I’m sure you understand why this is important… but let me illustrate it briefly…
My husband had the day after Thanksgiving off work. Looking to surprise me with something special, he made a secret trip to a bakery I love. (Don’t be fooled. He loves sweets way more than I do – especially pastries. There was something in this trip for him too!)
As he tells the story, his plan was to buy some specific iced sugar cookies that I have loved since childhood.
But first, he looked up the bakery online and checked their business hours on Google.
Since he lives with me, he knows how to tell if the Google listing is ‘claimed’. He understands this means that someone owns it. (And, he figured that means they update it also.)
The listing showed they were open until 5pm. Great! After driving 16.7 miles from our home he arrived at the bakery.
On the front door was a sign, handwritten in black marker and taped to the door. It read: “Closed for Thanksgiving Thurs – Sun”.
Can you sense the disappointment?
How will you ensure your customers never feel this way?
More and more searches on Google do not result in a click-through to any website
Why?
Because people are finding answers to their questions right ON GOOGLE.
This is a perfect example. The Google Business listing displays the basic information about a business such as hours, address & phone number.
We must understand that this is how people find information. (Not from handwritten signs.)
As business owners we must communicate the way our customers absorb information.
I believe the most important place to update your hour changes is in your Google Business listing.
This experience illustrates the importance of an accurate Google My Business listing. This should cause you to ask yourself:
- Does my business have a Google business listing?
- Can I make changes to it?
- Are my hours for the next two months accurate?
The business hours are easy to change, and you can set them far in advance. If you know what days you will be closed, you can go in and set them for the entire year.
Why not do that right now?
If you have questions about any of these steps, feel free to reach out to me and I’ll point you in the right direction.
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