Put your hours beside the phone number everywhere it appears, say what happens to calls after hours, and update holiday hours on the site, Google listing and voicemail at the same time.

A number with no hours beside it

The phone number sits in the header, large and tappable. Nothing near it says when anyone will answer.

So the calls arrive when customers have time: at ten at night, on Sunday afternoons, during the lunch hour you close for. They reach voicemail, and many hang up without leaving a message.

Meanwhile, at eight in the morning, when you are open and waiting, the phone is quiet, because people assumed you would not be in yet.

A few words beside the number fix most of this.

Where the hours belong

The fourth is the one many customers see before your site. Google shows whether a business is open right now based on the hours in Google My Business, and a listing without hours cannot tell anyone.

Phone hours are not always opening hours

A shop open from ten to six may answer the phone from nine. A trade's office may answer from half past seven to four, while the crews work later.

Say which hours you mean. "Phones answered 8 am to 5 pm" is clearer than a single set of times that a caller has to interpret.

If one person answers between jobs, say when calls are returned rather than implying a staffed line.

If an answering service takes calls after hours, say that too, so callers know a person will take the message.

Say what happens after hours

A caller at nine at night wants to know whether leaving a message is worth it.

Tell them on the site and in the greeting: messages returned by ten the next morning, texts read during the day, or an after-hours number for emergencies and what it costs.

A form or an email address can take after-hours enquiries too, if someone reads them first thing. Say that as well: messages sent tonight are answered by ten.

A specific promise, kept, does more than a cheerful message that commits to nothing. And if nobody checks the voicemail on weekends, do not imply that someone does.

Writing the hours clearly

Write the hours so nobody has to work them out. Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, reads at a glance; a row of abbreviations and dashes has to be decoded.

Use noon and midnight rather than 12 pm and 12 am, which many people mix up. If you close for lunch, show the gap.

List the closed days as well. "Saturday: closed" is an answer, while a missing Saturday leaves people guessing.

Hours as text, not a picture

Hours that are part of a picture are invisible to screen readers and to search engines, and awkward to change at short notice.

Put them in plain text, written the same way everywhere: Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm. Add the time zone if customers call from other provinces.

On a phone, the hours should be visible on the same screen as the tappable number, not three scrolls down.

A worked example

A farrier who shoes horses across the Fraser Valley works alone, from early morning, usually in a barn with a hoof in one hand.

His website showed his cell number in large type and nothing about when to use it. Calls came all day, and he could answer almost none of them.

Owners who visit their horses after work rang at nine or ten at night, got voicemail, and often tried someone else the next morning.

The fix was one line under the number on every page and on his Google listing: calls returned between six and eight in the evening, and texts read at lunch.

The line was kept short enough to sit beside the number on a phone screen, which is where his customers usually look him up.

His voicemail now says the same thing. The contact page lists the two weeks in August when he is away and who covers urgent work in the meantime.

Holiday hours

The Canada Day long weekend is next week, and BC Day follows in August. Each one changes when somebody answers.

Canada Day falls on a Saturday this year, so say plainly whether you are open on the Monday after. Otherwise customers will guess, in both directions.

Update the site, the Google listing, the Facebook page and the voicemail greeting together. Google My Business has a place for special hours, so the listing shows the right answer on the day.

Then take the notice down afterwards. A Christmas closure message still on the home page in June tells visitors nobody is watching the site.

The same hours everywhere

Customers who find one set of hours on your site, another on Google and a third on the door begin to trust none of them.

Keep a short list of everywhere your hours are published: the site, the listings, social media profiles, the voicemail, the door and printed materials. When the hours change, work through the whole list.

Directories you have forgotten about still show whatever hours were current when the listing was made, sometimes years ago. They belong on the list too.

Seasonal hours belong there as well, written with dates: summer hours until 7 pm, June to August.

The counter-case

Some businesses really do answer at any hour.

A twenty-four-hour emergency service should say so plainly, and that is its hours. A business that works by appointment only may prefer a booking link to a phone line, with the hours of the person who confirms bookings.

And a business that wants calls at any time and returns them all can say that instead. Whatever the arrangement, say it next to the number.

Before the next call

  1. Add hours beside the number in the header.
  2. Separate phone hours from opening hours if they differ.
  3. State what happens to after-hours calls.
  4. Replace any image of hours with text.
  5. Set special hours for the Canada Day weekend.
  6. Match the voicemail greeting to the site.
  7. List every place your hours appear.

Step three matters most to callers. Someone who knows a message will be returned by ten tomorrow leaves one; someone told nothing often tries the next business on the list.

The other question visitors want answered before they call is covered in pricing pages that only say call for a quote.

Frequently asked questions

Where should opening hours appear?

Beside the phone number in the header, on the contact page, in the footer, on your Google and Facebook listings, and in the voicemail greeting.

Are phone hours different from opening hours?

Often. A shop may answer from nine but open at ten, and a trade's office may answer earlier than the crews start. Say which hours you mean.

What should I say about after-hours calls?

Exactly what happens: when messages are returned, whether texts are read, and whether there is an emergency number and what it costs. A specific promise, kept, works best.

Why not show hours in an image?

Screen readers and search engines cannot read text inside an image, and it is awkward to change. Plain text, written the same way everywhere, avoids both problems.

How do I handle holiday hours?

Update the site, the Google listing through special hours, the Facebook page and the voicemail together before the holiday, then remove the notice once it has passed.

What if my hours differ between listings?

Customers stop trusting all of them. Write down everywhere the hours are published and update every one of those places whenever the hours change.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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