Keeping Your Business Hours

Since the beginning of trading, successful commerce has always hinged on buyer and seller reaching a common understanding or agreement. The seller makes an offer. The buyer analyzes the offer and decides accepting the offer will fill his/her need and bases the buying decision on that analysis. As long as there is a common understanding of the details of the offer, both buyer and seller can come away happy, ready to do business again at some point in the future.

For a brick and mortar establishment, the hours of operation; i.e. the hours during which the products or services are available is a part of the successful customer agreement. When sellers fail to uphold the commitment to be available during certain hours, they run the risk of alienating future successful sales.

Example:

A restaurant has the following hours of operation posted on its sign:

Tues - Thurs 11:00am - 9:00pm

Fri - Sat 11:00am - 11:00pm

Sun 11:00am - 9:00pm

Mon Closed

The establishment generally stays pretty business until closing time on Friday and Saturday nights. With the economy the way it is, sometimes from Tuesday - Thursday or on Sunday, things are a little slow between 7:30 and 9:00.

The owner has done a study and found that on average, one Sunday evening of every month, he loses money (wages, utilities, etc) between 7:30 and 9:00pm. He can't establish a pattern of predicting which of the Sunday nights in a month will be a slow one.

Thinking that by 8:00pm on a Sunday night, he'll be able to tell if the last hour will be profitable or not, he decides that on those Sunday nights, when he can predict, he will close the restaurant at 8:00pm. Because the other Sunday nights are ok, he wants to leave his sign alone, saying he is open until 9:00pm.

If the owner follows through with this decision, he will be breaking a substantial part of the customer agreement with everyone that comes to his restaurant on the Sunday nights that he closes early. His sign says he’s open until 9:00 and that’s what people expect. Some of these disappointed customers will become past customers.

People expect businesses to follow through on the promises they make. This includes the hours of operation. What makes people especially angry is to make a special trip to patronize a business during published hours only to find out the business is closed when its sign says it should be open. It may be ok for a business owner to change the hours of operation from time to time if notice is given and any signage changed to reflect the new hours. To maintain the integrity of the customer agreement, a business must stay open during the hours stated on its signage, advertising and other media.

While staying open when you say you’re open doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be successful, closing when you say you’re open will adversely affect your chances of success. Choose your hours carefully and make sure you abide by the hours you advertise.