Hey dealers, Josh from Wikimotive here…with a reminder that Independence Day is right around the corner. So, before you fire up that grill and set off those fireworks, let’s make sure your dealership’s Google Business Profile is updated to reflect your holiday hours.
Okay, so there’s two things you’re going to want to do (i) set your holiday hours, and (ii) post about it so that everyone knows what those holiday hours are.
Setting Your Holiday Hours
For setting your holiday hours, navigate to your Google Business Profile dashboard, find the listing that you want to change your holiday hours for, hit the pencil icon to edit information, and scroll down to the ‘Holiday Hours’ section, just past your ‘Regular Hours’. First, you’ll want to find the holiday you’re looking to edit the hours for. If you don’t see it, click “add date”. Now, enter your holiday hours for that date or – if you’re going to be closed – click “Closed”. Just remember to hit “Save” once you’re done.
Now, listen up, because this part’s important. If you’re changing your holiday hours more than a week ahead of time, you’re not going to see any change to your hours on the front end of Google Maps. ‘Holiday Hours’ only show up the week of; this way, you can make your customers aware of what’s coming, without confusing them.
Be aware that, if you don’t update your business hours for any major holiday, Google will still put a message on the front-end of Google Maps saying “Holiday might affect these hours”. But…ambiguity is the enemy, so make sure and update them so Google replaces that message with the green one, telling your customers that you updated your holiday hours, and that they’re accurate.
Generating Awareness
The second thing, which is almost as important, is to generate awareness. If you’re ahead of the game, and you want to let your customers know about your upcoming holiday hours more than a week ahead of time, you can make a Google Business Profile post.
How do you do that?
You go back to your Google Business Profile dashboard, find your desired listing, and hit ‘Add Update’. From there you can add a description, an image, and even a link and then hit ‘Post’. Your customers will be able to see the post when they navigate to your business on Google Maps.
And if you want to spread even more awareness ahead of time, repeat this process once a week, and distribute those posts across all your social media platforms. Why is this important? Because neither Facebook or Apple Maps allow you to do focused updates for holiday hours, which seems crazy. Right?
So, on behalf of everyone here at Wikimotive, have a safe and happy 4th of July…and if you want more ways to set your dealership up for success, connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube & Instagram for more ways to optimize your dealership’s online presence and Sell More Cars.