If you manage multiple business locations, updating your special hours across all profiles can be a tedious task. Fortunately, Google Business Profile now allows you to copy special hours across multiple listings, eliminating the need to update each location separately. This time-saving feature ensures customers always have accurate information about your business, whether for holidays, special events, or temporary closures.

Why Setting Special Hours Matters

Customers rely on accurate business hours when deciding to visit or contact you. Outdated or missing special hours can lead to frustration and lost business. By keeping your special hours updated, you can:

• Avoid customer confusion about holiday or event-related changes.
• Ensure consistency across multiple locations.
• Improve your local SEO, as Google rewards businesses with regularly updated profiles.

Setting special hours makes it clear to customers when you’re open late, closed for an event, or operating under different hours. 

I’ll give you an example.  I needed to find a florist – and quickly.  It was a Saturday, I lost track of time at work and had minimal time to buy flowers to take to a social event straight after work. While strapping in, I yelled out Hey Google, find a ‘Florist near me’, and thankfully, a few florists came and were listed – but only one of them was open.  Unfortunately, there was a Florist I now know to be 2 minutes away from my work location, but they did not come up in the search (one brilliant reason to have a Google Profile) I took Google (rather, the business) for their word – that the florist was still open for another half an hour. Twenty minutes later, after following the directions from Google, the business was not open and I had missed my opportunity to purchase the flowers I needed. TRUE STORY! Pissed off?  You got that, right?  Will I revisit them?  No – I hold a grudge! 

How to Set Special Hours Across Locations

Updating your special hours is now faster and easier for multi-location businesses. Here’s how:

1. Go to your Google Business Profile.
2. Click Edit Profile > Business Information > Hours Tab.
3. Under Special Hours, click Edit and select the date(s).
4. Confirm suggested hours or set custom ones.
5. Copy these hours to other locations for consistency.
6. Click Save, and your changes will apply across selected profiles.

For businesses managing many locations, bulk uploading via spreadsheet is also an option. Simply enter the updated hours and import the file into your Google Business dashboard.

Who Should Use This Google Feature?

This update is especially useful for businesses with multiple locations, such as:

• Retail chains adjusting for holiday shopping hours.
• Restaurants offering extended hours on weekends.
• Healthcare providers with temporary closures or special service hours.
• Service-based businesses adjust hours for seasonal demand.

By taking advantage of this feature, businesses can save time and maintain a consistent online presence across multiple locations. (and not upset their potential or current clientele).

Streamline Listings & Social Media with Birdeye

Reach Social Media (RSM), specialize in multi-location digital marketing. Managing business listings, social media, and customer reviews across multiple locations can be complex, but we make it easy.

Through our partnership with Birdeye, we offer an all-in-one platform to manage:

• Business listings across Google, Facebook, Yelp, and more.
• Social media scheduling for multiple locations from one dashboard.
• Messaging & reviews management to boost customer engagement and more.

If you’re looking for a simplified approach to digital marketing and reputation management, we can help. Contact us to learn more about our exclusive Birdeye package for multi-location businesses.  You can simply use this platform to update your Google profile and your socials, or we can manage this for you.  

Thought for the day…

Google’s new special hours update is a game-changer for businesses managing multiple locations. It eliminates the hassle of updating each profile separately, ensuring a seamless customer experience.

If you need help optimizing your Google Business Profile, social media strategy, or customer engagement, Reach Social Media is here to assist!