Business hours refer to the operational time from the hour a business opens its doors to clients until the time it closes for the day. In most countries, business hours start from 8 am to 5 pm, but in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia, business hours start from 9 am and closes at 5 pm. The business hours template is a document that shows the opening and closing time for the business so that its clients understand well the best time to visit the business. It also guides employees on the time to report to work and the time to depart.
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Free Business Hours Templates
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What determines business hours?
Each business’s nature is different from the other and will determine when a business should open and when it should close. Some businesses stick to the traditional 9 am to 5 pm, 8 am to 5 pm, and 7 am to 4 pm hours, but others adjust according to client’s needs and according to their nature.
Banks are likely to stick to the traditional hours because they serve all businesses and individuals with the exceptions of elite locations where banks can serve on 24hour cycles. Businesses like nightclubs usually open in the evening and close in the morning unlike retails stores which may open from 7 am to 8 pm.
There are business chains that operate for 24 hours like major supermarkets but they stick to specified timeframes within which they call the office hours when a client can visit the management office for queries or complaints that cannot be handled by the customer service desk.
Looking into all the above points, there are common factors that determine business hours including:
- Competition
The business world is a competitive field and every enterprise scrambles for whatever business opportunity avails itself. Businesses choose the extend their business hours to capitalize on available chances for increased profitability. Many businesses have reconsidered extending from the traditional 5 pm closing time, to between 8 pm and 10 pm. - Change of shopping styles
People are changing their shopping hours because of different dynamics of life like employment and higher education. Within the last decade, more shoppers are preferring to visit stores in the evening or night.
A shopper who leaves work at 8 pm would find it easier to visit the supermarket or local store on their way home. Working in shifts has also affected the behavior of shoppers because they will prefer shopping after their shift.
The change in shopping styles has mostly affected retail businesses because they must adjust to their client’s demands. A retailer who closes at 6 pm will miss business from a client who shops at 7 pm and as a result, the retailer has to change their business hours for the sake of the late shopper. - Technological development
Technology has changed the way people communicate and the way they do business transactions including order requests, payments, online shopping, deliveries, and other service-related issues. It is possible to shop online, place an order, and make payment at any time of the 24-hour cycle. As a result, many businesses are changing their business hours to accommodate online traffic. - Seasonal businesses
There are businesses like the naturally seasonal tourism industry. During the high seasons, such businesses adjust their business hours and may even operate for 24 hours and shift back during the low seasons.
Businesses that capitalize most during the Christmas season, Halloween, and black Friday adjust their business hours to accommodate the high flows of the client both physically and online.
Regarding the points above, it is evident that businesses will likely give in to client demands and extend their business hours sooner, as clients change their shopping style and shopping hours.
As technology drives us into a global 24-hour economy, every business entity must put measures into place to help them fit into the new system. What is important is for the businesses to arrange on acquiring the necessary software and gadgets, adding more staff, and adjust on stocking hours and service delivery to have happy customers all year round.
Office Hours Templates
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Why are business hours important?
Business hours improve your relationship with your clients and as simple as a business hour template may seem, it plays an important role in communicating to your customers if you are open or not.
The following are benefits of business hours of operation templates:
- Business hours offer improved customer service by availing information to the customers on what hours your business opens and the closing time. When a client learns what hours they can call or visit your business, they will stay within your timelines. A client calling off time will feel discouraged when the phone keeps ringing without being answered or dropping a conversation online and gets no response.
- It alerts your clients of changes in business hours if there is a need to adjust because of pick seasons or due to a change in shopping trends.
- Office hours template may help increase sales volumes because when your clients learn your opening and closing time, they will learn to adjust or visit your business during the operational hours and this will bring in more sales.
Holiday Hours Templates
How to prepare a business hours template?
There are free printable or downloadable business hour templates available online which you can use to prepare your business hours. You can also tailor-make your own and customize it to fit your needs. The following simple steps will help you prepare a custom business hours template for your business within a few minutes.
At the top part, insert the name of your business/company and you may include your logo and the branch name or your street address including your telephone contact so that a client can write it down or save it on their phone without having to physically request for your telephone contact.
You may want to include your time zone so that an online client can calculate the difference between your time and their time to know exactly when to make a call.
Draw a table and divide its rows according to the days of the week and have two columns – one indicating the opening time and the other your closing time. If you remain closed over the weekends, indicate which day of the weekend you remain closed.
You may engrave your template on a brass plate or Perspex and mount it on your main entrance where any person entering your premises can read it with ease. When you are closed, any person passing by must be able to read the engraving with ease.
Have another soft copy within your website or social media pages so that any client who visits online can tell which hours they can contact you. Your clients or online visitors should never get trouble looking for your hours of operation template, but it should be easily noticeable and strategically displayed at the top corner of your page, in the middle, and at the bottom.
If your business is young, you might need to adjust your business hours template as your business grows and as times and seasons change affecting the way your clients shop in your physical store/office and the online market.
Types of business hours templates
Depending on the type of business and the number of employees you manage, there are different types of business hours templates that you can have. A single business can have two or three templates, one for its clients, another for the employees, and another for seasons.
- Office hours template
This template is prepared for the clients so that they gain knowledge on what time your business opens and what time it closes so that they plan accordingly on when to visit your business or call. - Employee business hours template
The employee templates are prepared for the employees, especially for a company that works in shifts. The template is an internal document informing employees when each shift begins and when it ends. There could be shifts that are divided into six hours each and given names like the first shift, second shift, third shift, and so on.
If the HR informs a certain employee to report on the third shift, the employee will automatically know the business hours for that shift starts from, let’s say, 3 pm to 9 pm.
The employee will sign on the duty rooster what business hours shift they were allocated, the reporting time, and their departure time must correspond with the business hours for the specific shift. - Holiday hours template
This template is prepared for use during the high seasons like during the Christmas season, Halloween, and black Friday and at times during hot summers when the number of tourist increase. It’s prepared to alert clients on extended opening and closing times. When the holiday/high season is over, the business reverts to its traditional business operation templates. - Special cases business hours templates
At times a business may boom from an unexpected angle or because of seasonal games like the world cup, athletics, global conferences, or population census season, leading to a mass flow of clients into businesses located within the area of activity.
Businesses in that area may prepare a special case business hours template and extend their business time to tap on the short business opportunity because businesses must keep adjusting their operational hours to fit into technology, seasons, and customer behavior.
