Google is allowing for businesses to add additional hours to their Google My Business listings for services that were not previously offered throughout all times of the day. If hours for particular business services vary from a company’s normal opening hours, this information is now easily displayed to customers.
Businesses are able to display additional hours for a range of different services, including:
- Delivery Services
- Drive-Thru Services
- Takeaway
- Pickup
- Senior Hours
- Happy Hours
- Brunch
- Kitchen
By looking through the range of services that this new feature accommodates, it’s likely safe to assume that this new addition to the Google My Business platform was added as a result of the current coronavirus pandemic. As many companies are struggling to adapt to the impact of the covid-19 outbreak, it’s likely that their business hours may have adjusted in response, cutting back hours or maybe even introducing additional services to accommodate customers. For example, a number of large brand supermarkets are setting aside blocks of time in the mornings and evenings for elderly customers, NHS staff, and other essential workers.
Other companies may have introduced delivery and pickup to their list of available services, but only be offering these features at certain times of the day.
Before this update was introduced, businesses using the Google My Business platform were only able to fill out a singular set of opening times for each individual day of the week. This new feature allows companies a lot more flexibility, and will likely continue to be a highly useful feature even after the coronavirus pandemic is over.