Clocks Fall Back Today: A 10-Minute Hours Check Before the Holidays

Your microwave clock is wrong this morning, and so is the one in your truck. Your Google listing didn't fall back with them, but the hours your customers see online might be off anyway, for reasons that have nothing to do with daylight saving time.

Daylight saving time ended at 2 a.m. today across most of the US (Arizona and Hawaii skip it). That makes today a good excuse to spend ten minutes on something most owners forget until a customer complains: making sure your hours are right everywhere, and setting Thanksgiving hours before the rush.

Why your hours matter more than they used to

People search "open now" on their phones constantly. Google's AI-generated answers and AI Mode pull details from your Google Business Profile, your website and other listings to answer questions like "auto shop open Saturday near me." When those sources disagree, you risk showing up with the wrong hours or getting passed over for a business whose information looks more reliable. And nothing sours a customer faster than driving across town to a locked door.

The 10-minute hours check

1. Search yourself like a customer would. Grab your phone, open Google Maps and search your business name. Look at the hours, the "Open" or "Closed" label and anything Google flags as "hours might differ." Write down what's wrong before you start fixing.
2. Decide whether winter changes your schedule. Earlier sunsets change how some businesses run. A general contractor might start crews later on dark, wet mornings. An auto repair shop might stop taking walk-ins earlier. A salon might shift a late evening slot. If your real hours are changing, decide now so you update everything once.
3. Update your Google Business Profile hours first. Sign in to the Google account that manages your listing, search your business name, and choose Edit profile, then Hours. You can also manage it through business.google.com. Google is where most local customers check first, so start here.
4. Add Thanksgiving week special hours today. In the same Hours area, look for Special hours. Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, followed by Black Friday on the 27th and Small Business Saturday on the 28th. Special hours apply only to those dates and then your regular hours come back automatically, so there's nothing to undo later.
5. Knock out the rest of the holidays while you're there. Christmas Eve falls on Thursday, December 24, and Christmas Day on Friday, December 25. New Year's Eve is Thursday, December 31, and New Year's Day is Friday, January 1. If you're closed or closing early, add it now. Future you will be grateful in mid-December.
6. Make your website match exactly. Check your footer, contact page and any "Visit us" section. If your site says you close at 6 and Google says 5:30, customers don't know who to believe, and neither does Google. A small banner on your homepage for holiday hours works well too.
7. Sweep your social and directory listings. Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, Apple Business Connect (which feeds Apple Maps) and Bing Places all display hours. Most take a minute or two each. If you don't remember logging in to one of them in years, that's the one most likely to be wrong.
8. Update your voicemail and booking tools. Salons with online booking and shops with scheduling software should block off holiday closures so nobody books a 10 a.m. color on Thanksgiving morning. Then re-record your voicemail greeting with your holiday hours. Customers still call.
9. Post your holiday hours as a Google update. Your Business Profile lets you publish short updates. A simple post like "Closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, back Saturday at 9" answers the question before anyone has to ask it, and it shows Google your profile is actively maintained.
10. Set one reminder for spring. Daylight saving time starts again on Sunday, March 14, 2027. Put a calendar reminder on that date to run this same check. Pair it with any seasonal change in your schedule and you'll never have stale hours for long.

A quick note for each kind of business

Contractors

If you mostly work job sites, list the hours you actually answer the phone and respond to estimates. Customers care about when they can reach you, not when your office door is unlocked.

Auto repair shops

The week after Thanksgiving gets busy with people prepping for winter travel. If you're closing Friday, say so clearly, and mention when you'll start taking drop-offs again.

Salons

Holiday weeks are prime booking time. If you're adding extra hours before Thanksgiving or Christmas, put those in special hours too. Extended hours are just as worth showing as closures.

Ten minutes now beats a bad review later

None of this is complicated. It's just easy to forget until someone posts a one-star review about showing up to a dark storefront. Do it today while the clock change is fresh in your mind and your holiday season starts clean.

If you'd rather have someone keep your website, Google profile and hours in sync for you, that's what we do at Gotta Web Design in Beaverton, Oregon. We build AI-powered websites for small businesses starting at $60 a month, with local SEO built in. Take a look at gottawebdesign.net or call us at (503) 381-2251.