There is a lot of value for your customers when they can count on your business being consistent. With businesses that have store hours and walk-in customers, it’s important to maintain the opening and closing of the store at those time you’ve stated, especially in this fast paced world. If your store hours say you open at 8:30 am, and your customer is stopping by on their way to their 9 am job, you could cause them issues by opening at 8:35 am. The same is true at the end of the day. If the store closes at 5:30 pm, and you decide to shut the doors at 5:25 pm because the end of the day is usually slow, you may be cutting off a customer that is coming from work and trying to make it there right before closing.
PS – I’ve always admired Costco when it comes to this. Their store hours on Sundays say 10:00 am, but they usually open the doors at 9:45 am to customers. Their customers love this and line up outside before 9:45 am to beat the rush.
February 13, 2019