Backyard barbecues, beach days, road trips… Summer is here, and it’s time to get into a summer state of mind.

For service providers, summers can be a time to slow down and maybe even plan a little getaway. 

But before you take off, it’s important to make sure your summer work schedule is in place.

To get ahead of the game this year, we put together everything you need to know to have your Schedulicity calendar prepped for the summer.

Summer Schedule To-Do’s:

Set Your Summer Schedule Early

Planning a big summer trip in advance is easy. Remembering to adjust your availability on Schedulicity is the hard part. 🙂

Here’s how to add in specific vacation days or adjust your booking hours, so you’re ready to roll when your big trip comes!

Add Vacation Days

If you already know ahead of time which days off you need this year, you can go ahead and mark those days as “out” so clients are unable to book for those days.

From within your Schedulicity account:

  1. Open Settings and go to the “Providers/Instructors” tile.
  2. Select the provider name from the list.
  3. Choose the “Schedule” tab
  4. To the right of the “Planned Days Off” header, select the “Add” button.
  5. Then select the days which you’d like off right from that mini calendar. (Those days will turn blue so you know they’re selected.)
  6. Lastly, click the “Add Days Off” button to save your changes.

Adjust Your Available Hours

Sometimes you just want to give yourself a little more breathing room for the summer — working less and relaxing more.

If that’s the case, check out the following steps to block off more of your schedule for specific days*.

From within your Schedulicity account:

  1. Open your Appointment Calendar, and you’ll find a gear icon at the top right corner of the screen. (This is what you can use to edit your schedule on the fly or adjust one day in particular!)
  2. Click on the gear icon to adjust the start/end time of your days or even mark them as Out completely. Of course, you can also open a day you don’t normally work as well.
  3. Hitting Save will immediately adjust your schedule for only those days you have edited.

*Keep in mind that this will only edit your schedule for the specific days you choose and won’t affect your recurring work schedule in your provider profile.

Set a Future Schedule

Schedulicity’s “Future Schedule” tool is sometimes missed by businesses when taking vacations, but it’s a great feature when you know your schedule will be changing temporarily.

It’s especially handy for seasonal changes, like summer business hours.

From within your Schedulicity account:

  1. Open Settings, and click on the “Providers/Instructors” tile,
  2. Select the service provider whose schedule you would like to add the future schedule to.
  3. Choose the “Schedule” tab
  4. Select the “Add” button beside the “Future Schedule”.
  5. Pick the date on which you’d like the new schedule to start.
  6. Enter the start and end times for the days you will be available.
  7. Click “Add Future Schedule” to save changes.

Note: You can create multiple future schedules if your availability will be changing yet again, so go ahead and set another future schedule for when the holidays are over.

Send an Email (or Two)

Communication is always key, not only for sharing discounts or monthly updates with clients, but also for keeping your clients informed of your hours and closings.

With Schedulicity’s Email Marketing tools, you can send out a special summer hours email to let them know what your hours will be for the upcoming months.

Here’s a fun template you can work with — just be sure to adjust it to your tone and business needs.

Happy summer, friends!

It’s our favorite time of year, which means we’re enjoying the sunshine, spending too much time at the lake, and taking time to relax.

As a heads up, we will not be offering appointments/classes from [DATE] through [DATE] as we take some time away with family and friends. 

We’ll have limited hours on the following days as well: 

[ENTER DAYS/HOURS FOR THE HOLIDAYS]

We’ll be back to regular hours beginning on [DATE]. In the meantime…

Have a great summer!

Don’t Forget Google and Facebook

On top of updating your hours on your website and sharing your schedule with clients via email, you also want to make sure the same info is displayed on your Google Business listing and/or your Facebook Business page. 

Set Special Hours for Google Business

  1. Sign in to Google My Business.
  2. If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  3. Click the Special hours section.
  4. Click Confirm hours next to an upcoming holiday. Or click Add new date to choose a different date.
  5. Enter the opening and closing times for that day.
    • Slide the circle to “Closed” to indicate that the location is closed all day.
    • If you’re open 24 hours, click Opens at and select 24 hours from the dropdown menu that appears.
    • If you enter closing hours past midnight, make sure to set them properly.
  6. When you’ve finished entering all of your special hours, click Apply. Your special hours will appear to customers on Google only for the designated days.

📚 Extra Credit: If you don’t already have Reserve with Google set up for your Schedulicity booking page, now’s the time to get that going! Learn more in our how-to guide and make sure clients can easily book with you from your Google Business Listing.

Set Hours on Your Facebook Business Page

  1. Click About on the left side of your Page.
  2. Click Edit Page Info.
  3. Click the Hours tab at the top.
  4. Add your hours and click Save Changes.

If you don’t see an Hours section, you may need to change your Page’s category.

Note: Facebook also recommends you add a post to notify followers of your updated hours. You can even pin the post to the top of your page during the summer.