A one-hour checklist: fix your hours so weekend cleanout calls find you
Junk removal calls spike on weekends, but many profiles show no hours or close Saturday. A one-hour checklist for hours, holiday hours and text-back.
Cleanouts get planned on weekends. Someone spends Saturday morning in a parent's garage, realizes the pile is bigger than their pickup, and searches for a hauler on their phone at 11 a.m. If your Google profile says "Closed" or shows no hours at all, a lot of those people skip you without trying.
This is one of the cheapest fixes in your whole marketing. It takes about an hour. Here is the checklist.
Where the category stands
Across 5,171 junk removal listings in our data, 36.8% show no hours at all. Only 44.5% list Saturday hours, and 29.7% list Sunday. That is a gap you can step into this week. The full numbers are on the benchmarks page.
A missing hours block does not just look sloppy. When a searcher filters for "Open now," Google leans on the hours you set, and a listing with no hours gives it nothing to go on. You want to be in that filtered list on a Saturday.
The checklist
Minutes 0 to 10: decide your real hours
Before you touch the profile, decide what you can actually staff. Be honest. Two rules:
- List the hours you answer the phone, not the hours trucks run. If the phones are covered from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. but trucks only run 8 to 5, list 7 to 7. People are calling to book, not to be picked up this minute.
- If you can answer on Saturday, list Saturday. Even 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. is better than closed. If you can cover Sunday with a phone in someone's pocket, list that too.
Write the hours on paper for each day of the week.
Minutes 10 to 20: update the profile
Open your Business Profile from Google Search or the Google Maps app.
- Go to Edit profile, then Hours.
- Set each day. Use split hours if you break midday.
- Save. Changes can take a little while to show up, and Google may ask you to confirm.
While you are in there, check that your phone number is the one that actually rings. An old tracking number or a former employee's cell can sit on a profile for years without anyone noticing. The Google Business Profile guide covers the rest of the profile, from categories to photos.
Minutes 20 to 30: set holiday hours now
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are coming, and the weeks between them are some of the busiest of the year for estate cleanouts and post-holiday hauls. Set Special hours for each holiday now, so Google does not show you as open when you are not, or closed when you are.
- Go to Edit profile, then Hours, then Special hours.
- Add Thanksgiving, the day after, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
- If you are working any of those days, say so. A hauler who is open the Friday after Thanksgiving gets calls from everyone whose relatives just left.
Minutes 30 to 40: match your website
Your website and your profile should show the same hours. If they disagree, customers get confused and Google may trust the profile less. Open your site on your phone, find the hours, and fix them if needed. Most junk removal companies in our data have a website, 87.2% of them, so this step applies to almost everyone. If yours does not list hours at all, add one line in the footer. The website essentials guide covers what else belongs on the page.
Minutes 40 to 50: set up after-hours text-back
You cannot answer every call, and listing longer hours means more calls at odd times. Turn on a missed-call text-back so anyone who calls when you cannot pick up gets an instant reply:
"Hi, this is Mike with Haul Away Pros. Sorry we missed you. If you text us a photo of what needs to go, we will send you a price range within the hour, and we can usually get there in a day or two."
The photo request is the important part. It turns a missed call into a quote conversation. The missed calls and follow-up guide has the full setup, and the calculator shows what unanswered calls cost at your average haul.
Minutes 50 to 60: test it
- Search your business name on your phone and check the hours show correctly.
- Search "junk removal near me" on Saturday morning and see whether you show as open.
- Call your number from another phone, let it ring out, and confirm the text-back arrives.
- Put a reminder on your calendar for the first of each month to check hours, special hours and the text-back.
What changes after this
Nothing about this hour guarantees more calls. What it does is remove a reason people skip you. A hauler with clear hours, an open Saturday and a text-back that asks for a photo is easier to pick than one showing "Hours not listed." In a category where most of the competition has not done this, easier to pick is worth a lot.
If you would rather have the profile, hours and text-back set up for you, the free 14-day trial covers any service with no card. Text or call (385) 378-6189, or go to the free trial page.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, junk removal and hauling companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor