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How to state customer service hours for Google Shopping

Publish the hours your support is really answered, with days, times and a timezone, on the contact page next to the phone number and email. No Merchant Center policy sets the hours for you, but Google asks you to make clear how customers reach your support team, and Product Experts list business hours for every footer and contact page. Modest and true beats “24/7” every time.

Minor4 min read

By How the guides are reviewed

Why this matters

Google's pages ask for reachable support rather than particular hours. The “Building trust with your customers” page says: “Clearly communicate how customers can interact with you, ensure your customers know how to reach your support team.” Business info in Merchant Center asks for your “website’s working URL that displays your current business contact information”, and explains that “Your customers can also use this information to contact you to request support for order status, updates, and other issues.” The Editorial and professional requirements count contact information that is “incomplete or unclear for customers to take action on” as a problem.

Hours are how a shopper knows when “reachable” applies. Product Experts on Google's Merchant Center Community list business hours among the details for every footer and the contact page, next to an address where the owner is present “during posted business hours”. If you keep a Business Profile, its guidelines ask you to “Provide your regular customer-facing hours of operation.”, and they should say the same as the site; Business Profile alignment covers that side.

The trap is the heroic promise. “24/7 support” on a two-person shop is a claim any shopper can test at 3am. An hours line is a promise, so make it one you keep: when calls are answered, how fast emails get a reply, what happens at weekends and on holidays. Then set the same hours in the auto-reply, the chat widget and the phone number line.

The free scan does not check your contact page for customer service hours, and it does not call you, so whether the hours are there and whether they are true are both yours to test, the way a customer would. See every contact check on the misrepresentation checker.

Typical evidence

Credible hours beat impressive ones

This is low-stakes on its own — the only ways to get it wrong are leaving it blank or overselling it. '24/7 support' on a one-person shop reads as less believable, not more.

Opening hoursCleared
Mon – Fri9:00 – 17:00
Saturday10:00 – 14:00
SundayClosed
Replies within 4 business hours
Nobody believes itCritical
24/7 support
…on a store run by one person

The public signals this check looks for:

  1. No hours anywhere

    No hours anywhere: a contact form and a promise to “get back to you soon”.

  2. “24/7 support” on a store run by one or two people

    “24/7 support” on a store run by one or two people.

  3. Hours with no timezone, on a store that sells to more than one country

    Hours with no timezone, on a store that sells to more than one country.

  4. The contact page, the Business Profile and the email auto-reply give three different sets …

    The contact page, the Business Profile and the email auto-reply give three different sets of hours.

  5. A holiday closure announced nowhere, so messages pile up unanswered

    A holiday closure announced nowhere, so messages pile up unanswered.

What it looks like once it is right

Contact page: “Phone 0113 496 0123, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm UK time. Email help@acme.co.uk: we reply the same working day. Closed on bank holidays.” The auto-reply and the Business Profile say the same.

Common mistakes

Common mistake

“24/7 customer support!” in the header of a one-person shop. The form's auto-reply says replies take 5 to 7 working days, and the Business Profile shows the hours of a shop that closed last year.

Fix checklist

Specific beats impressive

Publish hours you can actually support. “24/7” on a one-person shop may mislead customers; a plain response window is more useful.

24/7 support
Verdicton a one-person shop — empty
Mon–Fri · 9am–5pm GMT
We reply within 4 business hours
Verdictmodest, exact, deliverable

Questions merchants ask

Does Google Merchant Center require customer service hours on my website?

No Merchant Center policy page sets hours you must keep or publish. Google asks for clear, reachable contact information and for customers to know how to reach your support team, and Product Experts on the Merchant Center Community list business hours among the details for the footer and contact page. Honest hours cover both.

Is it a problem to say “24/7 support” if we are a small team?

It is a claim any shopper can test. If nobody answers at night, say what does happen instead, such as a form or email answered the next working day. Keep every promise on the contact page one you actually keep.

Should I publish holiday hours?

Yes, whenever support stops for a holiday. A dated notice on the contact page and in the auto-reply stops messages piling up unanswered, and if you keep a Business Profile, Google lets you set special hours for particular days, like holidays.

Remediation

Risk signal

Hours are the cheapest trust detail on a store and the easiest to get wrong by being optimistic. Publish what you actually do, keep every copy in step, and look at the contact page after each theme update to make sure they are still there.
PriorityLow priority on its own — clear it as housekeeping so the record is complete.
EvidenceRecord the current state before each change, apply the fix, then capture the corrected state so every change is evidenced.

Similar cases

  1. How StoreVerifier checks public store evidenceOverview
  2. How to fix dead or private social links for Merchant CenterBusiness Identity
  3. Merchant Center store URL: how to keep one verified domainBusiness Identity

Sources

  1. Building trust with your customersGoogle Merchant Center Help — support.google.com
  2. Add your business information (name, address, contact)Google Merchant Center Help — support.google.com
  3. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Business Profile)Google Business Profile Help — support.google.com

Community guidance

Written by Product Experts, the users Google recognises for their answers on its Merchant Center Community forum. Often stricter than Google’s help pages, and not Google policy.

  1. How to fix your Merchant Center suspension (Misrepresentation), 2026Merchant Center Community · Product Expert guide — support.google.com

Last reviewed 29 Sep 2026.

That is one issue. The library documents 134.

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