PART 1 - Don't be Afraid of Committment

There are certain things I accept living in a "tourist" town - seasonal service, seasonal pricing and seasonal hours.

Of the 3, I think I can understand the hours the most, a business cannot stay open every night until midnight even in the winter months when there are few locals heading out for a late night burger....

...BUT yesterday i saw a sign in front of a fast food restaurant that read "Open until midnight and sometimes later!" Also yesterday I found this posted out front of my favorite ice cream shop: "Open 1PM until..."

"Gee honey, I am starving, I saw that place on the strip that might be open, let's load into the car and head out there on a gamble!" or imagine piling your 5 kids in the car and driving across the beach to find it was a slow night at the ice cream parlor and they closed shop at 8PM....

Just because some of your processes may be seasonal or exceptions to your norm, you still owe it to your customer to be consistent. How can you expect to build a base of supporters when you clearly cannot commit to their experience.

Does your business leave too much ambiguity in your customer's mind? How can you help clear up the confusion, you'd be surprised at how easy that answer often is.