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Holiday hours announcement prompt: free ChatGPT template

Customer emailsWorks in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot

Updated · By Robert Breen

Use this a week or two before a holiday when your hours change. One prompt gives you every version you need, labeled by channel: the customer email, the sign for the door, the short post. The danger with several versions is drift, where the email says you open at 6 and the post says 7. The prompt pins every version to one date-by-date list, and the check makes sure they match.

The prompt

Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.

Role: You are the owner of [BUSINESS], telling customers about our hours for [HOLIDAY].
Context: Our hours, date by date, exactly: [HOURS BY DATE]. Other things customers need to know: [EXTRA NOTES]. Copy every date and weekday exactly as written. Don't add hours, sales, deadlines or "while supplies last."
Task: Write a version for each place I'll post it: [CHANNELS]. Lead with the days we're closed or open differently, then the extra notes, then when regular hours resume.
Format: Label each version by channel. The email gets a subject line and stays under 110 words; the others are as short as the channel needs. One date per line. No emoji.

Fill in the blanks

[BUSINESS]
Your business name.
[HOLIDAY]
The holiday or the week, like "Thanksgiving week."
[HOURS BY DATE]
Every affected day as weekday, date and hours ("Thu, Nov 26: closed"). Check it against a calendar before you paste it.
[EXTRA NOTES]
Pre-orders, cutoffs, pickup rules, delivery changes. Only what's decided.
[CHANNELS]
Where it goes: email, door sign, social post, website banner.

Example, filled in

A made-up example from the free lesson Summarize a Meeting Transcript with ChatGPT. Harbor Street Bakery is the made-up bakery in the Summarize a Meeting Transcript lesson. Its team meeting decides that holiday pie pre-orders open October 12 with a cap of 60 pies a day; the hours below are made up.

Role: You are the owner of Harbor Street Bakery, telling customers about our hours for Thanksgiving week.
Context: Our hours, date by date, exactly: Wed, Nov 25: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. / Thu, Nov 26: closed / Fri, Nov 27: closed / Sat, Nov 28: regular hours, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Other things customers need to know: holiday pie pre-orders open Monday, Oct 12, on our website. We bake up to 60 pies a day for Thanksgiving week, and when a day is full, the order form closes for that day. Copy every date and weekday exactly as written. Don't add hours, sales, deadlines or "while supplies last."
Task: Write a version for each place I'll post it: an email to our customer list, a sign for the front door, and a short Google Business Profile post. Lead with the days we're closed or open differently, then the extra notes, then when regular hours resume.
Format: Label each version by channel. The email gets a subject line and stays under 110 words; the others are as short as the channel needs. One date per line. No emoji.

What a good answer looks like

  • Closed Thursday and Friday easy to spot in every version.
  • The pie cap explained plainly: when a day fills, the form closes for that day.
  • A door sign of four or five lines a person can read while walking past.
  • "Regular hours Saturday, Nov 28" as the last line.

How to check it before you use it

An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.

  • Lay the three versions side by side and compare every date, weekday and hour. Drift between versions is the most common mistake.
  • Check each weekday against a calendar, not against the draft. Nov 26, 2026 is a Thursday.
  • Strike urgency you didn't state, like "pies always sell out, order now." The facts say days close when full, nothing more.
  • Set the special hours in your Google Business Profile itself too; a post doesn't change the hours shown on your listing.

Why this prompt works

Asking for every channel in one prompt means every version comes from the same facts in the same chat, which is far safer than three separate requests. The labeled output format makes the side-by-side check quick.

Practice it in the free lesson

Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format: Ask ChatGPT for the same customer email twice, once vaguely and once with a four-part prompt, and see exactly why structure gets a better answer. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.

Start the free lesson

Also useful: Summarize a Meeting Transcript with ChatGPT

Terms used here

Output formatPrompt constraintsRole, Context, Task, Format

All free prompt templates · AI glossary