- When should a cafe run a happy hour?
- In the hours the room is already empty, which for most coffee shops is the middle of the afternoon between the lunch trade and the commute. The point of naming the hours on the board is that it makes the quiet window a thing customers can plan around rather than a discount handed to people who would have paid full price at nine in the morning. Put the hours on the slide in the same size as the price.
- Should a discount go on the main menu board?
- No. Give it its own slide in the loop. A discount printed permanently beside every price teaches regulars that the listed price is fiction, and it is the reason so many counters end up with a laminated sign taped over the real board. One slide, one number, one condition, removed when it ends.
- How do I stop an old promotion staying up?
- Put the end date in the deck the day you build it, and take the slide out on the day. On a printed board this is the failure everyone knows: last month's offer is still on the wall in week six because taking it down means reprinting the board. On a screen removing a slide is a tap, so the only thing needed is somebody deciding to do it.
- Can I schedule the offer to appear only in those hours?
- Yes, and that is the version worth building. A channel schedules which show airs when, so the afternoon deck can start at three and the ordinary menu can come back at six without anybody standing at the TV. Build the deal as its own show rather than as a slide you add and remove by hand, and the board runs the timetable for you.
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