Site Visit Expectations for Contractors
We book the visit and tell the customer who is coming. You turn up. It is the standard we are strictest about, and this page explains why.
The one appointment only you can keep
We book the visit, confirm it and tell the customer who is coming. Turning up is the part that's yours.
The site visit is where the job becomes real. It is the first time the customer meets the contractor who may carry out their work, and the only part of the early process we can't handle on your behalf. Everything before it is ours: generating the enquiry, qualifying the customer and arranging the appointment. Everything after it, apart from pricing, is ours too.
So we are strict about it. A contractor who misses their very first site visit without good reason or any communication is removed from the network. Established contractors with a good record are treated differently, because they have already shown us what they do when plans change.
This page sets out how visits are arranged, what a good one looks like, what counts as handling a problem well, and why the first appointment carries so much weight.
How it's arranged
From opportunity to site visit
We send you the opportunity
One contractor is appointed per enquiry. You reply the same day, ideally within about two hours, to accept, decline or suggest a different time. See contractor response time standards.
We book the appointment
We agree a time with the customer that works around your diary, confirm it with both of you, and tell the customer who is coming.
You attend and survey
You assess the work, take whatever measurements and notes you need, and answer the customer's questions about the job itself.
You submit your price
Back to us at trade rate. On smaller jobs we aim for about 48 hours. The detail is on quote turnaround expectations.
We issue the quotation
We prepare the professional quotation, name you as the appointed main contractor, send it to the customer and follow it up.
On the day
What a good site visit looks like
Nothing here is unusual. It is simply what customers remember about the contractors who win the work.
Arrive when booked
The customer has often arranged their day around the appointment. Arriving on time, or calling ahead if you are delayed, sets the tone for everything that follows.
Introduce yourself properly
You attend under your own company name, as the contractor who would carry out the work. The customer has been told who is coming, so make sure it is clearly you.
Survey thoroughly
Look at everything you need to price accurately: access, condition, the likely extent of repairs, and anything that could change the scope. A rushed survey tends to produce a price that doesn't hold.
Explain what you see
Customers value a contractor who explains the problem in plain terms. You are the expert on the work, and the technical conversation is yours to have.
Let the quotation come through us
The customer expects a written quotation from Mortaro naming you as the contractor. Your job on the day is to understand the work well enough to price it.
Tell us what we need to know
When you submit your price, flag anything unusual: restricted access, hidden unknowns, materials with long lead times. We make sure the quotation and the customer's expectations reflect it.
The first-visit rule
Why the first appointment carries so much weight
Everyone performs well at sign-up. The enquiry is thoughtful, the references are good, the conversation goes well. None of that tells us what happens on a wet Tuesday when a better-paying job comes up across town. The first booked appointment does.
It is the first moment a customer's time is on the line because of you. They may have taken a morning off work or rearranged childcare. When nobody arrives and nobody calls, the customer's experience of the whole network is damaged in a single morning, and the job is usually lost with it.
That is why the rule is clear. A contractor who misses their first site visit without good reason or communication is removed. Not warned, not given fewer jobs. Removed. It is the most informative thing we ever learn about someone new, and it matters to every other contractor in the network, whose reputation depends on customers trusting that the person we book will arrive.
Notice what the rule doesn't cover. It is not about being ten minutes late with a phone call ahead. It is not about genuine emergencies. It is about the combination of not attending and not telling anyone. If you communicate, you are never in this position.
When plans change
Handled well, and the one thing that isn't
Things come up in construction. What matters is what happens next.
Handled well
- Telling us as soon as you know you can't make it
- Asking us to rebook for a time you can keep
- Calling ahead if you are running late
- Declining an opportunity before a visit is booked
- Letting us know if a job overruns and affects your diary
Ends the relationship on a first visit
- Not attending the booked appointment
- Without good reason
- And without any communication to us or the customer
When something comes up
Rescheduling is our job once you've told us
If you can't make a booked visit, tell us as early as you can. We contact the customer, explain, and rebook at a time that suits both of you. You don't need to make an awkward phone call yourself, because communication with the customer is part of what we handle. The short version is on what if I can't attend a site visit.
Good reasons are what you would expect: illness, a family emergency, a vehicle breakdown, a job that has run over in a way you couldn't foresee. We are not going to cross-examine you. What we need is to know, so that the customer isn't left waiting at the window.
If you realise a job isn't right for you before the visit is booked, simply decline it. Turning work down carries no penalty. Accepting and then not appearing is the thing that causes damage.
Before you arrive
What the customer already knows when you knock
By the time you arrive, the customer has already spoken to us. We have qualified the enquiry, so they have a genuine job in mind and expect a visit. We have confirmed the appointment and told them who is coming. They know a written quotation will follow from Mortaro, and roughly when to expect it.
That changes the tone of the visit. You are not a stranger responding to a cold enquiry and competing with three others who bought the same details. One contractor is appointed per enquiry, so the customer is expecting you and nobody else. Your job is to understand the work and give an honest view of it.
It also means the customer has a single point of contact for the coordination. Questions about timings, the quotation or payment come to us, so you are free to concentrate on the technical side. The answer page who talks to the customer explains the split.
Planning your diary
Cover the ground you can reach reliably
Most missed visits have a simple cause: a contractor has agreed to cover more ground than they can realistically reach on a working day. When we talk through your areas at onboarding, the useful answer is the one you can keep, not the widest one you can draw on a map. Coverage is confirmed postcode by postcode. See which areas can I cover.
The same applies week to week. If you are on a long job and can't break off for surveys, tell us, and decline new opportunities until you can. That costs you nothing. It is far better than accepting a visit you are likely to miss.
And when you do accept, treat the booked time as fixed. If a visit slips, it should be because something genuinely changed, not because the diary was too full to start with. Allocation rewards the contractors who get this right, as the answer page how are jobs allocated explains.
A contractor with a good track record who misses a visit will almost always reschedule it and tell us. Trust builds over time and it earns latitude. Where an established contractor misses visits without rescheduling or communicating, we look at it carefully rather than applying the first-visit rule automatically.
Why it's worth it
Reliable visits are what earn the next job
Allocation is based on track record: response speed, communication, professionalism with customers and completed work. Attending site visits reliably feeds into all four. Contractors who do it consistently become the first call in their area. See how opportunities are allocated.
There is a commercial point too. Every appointment we book has already cost us time and money to generate and qualify. It costs you nothing, because we don't charge for enquiries. The least we ask in return is that the appointment is kept.
And a well-run visit usually wins the work. The customer meets someone knowledgeable, receives a professional quotation soon after, and is followed up by us. That combination is hard for a competitor to match.
After the visit
What happens once you've left site
You submit your trade-rate price. We add our fee on top in the customer's quotation and you are paid your rate in full. We prepare and issue the quotation, and follow it up with the customer so you don't have to. See who writes the quotation.
If the customer accepts, we collect the deposit and pass it to you without unnecessary delay, then organise a start date. From there we stay in contact with the customer while you are working. The whole arrangement is set out on the contractor network hub.
Straight answers
Site visit questions
Who books the site visit?
We do. We agree a time with the customer that works around your availability, confirm it with both of you and tell the customer who is coming.
What happens if I miss my first site visit?
If you tell us in advance, we rebook it and that is the end of it. If you miss your first visit without good reason and without any communication, you are removed from the network.
Does Mortaro attend the site visit?
No. The survey is yours. We coordinate the process around it: the booking, the quotation, the follow-up and the communication with the customer.
Should I give the customer a price on the day?
Your price comes to us at trade rate, and we issue the written quotation naming you as the appointed main contractor. That way the customer receives one clear, professional document.
For contractors
Tell us about your business
Your trade, the areas you cover and the size of work you take on. A person reads every enquiry, and if it looks like a fit we will send you the full application.