Anyone who wants to contact a tradesperson, a landscaping business or a moving company rarely has just one question about the price. They want to know what happens after they hit send: Will someone come round? Does the site visit cost anything? Is the quote binding? When can work start at the earliest, and who will be standing in the home then? Many websites answer none of these questions. The inquiry then sits unsent, or it goes out as a group email to several businesses at once. A section of its own titled “How your job runs” changes that. It shows the stations from inquiry through site visit, quote and scheduling to the work itself and acceptance, and for each station it says who is in charge, what the customer prepares, what it costs and how long it takes. This article explains what belongs in such a section, which legal rules limit the wording and which block suits which kind of process.
Why customers want to see the process before they inquire
The decision for a business is rarely made on the website alone. 83 percent (Bitkom Research) of people aged 16 and over in Germany ask for advice in a personal conversation with family, friends or colleagues when choosing a trades business. 41 percent (Bitkom Research) gather information on site at the business, and 26 percent (Bitkom Research) click through the websites of possible businesses. For 40 percent (Bitkom Research), not having a website is even a reason to rule a business out. The representative survey ran in early 2025. Often the website is not the first contact but the check that follows: someone has been recommended a name and wants to know whether the business fits their project before picking up the phone. That is exactly the moment when they decide whether to inquire or to keep looking.
Then there is the waiting time. The average order backlog in the German skilled trades stood at 8.7 weeks (ZDH) in the second quarter of 2026, roughly the level of the same period a year earlier, and capacity utilization at 76 percent (ZDH). Anyone inquiring today will therefore wait several weeks for work to start in many trades. That is not a flaw, it is the normal case. Waiting only becomes a problem when the customer does not know about it: they chase, collect more quotes or drop out. A section that shows the process turns waiting into a plan. How a fully booked business states the waiting time for each service openly and slows down inquiries is covered in the article on managing demand through the website. This article is about the visible process of a single job: the section the customer reads before inquiring at all. That applies equally to trades, landscaping, cleaning, removals, photography or consulting.
The stations of a job
Almost every job that is not sold off the shelf runs through the same stations. The names differ by sector: a photographer talks about a preliminary meeting instead of a site visit, a cleaning company about a trial appointment.
The order stays the same. Five or six stations are usually enough for the section on the website. More stations do not make the process more precise, only harder to follow; anything finely branched belongs in the frequently asked questions below it.
- Inquiry: The customer describes the project by form, phone or email. The website says which details help and when the answer will come.
- Response and site visit: The business gets in touch, clears up questions and, if needed, arranges an appointment on site. This is where it is decided whether the visit costs anything and how much.
- Quote or cost estimate: The customer receives a written quote with scope, price and validity, or a cost estimate if the effort cannot be fixed yet.
- Order and scheduling: The appointment follows the go-ahead. The website gives the earliest start as a time frame and says what it depends on.
- The work: Who comes, how long the work takes, what the customer prepares and how they can reach someone while the work is under way.
- Acceptance and invoice: A joint walk-through, acceptance and the final invoice, plus a note on whether progress payments have been agreed beforehand.
Each station needs four details that the customer would otherwise ask about on the phone: who is in charge, what they prepare themselves, what the station costs and how long it takes. Not every cell needs a number. “Depends on the scope, you will hear at the site visit” is a usable answer as long as it is true. Only the empty cell is useless, because the customer fills it with their own worst guess. The following table shows how a business can fill in the four details; the values are examples and should be replaced with your own.
Scroll table sideways
| Station | Who is in charge | What the customer prepares | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inquiry | the customer | short description, location, preferred time frame, photos by email if they like | none | a few minutes |
| Site visit | master craftsperson or site manager | access to the rooms, existing measurements or plans | free of charge or a flat fee stated upfront | depends on scope, date by arrangement |
| Quote | the office | answer follow-up questions, choose between options | none unless agreed otherwise | the deadline the business can keep |
| Scheduling | dispatch and customer | confirm, sort out access and parking | none | earliest start per schedule |
| The work | the crew on site, by name | clear the work area, keep power and water accessible | as quoted | as quoted, with a buffer |
| Acceptance | site manager and customer | time for the joint walk-through | final invoice after acceptance | a short appointment at the end |
The inquiry and what happens next
The first station starts before anything is sent. The section says in one sentence which details speed up the response: location, type of project, preferred time frame, photos if needed.
How a form sorts projects without overloading the customer with fields is explained in the article on a trade website with an inquiry path. For the process, what matters most is the moment afterwards: what does the customer see once they have clicked “Send”?
XICflow offers two blocks for this. After sending, the “Contact form” replaces its content with the confirmation “Message sent successfully.” and the line “We typically respond within one business day.” (XICflow documentation). You can enter a sentence of your own for after sending here too, but the column next to the fields keeps the same response time as a fixed point. If you can keep that deadline, it serves you well. If you answer inquiries in batches, for example every Friday, the “Form” block with fields you define yourself is the better choice, with a sentence of your own in the field for the text shown after sending. Your own sentence is the natural place for the next station: “Thank you. We will get back to you by Thursday and suggest two dates for the site visit.” Alternatively, both forms can lead to a page of its own on the website that shows the rest of the process after sending. The settings are listed in the documentation of the blocks for conversion and CTA.
One point is easily overlooked: the person who inquired does not see the processing status the team sets in the inbox. “The status is a working aid for you and your team”, the documentation says, and the person who filled in the form does not get to see it (XICflow documentation). What the customer knows about progress therefore comes from the website and from your reply, not from the inbox. All the more reason for both to tell the same order of events. How a team handles responsibility, response deadlines and follow-ups internally is described in the article on response times for inquiries.
Site visit and quote: what costs money and what does not
A common unspoken worry before an inquiry is an invoice for something nobody ordered.
For cost estimates, the law is on the customer's side: “In case of doubt, remuneration is not to be paid for a cost estimate”, says Section 632(3) of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch). Anyone who wants to charge for a site visit, measuring up or a detailed cost estimate should therefore agree on it with the customer explicitly beforehand. The website is the right place to announce it, but it does not replace the agreement. If the process says “Site visit: call-out fee, credited against the order”, the customer knows what they are agreeing to, and the appointment confirmation puts it on record.
For the quote itself, a clear distinction pays off, because customers mix up the terms. Germany's consumer advice centers recommend obtaining two to three quotes (Verbraucherzentrale) or cost estimates from different firms before awarding a job, and explain the difference: cost estimates are not binding. If the price rises by more than 15 to 20 percent (Verbraucherzentrale), the contractor has to point this out, and the customer can terminate the contract. In the law, the duty to notify is set out in Section 649(2) of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch): if a substantial overrun of the estimate is to be expected, “the contractor is to notify the customer without undue delay”. Businesses are, by contrast, generally bound by the prices in a quote. The process on the website therefore says which of the two the customer will receive. How a price range can be labeled in advance so that it does not read like a commitment is shown in the article on a price estimator that qualifies inquiries.
Promises the contract does not keep
Scheduling: earliest start instead of a firm promise
The question “When can you start?” can only be answered honestly on a website if the answer is a time frame. A business knows its workload, but not the day the next customer says yes.
A statement such as “Earliest start at present: second half of January”, with the date of the last update next to it, is easy to read. It tells the customer whether their project fits the desired time frame at all, and it does not tie the business to a day it cannot know. Seasonal businesses have a second limit, the break: anyone who does not plant or pave in winter states in the process from when appointments will be given again and whether inquiries are accepted during the break. How the website stays visible during that time is described in the article on the winter closure of a seasonal business, and what the statement looks like for each service when fully booked in the article on managing demand linked above.
With private customers, a legal deadline comes into play that is easily lost when stating dates. If the contract is concluded during the site visit in the customer's home, it is an off-premises contract within the meaning of Section 312b(1) of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch). For such contracts the consumer has, in principle, a right of withdrawal (Section 312g(1), German Civil Code), and the withdrawal period is 14 days (Section 355(2), German Civil Code). If work starts earlier and the customer withdraws, they owe compensation for the work done up to then only if they expressly requested that work begin before the period ends, in the case of an off-premises contract on a durable medium, and if the business informed them properly (Section 357a(2), German Civil Code). There is no right of withdrawal where the customer expressly called the business out for urgent repair or maintenance work; the exception does not cover further services during the same visit that the customer did not expressly request (Section 312g(2) no. 11, German Civil Code). Whether an order that is only placed by email after the site visit also falls under these rules depends on the individual case.
For the section on the website this means: “Start right after the order” does not suit every contract. Wording such as “Earliest start per schedule; for orders you sign at home during the site visit, we begin after the withdrawal period has ended or earlier at your express request” is honest and allows for both. Larger projects follow their own rules. A consumer construction contract exists when the business undertakes to build a new building or to carry out substantial conversion work on an existing building (Section 650i(1), German Civil Code), and it must contain binding information on the completion date, and on the duration of the construction work only if that date cannot be given when the contract is concluded (Section 650k(3), German Civil Code). The right of withdrawal then does not follow from Section 312g, because only a small part of those provisions applies to consumer construction contracts (Section 312(2) no. 3, German Civil Code), but from Section 650l of the German Civil Code: the consumer can withdraw unless the contract was notarised, regardless of where it is signed. For off-premises and distance contracts, Article 246a Section 1(1) of the Introductory Act to the German Civil Code (Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuche) expressly lists among the mandatory information the date by which the trader undertakes to deliver the goods or to perform the service. So the website gives a guide value and the contract gives the binding date, and the two have to match. This article is not legal advice; which notices are needed in an individual case is something to clarify with the chamber of crafts or a lawyer.
The work, acceptance and the invoice
During the work itself, the questions are practical: who comes, on how many days, from what time in the morning, does the customer need to be at home, what has to be cleared beforehand, where will material be stored, and whom can they reach if something is unclear. One sentence per question is enough. If you introduce your team on the website, the process can refer to it so the customer sees who will ring the bell. How the team, references and other recurring content are maintained as a collection is described in the article on content collections.
At the end comes acceptance, and it has consequences the customer should know about. Under Section 640(1) of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), the customer is obliged to accept work that has been produced in accordance with the contract, unless acceptance is excluded by the nature of the work; acceptance cannot be refused because of insignificant defects. Under subsection 2, the work is also deemed accepted if the contractor has set a reasonable deadline for acceptance after completion and the customer has not refused within that deadline, stating at least one defect. For consumers this only applies if the business pointed out this consequence in text form together with the request (Section 640(2), German Civil Code). Payment falls due on acceptance: “The remuneration is to be paid upon acceptance of the work” (Section 641(1), German Civil Code); under a construction contract, a verifiable final invoice is also required (Section 650g(4), German Civil Code). If the business asks for progress payments beforehand, their amount is based on the value of the work performed (Section 632a(1), German Civil Code). For the process this means: the last station is not called “Done” but “Joint acceptance”, with a note that open items are recorded at that point, and with information on when the invoice will arrive and whether there are progress payments.
Scroll table sideways
| Station | Rule | Sentence for the website |
|---|---|---|
| Site visit, cost estimate | in case of doubt, a cost estimate is not paid for, Section 632(3) BGB | “The site visit and the cost estimate are free of charge” or the agreed flat fee |
| Cost estimate | notification if a substantial overrun is to be expected, Section 649 BGB | “If an overrun becomes apparent, we will let you know straight away.” |
| Contract at the customer's home | right of withdrawal with a period of 14 days, Sections 312g and 355 BGB | “Start after the withdrawal period or earlier at your request” |
| Larger conversion | binding completion date, the duration only as a fallback, Section 650k(3) BGB; withdrawal under Section 650l BGB | guide value on the website, binding date in the contract |
| Acceptance | duty to accept; for consumers, deemed acceptance only with a notice in text form, Section 640 BGB | “At the end we walk through together and record any open items.” |
| Invoice | due on acceptance, Section 641 BGB, under a construction contract also a verifiable final invoice, Section 650g BGB; progress payments by value, Section 632a BGB | “Final invoice after acceptance, progress payments only as agreed in the quote” |
Which block carries the process
For the section itself, XICflow offers three blocks that all show a process but read differently.
The documentation describes “Steps” as a “Numbered sequence of steps without interaction”, the “Timeline” as a “Vertical timeline for a procedure or the history of the business” and “Process steps” as a “Procedure in steps, with clickable tabs on wide screens” (XICflow documentation). The choice depends on how much text each station needs and whether the customer should see everything at a glance.
Steps
All stations sit one below the other, numbered and visible at the same time. Suits five to seven short stations with two sentences each, for example on the services or contact page right above the form.
Timeline
A vertical axis visibly connects the stations, and each station can carry an icon of its own. Suits cases where order and duration come first, for example a conversion that runs over several weeks.
Process steps
On wide screens the visitor picks a station via tabs, on a phone they expand stations one at a time. Suits longer texts per station; cost and date are then better shown outside the tabs as well.
Two details decide how readable the section is. First, “Steps” and “Process steps” number themselves; a number in the title such as “1. Inquiry” is redundant. Second, “Process steps” also produces a machine-readable how-to for search engines (XICflow documentation). That does no harm, but it is no reason to choose the block. What matters is whether the customer sees the cost and date details without clicking. Putting them into tabs hides exactly the lines the section is meant to show.
Where the section sits on the page
The process belongs where the decision is made: on the services page and on the contact page, in each case right above the form. On the home page, a short version with three or four stations and a link is enough.
Below the process, an FAQ block answers the special cases that do not fit on one line: what happens in bad weather, in an emergency outside the schedule, or with work in a rented apartment. That is also where the legal notes from the previous section go, in plain words. There is already a starting point: among the sections in the templates window there is a short process section with the stations getting to know each other, quote and delivery, as well as an FAQ section with questions about the process. Templates are ready-made sets of blocks that you can change freely afterwards (XICflow documentation), for example by adding the site visit, scheduling and acceptance. A finished process can be saved under “My templates” and inserted on other websites; these templates of your own are stored in the browser and are not available on another device (XICflow documentation). How templates are inserted is shown in the documentation on the editor and pages, and the three process blocks with all their settings in the documentation on grids and cards. A sample text for a trade business looks like this:
How your job runs
Inquiry
You describe your project in the form. Location, type of work
and preferred time frame help. Cost: none.
Site visit
We get back to you within [response time] and arrange a date.
Cost: none in our core area, otherwise a call-out fee we state upfront.
Quote
In writing, with scope, price and validity. Cost: none.
Scheduling
Earliest start at present: [time frame], as of [date]. For orders you
sign at home during the site visit, we begin after the withdrawal
period has ended or earlier at your express request.
The work
[Name] and team will come. Please clear the work area and keep
power and water accessible.
Acceptance and invoice
Joint walk-through; we record any open items in writing.
The final invoice follows acceptance.- Every station states who is in charge, what the customer prepares, what it costs and how long it takes.
- The text shown after the form is sent names the same next station and the same deadline as the process.
- Free and paid services are clearly separated, and flat fees are shown with an amount.
- Quote and cost estimate are not mixed up.
- The earliest start is given as a time frame, with the date of the last update.
- For contracts concluded at the customer's home, the date statement matches the withdrawal period.
- Acceptance is a station of its own, with the timing of the final invoice.
- On a phone, all cost and date details can be read without a click.
With XICflow, the process is a block like any other: you choose Steps, Timeline or Process steps, enter the stations and place the form with your own confirmation text right below. Which blocks and features are available for this is shown on the page features and services; how a briefing becomes a finished website is explained in how it works.