Gardeners Southborough Customer Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Southborough collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data relating to its customers and prospective customers within the Gardeners Southborough service area. It is intended to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable data protection laws. By engaging our gardening or related services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Southborough customers and prospective customers in our service area, including individuals who contact us to request quotes, make bookings, or obtain information about our services. It covers personal data collected in person, by post, by phone or other voice services, and through any online contact forms or digital channels that we may make available.

Data Controller

Gardeners Southborough is the data controller responsible for determining the purposes and means of processing your personal data. Where we use third-party service providers to process data on our behalf, they act as data processors and are bound by contractual and legal obligations to protect your information.

Personal Data We Collect

The personal data we collect will depend on the nature of your interaction with us, but may include the following categories of information:

Identification and contact details: name, postal address, service address, billing address, and other basic contact details such as your preferred method of contact.

Service and contract information: details about your garden or outdoor space, service history, details of requested work, quotes provided, invoices issued, payment status, and related contractual information.

Communication records: information you provide when you contact us for enquiries, complaints, feedback, or support, as well as our notes and responses relating to those communications.

Payment-related information: limited payment-related details needed to process transactions, such as transaction references and payment method type. We do not store full card details where a third-party payment processor is used.

Technical or usage data: if you interact with us via digital channels, we may collect technical data such as device and browser information and general usage data, to the extent necessary for security, diagnostics, and service improvements.

How We Collect Personal Data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you contact us for a quote, request a site visit, agree a contract for services, ask us to carry out work, communicate with us for customer support, or provide feedback or testimonials. We may also receive personal data indirectly from third parties, for example where you are introduced to us by another customer or by a business partner, or where a household member arranges our services on your behalf.

Purposes and Lawful Bases for Processing

We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. The main purposes and lawful bases are as follows:

To provide gardening services and manage our relationship with you: We use your identification, contact, and service information to arrange visits, carry out work, manage bookings, send quotes, and issue invoices. The lawful basis is the performance of a contract or taking steps at your request before entering into a contract.

To communicate with you: We use your contact details to respond to enquiries, provide service updates, and handle complaints or queries. The lawful basis is performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in running our business and ensuring customer satisfaction.

To manage our business operations: We may process your data for internal administration, financial management, record keeping, and auditing. The lawful bases are legal obligations, such as tax and accounting requirements, and our legitimate interests in effective business management and maintaining accurate records.

To improve our services: We may use non-sensitive personal data and aggregated information to assess service quality, plan schedules, and develop our offerings. The lawful basis is our legitimate interests in improving and developing our services, balanced against your privacy rights.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations: We may process personal data to comply with legal duties, for example responding to lawful requests from public authorities or maintaining records for tax or regulatory purposes. The lawful basis is compliance with a legal obligation.

With your consent: Where required by law, for example for certain types of optional marketing communications, we will rely on your explicit consent, which you may withdraw at any time.

Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to meet legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. In general:

Customer and contract records are retained for the duration of your relationship with us and for a reasonable period afterwards to enable us to answer queries, handle any complaints, and maintain records for tax and accounting purposes.

Financial and transaction records, such as invoices and payment information, are retained for the period required by law for tax and accounting purposes.

Enquiry records from prospective customers who do not become regular customers may be kept for a limited period to follow up on quotations and to manage our schedules, after which they are securely deleted or anonymised.

Where data is kept on the basis of your consent, it will be retained until you withdraw that consent or until it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected, whichever occurs first.

Data Processors and Third Parties

We may use carefully selected third-party service providers to help us deliver our services and manage our business. These may include providers of payment processing, accounting and bookkeeping, customer management tools, and secure data storage and backup services. These third parties act as data processors and process your personal data only on our instructions, for specified purposes, and in accordance with appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

We may also share personal data with professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where necessary for legitimate business purposes or to obtain professional advice. Where required by law, we may disclose personal data to public authorities, regulators, or law enforcement agencies.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International Data Transfers

Our primary data storage and processing arrangements are intended to keep personal data within the UK or other locations with adequate data protection standards. If personal data is transferred outside the UK or similar jurisdictions, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses or other mechanisms approved by data protection authorities.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration, or disclosure. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those who have a legitimate business need to know it, using secure storage and systems, and ensuring that our data processors apply suitable security controls. While no system can be completely secure, we regularly review our safeguards to reduce risks to an appropriate level.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a customer or prospective customer within the Gardeners Southborough service area, you have several rights in relation to your personal data under data protection law. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, you have the right to:

Access your personal data and receive a copy of the information we hold about you.

Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data that we hold about you.

Request erasure of your personal data where there is no longer a lawful reason for us to keep it, or where you have withdrawn consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data in specified circumstances, for example while we are verifying the accuracy of the data or considering an objection you have raised.

Object to processing based on our legitimate interests, where you believe your rights and interests outweigh our reasons for processing.

Request the transfer of certain personal data to you or another service provider in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.

Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on your consent for specific processing activities. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Exercising Your Rights and Complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, or have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the usual communication channels that you use to arrange or discuss our services. We may need to verify your identity before responding to certain requests to protect your privacy.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you are concerned about how we handle your personal data. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns directly first.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data protection practices. The updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.