Gardeners Bickley Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Bickley collects, uses, stores and protects personal data belonging to customers in our service area. It also sets out the rights you have under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. This policy applies to all Gardeners Bickley residential and commercial customers, as well as prospective customers who contact us to enquire about our services.

Who We Are and Scope of This Policy

Gardeners Bickley is a gardening and grounds maintenance service operating in the local area. For the purposes of applicable data protection laws, Gardeners Bickley is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data. This policy applies to all customers and potential customers in the area in which we offer services, regardless of the method by which you contact us or engage our services.

Types of Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant and necessary for providing our gardening and related services. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, billing address, and any other address at which we provide services. We also collect communication details that you choose to provide, such as a contact name for a property, preferred contact method, and details given during enquiries.

Service and contract information, including details about the services you request, property access instructions where necessary, job notes, service history, frequency of visits and any preferences or special requirements related to your garden or outdoor space.

Payment and billing information, including information necessary to process payments, such as card transaction details handled through our chosen payment processors, invoices issued, amounts paid, outstanding balances and any records relating to billing queries or disputes.

Communication records, including emails, messages, notes of telephone calls or in-person conversations relating to quotes, bookings, service delivery, feedback, complaints or compliments, and any photographs you ask us to take or share in connection with our work for you.

Usage and technical data where relevant, such as basic technical information about how you interact with any online forms or digital tools that we may provide or use to manage bookings or communicate with you.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, confirm a service, ask a question or provide feedback. We may also collect data when you speak with our staff in person at your property or at another agreed location, or when you respond to our communications.

In some cases we may receive limited personal data from third parties, for example from letting agents, property managers, landlords, managing agents or existing customers who refer you to us. In these situations we take reasonable steps to ensure that those third parties have your permission to share your data with us.

Lawful Bases for Processing Your Data

We process your personal data only when we have a lawful basis to do so under the UK GDPR. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract: We process your data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to carry out our contractual obligations to you. This includes providing quotes, managing bookings, delivering gardening services and handling billing and payment.

Legitimate interests: We may process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This can include managing our relationship with you, improving our services, scheduling work efficiently, keeping appropriate records of work done and protecting our business from fraud or misuse.

Legal obligation: We may process certain data where this is necessary for us to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, such as maintaining financial records for tax and accounting purposes.

Consent: In limited situations we may rely on your consent, for example where we wish to send you certain types of marketing communications beyond what is allowed on the basis of legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data to deliver and manage our services to you. This includes creating and updating your customer record, preparing and sending quotes, agreeing work, planning and carrying out visits, and providing follow up care or advice where needed.

We use your data to communicate with you about bookings, schedule changes, access requirements, queries and any issues that arise. We may also use your data to send you information about services that are relevant to the work we have carried out for you, where this is permitted by law.

Your data is also used to prepare invoices, record payments, chase late payments and maintain accurate financial records. We may use photographs of your property, taken with your knowledge in the course of our work, for our internal records and to monitor quality and progress.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. However, we may share your data with trusted third-party service providers who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors help us deliver our services, manage our business processes and meet our legal obligations.

Examples of processors include cloud service providers that store our records, payment processing services that handle card or electronic payments, and accounting or invoicing platforms that support our financial administration. These processors are only allowed to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes we specify. They are required to keep your data secure and to comply with applicable data protection laws.

We may also share personal data where necessary with professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers, and with government authorities or regulators where required by law or where we need to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Data Retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and in line with legal and regulatory requirements. We consider the type of data, the amount collected, the nature of our relationship with you and any relevant legal retention periods when deciding how long to retain your information.

Customer and service records are generally kept for a period that allows us to respond to queries, resolve disputes, manage our accounts and comply with tax and accounting rules. When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to you.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from accidental loss, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage systems and staff procedures designed to keep data confidential and used only for legitimate purposes.

While we take care to protect your personal data, no system can be completely secure. If we become aware of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will inform you and any applicable supervisory authority in accordance with legal requirements.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data under the UK GDPR and related legislation. These rights apply to all Gardeners Bickley customers in our service area, subject to certain conditions and legal limitations. Your rights include:

The right of access: You can request confirmation that we process your personal data and ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, together with certain information about how we use it.

The right to rectification: You can ask us to correct or complete personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

The right to erasure: In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

The right to restrict processing: You can request that we restrict the use of your personal data in certain cases, such as while we are checking its accuracy or assessing an objection you have raised.

The right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including any direct marketing based on those interests. We will stop processing your data for those purposes unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue.

The right to data portability: Where our processing is based on consent or on a contract and carried out by automated means, you can ask us to provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concerns.

International Transfers

If we transfer your personal data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data, such as using countries that the authorities recognise as providing an adequate level of data protection or using approved contractual clauses.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we process personal data. Any significant changes will be explained in an updated version of this policy. We recommend that you review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.