Gardeners Brockley Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Brockley collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers and prospective customers in our local service area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. By using our gardening and related services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope and who this applies to

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Brockley customers and prospective customers in our service area, including individuals who contact us to request quotes, make bookings, or ask for information about our services. It covers personal data collected through phone calls, text messages, written correspondence, in-person visits, and any online contact forms or enquiry channels operated by Gardeners Brockley.

Data controller

For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and associated legislation, Gardeners Brockley is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used and are responsible for ensuring that it is handled in a lawful, fair and transparent manner.

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, service address if different, and general location within our service area.

Communication details, such as the content of emails or messages you send to us and notes of conversations relating to your enquiry or booking.

Service information, such as details of your garden, the type of work requested, access arrangements, property characteristics relevant to our work, and any instructions or preferences you provide.

Booking and transactional information, such as dates and times of appointments, records of services provided, prices quoted, amounts paid, and payment references. We do not store full payment card numbers or security codes when payments are processed through third party providers.

Technical information, limited to what is needed for secure operation of any online forms or communication channels we use, such as basic device or browser information and the date and time of your interaction.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by phone, in writing or online to request a quote, make a booking or ask a question. We also collect data when we provide services at your property and record details needed to complete the work and manage our relationship with you. In some cases, we may receive your details via recommendation or referral from another customer, in which case we will inform you of the source where appropriate.

Lawful bases for processing

We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we may rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract. We process personal data where it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract for gardening services or to perform a contract we have with you, such as organising and delivering the agreed work and communicating with you about it.

Legitimate interests. We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and these are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes managing our business operations, maintaining records of work completed, improving our services, and handling queries, complaints or disputes.

Legal obligation. We process certain data because we are required to do so by law, for example maintaining accounting and tax records.

Consent. In limited circumstances we may ask for your consent, for example if we wish to send you marketing communications not covered by our legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries, provide quotes and supply information about our services in the area.

To schedule, manage and carry out gardening and related services at your property.

To communicate with you about appointments, access instructions, changes to services and aftercare.

To issue invoices, process payments and maintain financial records.

To manage our customer records and maintain an accurate history of previous work at your property.

To improve our services, plan resources and understand the needs of customers in our service area.

To comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including tax and accounting obligations.

To protect our rights, for example in relation to non-payment or disputes about services provided.

Data processors and third parties

We may share personal data with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These organisations process your data only according to our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Typical categories of processors include:

IT and communications providers that host our systems, email services or electronic records.

Payment and accounting service providers that support invoicing, payment processing and financial record keeping.

Administrative support providers who assist with scheduling and customer communication.

We require all processors to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data and to process it only as necessary to provide their services to us. We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it with third parties for their own independent marketing purposes.

Data retention and storage

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, accounting and reporting requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data, but we apply the following general principles:

Enquiry information that does not lead to a booking is normally kept for a limited period so that we can respond to follow up queries and track demand in our service area, after which it is securely deleted or anonymised.

Customer and service records relating to work carried out at your property are kept for a period that enables us to maintain a meaningful service history and respond to any subsequent questions or issues. We also retain these records where necessary for tax, accounting or legal purposes.

Financial records are kept for the periods required by applicable law and regulations.

When personal data is no longer needed, we delete it or anonymise it in a secure manner.

Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those people who need it to perform their role, using secure storage methods for physical and electronic records, and implementing processes to detect, respond to and investigate potential data incidents.

Your data protection rights

As a data subject under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain legal conditions and exemptions. These rights include:

The right of access. You have the right to request confirmation of whether we hold personal data about you and to receive a copy of that data, along with information about how we use it.

The right to rectification. You have the right to ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

The right to erasure. In certain circumstances you have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected and we have no legal obligation to retain it.

The right to restrict processing. You may ask us to restrict the way we use your data in certain situations, such as during the investigation of a complaint or where you contest the accuracy of the data.

The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including in relation to any direct marketing activities.

The right to data portability. Where we process your personal data based on your consent or a contract and the processing is carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive that data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

You may exercise your rights by contacting us using the contact details you already hold for Gardeners Brockley. We may need to verify your identity before responding to certain requests in order to protect your data.

Complaints and further information

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, please contact us in the first instance so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority in the country where you live or work, or where you believe a breach of data protection laws has occurred.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, our data handling practices or legal requirements. Any changes will apply from the date the revised policy is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data as a customer in the Gardeners Brockley service area.