Gardeners Beckenham Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Beckenham collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to its customers. It applies to all Gardeners Beckenham customers and prospective customers within our service area, whether you contact us online, by post or in person, and whether you purchase services from us or simply make an enquiry.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the EU General Data Protection Regulation where applicable, and relevant data protection legislation.

Data Controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Beckenham 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 it is processed in compliance with applicable law.

Personal Data We Collect

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

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, property address where services are provided, and any other contact details you choose to provide when you get in touch with us.

Service and contract information, such as details of the services you request, site notes about your garden or outdoor space, access instructions, visit schedules, and records of work performed or quotes provided.

Communications data, including the content of communications you send to us and our responses, such as enquiries, feedback or complaints, and any notes we make about these communications.

Billing and payment information to the extent needed to issue invoices, record payments, and manage our accounts and tax obligations. We do not store full payment card details if you pay using a card through a secure payment provider.

Technical and usage data, such as basic information about how you interact with our website or digital services, including pages visited, dates and times of access, and basic device or browser information. This may be collected through cookies or similar technologies where applicable and where permitted by law.

Any other information you voluntarily provide to us when asking for a quote, requesting a service or communicating with us in any other way.

Lawful Bases for Processing

We rely on one or more of the following lawful bases under data protection law to process your personal data:

Contractual necessity: We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide gardening services, give you a quote, arrange appointments, manage your account, and handle payments.

Legitimate interests: We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes managing and improving our services, maintaining records for business planning, handling enquiries and complaints, and protecting our business from fraud or misuse.

Legal obligations: We may process personal data where it is necessary for compliance with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting and other regulatory requirements, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

Consent: In certain circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example for some forms of direct marketing or the use of certain optional cookies on our website. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, and we will explain how to do so at the point where consent is obtained.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services that you have requested or that we have agreed to deliver, including site assessments, regular maintenance, one-off projects, and follow-up visits.

To create and manage customer records, including quotations, service schedules, invoices, receipts, and records of communications.

To respond to enquiries, provide information about our services, and communicate with you about appointments, changes to services, and other essential information.

To manage our business operations, including internal administration, financial management, accounting, tax, and audit purposes.

To improve our services, understand customer needs, and support training and quality control.

To protect our legal rights, address disputes, prevent or detect fraud, and comply with legal or regulatory obligations.

To send you marketing communications about our services where you have given consent or where we are otherwise permitted by law to do so, and you have not opted out.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors only process personal data under our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. They are required to implement appropriate security measures and to comply with data protection law.

Categories of processors may include:

Information technology and hosting providers that support the secure operation of our systems, website and data storage.

Payment and accounting service providers that assist us with invoicing, payment processing, bookkeeping and financial administration.

Communication service providers that facilitate email or messaging services where needed to communicate with you.

Professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, who may have limited access to personal data where necessary for the provision of their services to us.

We may also share personal data with public authorities or other third parties where required by law, or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

If we ever transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as adequacy regulations or standard contractual clauses, to protect your data in accordance with data protection law.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to meet any legal, accounting or reporting obligations.

In general:

Customer and service records are kept for as long as you remain a customer and for a reasonable period afterwards, to deal with any queries, complaints or legal issues and to maintain accurate records for tax and accounting purposes.

Financial and transaction records, including invoices and payment details, are typically retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

Enquiries from prospective customers who do not go on to use our services may be retained for a limited period so that we can respond to follow-up questions or provide quotations, after which they will be deleted or anonymised.

Marketing data is retained until you opt out of receiving marketing communications or until we decide to remove it as part of periodic data reviews.

When personal data is no longer needed, it will be securely deleted, anonymised or put beyond use so that it can no longer be associated with you.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include access controls, secure storage practices, regular review of our procedures, and limiting personal data access to personnel and processors who have a business need to know.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights under data protection law. Subject to certain conditions and exceptions, these include the following:

Right of access: You can request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

Right to erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it, for example where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or where you have withdrawn consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing.

Right to restriction of processing: You can request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, such as where you contest the accuracy of the data or object to our processing.

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

Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal data based on our legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests, and we will stop such processing unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds to continue. You can also object at any time to our use of your personal data for direct marketing, and we will stop processing it for that purpose.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you can withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority for data protection if you are concerned about how we handle your personal data.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services or legal obligations. When we make changes, we will update the date of the latest version and, where appropriate, notify you of significant changes. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.