Complaints Procedure
Gardeners Tooting Complaints Procedure
Gardeners Tooting is committed to providing reliable, professional gardening and grounds maintenance services to all customers. We recognise that, on occasion, you may feel that our service has not met your expectations. This Complaints Procedure explains how you can raise a concern, how we will respond, and what you can expect at each stage of the process.
Purpose of This Complaints Procedure
The purpose of this Complaints Procedure is to provide a clear, fair and consistent approach for customers who wish to complain about any aspect of our gardening services. It applies to all work we carry out, including regular garden maintenance, one-off tidy ups, lawn care, hedge trimming, planting, and related services in our service area.
Our aims are to:
Provide a straightforward way for you to tell us when something has gone wrong.
Respond to complaints promptly and courteously.
Investigate concerns thoroughly and impartially.
Put things right where we have made a mistake, where reasonably possible.
Use feedback to improve our services and customer care.
What Counts as a Complaint
A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction, whether verbal or written, about the standard of our work, the behaviour of our gardeners, or the way we have communicated with you. Examples include, but are not limited to:
Concerns about the quality or completeness of gardening work carried out.
Issues with scheduled appointments, access, or timekeeping.
Concerns about the conduct or attitude of a member of our team.
Disputes about charges that relate to agreed work or work actually delivered.
Concerns about how we have handled a previous enquiry or request.
This procedure does not cover matters that are already the subject of legal proceedings or relate to incidents that fall under separate statutory or regulatory processes.
How to Make a Complaint
You can raise a complaint verbally or in writing. While we will always listen to verbal complaints, we encourage customers to set out the details in writing wherever possible, as this helps us understand the issue clearly and investigate it efficiently.
When making a complaint, please provide the following information:
Your full name and, if relevant, the property address where the gardening work took place.
The date or dates when the service was carried out.
A clear description of what you are unhappy about and why.
Any supporting details, such as photographs, written quotations or invoices.
How you would like us to put things right, if you have a preferred outcome.
Stage One: Initial Review and Response
At the first stage, your complaint will be reviewed by an appropriate member of our team, usually the person responsible for managing your booking or the supervisor for the gardeners who carried out the work.
We will acknowledge your complaint as soon as reasonably practicable. We will then:
Review the information you have provided.
Check our records, including schedules, job notes and any photographs taken.
Discuss the matter with the gardeners involved, where relevant.
Where appropriate, we may contact you to clarify details, request further information, or arrange a visit to inspect the garden. Following our review, we will provide a response explaining our findings and any proposed resolution.
Stage Two: Further Investigation
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of Stage One, you may request that your complaint is escalated for further investigation. At this stage, your complaint will be reviewed by a more senior member of the Gardeners Tooting team who was not directly involved in the original work, where possible.
During Stage Two we will:
Re-examine all relevant information and correspondence.
Consider any additional points you wish to raise.
Where necessary, arrange a fresh inspection of the property or the work.
Seek to reach a fair and reasonable conclusion based on the evidence available.
We will then provide a written response setting out our final position, the reasons for our decision, and any actions we will take to resolve the matter.
Possible Outcomes and Remedies
Where our investigation shows that we have not met our usual standards, we will aim to put things right in a way that is reasonable and proportionate to the issue. Depending on the circumstances, possible remedies may include:
Carrying out remedial gardening work, such as further pruning, re-cutting lawns, or revisiting a tidy up.
Revising or waiving charges where appropriate.
Offering an alternative solution where direct remedial work is not possible.
Reviewing and improving our internal procedures, staff training or scheduling systems to reduce the risk of similar issues occurring again.
Where we do not uphold a complaint, we will explain our reasons clearly.
Your Responsibilities as a Customer
To help us resolve complaints efficiently, we ask that you:
Raise any concerns as soon as reasonably possible after the service is carried out.
Provide accurate and complete information about the issue.
Allow us reasonable access to the garden or outdoor space for inspection and remedial work, where required.
Communicate with our team respectfully and give us a fair opportunity to investigate and respond.
Confidentiality and Data Protection
All complaints are handled in confidence. Information you provide will be used only for the purpose of investigating and resolving your complaint and for improving our services. We will keep records of complaints and outcomes in line with our data protection obligations and internal retention policies.
Using Feedback to Improve Our Gardening Services
We value all feedback, including complaints, as it helps us maintain and improve the quality of our gardening and maintenance work. By reviewing complaints, we can identify recurring issues, adjust our training, refine our schedules, and enhance how we communicate with customers across our service area.
Gardeners Tooting is committed to learning from every complaint and using your experience to help us deliver a more reliable and professional service to all customers.
