Complaints Procedure

Gardeners Hackney Wick Complaints Procedure

Gardeners Hackney Wick aims to provide a reliable and professional gardening service for all customers. We recognise that occasionally things may not go as planned. This complaints procedure explains how you can raise a concern, how we will respond, and what you can expect from us at each stage.

Our Commitment to You

We are committed to treating every complaint seriously, fairly and promptly. Whether your concern relates to garden maintenance, one-off landscaping work, communication, punctuality or conduct on site, we will listen carefully and aim to put matters right as quickly as possible.

We use all feedback, including complaints, to improve our services in the local area and to prevent similar issues from arising again.

What Is a Complaint

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about our gardening services, staff, contractors, or the way we have handled a previous enquiry. You do not need to use specific language or legal terms for your concern to count as a complaint. If you are unhappy with any aspect of our work, we encourage you to tell us.

Raising a Complaint Informally

In many cases, concerns can be resolved quickly and informally. If you are comfortable doing so, please raise the issue directly with the gardener or team leader on site at the time the problem occurs or as soon as possible afterwards. They will do their best to:

Listen to your concern carefully, clarify the details, explain what can be done immediately to address the issue, and agree any practical steps to put things right where possible.

If your concern is resolved to your satisfaction at this stage, it will not normally be logged as a formal complaint, but we may still record the details to help improve our service.

Making a Formal Complaint

If you feel unable to resolve the matter informally, or you remain dissatisfied after speaking to our team on site, you can make a formal complaint to our management. When making a formal complaint, please provide the following information so that we can investigate efficiently:

Your full name, your preferred method for us to contact you, the address where the gardening work took place, the date and approximate time of the service, a clear description of what went wrong and what outcome you would like to see.

Providing photographs or other evidence, where available, can also help us understand the issue more clearly, especially in relation to gardening work such as damage to plants, incomplete tasks or any concerns about the condition of your outdoor space.

How We Handle Your Complaint

Once we receive your formal complaint, we will follow a clear and structured process:

Acknowledgement. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and confirm that it is being reviewed. We will also outline the next steps and the expected time frame for our response.

Investigation. A manager or senior member of the team will review the details of your complaint. This may involve speaking with the gardeners who attended your property, reviewing work schedules, checking any notes or photographs taken by our staff and, where necessary, arranging a site visit.

Response. After the investigation is complete, we will provide you with a written or verbal response, depending on your preference. We will explain our findings, whether we agree that service has fallen short of our standards, and what actions we propose to take.

Time Frames for Responses

We aim to handle all complaints as swiftly as possible. You can normally expect:

An initial acknowledgement within a reasonable period of receiving your complaint and a full response once we have completed our investigation.

If your complaint is complex or requires a site visit or consultation with multiple team members, the investigation may take longer. In that case, we will keep you informed of progress and provide an updated time frame.

Possible Outcomes and Remedies

If we find that our service has not met the standards we aim to uphold, we will work with you to agree a fair remedy. Depending on the circumstances, this may include:

Putting things right by revisiting your garden to complete work or correct issues, offering practical solutions for any damage directly caused by our actions, providing an explanation and, where appropriate, an apology, reviewing and improving our internal procedures or staff training to prevent similar problems.

Any remedy will be proportionate to the issue identified and agreed with you wherever possible.

If You Remain Dissatisfied

If, after receiving our final response, you remain unhappy with the outcome, you can let us know and we will review whether any further internal steps are available. This may include a second review of the complaint by a different manager, where possible, to ensure that your concerns have been fully considered.

We are always open to constructive dialogue and will make reasonable efforts to reach a mutually acceptable resolution.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All complaints are handled in confidence. Information you provide will be shared only with staff who need it to investigate and resolve the issue. We will store any records of your complaint securely and only for as long as necessary, in line with our obligations under data protection law.

Using Feedback to Improve Our Gardening Services

Every complaint gives us an opportunity to improve. We regularly review complaint records to identify patterns, such as recurring issues with communication, scheduling, or particular gardening tasks. Where we identify trends, we use this information to refine our processes, update staff training and raise overall service standards for customers in our service area.

Accessibility and Support

If you require assistance in making a complaint or need us to communicate with you in a particular way, please let us know. We will take reasonable steps to accommodate your needs, for example by allowing a representative to communicate on your behalf or by agreeing a suitable format for our responses.

Review of This Complaints Procedure

This complaints procedure is reviewed periodically to ensure it remains clear, fair and effective. We may update it from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or best practice in handling customer feedback.

By setting out this procedure, Gardeners Hackney Wick aims to give all customers confidence that any concerns about our gardening work will be handled with care, transparency and respect.