Gardeners Fortis Green Complaints Procedure

Gardeners Fortis Green is committed to providing reliable, professional gardening services and to dealing with any concerns in a fair, transparent and timely manner. This complaints procedure explains how you can raise an issue about our services, the steps we will take to investigate your complaint, and how we aim to reach a satisfactory resolution for everyone involved.

Our Commitment to You

We understand that issues can occasionally arise, even with the best planning and care. When they do, we want to know about them so that we can put things right and improve our services for the future. Every complaint is treated seriously and handled with courtesy, respect and confidentiality.

Our aims when handling a complaint are to:

Clarify the details of your concern as quickly as possible.

Investigate the matter thoroughly and impartially.

Provide a clear, timely response outlining our findings.

Offer appropriate remedies where we have fallen short.

Use your feedback to improve how we manage and deliver gardening work.

What Counts as a Complaint

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about the quality of our gardening services, the conduct of our gardeners or support staff, the way a booking has been managed, or the way a previous concern has been handled. You do not need to use the word complaint for your concern to be treated as one.

Examples of complaints might include:

Concerns about the standard of lawn care, planting, pruning or garden maintenance.

Issues with punctuality, communication or behaviour of our team members.

Disagreement about what was quoted compared with the work completed.

Dissatisfaction with how an earlier issue was dealt with or resolved.

How to Make a Complaint

You can raise a complaint in writing or verbally, whichever is most convenient for you. Written complaints help us understand the details clearly, especially where there are several points to be addressed, but we will always accept and record a complaint made in conversation.

When making a complaint, please provide as much information as you can, including:

Your full name and the address where the gardening service was provided.

The date of the service and, if possible, the names of any gardeners who attended.

A clear description of what went wrong or why you are dissatisfied.

Any steps you have already taken to raise the issue informally.

What outcome you are seeking, for example a correction of work, partial refund or explanation.

Informal Resolution in the First Instance

Where possible, we encourage customers to raise concerns informally as soon as they arise. Often, issues can be resolved quickly with a conversation and a follow up visit or adjustment to the work. Our team members are trained to listen carefully and to escalate your concern if they cannot resolve it on the spot.

If you are not satisfied with an informal response, or if the matter is more serious or complex, you can ask for it to be handled as a formal complaint under this procedure.

Formal Complaints Process

Once we receive a formal complaint, we will follow these steps.

Acknowledgement. We will acknowledge your complaint as soon as reasonably possible. In our acknowledgement we will confirm that your complaint has been logged, outline the next steps, and give an indicative timescale for our response.

Investigation. Your complaint will be assigned to an appropriate person who was not directly involved in the matter wherever possible. They may need to contact you to clarify certain points, request photographs or other evidence, and speak to any staff members involved. Site visits may be arranged where this would assist in understanding the issue, for example where the complaint concerns lawn damage, planting problems or incomplete work.

Response. Following the investigation, we will provide you with a clear written response setting out our findings, any factors we have taken into account, and whether the complaint is upheld in full, upheld in part or not upheld.

Resolution. If we find that we have not met our usual standards, we will explain what we intend to do to put things right. This may include remedial gardening work, a goodwill gesture, a partial or full refund, or changes to our internal processes to prevent similar issues arising again.

Timescales

We aim to resolve complaints as promptly as is reasonable. Straightforward matters may be resolved within a few working days. More complex issues, particularly those requiring site inspections or consultation with multiple team members, may take longer to investigate. Where we cannot provide a full response within our initial estimated timescale, we will keep you informed of our progress and give a revised timeframe.

Escalating Your Complaint

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the investigation or the way your complaint has been handled, you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed. A more senior member of the Gardeners Fortis Green team will re-examine the matter, taking into account the original complaint, the steps already taken, and any new information you wish to provide.

Following this review, we will write to you again explaining the final decision and any further actions we will take. This is the final stage of our internal complaints procedure.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All complaints are handled with appropriate levels of confidentiality. Information is shared only with those who need it in order to investigate and respond to your complaint. Any personal data you provide as part of a complaint will be handled in accordance with our data protection obligations and used only for the purposes of addressing the issue and improving our services.

Using Feedback to Improve Our Services

Feedback from customers, including complaints, is vital in helping us deliver high quality gardening work. We monitor the nature and number of complaints we receive, identify recurring themes, and use this information to provide additional staff training, adjust how we schedule and plan jobs, and refine our procedures. By raising a concern, you help us maintain and enhance the standards of service we provide in gardens across our local area.

Gardeners Fortis Green values every customer and strives to ensure that any problems are dealt with constructively and fairly. If you have any concerns about our services, please use this complaints procedure so that we have the opportunity to address them properly.