Privacy Policy - Richmond Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Richmond Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all Richmond Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and individuals who communicate with us in connection with a booking, quotation, service visit, or aftercare support.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We only collect information that is necessary for our services and business operations, and we take reasonable steps to keep it secure.

1. Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following types of personal data:

Identity details such as your name and title.
Contact details such as address, email address, telephone number, and any preferred contact method.
Service information such as property access details, booking requests, cleaning requirements, service history, and customer preferences.
Payment and billing data such as transaction records, invoicing details, and payment status. We do not store full card details where a secure third-party payment provider is used.
Communication records including emails, messages, call notes, complaints, and feedback.
Technical data if you interact with digital systems we use, such as device identifiers, IP address, and basic usage information.
Special category data only where necessary and only in limited cases, such as information about access requirements, allergies, or sensitivities that may affect the service. We will only process this information where a valid legal condition applies.

We usually collect personal data directly from you when you make an enquiry, request a quotation, arrange a booking, or communicate with us during or after a service. In some cases, we may receive your details from another person acting on your behalf, such as a tenant, landlord, property manager, or family member.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To arrange, confirm, and deliver carpet cleaning and related services.
To manage access to properties and service appointments.
To process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records.
To communicate with customers about bookings, updates, service outcomes, or follow-up care.
To handle complaints, disputes, and customer support requests.
To improve our services, customer experience, and internal operations.
To comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.
To prevent fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity.

We do not sell personal data. We only use information in ways that are relevant to our services and business requirements.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each use of personal data. We rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process your personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes, making bookings, delivering cleaning services, and handling payment arrangements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing our customer relationships, improving service quality, maintaining security, and handling routine business administration.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain information to comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, insurance, and record-keeping requirements.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, particularly where we process optional information or certain types of sensitive data not covered by another lawful basis. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

Vital Interests and Public Interest

These bases are unlikely to apply in most cases, but may be used where necessary to protect someone’s vital interests or where required by law.

4. Sharing Your Personal Data

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described in this policy. These may include:

Payment processors who securely handle card or online payments.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers who assist with financial administration.
IT and system providers who support secure storage, communication, and business software.
Professional advisers such as legal, tax, or insurance advisers where needed.
Regulatory bodies, law enforcement, or courts where required by law.

Where we use external service providers, they act as processors or independent controllers depending on the service provided. We require appropriate contractual protections and expect them to process data securely and only on our instructions where they act as processors.

We only share information when there is a lawful and necessary reason to do so.

5. Processors

Processors are organisations that handle personal data on our behalf. They may include:

Cloud storage and hosting providers;
Email and communication platforms;
Booking and scheduling software providers;
Payment service providers;
Invoice and accounting software providers;
Customer relationship management systems.

We choose processors carefully and take reasonable steps to ensure they have adequate security measures and appropriate data processing terms in place. Processors are not permitted to use your data for their own purposes unless they are acting as a separate controller under their own legal obligations.

6. International Transfers

Some service providers may store or process data outside the UK. If this occurs, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are used to protect your personal data. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent approved safeguards. We aim to ensure any transfer is lawful and secure.

7. Data Retention

We only retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, and reporting obligations. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason it is held.

Customer and service records are kept for a reasonable period to manage bookings, service history, and any follow-up issues.
Financial and transaction records are usually retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Communication records are retained as long as needed to resolve queries, support service delivery, or maintain business records.
Consent-based data is kept until consent is withdrawn or it is no longer needed.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

8. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, password protection, secure systems, staff awareness, and careful management of data shared with third parties.

While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we take reasonable and proportionate steps to reduce risks and protect the information we hold.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data:

Right of access – you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification – you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to erasure – in certain circumstances, you can ask us to delete your data.
Right to restrict processing – you may ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to data portability – you may request that certain data is provided to you or another organisation in a structured format.
Right to object – you can object to processing based on legitimate interests in some cases.
Right to withdraw consent – where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are concerned about how your personal data has been handled. We encourage you to raise concerns with us first so we can try to resolve them promptly.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adult customers and property-related service arrangements. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidentally provided in connection with an address, household, or access arrangement. If we become aware that we have collected data unlawfully, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data processing practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically.

12. Summary

In summary, Richmond Carpet Cleaners collects only the personal data needed to provide services, manage customer relationships, and meet legal obligations. We rely on lawful bases such as contract, legitimate interests, consent, and legal obligation. We retain data only as long as necessary, use trusted processors under appropriate safeguards, and respect your rights under data protection law. This policy applies to all Richmond Carpet Cleaners customers in the area.

Your privacy matters to us, and we are committed to handling your data responsibly and transparently.