Privacy Policy - Crewshill Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Crewshill Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all Crewshill Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who enquire about services, book appointments, receive quotations, or use any related support services.

We are committed to handling personal data lawfully, fairly, and transparently in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy is intended to help you understand what data we process, why we process it, and what rights you have in relation to that data.

1. Who We Are

Crewshill Carpet Cleaners provides carpet cleaning and associated cleaning services to residential and commercial customers in the local area. In this policy, “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Crewshill Carpet Cleaners. “You” refers to any customer, prospective customer, website visitor where applicable, or other individual whose personal data we process in connection with our services.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant and necessary for operating our business, managing customer relationships, delivering services, and meeting legal obligations. The types of information we may collect include:

• Identity information: name, title, and any relevant business or household contact details.
• Contact information: address, email address, telephone number, and service location details.
• Service information: details of bookings, property access notes, cleaning requirements, preferences, and communications about work requested or completed.
• Payment information: payment records, invoice details, transaction references, and limited billing information required to process payments and maintain accounts. We do not intentionally store full card details where a secure payment provider is used.
• Correspondence: messages, complaint records, feedback, and notes of phone calls or emails relating to your enquiry or service.
• Technical data: if you interact with our digital services, we may collect basic device or usage data such as IP address, browser type, and page interactions, where relevant and lawfully collected.

We do not seek to collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and permitted by law. If such information is provided to us incidentally, for example in a message from a customer, we will handle it with appropriate safeguards and only where there is a lawful basis to do so.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• to respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
• to arrange and deliver cleaning services;
• to manage bookings, scheduling, and customer accounts;
• to process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records;
• to communicate with customers about appointments, service changes, or service-related issues;
• to handle complaints, queries, and requests;
• to improve our services, customer experience, and internal operations;
• to comply with legal, tax, accounting, and insurance obligations;
• to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims where needed.

We will only use your information for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we reasonably believe that another compatible purpose applies or we are required by law to do otherwise.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Crewshill Carpet Cleaners relies on the following lawful bases where appropriate:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you. This includes managing bookings, providing cleaning services, handling payments, and responding to service requests.

Legal Obligation

We process certain information to comply with legal requirements, including tax records, accounting obligations, and any lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and rights do not override those interests. This may include maintaining records, improving our services, preventing fraud, handling disputes, and managing customer communications. Where we rely on this basis, we consider the impact on your rights and apply safeguards where needed.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain optional marketing communications or specific uses not covered by another lawful basis. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.

5. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to run our business and provide our services. These third parties may act as data processors or independent controllers depending on the context.

Examples of processors and service providers may include:

• Payment providers: to process customer payments securely;
• Accounting and invoicing systems: to manage financial records and bookkeeping;
• IT and cloud storage providers: to store data securely and support business systems;
• Communication tools: to send service-related messages, reminders, or updates;
• Customer management software: to maintain booking and service records;
• Professional advisers: such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where required;
• Public authorities: where we are legally required to disclose data.

We require processors to handle personal data securely, use it only for our instructions, and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures. We do not sell personal data.

6. International Transfers

If any of our service providers store or access data outside the United Kingdom, we will take steps to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with data protection law. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent legal mechanisms designed to protect personal data.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including for legal, accounting, tax, dispute resolution, and record-keeping requirements. Retention periods vary depending on the type of information and the reason it is held.

As a general approach:

• customer service and booking records are retained for a period appropriate to business and legal needs;
• financial and invoicing records are kept for the period required by tax and accounting law;
• correspondence and complaint records are retained for as long as needed to manage the issue and defend our legitimate interests;
• data collected on the basis of consent is retained until consent is withdrawn or the data is no longer needed.

When data is no longer required, we will securely delete, destroy, or anonymise it where appropriate.

8. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to legal limits and exemptions in certain circumstances. Your rights include:

• Right of access: you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• Right to rectification: you may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
• Right to erasure: in some cases, you may request deletion of your data;
• Right to restriction: you may ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations;
• Right to object: you may object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing;
• Right to data portability: where applicable, you may request your data in a structured, commonly used format;
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We aim to respond within the timeframe required by law.

9. Security of Personal Data

We take appropriate steps to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. Measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff awareness, and limiting access to those who need it for legitimate business purposes. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we work to maintain a level of security appropriate to the risk.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed to children, and we do not intentionally collect personal data from children except where it is incidental to providing services at a household or business premises and where a parent or guardian is involved as appropriate. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child unlawfully, we will take steps to delete it promptly.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, business practices, or the way we process data. When we make significant changes, we will revise the policy accordingly. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is used.

12. Further Information

If you believe your data protection rights have been infringed, you may raise concerns with the relevant data protection authority. However, we encourage you to raise any concerns with us first so we can try to resolve the matter promptly and fairly.

Summary: Crewshill Carpet Cleaners processes customer data lawfully, securely, and only as needed for services, billing, compliance, and support, while respecting user rights and retention limits.