Clapham Carpet Cleaners Complaints Procedure

Clapham Carpet Cleaners is committed to providing reliable, high quality carpet, rug and upholstery cleaning services. We recognise that, on occasion, things may not go as planned. This Complaints Procedure explains how you can raise a concern about our services and how we will respond, investigate, and work with you to find a fair resolution.

Purpose of this Complaints Procedure

The purpose of this procedure is to provide a clear and transparent process for handling complaints. It is designed to ensure that any dissatisfaction with our residential or commercial cleaning work is dealt with promptly, consistently and respectfully. We use feedback and complaints to improve our services, our staff training and our customer communication.

What We Class as a Complaint

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about our services, staff, communication or policies, whether justified or not, where a response or resolution is expected. This may include, but is not limited to, concerns about:

Quality of carpet, rug or upholstery cleaning results, including stains, odours or residues that you feel were not treated appropriately. Behaviour, attitude or professionalism of our cleaning operatives or office staff. Missed or late appointments, or work not completed as agreed. Damage you believe may have been caused during a cleaning visit. Administration issues such as bookings, invoices or payment disputes. Health and safety concerns relating to cleaning products or equipment used in your home or workplace.

General comments, suggestions or routine requests for information are not treated as complaints, but we still welcome them and will respond where appropriate.

Raising a Complaint

You can raise a complaint in writing or verbally. To help us investigate effectively, please provide as much detail as possible, including your full name, the property address where the cleaning was carried out, the date and approximate time of the service, a description of what went wrong, and what outcome you are seeking. If relevant, you may also describe any conversations you have already had with our staff and any actions that were taken at the time.

We encourage customers to contact us as soon as possible after the issue arises, ideally within 48 hours of the cleaning visit. This allows us to inspect any concerns while they are still recent and to consider appropriate remedial action.

Our Initial Response

Once we receive your complaint, we will record it in our internal system and assign it to an appropriate member of our management team. We will acknowledge your complaint and confirm that it is being reviewed. In straightforward cases, we may be able to resolve matters quickly during this initial stage, for example by clarifying what was agreed, explaining our methods, or arranging a prompt follow-up visit.

Investigation of Your Complaint

More complex complaints will be investigated in greater detail. Our investigation may include reviewing your booking details and any notes made by our team, speaking with the cleaning operatives or supervisors who attended your property, examining photographs if available, and, where appropriate and practical, arranging a site visit to inspect the areas of concern in person.

We aim to conduct all investigations fairly and impartially. We will consider both your account and the information available from our staff and records. Our goal is to understand what happened and whether our service met our own standards and the commitments we made to you at the time of booking.

Timeframes for Handling Complaints

We aim to provide a full response to most complaints within a reasonable timeframe. If a complaint is complex or requires a site inspection, discussions with multiple staff members or external advice, the investigation may take longer. In such cases, we will keep you informed about progress and let you know when you can expect a further update.

Possible Outcomes and Resolutions

After we have investigated your complaint, we will explain our findings and any conclusions we have reached. Where we accept that we could have performed better, we will aim to offer a fair and proportionate remedy. Possible outcomes may include practical remedial work, such as returning to your property to re-clean specified areas, providing advice on how best to treat remaining issues, or taking steps to prevent a similar problem in future services.

In some circumstances, and at our discretion, we may consider offering a partial or full refund or a credit against future services. Any financial remedy will take into account the nature of the complaint, the condition of the items before cleaning, the agreed scope of work and any relevant terms and conditions. If we conclude that our service met our obligations and that the complaint cannot be upheld, we will explain our reasoning clearly.

Escalating a Complaint

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or believe that it has not been handled fairly, you may ask for your complaint to be reviewed by a senior member of our management team, who was not directly involved in the original investigation. The senior reviewer will reconsider the information, and may request additional details from you or from staff. After this review, we will provide a final response, which will set out our position and any further actions we are able to take.

Use of Complaints to Improve Our Service

We recognise that even well managed cleaning services can occasionally fall short of expectations. We treat each complaint as an opportunity to review how we operate. Feedback from customers may lead to additional staff training, updates to our procedures and risk assessments, changes to the products or equipment we use, or improvements in how we confirm bookings and explain our services.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

Complaints are handled in confidence. Information about your complaint will only be shared within our business with those who need it to investigate and respond. We will retain records of complaints and their outcomes in line with our data protection obligations and our internal retention policies. These records help us monitor trends, demonstrate how we manage issues and ensure consistency in our approach.

Our Commitment to Fair Treatment

Clapham Carpet Cleaners will not discriminate against any person who raises a complaint. Using this procedure will not affect your right to receive our services in future, provided any outstanding matters between us are resolved. We are committed to treating all customers with respect, listening carefully to concerns about our carpet and upholstery cleaning work, and seeking outcomes that are fair and reasonable for everyone involved.

This Complaints Procedure is reviewed regularly to ensure that it remains appropriate for the services we provide and reflects the way we operate across our service area.