Customer Care Policy

What is Customer Care?
The quality of the service should be consistent regardless of who is responding to the enquiry or who the customer is.
Customer care is about treating other people the same way you would like to be treated.
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Customer Care Principles
The foundation for delivering quality services and projecting a good image is to adopt baseline standards to ensure professional customer care.
At the forefront of our business is transparency. We pride ourselves on providing whatever information we can to aid understanding.
When we deal with a customer we look to abide by the following:
- Be attentive, polite/ courteous and sensitive;
- Be honest and fair;
- Check (and double-check) the accuracy of information we provide;
- Respond in timely manner and abide by any time commitments that have been agreed;
- Record, monitor and publish complaints and compliments;
- Ensure complaints are dealt with openly and fairly;
- Actively seek the views of customers and staff.
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What do our customers want?
Our customers want a service that is transparent, responsive and polite and we must strive to meet these demands.
Customers want to have their query answered without being transferred from one person to the next: they want a single point of contact for the duration of the matter.
Where there are sensitive and personal issues to be discussed, customers require tact and empathy; they also want to be assured that their privacy will be maintained.
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Why do we need customer care standards
This statement outlines our policy on customer care and related issues. The standards set out in this document are the minimum we expect as a starting point.
We want to ensure that all customers receive the same consistent, high standards of customer service.
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Delivery and feedback
We are always striving to improve our service so we welcome and encourage feedback on our service.
If you have a moment spare please let us know how you regard our service with our easy to use survey that can be found online or we are happy to send out the questionnaire in paper format.
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Complaint?
If you are unhappy with our service please let us know so that we can change.
We have developed a complaints procedure with a strict timetable that looks to resolve your complaint within 10 working days. The complaint will be fairly investigated by senior management staff.
Please contact any member of staff to start this procedure. Please refer to our complaints procedure below and associated flowchart.
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Code of Conduct

Be honest and discreet at all times.
Offer candid advice concerning the possible or probable results of any projected research.
Confirmation of instructions will be sent in writing upon commencement of research and updates on progress will be sent at regular intervals.
Present research results and opinions in a clear, logical manner; cite references where applicable; and refrain from withholding, suppressing, or knowingly misquoting or misinterpreting sources or data.
Explain without concealment or misrepresentation all fees, charges, and payment structures.
Abide by agreements regarding project scope, number of hours, and deadlines and reporting schedules; keep adequate, accessible records of financial and project-specific contacts with the consumer.
All confidential information obtained in the course of business will be held as such and the provisions of the Data Protection Act shall be adhered to.
Avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and research.
Where applicable, declare any personal or financial interest.
Staff are encouraged to resolve any dispute and/ or complaint in a prompt and professional manner and comply with the Estate Research complaints policy.

Complaints Procedure

We always seek to impress but we recognise that there may be an occasion where a client seeks to make a complaint and accordingly undertake to abide by the following policy:

Complaints can be made at any time: either orally or in writing.
Oral complaints will be transcribed immediately and placed upon file and within a complaints folder held at the head office.
We shall seek to use our best endeavours to resolve all complaints in a timely and amicable manner.
If the complainant seeks further redress the matter will be transferred to Aidan Hutchings (Managing Director) or James Gartland for internal investigation. If a complaint proceeds to this stage the complainant will be informed in writing within 2 working days.
We aim to investigate and reply to all complaints within 10 working days.

Estate Research are registered with the ICO. Should you feel that we have acted in breach of our ICO commitment you are referred to the Complaint Policy steps 1 to 5 above in the first instance; and the ICO complaints procedure thereafter which can be found at https://ico.org.uk/concerns

View Flowchart