Colchester Zoo is committed to providing a high-quality service to our guests, supporters and members. As a learning organisation we’re always very grateful to hear your ideas about how we can do things better and ultimately provide you and all our valued guests with exceptional service.

Our Promise

We want to make sure that your engagement with Colchester Zoo is memorable and enjoyable for all the right reasons.

However, we understand there could be times when we make mistakes, and if this happens, we want to hear about it, because we take complaints and concerns very seriously and treat them as a huge opportunity to improve our work and prevent those situations happening again..

What to do if you have a complaint

The sooner you can get in touch with us, the sooner we’ll be able to help you.  Most complaints can be resolved quickly by speaking to one of our members of staff on site.  If they are not the right person for you to speak with, they will be able to contact the relevant person for you.

If you are unable to make a complaint at the time of the issue occurring, please contact us as soon as possible please complete our online feedback form.

  1. If you email us and don’t hear back, double check your junk or spam folder just in case we’ve ended up in there. Your details will not be used any other way other than to contact you about your complaint.
  2. If you are already on our mailing list and wish to be removed, simply let us know when you speak to us.

How long will it take?

We endeavour to respond to you promptly. However, if we need to investigate the matter to ensure a detailed response it may take up to 14 working days.

Wherever possible we will respond to your feedback sooner than this as response times can vary depending on the volume of enquiries received but generally never longer than 14 working days.

However, we will be honest with you and contact you in the meantime if we think it will take longer for a full response.

What will we do?

  1. Treat any comments/feedback seriously
  2. Try to resolve any problems promptly, in no longer than 14 working days (should we require longer we will keep you informed at all times as to the progress of your complaint)
  3. Utilise any feedback/comments where appropriate to make recommendations for change in order to improve our visitor experience  

Every piece of feedback received is different. However what we always do is listen carefully to you, review and discuss with relevant departments across the zoo and where possible implement suggestions received, and make any changes we feel may be  necessary.

We will come back to you with possible the steps we’re going to take. We invite you to let us know your ideas about solutions to prevent similar complaints. 

On rare occasions we may choose not to respond to a complaint. These can include if someone unreasonably pursues a complaint that we have already responded to, when a complainant is abusive, prejudiced or offensive in manner and when a complaint is incoherent or illegible.

We cannot respond to anonymous complaints.