I didn't say t would be hard to go to the station, take the pics, and input later. In fact, it would be pretty easy. That is if you only do 2-3 shops a day and are super organized. But I average 7-8 of these a day, along with other shops most days, there are many reasons why that isn't the best approach.
1) Unless one posses a photogenic memory, the questions should be answered onsite. Otherwise its too easy to miss a question, like for instance, "Was the merchandiser present?" That's one I tend not to think about until I see the question. Without an app, you would need to print out a paper copy of the questions for each shop or you could print out one copy and use your phone to take notes. But that means flip-flopping between your camera app and your note app. And you need to make sure each set of notes is labeled properly so they don't get mixed up later.
2) I live in a rural area and it is not unusual for me to travel two hours to a metro area and do a cluster of shops and then drive two more hours home. This often puts me back home after the midnight cut-off to submit the surveys. Additionally, if I do miss something, I have to either drive the four hour round trip again to collect the missed info, pic, etc., or forfeit the shop. With the app, it is a lot less likely that anything will be missed.
3) You can't rely on the pics taken at a shop to help you remember there was an infraction. After a while, all those pump pics start looking the same
4) Using the app, when I leave a location, the shop is submitted. This means an editor can start her work sooner and the client can get a report sooner and is therefore able to address any urgent matters in a more timely fashion.
But the main reason I'm so miffed about not having the app (or a correctly working website) is because there is no reason not to! Maritz had a working app for these shops prior to the Ipsos takeover, but it is now unavailable to use. Yet Ipsos has not made another one available, even though all of their other shops on all the various platforms have one. It makes no sense whatsoever and I really hate things that don't make sense.