You all know by now I'm totally a tech dinosaur.

Today, for the VERY first time, I did an IPSOS gas station. Using the IShopForIpsos app, I walked right through the entire shop/audit. For a tech person, it would have been seamless -- for me, there were a couple bumps in the road (part of the shop was a screenshot, so I had to open the website and put the screen shot in the report that way, then save the report and return to the app for the remainder of the shop; and a couple other stumbles on my part, not the app's fault at all).

All in all, I found it simple and easy.

Now, why do I say this is a game changer? Because I no longer have to lug my laptop and digital camera and try to find some public wifi or wait til I get to a hotel to submit hours and hours of reports. I often take 80 photos on a gas station audit. Then I download them and choose the right one for the right question. No matter the MSC, it always took at least an hour, and sometimes as much as 3 hours (operator incompetence, I admit!). And that, folks, severely limited the number of audits I could do in a day, or on a route. If a scheduler gave me extra time for reports, I could travel for two days and then take another entire day to report a maximum of about 8 shops.

This will, I believe, give me the freedom to do many more shops in the same time that I could only do a few using my laptop and digital camera.

Woo-hoo!!!

(This is no "humble brag". I'm quite proud of myself, even if I'm 10 years behind everybody else, LOL!)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2021 05:49AM by ceasesmith.

See why I love that app?? You don't even need perfect reception. Unfortunately, their gas shops with MANY more required photos are on the Sassie platform so they can't be done on that app. Such a bummer. And time consuming.

So what color gas station does the IShopForIpsos app work for?

I'm doing one that I would classify as blue, but I haven't actually figured the colors out yet. To me the blue is the one where two of the large gas companies merged and still sell by both names depending what state the station is in. Their headquarters are in the DFW area.

Trivia, The company I classify as "blue" also had to change the name in Japan because it was "stalled car” in Japanese

Nice bit of trivia, wrosie!

I'm an idiot. I thought I was in SASSIE, rotlmfao!!!!

Think, what is a body of water, like between Texas and Mexico -- bigger than a bay, smaller than a sea. Like where the Mississippi runs into.

I hope I can get away with that hint.

As far as I know, there's only 7 in my entire state. I do six of them; the lone remainder is over 400 miles away, and I won't do big cities.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2021 05:30AM by ceasesmith.

The gas brands that are on the shopmetrics platform can be done on the app. The brands on the Sassie platform cannot be done on the app.

I am tech proficient, but those apps still scare me, ceasesmith. I'm always afraid they will be a timesuck on a tight route. You have motivated me to download the app for this first time, and I might even try using it.

1. How do I edit the title? I'm so tech-averse, I truly didn't know I wasn't in SASSIE!
2. Also the stations with giant prehistoric critters.
3. Another thing I really, really liked -- after you answer all the questions, you can page back through every question and glance at the photo and fix, if needed.
4. I was not on site any longer, with the report completed and submitted, than I would have been with my digital camera and "cheat sheet" to make sure I asked all the right questions.

CAVEAT: For those "road warriors" who perform their mystery shop then revealed audit in less than 15 minutes and on to the next one -- that's NOT me. I'm usually on site 45 minutes or so. But to spend exactly the same time onsite, and already have the report completed and submitted? AWESOME.

It is Ipsos own version of MobiAudit for Shopmetrics companies. You can use Mobi as well for these Ipsos shops. The app is exactly the same so, cease, you can submit other shops as easily for companies like Alta360 or Strategic Reflections that use shopmetrics on mobi!

@ceasesmith wrote:

3. Another thing I really, really liked -- after you answer all the questions, you can page back through every question and glance at the photo and fix, if needed.
AWESOME.

You do not even have to do pg back. On the top right corner click on jump to go to the section and Q you want. If the report is multiple pages, at the bottom of the screen at the "jump" you can click to go to the specific page you want and then select the question you want to work on. If you switch multiple times between the app and the website, make sure that when you are in the Inbox screen you click the circle arrow on the top right side to update to the latest report version, otherwise you will have 2 report versions. Sometimes I input the whole report (for shops that need a lot of commentary) on the website and just go to the app to upload the photos on the Q needed by jumping to the ones from the Jump link.

And with the jump function you can see a red line on any questions that were missed making them easy to find. For instance, a job type that requires timings in minutes and seconds now requires a zero before a single digit minute which I keep missing but I can jump right to it after seeing that the report is not ready to submit.

@ceasesmith wrote:

1. How do I edit the title? I'm so tech-averse, I truly didn't know I wasn't in SASSIE!

Cease, go to your very first post in this thread...click on "Edit" and it will let you edit your title as well as your post!! Good luck!!

Thanks!!! Corrected!!!

Hi ceasesmith,
Taking screenshots on your mobile is easy. Instructions are accessible using Google.
On my Samsung J7 mobile, you can capture a screenshot by simultaneously pressing the Home key and the Power/Lock key for 1–2 seconds. My Best

Oh, taking the screenshot I learned way, way back. (Like, 4 months ago, rotflmfao!) The mobile app won't ACCEPT a screenshot, you must enter it on the website. A little clunky, but not impossible.

Screenshot is basically a photo so it should upload exactly like a photo does.

If you're talking about uploading a digital receipt or other screenshots pertaining to the client's app, your screenshots will be in your photo gallery but in a different folder than regular pics.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2021 12:13PM by sestrahelena.

Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing ! I love your willingness to try new technologies and apps! Good skill to have

No. Doesn't work that way. There's even a disclaimer at the beginning of the app (for these particular stations) that the shopper cannot enter screenshots in the app, that shopper must enter the screenshot through the website.

The screenshot is of the customer's app, so it might have something to do with security on the customer's app. Or an interfacing difficulty above my pay grade, LOL.

@sestrahelena wrote:

Screenshot is basically a photo so it should upload exactly like a photo does.

If you're talking about uploading a digital receipt or other screenshots pertaining to the client's app, your screenshots will be in your photo gallery but in a different folder than regular pics.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2021 04:49PM by ceasesmith.

Huh. App screenshots always work for me. Nary a problem. Weird.

Off topic, but I tried to take screenshots on a banking website and it would not work. I think it's a security thing. Phones and banks are so smart these days.

True, I could not screenshot a different non-shop-related app but, if this is the brand I think it is there are screenshots of the digital receipt or reason for not using the app such as, "No store found" shown on the app which I have been able to take and upload.

Then why would the app itself have a disclaimer that the shopper must upload the screenshot to the website?

Maybe it's a different brand than you're thinking.

But on the other hand, out of dozens of tries, I've only gotten the app itself (the brand app, that I'm supposed to use to pay for the gas) has worked maybe twice. So the screenshot is of THAT app, outside the IPSOS app? But I freely admit my ignorance is vast!!!

Mobi Audit is a good app. I use it a lot for Blue stations not offered on a Sassie platform. I used to do stations for Maritz and their app was terrible. They were nice people to talk to but their communication skills were very poor.

Okay, I finally tried the IShopForIpsos app on a shop - NEVER AGAIN. I ended up closing the app in frustration and redoing the whole thing using the website on my phone. It took less time redoing it on the website than I had wasted tapping that stupid "Next" button that brought flashbacks of Marketforce's awful interface. The website has not been optimized for mobile devices - it was clunky doing it on my phone - but it was still easier than answering one or two questions per page. If only Shopmetrics would optimize for mobile, we could have the best of both worlds.

Be proud of any and all accomplishments!!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2021 09:49PM by DGSmith.

They save you so much time, actually. I love using the apps.