A field visit is important in filling out the information that the numbers from surveys, reports and remote monitoring cannot provide.
Confirm Physical Access Points
Even simple things like maps of where to enter a building are often wrong. Many sites have had entrances closed, and new ones opened. Without a recent site visit, there is no way to know if the access points listed in the data actually exist, and therefore the data cannot be used to make routing decisions that will have the desired outcome.
Check Whether Signage Matches the Report
If a product or service has been reported to be placed prominently then the field visitor can check whether this is the case. In the intervening time between the data having been collected and it being used signage can be moved, covered or even removed.
Verify Actual Opening Behaviour
For instance, a facility that is reported to be open from 9 am until 10 pm may actually open at 10 pm, or close early on less busy days. A field visitor will note the real opening hours of a facility in order to account for apparently low footfall or unavailability of a facility when viewing figures in a dashboard.
Spot Conditions That Explain Anomalies
Site work in progress, a temporary closure or a refit can cause a site to appear to be underperforming on the data collected. However, this would be due to circumstances outside of normal trading and analysts would look to confirm the site conditions on a visit to ensure any trends identified are not down to short term factors.
Cross-Check Location Details at Scale
For organisations with multiple sites, it is crucial to set up a professional data collection service that repeats these verifications for every site. The UK government published its own standards for trustworthy data recently and verifying accuracy on site before acting on the findings is a large part of that.
There is more on Data Collection Company at https://shepper.com.
A field visit is not a problem but the reason why you use data in the first place.
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