The benefits of using VR as a communication channel for businesses

Virtual Reality presents tons of possibilities, and even though the media usually describe it solely in terms of technology, the opportunities VR creates in terms of communication are almost limitless. Using VR, you can connect all of your staff in a single environment, where they can all interact with each other and discuss, without actually having to gather together in a single room. But how exactly can you use VR to your advantage as a business owner? And more importantly – how to turn VR into a profit for your company? Let’s find out what the benefits of using VR in business are, especially when used as a communication tool!

Key Takeaways

• VR enhances remote communication by creating shared virtual environments where employees can interact, collaborate, and engage in meetings without physical presence, improving remote teamwork and communication.
• VR revolutionizes employee training by enabling companies to conduct cost-effective, risk-free, and interactive training sessions across long distances, improving engagement, retention, and skill development.
• VR boosts creativity and productivity in industries like design and architecture by allowing professionals to immerse themselves in 3D environments, facilitating intuitive and more effective design processes.
• VR offers innovative marketing opportunities, enabling businesses to create immersive experiences such as virtual showrooms and product demos, attracting new customers and shortening sales cycles.
• VR accelerates product creation by allowing designers and teams to collaborate on 3D models in real time, enhancing the speed and quality of the product development process.

Benefits of using Virtual Reality as a communication tool in business

There is, however, a great tool that can help diminish the negative effects of long-distance working – virtual reality! With VR, your employees can see each other, talk to each other, and interact with each other, without actually having to be present in the same room – at least not physically! Let’s go over some of the most prominent features and uses for VR in business and work environment.

Hold efficient board meetings

With VR, you can easily organize and hold board meetings, without actually having to ever gather your board members in a physical room. This can be especially useful if your board members are located far apart from each other and organizing a physical meeting might be difficult and expensive. In such a case, VR is much more effective at serving as a communication channel than simple communications apps – which tend not to work very well in the first place. With VR, you can actually see your coworkers in a 3D space, interact with them, and create shared projects – without the need of organizing any means of travel. Conferences, meetings, and collaboration spaces can be created effortlessly with the help of Virtual Reality.

Train your staff over long distances

Virtual Reality also proves useful when it comes to training your staff and organizing courses. Similar to how VR conferences work, you can quickly gather large amounts of staff in a meeting space without having to physically bring them all together. However, with Virtual Reality, you can quickly create simulated lifelike scenarios in an active environment, allowing your trainees to experience through practice even more than they would be able to in a physical setting. Creating a practical course with simulated scenarios in real life can be costly – very costly. Using it, you can organize professional corporate VR training at a much cheaper price. Moreover, VR sessions eliminate the risk factor which becomes a problem in some training situations. Research has also shown that using VR in corporate training increases trainee engagement and retention rates, making the training much more efficient.

Virtual Reality can be easily adapted for any industry

VR software can be used in a wide variety of scenarios. A business representative can provide virtual presentations, meeting with clients face-to-face, or train for doing so in a simulated environment, where they can be measured on aspects such as eye contact and behavior. Even the retail industry uses Virtual Reality for staff training, preparing them for scenarios such as the holiday rush. VR gives a sense of presence and scale not possible to achieve with other devices. It can be utilised when constructing buildings or accessing windmills farms optimal placement for increased productivity. Logistical scenarios can be planned beforehand or even errectic an entire production facility, without it even existing yet. However, VR can be used for much more than that. Medical professionals use Virtual Reality to simulate high-risk situations, such as surgeries, allowing them to practice in a lifelike environment without putting themselves – or anybody else – at risk. You can read more about virtual reality in medical training here. Military personnel have also been using VR for years now as part of their training, including flight simulations and battlefield simulations.

Increase your staff’s productivity with VR

What are some other benefits of VR in business? Apart from training, VR can be also used for the actual work done at your company. For example, Virtual Reality can be effectively used for interior and architectural design, providing the designer with all of the tools and space necessary to let their creative juices flow. Unlike regular 3D design software, Virtual Reality actually puts the designer in a 3D environment with which they can interact fully – and it has been shown to produce much better results! While equipping every member of your company with a VR headset of their own can be expensive, some of the newest headsets can be quickly assembled and disassembled at any place, allowing you to simply lend the headsets to your employees whenever necessary. This makes VR not only an extremely effective tool, but it is also one that is not expensive to utilize.

Attract new customers with virtual reality

When it comes to impact of virtual reality on business, it is not just a new communication channel, but also a new medium to present and create content. As such, it creates many new marketing opportunities, allowing you to reach new, previously unexplored audiences. Many companies have already started successfully implementing VR in B2C communication through virtual reality, and the results are very promising. A great example of that would be IKEA and its use of augmented reality to let customers place a virtual copy of their furniture inside their own homes using nothing more than a smartphone. This not only presents a great opportunity for the customers to see how the product looks without having to visit the shop physically, but it also lets the clients see exactly how it will look in their own setting!

Moreover, brands are increasingly leveraging VR showrooms and experiential marketing campaigns to create emotional connections with customers. For example, automotive companies host virtual test drives that allow customers to experience vehicles realistically before making purchase decisions, dramatically shortening the sales cycle.

Create new products fully in VR

We have talked about VR’s use in communication and training – but can VR actually be used to create a full product? The answer is absolutely yes! Creative workers such as designers and architects can utilize the fully 3D VR environment to create new projects, without the limitations that a 2D display brings. VR can be a factor that directly influences sales. For example, a sales representative might use VR to not only connect with potential clients, but also to demonstrate the product without bringing the clients physically to the company. A car dealer might use VR to show their potential customers a vehicle, and even let them drive it – the possibilities are truly endless!

Furthermore, VR-based collaborative design platforms are transforming product development by allowing distributed teams to work simultaneously on 3D models, accelerating feedback cycles and innovation. This seamless integration of VR into the creative workflow is expected to become a standard across industries in the near future.

Read also: Don’t Let Long Distances Hinder Your Business – Use VR.