The growth of Virtual Reality
The idea of stereoscopic viewing (each eye looking at a separate image) goes back to 1838 when Sir Charles Wheatstone was honoured by the Royal Society for his work on Stereopsis. He created a system that used two mirrors at right angles to the viewers eyes, that reflected a picture located off to the side.
Nearly 100 years later, American Sci-Fi writer Stanley Weinbaum wrote a short story called Pygmalion’s Spectacles in which the main character invented a pair of goggles which transported the wearer into a fictional world which stimulates their senses.
We had to wait another 80 or so years to get our hands on such goggles. At one end of the scale we had Google cardboard, a low cost, do it yourself kit to be used with a smartphone. At the other end we saw Oculus Rift and HTC Vive arrive.
As the hype grew around VR and the number of tech companies developing VR headsets increased, so did the number of VR experiences you could get. App Stores were full of Rollercoaster rides and shark infested waters…. sometimes both at the same time!
Media channels started to use VR to tell stories. The BBC used VR to help people experience being in a Syrian Migrant camp. The Washington Post released a VR experience in the Oval Office. The Wall Street Journal launched a VR rollercoaster that followed the Bear and Bull markets in the Nasdaq (bears, bulls but no sharks).
Sometime VR added to the consumer’s experience, many time they were gimmicks, nearly all have fallen by the wayside as the hype around VR, like so many ‘cool things’, appeared like a firework – lots of noise and excitement, but short lived.
However, the end of sharks attaching a rollercoaster has left us with some very powerful tech and strong Use Cases for the use of VR in Business.
How can business's use VR
The Use Cases tend to fall into two groups. Internal use for improving communication & training, and external use for selling, promoting or delivering products and services. In this article I will touch on the internal uses, but with my backgrounds in a agency who specialised in bringing products to life through immersive experiences and engaging storytelling, I will focus more on how Businesses can use VR. How it can be used to help reach more customers, build stronger brand engagement and ultimately sell more.
Use case for internal communications and training
We know that over the past 4 years, remote working has become far more popular due to the COVID related lockdowns that we all experienced. Video calls delivered via Teams, Zoom, Hangouts etc became the norm. The advantages of these over a voice call are clear and obvious. They do however, have limitations in terms of engagement. A VR meeting can increase engagement and social interaction dramatically.
Compared to a Video meeting, a VR meeting is more immersive and interactive, thus promoting effective communications and teamwork. The VR workshop is an extension of the VR meeting, with the use of virtual white boards, notes and 3D models.
These benefits become even greater when the business is global and needs to operate virtually to reduce their carbon footprint.
One Use Case overlaps internal and external use. That is the area of training and education. For the past few years, e-learning has helped prepare students for jobs in many industries. But where these programs can fall flat is with training for jobs that demand hands-on learning. VR bridges that gap with immersive learning simulations.
Engineers and technicians are being trained in complex tasks using VR as it is risk free and dramatically reduces the need for physical equipment.
VW trained over 10,000 staff members in everything from vehicle assembly, customer service, to new staff inductions.
In Formula 1 Racing, VR is used extensively for drivers to practice their skills in predicted race-day weather conditions. Engineers also use simulators and VR to create and test new designs and adjustments without breaking F1’s complicated rulebook.
But it is in healthcare that the largest adoption of immersive technology has been seen.
Use case for customer facing VR
Try before you buy/build your own.
Environment encompasses many things. The physical, virtual, social, cultural and political. All of there elements must combine in a symbiotic way to not just allow, but to enable and enhance creativity, productivity, growth and learning.
As consumers become more used to immersive experiences, the opportunity to use VR to help a customer specific and virtually build their own personalised product not only aids them in their thought process, but it also increases the likelihood of a successful transition, and increases the specification level of the customers final order.
For example, in select United States markets, Lowe’s allows customers to design their perfect bathroom or kitchen and then, using VR, “walk into” the finished space and experience it as a kind of test drive. The home improvement brand also offers Lowe’s Infinite Kitchen, a special VR app with haptic feedback that allows users to interact with common kitchen objects like taps and ovens.
Product presentation in VR
A VR product presentation or showcase offers a fully immersive experience of a company’s product or service in a 3D virtual environment. With the use of a VR headset, individuals can interact with a products, services, or concepts, surpassing the limitations of traditional 2D product presentation. Offering an immersive experience, VR product presentations allow customers to engage in a more interactive way, enabling them to see, touch, and fully experience the offerings like never before.
In my previous agency we worked for a luxury car brand who realised that few customers understood the interior options for items such as roof lining, seat stitching, or the numerous different colour combinations that were available. At the launch of their next product, we created a VR experience that involved the potential customer sitting in a car seat, just the seat, no car. They put on a headset and were now sitting inside the new product. They were able to configure all the different colours, materials etc and experience what their unique combination would look like. Now that is bringing a product to life!
The benefits are clear to be seen.
Firstly, it enhances customer engagement by providing a more interactive and memorable way for them to explore and understand the product offerings through immersive experiences.
Secondly, it allows for a deeper connection as customers can virtually interact with products, fostering a stronger sense of ownership and satisfaction.
Lastly, the detailed and realistic experience offered by VR presentations often leads to more informed purchasing decisions, contributing to increased sales and customer confidence in the products or services.
Virtual Reality product presentations are not just limited to potential customers. They can be used to promote a product to influencers, media channels, internal audiences and as part of a training plan for 3rd party partners/franchise holders.
A great example of using VR for a product presentation to inform as opposed to sell, was a project I ran for an Automotive client who produced high performance road cars as well as being a successful F1 racing team. They were launching a new road car that utilised a lot of aerodynamic technology from the F1 car. There was a press launch event planned at a racetrack in Europe and my client wanted a way to get the journalists not only to understand the technology but also to be excited by it.
Our solution was to create a VR suite in the pit area. When the journalist put on the headset, there found themselves in a wind tunnel with the new car in front of them. In one of their virtual hands, they held a smoke wand and in the other was a controller that allowed them to find out detailed information. The experience allowed them to move around the virtual car and watch the wind blow the smoke over the car, thus demonstrating the aerodynamic systems.
VR presentations as part of the sales process
Integrating VR technologies into the sales process brings plenty of benefits for companies seeking to stand out from the competition. A Salesperson can provide their prospective customers with an interactive and memorable VR experience in a virtual world, allowing them to engage with products and explore intricate details. This modern approach not only sets companies apart from the competition but also facilitates deeper connections with potential customers and increases the likelihood of a purchase.
House building is one of the best Use Cases for the integration of VR into the sales process. I used to have a house builder client in the UK who had commissioned my agency to build an online tool that allowed a customer, once that had agreed a plot, to configure their kitchen and bathroom and see a photorealistic render of each room. The system was national and tied in with local suppliers and reflected regional cost differences. It was a key part of the sales process.
We proposed a VR extension to the tool. The idea was because on an average development there were between 8 and 15 different house types, but a maximum of three show homes. This meant that most prospective buyers would not be able to view the house that they wanted to buy (remember house builders want to pre sell all of their houses). Additionally, the show homes where the first built and the last to be sold, so tying up a lot of capital.
Our proposal was that the garage in one of the show homes would be converted into a VR suit where prospective customers could view all the different house types in virtual reality.
When every you are asking someone to engage in a VR experience you need to think about how a user will feel putting on a headset in public. This is why we suggested the creation of a VR suite so that users did so in private.
As VR technology becomes mainstream, more companies will use VR in their sales process and customer service programs. With time, VR experiences will become more cost-effective and possibly even help businesses cut costs, which will open the door for more enterprises to participate in the technology. VR has many exciting applications and affords companies lots of possibilities when it comes to promoting their products or services.
However, any implementation needs to be carefully thought out to maximize the business impact whilst enhancing the consumer experience. So, no more sharks attaching roller coasters!
By Richard Wright
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