How virtual reality helps small- and mid-sized businesses

Many people associate virtual reality (VR) with gaming, but its applications don't stop there. You might not know it, but the immersive sensory experiences VR can provide are helping businesses in wonderful ways, too.

VR training

Virtual hands-on training has been proven to be much more effective than in-classroom or e-learning methods. According to PwC, VR learners are:

• Four times more focused than their e-learning counterparts
• Four times faster to train than their in-classroom counterparts
• Nearly four times more emotionally connected to what they were learning than classroom learners
• 275% more confident to apply the skills they’ve learned from the training

This means that VR learners become productive and efficient much sooner than non-VR learners.

An important benefit of VR training is that it can replicate situations that are dangerous or have adverse consequences if people make wrong or suboptimal choices in real life. Here are a few examples:

• Pilots log many hours in VR training long before they actually get off the ground.
• With haptic VR, budding surgeons can learn how it feels to use their scalpels without cutting into actual flesh.
• Trainees in organizational leadership can learn soft skills via VR training, too. Immersive VR interactions can provide impactful learning experiences with little to no risk of unwanted real-world consequences such as fallouts with colleagues.

Create your own VR prototypes

Thanks to VR, you’ll no longer have to rely on manufacturing prototypes when you want to see what your product physically looks like and how it might work. VR prototypes allow you to make any changes before actual production. Model creation in VR, for example, can save company resources, as these virtual prototypes allow manufacturers to examine a product and make changes without the time and money required to build a physical model.

And if you have the data, you can use VR to simulate real-world conditions. To illustrate, you can see how your automotive suspension design responds to different types of terrain, or how easily your drone can be controlled in a hurricane.

VR for engineers

As with manufacturing, VR is also time- and cost-efficient for engineers, architects, and other professionals who work in large-scale construction. It replaces traditional approaches, such as rendering small 2D models, and offers a more immersive experience that helps in designing structures that are more useful and intuitive for the people who’ll be using these.

VR real estate tours

With VR, real estate agents don’t have to tour potential buyers in the actual property. They can let their clients see what the property looks like in a three-dimensional setting and virtually go from room to room. Brokers can entertain buyers who may be miles away or simply don’t want to spend time going from house to house.

Take customers on an adventure

If you are in a tourism- or adventure-based business, you can use VR to give customers a taste of what to expect from your attractions. If you’re a marketer for an amusement park, you can offer a short VR simulation of one of your most popular rides. Or if you own a resort or campground, you can also create VR simulations of the activities you have in store for visitors.

If done properly, VR has the potential to bring your small- and mid-sized business to new heights. If you have any questions about how you can mesh VR with your company, don’t hesitate to send us an email or give us a call. We’ll be more than happy to assist you.