At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, one of the biggest unveilings was of Samsung’s virtual reality (VR) headsets. The announcement was accompanied by an endorsement from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. “Pretty soon we’re going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you’re just there, right there in person,” he said. If two of the biggest tech companies in the world are to be believed, VR is going to be a game changer. As it becomes more available to consumers, how will it affect your business or fleet?
You’ll be able to train staff
One of the main uses for VR will be to provide immersive training to new and existing employees. Be it a driver changing the oil, a plumber’s apprentice fixing a leaky tap, or a trainee surgeon performing keyhole surgery, VR headsets promise to open up more possibilities for learning new skills. Start thinking about the sort of practical training that would benefit your staff, and how this could be delivered by this new technology.
You can see environments in new ways
If there’s a tricky part of a journey that is difficult to explain to fleet drivers, you could use VR to show it to them first. Or if you’re looking for new premises, you can avoid wasting the time travelling somewhere that turns out to be unsuitable. With VR, there’s the opportunity to be somewhere else, without leaving your current office.
You can motivate the sales team
With the roll out of VR, there’s an opportunity to add more excitement to sales-driven roles. Sales teams are used to performance-driven targets and are likely to embrace the chance to compete with their peers. VR will be ideal for role-play situations, such as practising techniques for approaching new customers, or negotiating contracts.
It could help with recruitment
Hiring the right person to join your business can be a difficult process. You need to make sure the candidate is the right fit, and they may want to get a sense of the company culture before they accept. VR would make it possible to give potential employees the taste of a typical day of an employee in the same role and a tour of the company’s international offices. As well as getting the right fit, this may help increase staff retention rates because new joiners will have a much better initial understanding of your company and how it operates.
Shopping will be revolutionised
Online browsing will become an immersive and personal experience with the introduction of VR. Think about what this could mean for the way you sell your products and present yourself to your customers. You can allow your customers, and indeed your staff, to experience your products before they buy them. This is especially helpful for bespoke, tailored products that are made to order. As well as increasing sales, it will enable your staff to become more passionate about what they’re selling and happier in their jobs.
You can revolutionise meetings
Both arranging and attending conference calls is one of the trickiest parts of business life. Crackly lines, long cumbersome dialling-in processes and video time lags all make the experience less satisfying than it should be. When fully integrated, VR is expected to be so superior to traditional video conferencing, that the need for travel and in-person meetings will be significantly reduced.
The possibilities with VR are endless. From managing travel costs, to keeping your employees happy, there are opportunities to help solve most common business challenges as well as provide opportunities we can’t even conceive of yet. It pays to start thinking about it early.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Kia Fleet sponsor of the Guardian Small Business Network Accessing Expertise hub.
