Imagine yourself sipping your morning tea in the Big Brother House with the series 19 contestants. The same evening, you are enjoying your meditation on the moon—no disturbances of course! In just a little while, you find yourself dining with Price Williams and Kate Middleton to discuss what you are going to wear for the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Some of you may doubt. But, that’s the kind of rare, relaxing, and royal experience one can have through VR. The immersive VR experience allows your customers to experience your products, services, or places in a whole different way. You transport them to where they want or should be. It’s highly effective. In fact, as I write this blogpost, I am also in the middle of finishing one of the most exciting, VR-based customer experiences. My recommendation would be, you should embark on this journey too. Here are the five reasons why.
Reason #1: The Quality of Customer Experience is Dipping Amongst Brands.
The recently released Customer Experience Index Report, 2017 reveals that the quality of customer experience in the US has worsened. Top 25% of the elite brands in the US have showed stagnant improvement to the standards of customer experience they deliver. Does this worry you? If it does, then try something new this year. VR is one of the latest technologies that can be added to your customer’s overall buying journey. Good news is that nearly 40% of sales and marketing leaders believe that VR will improve the customer experience. This is probably one of the key reasons why Amazon’s Chinese competitor Alibaba is building their own VR mall to amplify the shoppers’ experience. You may argue about its success, but it’s arriving soon. While VR alone may not be able to reverse the findings of the customer experience index report next year, it will certainly give your customers an immersive, new experience.
Reason #2: It’s Challenging to Identify Customers’ Future Buying Patterns.
With numerous mobile and digital platforms, the buying habits of customers have changed irreversibly. While there’s a difference of 15-35% between B2C and B2B customer experience, the advent of self-service has blurred the lines between the B2C and B2B sales amongst customers. Despite the increased abilities to understand customers based on their buying patterns and history, brands still struggle to predict their buyers’ future buying behaviours. However, the good news is that VR can help you understand your customers’ future buying behaviour; it gives you a chance to design a buying pattern while studying the way they look at your product. It allows you to track back what your potential customer is doing, how they are watching, what exactly they are interested in, and what caught their attention. The data can also help you hyper-personalize the future experiences.
Reason #3: Customers are Bombarded with Choices.
If you are a frequent destination traveller, you would know it well. The moment you decide to travel you start thinking about various destinations. You read blogs. You ask your friends. You do research on Web. You start thinking, whether it would be worth the money you would be spending? What if, you get to experience part of the destination before you even fly out? If that happens, you will be able to make a well-informed decision. VR creates the possibility of helping your customers make a well-informed decision. Clear up the cluttered customer mind by helping him/her select a destination with VR. While they will get the glimpse of the place, you will be able to sell your travel package, which can be hyper-personalized based on the insights such as gestures and movements they made while watching the VR, the duration they were in the VR, the places they chose, etc. Similarly, show them your innovation lab situated in a remote location they cannot go to. It’ll help you sell your innovative solutions and build credibility. Just try to help your customers make the right choice because they have plenty.
Reason #4: Customers Engage with Brands in a Whole Different Manner.
If you want your customers to engage with your brand, then build a brand that’s engaging. The prime responsibility of building that perception in the mind of your customers is on the shoulders of the content marketers. According to a Greenlight Insights, 62% consumers feel more engaged with the VR-based content marketing. Besides, 71% think that the brands that use VR are forward thinking.
Then why not include it in your content marketing plan for the year to come. However, you have to be careful when you do start working on any VR project because you can frustrate your consumer by not telling them where to look at. Also, creating VR for the sake of it will not be tolerated by the customers. Smart content marketers will use features such as visual cues and positional audio to direct customers where to look at. Try VR as part of your content marketing campaign.
Reason #5: Brochures are No Longer the Effective Way of Educating Buyers.
If you really want to educate your customers about your new product or product extension, then VR is the new and effective way. If you are proud of the way you produced your product, then capture the process in VR and let your customers experience it. You can also show the live development process to your global customers. If you are associated with an event as a sponsor, then providing the immersive experience along with the event—rather than just getting your brand printed on lanyards or T-shirts, etc—can be really effective. At times, Red Bull is known for offering VR experiences to the fans of extreme flying races so that fans do not just watch the race, but also experience how it feels to be in the plane. Seriously, brochures cannot do the magic that a witty VR can.
Heed&Hook 