Virtual reality (VR) is no longer just a vision of the future—it’s rapidly becoming an integral part of our present. Major tech companies like Apple invest heavily in VR technology, and global corporations such as Accenture purchase thousands of Meta headsets to train their employees. Even public sectors, including healthcare and police forces, are beginning to incorporate VR into their operations.
As VR technology becomes more advanced and accessible, its applications in training are likely to expand. But how can VR training programs be used in contact centers? First, let’s understand this advanced technology and how it works.
What is Immersive Learning?
Immersive or simulation-based learning began at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, which combines virtual reality (VR) with modern learning techniques, data analysis, and creative environments to help people practice real-life skills engagingly and effectively.
Virtual reality is a key component of immersive learning. In VR environments, employees can work on scenarios that closely stimulate actual work experience. This cuts down on the need for long training sessions, manual reading, and pausing work for practice. Immersive training allows them to repeat tasks in a virtual world until they become confident in their new skills.
Virtual reality also gives managers detailed information on how employees perform during training and explains why they perform a certain way. This data is more beneficial than other training methods, as it has improved learning by 76 percent compared to traditional methods.¹
Transforming Employee Training with Virtual Reality
Using virtual reality to train your contact center agents has many benefits, and it’s easy to see why businesses are making it a part of their training courses. Let’s check out some of these advantages:
You face less risk with virtual reality training.
One major benefit of VR training in the workplace is that it allows employees to practice scenarios that might be too risky to try in real life. These situations can be safely recreated in a controlled VR environment, helping prepare workers for real-world challenges.
For example, VR training has helped surgeons make 40 percent fewer mistakes and has reduced injury-related lost time in mining by 43 percent.¹
In contact centers, VR training can be a powerful way to practice handling challenging customer interactions and emergency scenarios in a risk-free virtual setting. Agents can engage in simulated high-pressure calls from frustrated or irate customers.
This way, agents can try different approaches to handling calls without worrying about making errors that could affect real customers. This freedom to experiment helps them to discover the best strategies and reduces the risk of negatively impacting actual customer interactions.
Training with VR can be more budget-friendly than traditional training.
Another advantage of VR is that it can be more cost-efficient than traditional methods. While there is an initial cost for purchasing equipment and software, once you’ve invested in VR equipment and software, you can use it as often as needed to train new agents or update skills without incurring additional costs.
Additionally, as VR becomes more common, the cost of high-quality headsets will drop. VR training also saves money in other ways: It’s more effective, which means you’ll need less re-training and spend less on materials.
You can create realistic and specific scenarios.
With the right tools, you can create virtual training environments that look and sound very realistic. Using high-quality graphics and surround sound makes the experience more engaging. This realistic setting helps learners feel like they are there and gives them hands-on practice. The more lifelike the virtual instruction, the better it works.
Virtual learning environments in contact centers can be designed to mimic your work setting closely. You can simulate your contact center’s layout, including specific software and call scripts.
If your contact center uses specialized software or unique procedures, a custom VR simulation can replicate these exactly. You can create a virtual environment where agents can practice using the CRM system as if they were actually at their desks. They can navigate through customer profiles, handle different support tickets, and perform tasks like logging call details or updating customer information.
Virtual reality training can help you remember and recall information better.
We’ve all experienced outdated training materials and video courses that don’t quite fit our job roles. Onboarding and training are essential for employee development and performance, so they need to be effective, and VR is changing the game.
In VR training, agents enter a virtual environment and learn by doing, which helps them acquire the skills and knowledge they need. The results speak for themselves: VR learning has a 75 percent retention rate, compared to just 5 percent for lectures and 10 percent for reading.²
They can repeat the exercises as many times as necessary, which builds muscle memory and improves information recall—because, as they say, practice makes perfect. VR content also makes complex ideas easier to understand. Instead of reading handbooks or watching presentations, agents can interact with and visualize these concepts more engagingly.
Read More: Empower, Engage, Excel: Building a Culture of Learning in Your Organization
Training can be done from anywhere.
It can be challenging to provide consistent training when your agents are spread across different cities or working remotely. VR training solves this by offering the same interactive experience to all agents, whether in the office, working from home, or elsewhere.
With this virtual reality technology, you don’t need to gather everyone in one place. Agents can access the training from anywhere, ensuring each gets the same hands-on experience.
For contact centers with multiple locations or remote workers, VR training guarantees that all agents receive the same high-quality instruction. This helps maintain a uniform standard of training and ensures that everyone is aligned on skills and procedures.
Read More: 3 Ways to Help Your Remote Customer Service Team Thrive
It helps attract the best candidates.
When hiring, every company wants to attract the best talent. To achieve this, you must show that you’re an appealing candidate choice. This involves demonstrating your commitment to employee development and embracing innovative technologies.
Investing in advanced technology and focusing on skill development is important for attracting and keeping the best people. For instance, 60 percent of employees want VR headsets to be part of their workplace by 2024.³ This makes it a great time to explore how VR can fit into your employee training plans.
Implementing VR training is a strong indicator that your contact center is forward-thinking and committed to investing in its employees’ development.
You can track VR training to see how effective it is.
Data is becoming more important in the workplace as businesses seek to measure their success and determine whether their actions are working.
With traditional training, it’s hard to see how well each agent handles challenging situations. You usually depend on general feedback or surveys, but these methods don’t provide detailed insights.
In VR training, agents can practice sales calls in simulated cases, interacting with virtual customers who have different responses and objections. The VR system tracks metrics such as how effectively agents use sales scripts, handle objections, and close deals.
If an agent struggles with upselling during a VR simulation, the system can provide data on how often they fail to address customer objections or miss upselling opportunities. Instructors can use this data to provide specific feedback and strategies for improvement.
As you gather data from multiple agents, you can analyze trends and patterns to see if the VR training is improving their sales skills. This helps you determine if the training is effective and where further improvements might be needed.
DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND—TRANSFORM YOUR TRAINING APPROACH AND STAY AHEAD IN THE COMPETITIVE STAFFING WITH SALEM SOLUTIONS
Salem Solutions can help you attract candidates by showing your commitment to innovation and technology. When you partner with us, you can draw in the best agents and give them high-quality training once they join your team.
We can help you appeal to forward-thinking candidates and ensure they receive top-notch experience in a dynamic, immersive environment. Let us help you find and train the best people with the technology that sets your business apart! Reach out to us today!
References
- “VR Stats for the Training & Education Industry in 2023.” VirtualSpeech, VirtualSpeech, virtualspeech.com/blog/vr-stats-training-education.
- “Measuring Learning in the Moment: The KPIs of VR Training.” TD.org, Association for Talent Development, www.td.org/content/atd-blog/measuring-learning-in-the-moment-the-kpis-of-vr-training.
- “The Future of VR: Top Trends for 2023.” Workplace from Meta, www.workplace.com/blog/the-future-of-vr.
