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How We’re Going to Use X Reality (XR) in Business

Are you ready for X reality? It’s coming, too, along with a host of exciting business and marketing opportunities.  

Here is what it is, why it matters, and how to use it to grow your business. 

What Is X Reality?

X reality is short for extended reality. Sometimes called cross reality, it’s a convergence of the real, physical world around us and a digital world or space. 

One way to think about it is combining a digital or virtual experience with a physical one. There are many different ways this plays out, but as the technology develops, the opportunities explode. 

To get a better picture of what we’re talking about, let’s take a moment to imagine. Have you ever taken a tour through a museum with a set of headphones that give an audible experience as you walk along? Suddenly, it sounds like you are walking through the Wild West or wherever this experience is taking place. 

Now add visuals and other physically interactive elements. Maybe you can actually touch the doors of the saloon or watch the scenes change as you walk down the dusty road. You can draw your pistol for a duel.

Imagine having these experiences, even when you aren’t at the museum. Maybe it’s in your own backyard. Or your hometown main street. Your reality has merged with the virtual. Your reality is extended.

The technology that allows for these immersive reality experiences is constantly evolving, bringing our reality closer to the virtual experience. 

To get the full X reality experience, certain hardware may be required. Again, think about enhancing the physical with the digital. You may need tools to provide that combined experience. Typical hardware may include a tablet, such as an iPad, a smartphone, a headset, earphones, or other body wear, including gloves, etc.

The specifics reflect the specific experience, and what you are trying to achieve for the user. Some extended reality experiences are simpler, while others are more involved and more immersive.

In so many ways, it is the future of marketing. Whatever marketing campaign you’re developing, the goal is to get your brand out there and help your target market see how they can’t live without your brand. Extended reality opens a world of opportunities to interact with products, services, and brands. 

It’s not just in the sales funnel at an introductory level where X reality can support your brand growth. It can help you build brand awareness, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, word of mouth, and referrals, and more. 

Here are a few ways it can be used in your business:

  • Train your staff to prepare for difficult or tricky customer service situations.
  • Arm your sales team with tools to connect customers with the best options. 
  • Let customers “try out” a product beforehand.
  • Connect in-person shoppers with digital information.
  • Create new designs or products in a virtual world.
  • Bring a certain layer of fun to your brand.

As X reality continues to expand, the entire marketing ecosystem will evolve as well, calling us to respond. Everything from brick-and-mortar experiences to SEO will be impacted by X reality. 

AR vs. VR vs. MR: The Three Types of X Reality

X reality is an overarching term that can refer to each of these: augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). While these are sometimes used interchangeably, the specifics can vary, and they do have exact definitions. Let’s dive in.

Augmented Reality  

Augmented reality is about overlaying the real world and the experiences of the physical world around us with virtual or digital enhancements. Augmenting means to make something bigger or better, so augmented reality is about making the things you see around you somehow better, depending on your definition of better. 

It’s a way of interacting with the people and things around you and a digital space simultaneously, often using the camera of a smartphone or mobile device to interact. 

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality refers to interactive, immersive experiences that are computer-generated. Virtual reality experiences are about full digital worlds that are a sort of escape or separation from the real world, rather than an overlay. Virtual reality requires hardware to help the user jump into the virtual world. These tools may include a headset, viewers, glasses or goggles, as well as other items like gloves. With these, the user is able to simulate experiences in their virtual world, incorporating their own bodies and movement.

Mixed Reality

Mixed reality is exactly as it sounds. It’s a mix of the virtual world with the physical. According to Microsoft, when it comes to the spectrum of physical and virtual worlds, mixed reality sits in the middle. It’s also in the middle of virtual reality and augmented reality. It takes place with one foot, or one digital foot, in each space. 

Mixed reality is where a lot of technology evolution is pushing right now. While it’s easy to come up with examples of AR or VR, mixed reality is more about pressing those concepts together, using all the tools and technologies we have to create even more exciting experiences. 

How AR, VR, and MR Differ

While these three concepts differ slightly in their starting points, and the tools needed to make them work, they do have one thing in common: They are about extending a digital world into our everyday lives with greater ease and more seamless connections.

These three types of X reality are ripe with the ability to bring better user experiences to your customers throughout the sales process, to help you ultimately reach your own brand goals. 

5 Ways to Use X Reality in Business

As much as there are fun and entertaining ways to use X reality, there are also powerful and exciting ways to integrate the technology into your business to support your sales goals. Using extended reality keeps you on the cutting edge, setting you apart from your competition who may be slow to adopt it.

It also equips your customers and your team with opportunities. Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking.

1. Product Content Management 

When it comes to staying organized with everything you are creating and selling, your product content management system is the heartbeat of it all. Whether it’s a spreadsheet or integrated software, it’s the place where you keep all the details, facts, and data behind each product. 

Here’s where X reality can take your product management system to the next level. Imagine being able to react to your customers’ needs and product demands in virtual 3D space. This interactive design is growing in popularity, allowing teams to make tweaks or try new designs, simulating a real-world without the cost or ability to actually create items. 

This is particularly useful for products at scale that are too large or expensive to create prototypes of. It also gives the whole team an opportunity to actually interact with a product, so you don’t have to slow down, collect questions, run the numbers, and make necessary edits. It’s a time-saver and brings proof of concept faster. 

There is an added benefit of these digitally connected X reality systems. They can connect with your product content management system and share data. You can keep track of all the specs of your current products, as well as all the information about products in development, in real-time. 

2. Remote Team Building and Collaboration

Remote teams benefit from a host of technologies that allow them to communicate and stay in touch, including video meetings and instant messaging. 

Yet nothing beats speaking in person, interacting with the rest of the team and the actual products. PromoLeaf did a survey and found that 72 percent of respondents preferred an in-person conference in their industry, rather than one online. In the youngest crowd they surveyed, ages 16-24, 84 percent preferred to be in-person.

X reality can help merge those opposing options by making it seem like remote employees are in the same location working together on projects. 

3. Product Preview

We’ve all experienced the itch to “try before you buy” when it comes to new products. It’s just not apparel, tools, or the latest smartphone. How about furniture, automobiles, homes, and more? Does that seem too far out of reach?

Not with X reality. Using up-and-coming technologies, brands can create apps that allow you to view and interact with a product for yourself. Now you can test our furniture in your own home before buying. You can drive your ideal car through the streets of your morning commute before it’s even created. You can walk through your dream home, while still on the other side of the country or the world. Just imagine all the possibilities.

From in-app devices to headset-enabled simulators, you can “be there” without being there and trying it, even before it exists.

4. Interactive Advertisements

X reality has so many fun benefits to get people talking. Sometimes those features alone can be the reason to adopt them. 

Using X reality in your advertising can allow the public to interact in different ways and help you seem more authentic than other ads. It can also get people talking and give your ad extra exposure. 

Brands have tried all kinds of things, including bringing a printed item to life through an app. Suddenly your magazine or brochure is interactive or other videos. Other brands have used augmented reality and large screens to welcome passersby and onlookers to interact with virtual characters. Others use social media filters and other features to showcase their brands. 

5. Train Your Team

Business is full of training. From safety and regulatory training to sales conversion and customer service training, arming your team with the most relevant information possible is critical. 

With X reality, your team can do more than just talk about situations. They can walk through them together, interacting with people and products. You can even simulate potentially dangerous situations without putting one in harm’s way, and still gain the experience and confidence they need to be ready for real life.

Examples of X Reality

Have you experienced reality for yourself yet? Here are a few examples of some of the most talked about. 

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go put augmented reality on the radar for all of us. Through the lens of a mobile device, the world could suddenly be full of Pokémon characters. This game showcased how entertainment and X reality can boost small local businesses, with real-world locations signing up as Pokéstops and Gyms.

Examples of X Reality - Pokemon Go

IKEA App

IKEA Place allows customers to “place” IKEA furniture in their own space, and see how it will look and fit. It sets the bar for other furniture makers by offering a service that others may not have incorporated yet. Plus, it’s kind of fun to use, so even when people aren’t ready to buy, they may still play around on the app just to see what it’s all about. 

Examples of X Reality - IKEA app

Warby Parker

Warby Parker has also cashed in on the opportunity to let customers try on before they buy. Using an app, customers can view themselves in any number of Warby Parker glasses.

It’s not just a snapshot with the frames overlaid, but an interactive, real-time experience where customers can move their head, look from all angles, and then throw on another pair. 

Conclusion

X reality is a fun idea that seems primed for gaming and entertainment, but it’s tailor-made for business and online marketing. From product development to customer service, extended reality can change the way we interact with our brands, our customers, our team, and our world.

As the world of business continues to evolve, there are many reasons to believe extended reality will be part of that equation. 

How will you incorporate X reality into your brand?

How We’re Going to Use X Reality (XR) in Business

Are you ready for X reality? It’s coming, too, along with a host of exciting business and marketing opportunities.   Here is what it is, why it matters, and how to use it to grow your business.  What Is X Reality? X reality is short for extended reality. Sometimes called cross reality, it’s a convergence of …

The post How We’re Going to Use X Reality (XR) in Business first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

How to Check Business Credit Score: Know What’s Going On

It is important to know how to check business credit score for a few reasons.  First, you just need to know what is going on with your business credit. Why does it matter?  Because business credit is one of many things that can affect the fundability of your business.  Do you know how to check business credit score reports? 

How to Check Business Credit Score: Your Fundability Will Thank You

Here’s the thing.  While a lot of things affect the fundability of your business, not all the things affect it equally.  Truly, there are many pieces to the puzzle. Business credit is like one big piece that fits right in the middle.  As a result, you have to know how to check it to get a feel for what is happening with your fundability.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

How to Check Business Credit Score: What You Need to Know

How to Check Biz Credit Score Credit SuiteHowever, before we dive into how to check business credit, there are a few things you need to know.  For example, there are a lot of companies that issue a credit score for your business.  Next, each company offers more than one report.  Lastly, these reports contain much more information than just the credit score.  

Furthermore, there is no way to know which company a lender will use to check your business credit.  It could be all, one, or any combination. In addition, lenders actually apply their own formula to the information in the report to calculate a score that they feel is most useful to them.  As a result, they may not even use the score you see after you figure out how to check it.  

Honestly, all of these things are out of your control.  What you can control, to a point, is the information on the report.  Like, does it contain positive information?  Is the information on it accurate?  See, these are things you can work with. If the information lenders are seeing is both positive and accurate, you should be in good shape. Still, you cannot do anything about the information on the reports unless you know how to check your business credit score.  Then, you need to understand what it means, how it is calculated, and how lenders use it.  So here we go. 

How to Check Business Credit Score: Dun & Bradstreet

Basically, Dun & Bradstreet offers six different reports. For sure, the one utilized most often by lenders is the PAYDEX. Likely, this is due to the fact that it is the one most like the consumer FICO score. Similarly, it measures how quickly a company pays its debt on a scale of 1 to 100. Mostly, lenders like to see a score of 70 or higher.  To put it in perspective, a score of 100 reveals the firm makes payments ahead of time. A rating of 1 shows they pay 120 days late, or more.

Together with PAYDEX, they offer the following.

Delinquency Predictor Score

This rating determines the likelihood the company will not pay, will be late paying, or will come under bankruptcy. For scoring, the range is 1 to 5, with 2 being a good score.

Financial Stress Score

As you might imagine, this is a measurement of the stress on a firm’s balance sheet. It shows the possibility of shutting down within a year. The range is 1 to 5, and a 2 is good.

Supplier Evaluation Risk Rating

In contrast, this is a ranking that predicts odds of a firm surviving one year.  It ranges from 1 to 9, with a 5 being a good score.

Credit Limit Recommendation

As the name implies, this is a recommendation for the amount of debt a company can handle. Financial institutions usually use it to establish how much credit to extend.

D&B Credit Rating

This is an estimation of overall business risk on a scale of 4 to 1, where a 2 is considered good.  The smaller the number the better.  The rating is given in conjunction with letters, the combination of which shows a company’s net worth. 

Consequently, if there isn’t enough data on a company to give it  a rating, an alternative score is assigned. This is called a credit approval score.  It is based on the number of employees. They will use any data they have available to calculate this alternative rating.  That means, a company can control this to a point by ensuring D&B has all of the information they need.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Commercial Credit Score

Along with the PAYDEX, Dun & Bradstreet releases a commercial credit report.  It has three parts. Each shows how likely the business is to default on expenses or become seriously late on payments.

Commercial Credit Score

On a range of 101 to 670, the commercial credit score anticipates the likelihood of a firm making late payments. A rating of 101 indicates it is very likely that this will happen. Likewise, a score of around 500 is good.

Commercial Credit Percentile

For this, the scale goes from 0 to 100. It shows the chance of delinquency too. However, it determines this versus other companies in the Dun & Bradstreet system. A rating of 1 is the highest possible probability versus other companies. The majority of loan providers believe a rating of 80 or higher is good.

Commercial Credit Class

Basically, this is an way of dividing businesses into classes based on the chance of delinquency. Firms in class 1 are the least likely to be overdue. Likewise, if you are in class 2, that’s great.

How to Check Business Credit Score: Experian Business Credit Scores

Experian gathers data from a lot of the same sources as Dun & Bradstreet. As a result, their reports are similar.  There are a few key differences in sources, calculation, and also presentation however.

Intelliscore Plus

For example, Experian uses the Intelliscore Plus credit score.  It shows statistics-based credit risk. As a result, it is a highly predictive score that can help users make well-informed credit decisions. 

The Intelliscore scores range from 1 to 100, with a higher score indicating a lower risk class. 

Score Range Risk Class

Low Risk 76-100
Low-Medium Risk 51-75
Medium Risk 26-50
High-Medium Risk 11-25
High Risk 1-10

 

Experian’s Blended Score

The blended score is a one-page report.  It provides a summary of the business and its owner.  A combined business-owner credit scoring model works better than a business or consumer only model.  In fact, blended scores typically outperform consumer or business scores alone by 10 – 20%.

Experian Financial Stability Risk Score (FSR)

FSR predicts the potential of a business going bankrupt or not paying its debts.  Consequently, this score identifies the highest risk businesses by using payment and public records. They look at a number of variables, some of which include: 

  • high use of credit lines
  • severely late payments 
  • tax liens 
  • judgments 
  • collection accounts 
  • risk industries 
  • length of time in business 

How to Check Business Credit Score: The Equifax Service Credit Rating

Similarly, Equifax shows three different points on its corporate credit report. These include: 

Equifax Payment Index

Similar to PAYDEX, Equifax’s payment index is a measurement on a scale of 100. It shows how many of your small business’s payments were made on time. Like the others, it uses data from both creditors and vendors. However, it’s not meant to anticipate future behavior.  In fact, that is what the other two scores are for.

Equifax Credit Risk Score

This score shows the likelihood of your company becoming severely delinquent on payments. Scores range from 101 to 992 and include an evaluation of:

  • Available credit limit on revolving credit accounts, including credit cards
  • Company size
  • Proof of any non-financial transactions that are late or were charged off for two or more billing cycles
  • Length of time since the opening of the oldest financial account

Equifax Business Failure Score

Equifax’s business failure score takes a look at the risk of your business shutting down. It runs from 1,000 to 1,600 and bases its scoring on these factors:

  • Total balance to total current credit limit in the past three months
  • The amount of time since the opening of the oldest financial account
  • Your small business’s worst payment status on all trades in the last 24 months
  • Proof of any non-financial transactions (like merchant invoices) which are late or are on a charge off for two or more billing cycles

For the credit risk and the business failure scores, a rating of 0 means bankruptcy.

Equifax Scores

A positive Equifax score for your business is as follows:

  • Payment Index 0 to 10
  • Credit Risk score 892 to 992
  • Business Failure score 1400 to 1600

Are These the Only Agencies That Issue Business Credit Reports? 

In short, no.  Actually, there are a lot of other agencies that will issue a business credit score.  Furthermore, part of knowing how to check business credit score is knowing which company you need to check with.   These, however, are known as the big three.  If you want to view your whole report, including your score, you can pay for a credit report. Since these are the most commonly used, you need one from each of them. Still, there has been an increase in the use of another option recently.  It’s the FICO SBSS.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

How to Check Business Credit Score: FICO SBSS?

First, the FICO SBSS is the business variation of your personal FICO credit report. However, unlike your personal FICO, the SBSS reports on a scale of 0 to 300. The higher the score the better. Still, the majority of loan providers demand a rating of least 160.

Exactly how is the FICO SBSS Scored?

Surprisingly, it is significantly different from other business credit scoring designs. For example, the SBSS utilizes your corporate credit score and individual credit rating. In addition, it makes use of monetary details like business assets and income. As you can see, the goal is to give an overall financial picture with one rating.

Business owners cannot access their FICO SBSS by themselves. There is a proprietary formula for score computations. FICO does not make that information public. The result is, you go into lending institutions blind as to what your FICO SBSS credit rating might be. 

Furthermore, lenders can choose how certain factors are weighted in the computation of your score.  This means your FICO SBSS could actually be different from one lender to the next. For example, one lender could put more weight on your business payment history, while another could lean more on your personal credit score. 

What does all of this mean?  It means that you actually cannot check your business credit score from FICO SBSS yourself.  The best you can do is handle your credit responsibly and make sure the other aspects of fundability are in order.  If all you put out there going forward is positive information, your FICO SBSS should follow suit and be positive as anything negative drops off over time. 

How to Check Business Credit Score: Credit Monitoring

If you want to know how to check business credit score on an ongoing basis, credit monitoring is the answer. Typically, you can check your score at any time with a credit monitoring service.  Each of the big three has one, but you certainly save money with a third-party business credit monitoring option.  Also, you may be able to see your scores from more than one agency in one place. 

How to Check Business Credit Score: What’s Important

Honestly, you have to know how to check business credit score.  However, even more importantly, you need to know how it is calculated, what it tells lenders, and how to fix it if it isn’t good.  Generally, high scores result in easier approval. So, if you do not have a high score, pay for a copy of your report and figure out why. Then, have mistakes corrected.  If the probably is payment history, then start now paying your obligations on-time, regularly.  

Of course, if you have yet to set up your business as an entity separate from you as the owner, then you likely don’t even have an actual business credit report.  That’s right. Most likely everything is simply being reporting to your personal credit report.  If you and your business share contact information and a bank account, and if you are not incorporated, this is likely the case.  Get those things taken care of, and then you’ll be able to start the process of building business credit.

The post How to Check Business Credit Score: Know What’s Going On appeared first on Credit Suite.

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