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The Holoroom How To clinic by home improvement retailer Lowes uses immersive virtual reality to help customers learn essential, practical building and decorating skills. Launching in three North American stores (one in Massachusetts and two in Canada), the simulated training clinic provides step-by-step instructions for each project, including which materials to buy. The headset and hand controls use haptic feedback to provide better understanding of the physicality of a project, such as feeling the vibrations from drilling.

Feedback shows that learning by doing, even virtually, increases future recall, and initial results appear to have significantly boosted customer confidence in completing home improvement projects. The first training course available to customers is a shower tiling project. Lowes will evaluate the results from the three stores with an eye to expanding the capabilities of the clinic to include staff training sessions.

From rehabilitative training sessions for prisoners to preparing children for an MRI scan, virtual reality is being used in many different industries beyond entertainment. How else could customer service benefit from an injection of virtual reality?