5 Company Founders Share Their Favorite Benefits Of Video Conferencing

With more than 11 million video conferences held by businesses in the United States each day, video conferencing has become an integral part of the workday for remote workers and business owners alike. While the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated adoption (Zoom’s daily users are up an astounding 2,900% in 2020!), the growth of video conferencing has been driven by the real value it provides for businesses of all sizes.

The benefits of video conferencing are numerous, from improving team coordination to enabling more personal virtual connections. If you’re not sold, or you want to see what other businesses are getting out of it, we asked five company founders about their favorite business benefits of video conferencing.

5 Benefits Of Video Conferencing

1. Video conferencing helps create a personal connection.

When it comes to the nuances of personal communication, video conferencing is second only to being in-person. Audio or text-only communications lack important physical cues such as body language, making video conferencing ideal for helping to create a personal connection virtually.

“Body language is a big part of communication. When everyone starts working from home, the first instinct is to default to a phone call or audio-only meeting online. That is removing body language completely. Video, although it’s not in-person, it’s the best alternative for two people who aren’t in the same place. If you’re in sales or consulting—roles where it is critical to make personal connections from your home office—video is a great option,” says Henry O’Loughlin, Founder of Buildremote.

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Sonya Schwartz, Founder of Her Norm, agrees on the importance of video conferencing for optimal personal communication online. “While nothing can beat being in a meeting with a person who is actually with you in the same room, the closest you can get to that effect is video conferencing. When you can see, even via a screen, then that means that you can actually be able to gauge their reactions and even the way they raise their eyebrows with every word you say,” she says.

2. Video conferencing improves communication for remote teams.

While the personal connection enabled by video conferencing is important in a sales, consulting, or other one-on-one environment, it’s also crucial to helping teams better communicate and process information when working remotely.

“Unlike email, which can be misinterpreted, video conferences can help expressions of satisfaction, concern, or understanding to be addressed more easily. Also, humans process visual information more quickly than text, so video meetings help us retain more information and comprehend it more effectively,” says Michael Dadashi, Co-founder and CEO of Heart Water.

Some teams have even found video conferencing to be an effective substitute for meetings that are typically better held in-person, such as brainstorming sessions. Peter Mann, Founder of SC Vehicle Hire, says, “While tools such as Trello and Asana are great for project management, brainstorming is still more effective when done face-to-face. We use Mural in our Zoom meetings for whiteboarding and brainstorming sessions, and its user-friendly interface has done wonders for our meetings. It engages everyone on the team, encourages members to contribute ideas, and gets more things done in general.”

3. Video conferencing removes geographical barriers.

One of the undeniable business benefits of video conferencing is its ability to bring people from different locations together, opening up a whole new horizon of remote work and collaboration. And in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, many teams have found that virtual meetings are more than just a convenience—they are a necessity for business continuity.

“I work with a diverse group of people from different parts of the world, and we all worked remotely even before the pandemic. Video conferencing is necessary for us to be able to meet and collaborate,” says Matt Stormoen, Co-Founder & CEO of Mobibi.

“Video conferencing also allows us to connect with our partners and customers wherever they may be. Especially now, in the midst of the global pandemic, we are still able to generate and pursue leads thanks to video conferencing. We can schedule calls and product demos from home.”

4. Video conferencing enables telecommuting, which makes for happier employees.

Employee happiness and productivity is a top concern for every business leader; in Mann’s experience, video conferencing impacts these areas positively.

“Holding meetings through a video conferencing app provides less hassle to employees. They don’t need to get ready, commute, and deal with stressors in the outside world just to get to a 20-minute meeting. Being in the comfort of one’s home gives a person a feeling of safety and convenience, and being able to share insights and get answers while being in that environment results in a happier employee. When your employees are happy, it makes them more productive as well.”

5. Video conferencing makes it easier to gather attendees for bigger meetings.

While video is great for one-on-one calls and team collaboration, one of the key benefits of Zoom video conferencing is how many people it can accommodate.

“For meetings where you need to gather a lot of people, there’s a higher chance of getting complete attendance with a video conference than with an in-person meeting” simply because of the convenience factor, says Mann. “There are also a lot of external factors that may prevent someone from getting to an in-person meeting on time, and that wastes more of everyone’s time as well. With video conferencing, no one needs to deal with all that.”

How has video conferencing helped your business? Tweet us and let us know @anyvoo!