Video Conferencing vs. Face-to-Face: Which Is Better?

Digitization has changed our work lives so quickly and distinctively. Most of the corporate employees in the world have shifted to work in hybrid schedules. They are splitting their work time between the office and home.

An intriguing question arises today from this new dynamic. It is a common question, what’s the best method for attending meetings?

Cloud-based business solutions enable business teams to meet from any location with an internet connection using video conferencing. This is a tool that can be useful for businesses that have important employees all over the world. Many educational systems offer virtual learning today.

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Meetings held in person, on the other hand, can gather participants together in the same physical space. It is an opportunity to communicate using social values and build closer relationships.

What Is the Need For a Video Conference?

Needless to say that every business relies heavily on meetings. Companies share their business’s performance, sales status, customer response, future plans, and other topics only during meetings. Therefore, regular meetings cannot be avoided. On the other hand, in-person meetings are not always possible due to the rapid expansion of businesses. This is due to the present global workforce. These employees may not discuss all the possible issues in a single location.

In order to resolve this issue as soon as possible, video conferencing was introduced. You can hold online meetings and talk about your business operations with your team members or employees by using cloud-based video conferencing solutions.

Simultaneously, people still prefer the idea of face-to-face meetings, while others prefer video conferencing. However, if you’re wondering which method is actually superior to face-to-face meetings or video conferencing, the following discussion can be a good help.

Travelling Expenses:

If you decide to find a better option between face-to-face meetings and video conferencing, traveling expenses are an important consideration. Because businesses have branches all over the world, it is not possible to move from one city or country to another for a face-to-face meeting. Doing so can obviously cost a lot and it is practically not possible.

In addition to airfare, accommodation costs must be taken into account. It can vary depending on the length of their stay. Additionally, traveling to and from a location consumes time. Today’s business managers who use video conferencing argue that this time could be used for something more productive. As a result, video conferencing appears to be the better choice, especially over long distances.

File Sharing:

It is common in every business meeting that participants to review documents, view, and give presentations. While talking about file sharing, both virtual and in-person meetings can be carried out with equal ease. In video conferences, you will have more flexibility and scalability. It allows you to share content, use free screen sharing, chat with participants, and use online polls to vote on important issues. Of course, in face-to-face meetings, you share them manually.

The Way You Feel:

In a face-to-face meeting, everyone in the room can read each other and observe how they react. This lets the leaders of the meeting and the people who are there know if other people are really attentive in the meeting and their actual tone. However, you must notice that it is impossible in video conferences. Because you don’t get the same reactions in a video call. It is truly difficult for leaders and other participants to determine whether the meeting was successful or not.

Control Over the Meeting:

The leaders in a face-to-face meeting have total control because everyone is in the same room and in front of them. All the participants follow certain etiquette and rules in the meeting. They have no choice but to pay attention to what is being said.

However, leaders are unable to implement such control in video conferences. There is very little that leaders can do to control the participants in such long-distance meetings. The reason is, participants might be working on other documents or sending emails while they participate.

Flexibility:

A video conference is the best option when employees from remote teams are present from different locations. It is useful when there is a need to meet quickly to discuss important issues. With a cloud-based business solution, meetings can be planned and attendees can join the meeting almost immediately.

But in the case of a face-to-face meeting, this is something that simply cannot be attempted. We know that it takes a long time. It will happen according to the procedure. The meeting must first be announced to the members via email. The meeting can’t start until everyone is there.

Taking the above reason, video conferences unquestionably represent a superior option when it comes to urgent discussions over significant issues.

Business Situations for Choosing Between Video conferencing and a Face-to-Face Meeting:

Suppose, if your participants are joining from various locations or time zones. In such cases, in-person meetings are impractical when participants are joining from various time zones. Hence, it is better to go for an online video call.

Hope, you want to cut costs on your traveling. So, you must understand that in-person meetings are immensely expensive. Even if your participants are in the same time zone, still you can expect a high cost of travel.

Sometimes, there might be many people in your meetings. When there are a lot of people in a meeting, it gets harder to get them all together in one place.

You need a meeting right away. You need to be able to include people at any location and at any time if your workplace culture relies on spontaneous team gatherings. Then, video calls are helpful.

Prefer Person Meetings If:

For example, the meeting is extremely significant. Then, a face-to-face meeting may be the best option if you have prominent clients and a significant project at the center of the meeting.

Or, if you wish to strengthen your relationships, face-to-face meetings help you create a more personal experience. And, you can build closer relationships with members of your team or with a client.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it would be suggestive to state that both face-to-face meetings and video conferencing are beneficial in their own ways. At the same time, everything has its own pros and cons.

Video conferencing will work better for you if you need to talk quickly and don’t want to spend time or money traveling. Besides, it enables you with global connectivity and great flexibility in business operations today. The reason is the global business phone expansions where people from different locations are remotely working.

On the other hand, face-to-face meetings are more likely to be something you enjoy. They can be considered if you are more interested in the feel and want the participants to be right in front of you. Yet, face-to-face meetings are very limited and take a lot of time, money, and effort to commence.

Vitel Global India is a cloud-based phone solution that is best in class and includes fully secured, cross-channel communication. It enables your agents to seamlessly shift support interactions from one channel to the next. See how it works to learn how Vitel Global India can help you to choose the right communication. Why not request a free demo today?