CNBC: Coaching Can Be Expensive — So These Companies Turned to Tech for Training

In a recent interview with CNBC, Premium Service Brand’s Vice President of Learning, Deb Jewell, discusses the perks of their recently created virtual reality platform that provides an interactive way for franchises to practice the sales and hiring tactics they have learned throughout training. 

Instead of spending over an hour on a video call with an accountant explaining a balance sheet, which some trainees found “pretty boring,” the company created a financial simulation based on real-life scenarios. While the upfront cost of setting up such a system is more than that of classroom learning, Jewell said it’s more efficient because people learn more quickly.

“They look at financial statements, they try to project the impact on their financials of decisions that they make … They then get a new round of financial statements that reflect that decision, and they go through several months of decision-making in an afternoon,” Jewell said. The exercise has gone from dull to exciting, Jewell added, and is something franchisees can understand much better.

San Francisco-based firm BetterUp, the largest coaching and mental health company valued at $4.7 billion, said technology can be used to train people at scale. Virtual coaching looks set to take off. 

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