Faster franchise onboarding — with skills that stick
Premium Service Brands used Virti's AI roleplay platform to transform franchise owner onboarding — practising estimates, sales calls, and customer conversations before the first real job.
Faster manager onboarding across franchise brands
Performance improvement shown through VR-based practice
Nationwide rollout across all PSB franchise brands
The Owner Experience Program is all about having the opportunity to practice the skills critical for owner success and getting real-time feedback.— Deb Jewell, VP of Learning, Premium Service Brands
Franchise owners facing real customers before they were ready
Premium Service Brands' research into its top-performing franchise owners revealed a clear pattern: success correlated strongly with soft skills — communication, rapport-building, and confident sales conversations. Yet traditional classroom onboarding couldn't give new owners the practice they needed to develop those skills before launch day.
The L&D team needed a way to replicate real customer interactions at scale — across 8+ brands, nationwide, without adding training staff.
Soft skills were the differentiator — but hardest to train
PSB's own analysis confirmed that owners with exceptional launch results had stronger communication and sales skills. Yet soft skills are notoriously difficult to teach in a classroom — and in-person roleplay felt awkward and unnatural for most participants.
Owners practising on real customers
Without a safe place to rehearse, new franchise owners were navigating their first estimates, sales pitches, and difficult customer conversations on the job — with real revenue at stake.
Scaling training across 8+ brands nationwide
With brands spanning painting, garage doors, handyman services, cleaning, and more, PSB needed training that worked consistently across very different business contexts — without building separate programmes for each.
No data on soft skill readiness
Traditional onboarding gave L&D no visibility into whether franchise owners could actually hold a confident sales conversation — only whether they'd completed the training.
AI roleplay that makes soft skills measurable
PSB needed a platform that could simulate real customer interactions realistically — without the awkwardness of in-person roleplay — and capture data on how franchise owners performed. Virti's Virtual Human technology delivered all of this, at a scale that worked across a nationwide franchise network.
Virti's AI-powered Virtual Humans enabled franchise owners to practise difficult customer conversations and sales pitches without the pressure or awkwardness of in-person roleplay.
Virti captured objective performance data on communication quality, rapport-building and objection handling — turning typically unmeasurable soft skills into trackable, improvable metrics.
Scenarios built for one PSB brand could be adapted for others — giving the L&D team a growing library of training content without starting from scratch each time.
Franchise owners could access training in the Owner Experience Center or independently — practising on their own schedule before launch day.
The Owner Experience Program — powered by Virti
Virti worked with PSB's L&D team to build a library of AI roleplay scenarios targeting the key moments in franchise ownership — from first sales call to difficult customer conversations. Scenarios were deployed via the new Owner Experience Center and on-demand across all brands.
Estimate and sales call practice
Franchise owners practised delivering confident, accurate estimates and sales pitches with AI Virtual Human customers — repeating scenarios as many times as needed until the approach felt natural.
Difficult customer conversation simulations
High-pressure scenarios put owners in front of challenging customers — objections, complaints, and price negotiations — with AI responses that adapted to how the conversation unfolded.
Hiring and recruiting practice
Owners prepared for the people side of running a franchise — interviewing candidates, setting expectations, and building team culture — before making real hiring decisions under pressure.
Try a franchise sales scenario like Premium Service Brands
Step into a sales roleplay with an AI customer — the same kind PSB uses to prepare new franchise owners. No account needed.
30% faster onboarding. Owners ready before day one.
The Owner Experience Program delivered measurable results: franchise owners completed onboarding faster, arrived at launch more confident, and performed better in early customer interactions. The programme was covered by Fox Business News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Faster manager onboarding across PSB franchise brands
Performance improvement demonstrated through VR-based practice
Home service brands trained through the Owner Experience Program
What changed for franchise owners
- Safe space to practise sales and customer conversations
- Confident delivery of estimates from day one
- AI feedback on communication style and effectiveness
- Reduced anxiety going into first real customer interactions
What changed for PSB
- 30% faster onboarding — less time before owners go live
- Objective soft skills data for every new franchise owner
- Scalable training model across all 8+ brands
- National recognition as a franchise training innovator
A growing library of scenarios — across every brand
PSB continues to build on its Virti training library — adding new simulations that cover more of the franchise owner journey, from pre-launch readiness to ongoing skills development for experienced operators.
What's next
The Owner Experience Program evolves alongside PSB's growing portfolio — with new brands, new scenarios, and deeper integration of AI roleplay into every stage of the franchise owner lifecycle.
Practice, communication skills and mindset play a significant role in positioning owners for successful launches — and Virti gave us the tool to build all three.