Episode 18: Building the Future of Restaurant Hospitality w/ Lightspeed's EVP Peter Dougherty

On this episode of Hospitable we dive into the cutting edge of technology and its impact on the restaurant and hospitality industry with Lightspeed’s EVP and General Manager of Lightpeed Restaurant, Peter Dougherty. We get into how Lightspeed is on the cutting edge of using advanced technology to help restaurants succeed and create better guest experiences.We talk about Peter’s 12-year journey within Lightspeed and how Lightspeed has continued to evolve and re-define restaurant technology.

Podcast Timestamps:
[00:01:44] Origin story at Lightspeed.
[00:03:22] Company growth and transformation.
[00:07:33] Making hospitality more human.
[00:10:45] NIHITO visits.
[00:14:13] Staff touch points with guests.
[00:17:24] Hidden menu gems and insights.
[00:22:11] Gen AI in restaurants.
[00:23:04] AI-powered recipe generation and photography.
[00:26:18] Dining experience and labor costs.
[00:30:39] Building a strong ecosystem.
[00:33:07] Growing existing partner relationships.
[00:37:06] Getting back to growth
[00:39:49] Hospitable podcast promotion.

Quotes:
[00:00:00-00:00:11] "You know, as you can hear from my voice, we're passionate about the restaurant, and I love the restaurant business. It's tough. Like, to run a great restaurant is tough. But when you do it right, it's something special. And I love"
[00:08:28-00:08:38] "But there's the human side, which is, how do we make sure we create a POS that works on the iPhone so it's in the server's pocket so you reduce your labor costs. But so they're not standing there with an iPhone in front of their face between them and the guest."
[00:11:26-00:11:36] "We actually know that tips are actually higher on scan to pay on the QR code payments versus on the regular payments."
[00:13:42-00:13:52] "People go out to eat to have and you know obviously we're we focus on full service restaurants that's really our mantra that's the we focus on the experiential restaurants"
[00:20:20-00:20:30] "Because if you're better, we're better together. That is serving your community."
[00:33:18-00:33:28] "How do we understand the objectives of both sides of the organization? What is the new stuff that both sides are doing? Hey, Lightspeed's doing this new thing. Hey, how do we expand our relationship around this? And vice versa. Hey, Omniboost is doing this new thing. How do we make sure we take advantage of it? Or how do we help support them to grow there?"
[00:38:11-00:38:21] "And that's what's beautiful. And I think getting that growth mindset and seeing what's going to come, I'm really excited for the opportunities that are going to be there for growth, for new technology to open up more human experiences."