Lightspeed announced on October 22 a set of updates to Lightspeed Restaurant covering payment at the table, reservations and reporting, with several items still in beta or limited release.
According to the Lightspeed release, Scan to Pay lets a guest scan a QR code on their receipt to view the bill, split payment, add a tip and pay from their phone. An enhanced Pay at Table app, currently in beta, lets servers retrieve checks, split bills and take payment at the table on Lightspeed Payments Smart Terminals. A new 8-inch customer-facing Customer Display with integrated payments is available to select Lightspeed customers. Lightspeed Reservations now supports Reserve with Google, so guests can find availability and book from Google Search and Maps. Lightspeed AI adds Custom Charts and Saved Charts, which turn AI-generated charts into dashboard tiles and reports that update as new transactions come in.
What it means for operators
In our reading, the payment items matter most to restaurant groups already processing on Lightspeed Payments, because the release describes the Pay at Table app and the Customer Display as integrated with it. Operators on another processor will need to ask Lightspeed whether any of these tools work without Lightspeed Payments, since the release does not say. The release also gives no general availability date for the beta and limited-release items, so a food and beverage director planning a holiday-season rollout should get dates in writing first.
Reserve with Google is the item a restaurant group can judge soonest, because the release describes it as live in Lightspeed Reservations. Groups that track cover counts by source can check whether Google bookings appear as their own channel in reporting. For other restaurant technology moves this month, see our coverage of Toast’s IQ Team labor tools and Olo’s commission-free app for restaurant chains.
Source: Lightspeed Commerce Inc., product announcement via PR Newswire
