Tech on Toast, The Hospitality Tech Podcast

Lorraine Copes, Founder of Be Inclusive Hospitality
Chris sits down with Lorraine Copes, founder of Be Inclusive Hospitality, for a proper chat about the people side of the industry. From bringing Shake Shack to the UK to procurement boards at Gordon Ramsay Group and Corbin & King, Lorraine has built a 24-year career, then walked away from the "proper job" to build something with purpose. Six years on, BIH has trained 2,000+ leaders. We get into the data on who makes it up the chain, why confidence beats everything, and the gap between what boards say about people and what they actually do.
From logistics to leadership. The "safe" degree, falling into hospitality supply chain, and pushing into procurement for the wins and the impact.
The Shake Shack effect. Danny Meyer, "Setting the Table" as her ops bible, and the lesson that stuck: take care of your people and they take care of your guests.
Why she pivoted. Not away from procurement, but towards purpose. She never once said "I want to be an entrepreneur." She wrote the plan in her garden, took redundancy, and went for it.
Be Inclusive Hospitality, six years in. Launched June 2020 into a sector finally ready to listen. Two halves: training leaders on inclusion and belonging, and an upward social mobility arm running mentorship, scholarships and education.
The Better Hospitality Campaign. An industry-wide survey looking at the consequences of what's happening, plus a leadership committee building a set of standards. Report drops end of September.
The numbers. Entry level is the most diverse part of the industry, the boardroom rarely reflects it. Hospitality has the ingredients to be the best, if it builds real career pathways.
Confidence, courage, clarity. The three things that show up when Lorraine coaches leaders, with confidence at the top. Why she refuses to call it "imposter syndrome."
The board-level gap. It always comes back to people. Investing in them costs little and lifts every KPI you sweat over.
Restaurant: Akoko on Berners Street
Tech that earned its place: Fixr (the expense tool Chris put her onto)
Best advice: Find your tribe
bihospitality.co.uk
lorrainecopes.co.uk
LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok: Lorraine Copes and Be Inclusive
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What we coverQuickfireFind Lorraine

Loyalty used to mean a stamp card and a prayer. Not anymore. This week Chris sits down with Rubén Recio Nogales, VP of Business Development at Como (now Como Sense), to unpack what modern customer engagement really looks like, and why most operators are sitting on a goldmine of data they're not using.
Como describes itself as a data company that specialises in customer engagement. It sits between your operational side and your CRM, pulls in every transaction (identified or not) and surfaces the insights that actually move the needle. Think 3,000 lapsed members targeted in two clicks, or spotting the customers one stamp away from a reward who'll react to almost anything you send them.
Rubén and Chris get into penetration rates (why 15 to 30 percent is normal and how one client hit 80), why loyalty members consistently outspend everyone else, and the frontline staff who quietly make or break the whole thing. They also look ahead at WhatsApp marketing, automated segmentation, AI driven reporting, and the holy grail Live Nation are chasing: card tokenisation that identifies the guest with zero friction at the till.
Honest, practical and refreshingly free of hype. If you're an operator with data you don't know what to do with, this one's for you.
Key talking points:
Why "loyalty" got a bad name, and what's changed
Penetration rate explained, and why 80 percent is wild
The two click campaign and reading customer behaviour
WhatsApp marketing: massive in the Middle East, heading to the UK
Card tokenisation and frictionless loyalty (the Live Nation play)
Where AI fits: segmentation, reporting and machine learning
Why your GM matters more than your software
When to change systems, and when to leave a good thing alone
Guest: Rubén Recio Nogales, VP of Business Development, ComoFind Rubén: LinkedIn (Rubén Recio Nogales). Como are also on the Tech on Toast marketplace.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and Lightspeed
01:05 Meet Rubén, single parenting and 19 year old cucumber dramas
02:18 Spain to the UK, an ice cream stall in Westfield
03:01 What Como actually does
04:25 Acquired by Global Payments, what the name means
05:09 The state of hospitality tech
08:06 Why the old loyalty schemes failed
09:24 The value exchange and the Starbucks lesson
11:00 Penetration rate and business insights in two clicks
12:29 The Nando's chilli effect
15:31 AI and machine learning in the product
16:11 Como across 50+ countries
17:26 WhatsApp marketing and cultural differences
21:02 Loyalty members spend more, and why
23:07 Penetration rate explained, and the 80 percent client
24:52 The frontline staff who make loyalty work
27:20 Should you switch systems? An honest answer
30:47 Live Nation, tokenisation and the frictionless holy grail
32:47 How to get hold of Rubén
33:41 Chris leaves his daughter at the vets

Visha Kudhail has spent nearly two decades in marketing across Channel 4, Thinkbox, Google, Pinterest and Square, where she and Chris first crossed paths on the hospitality side of the business. Now she has written a book on authentic marketing, and this episode digs into what authenticity actually means once you strip away the buzzword.
We get into the difference between being truthful and being authentic, why trust is the connecting thread through everything, and how operators can stand out in a climate of rising misinformation, AI fatigue and a cost of living squeeze. Visha makes the case that brand is not just the marketing team's job, that you have to earn the right to be in the room with a customer, and that AI should be your sparring partner, not your content machine. Plenty here for marketers, founders and tech vendors alike.
What we cover
02:01 Visha's career path from TV and Thinkbox to Google, Pinterest and Square
06:20 The book reveal and why she wrote it
08:11 Why authenticity matters now: misinformation, political noise, cost of living and only 38% of people eating out
10:17 What authentic really means: your words matching your beliefs as an operating principle
11:38 Truthful vs authentic, and why even honest brands can feel fake
13:32 Keeping authenticity intact as you scale a business
14:03 The rise of content creators like Topjaw and why operators lean on them
16:37 AI as a sparring partner, and why critical thinking cannot be outsourced
18:47 The three tests of a great insight: brand truth, relatability, actionability
19:50 Why none of it works if your data is not clean
20:51 Building trust, with real examples from Google and Pinterest
23:48 Why brand belongs to the whole business, not just the marketing room
27:58 Earning the right to be in the room with the customer
29:34 The Bread Ahead story and the power of one great piece of customer-led content
31:26 Will AI make fake authenticity easier? The Coca-Cola Christmas ad cautionary tale
32:47 AI rejection, dumb phones and the cultural shift back to analog and craft
34:29 What Visha would build first if starting a brand from zero
35:16 Profitable authenticity, with Patagonia, Nike, e.l.f. and Pieminister
37:30 Book launch plans and what she hopes it changes
40:30 Where to find Visha
A few takeaways
Truth is being factually accurate. Authenticity is the feeling you create. Brands can be honest and still come across as fake.
A strong insight passes three tests: is it baked into your brand truth, does it relate to your product, and can it actually shift behaviour.
Use AI for productivity and efficiency, not as a cost cutting exercise that strips out the people doing great work.
You always have to earn the right to be in the room with a customer, no matter how big you are.
Authentic brands that stay true to their values can still drive profit. Patagonia, Nike and e.l.f. are the proof.
About the book
Visha's book on authentic marketing is out 3 June in the UK and the US. It is built as a reusable, practical guide drawn from real strategies and frameworks she has applied day to day, with several chapters on data and a deep dive on how to think about AI.
Links
Pre-order and find the book via Visha's website
Connect with Visha on LinkedIn

In this episode, we're joined by Tim from Caffè Nero, Andy from SSP, and John from CrunchTime for a no-nonsense conversation about AI in hospitality. What's actually delivering ROI, what's failed, and what the future looks like for operators on the ground. Less LinkedIn hype, more real talk.
What's Actually Working
AI forecasting is the clearest ROI win — CrunchTime saw adoption jump from ~1% to 50% of locations in 12 months
Caffè Nero is piloting AI-driven stock availability and assisted ordering
SSP is using AI for labor forecasting, trading hour optimization, and upsell recommendations
The Data Problem
Bad data kills AI results — CrunchTime's own support AI was 3% accurate until they cleaned up their data sources
The sweet spot for forecasting data: 400 days (more doesn't meaningfully improve accuracy)
82% of UK operators use tech forecasting, but average accuracy is only 62%
Change Management is the Hard Part
John: The #1 reason implementations fail isn't the tech — it's change management in operations
Andy: SSP is shifting from technology-led to business transformation-led change
Keep humans in the loop — let GMs enrich AI forecasts, not just override them
What's Coming
Voice-based AI for managers: ask your phone for stats or tomorrow's forecast, no back-office report needed
Managers move from the back office to the floor — John's timeline: 5–7 years for widespread adoption
One Piece of Advice Each
John: Pick a small pilot with engaged managers and start there
Andy: Understand the business problem first — don't implement tech for tech's sake
Tim: Find an internal AI subject matter expert; you don't need a Head of AI

Rod returns to the podcast after two years to discuss what has genuinely changed in workforce management, and what is simply being repackaged.
A familiar pattern is playing out across the industry: leadership sees AI-branded software, decides it looks promising, and tasks an operations manager with finding it. One layer deeper, the desired outcome is rarely defined. The brief drives the purchase, rather than the problem.
In this episode:
The Workforce.com origin story, from a university bar with questionable timesheet accountability and 30,000 pound punch-card scanners to a cloud-based product built around that problem
Why multi-region European payroll is so difficult, and how being built in Australia, home to some of the most complex earnings rules in the world, became a genuine competitive advantage
The decline of the detailed RFP, and why discovery conversations uncover the real requirement that documents cannot
The cost of poor alignment: mis-bought and mis-sold software, and how the sale gets celebrated while the operator's problem remains unsolved
A measured view on AI: bullish on accessibility, sceptical of "world first" claims for capability that has existed for years
The open question for the category: customisation in the operator's hands, or hardcoded into the system
A practical, operator-first conversation for anyone evaluating workforce technology or trying to translate a vague AI mandate into a real outcome.