In this episode of #HighlySoughtAfter, I had a chat with Derek Ong, an entrepreneur who has been making waves in the F&B scene here in Singapore.

During COVID-19 in 2020, many restaurants were struggling, some were even forced to shut down, but Derek was busy setting up new restaurants and his existing five were fully booked every day.

What I enjoyed most about my conversation with Derek is the level of detail he goes into ensuring that every single customer who steps into his restaurants has a “Tipsy” experience that makes them come back again and again. And the key to creating that experience is understanding the subtle difference between service and hospitality.

Hint: Listen in at 10:58 where Derek shares his “secret sauce” that creates the Tipsy experience, and his advice to service professionals on how they can replicate this to turn their customers into raving fans.

Also listen out for Derek’s answers to the following questions:

• What got you started in the F&B industry as an entrepreneur Derek? - 0:58
• After your initial culinary experiences, what was your first F&B restaurant that you started? – 3:57
• What are some of the struggles you face as an F&B entrepreneur – 6:15
• In 2020, when people were closing down in covid, you were still fully booked and even set up 2 new restaurants. What’s your secret sauce? - 7:55
• Share with us one of your bustling restaurants and let’s analyse the value so that people listening can learn to stack value for themselves? – 10:58
• Would you say that customer experience is a big part of your customer differentiation? – 13:25
• How can we approach personalisation as a service professional? – 14:43
• What do you tell your staff? – 15:43
• How did you navigate the COVID period with your restaurants so smoothly? – 16:43
• How can we have your kind of intuition and anticipatory leadership skills to pay attention and adapt to changing circumstances? - 18:03
• What are some practical tips to make sure that we don’t get blindsided and destroyed from the next pandemic? – 19:57
• Why the name Tipsy? – 26:21
• How can the rest of us listening to you increase the hospitality as business owners or solo entrepreneurs? – 22:04
• How can we balance serving from the heart and not being burdened by the pressure of running the business? – 23:02
• How did you come up with this concept of animals for your restaurant names? – 28:06
• Do you think mascots are only relevant for restaurants, or do you think they’re relevant for individual personal brands? – 30:50
• Why Tipsy Bird? – 31:25
• What can we do as a brand, personality, how can we make our customers tipsy as well. How can we be their alcohol? – 32:10
• How has social media played a part in your brand success? – 34:38
• What is some of the best social media content that you’ve created under Tipsy Collective? – 36:45
• How can you still create the tipsy experience in spite of the current limitations? – 37:49
• To summarise, what will contribute to your Tipsy experience overall so we can emulate and model? – 39:40
• In 2021, what’s coming up for you and Tipsy Collective. What are we to expect from you? – 42:05

If you want to keep in touch with Derek, you can reach him on Instagram @dereeeeeeeek, or Tipsy Collective (and their various brands) @tipsycollectivesg.

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