Geoff Henry of Gong cha joins Zack Oates to discuss what it takes to scale a beverage brand across dozens of countries while maintaining consistency at the guest level. Geoff shares how Gong cha balances global systems with local execution, why operational discipline matters more than trends, and how guest feedback helps protect trust as the brand continues to grow worldwide.

Building a Brand That Travels Well (2:41)

“When you grow globally, consistency becomes the brand.”

Geoff explains that Gong cha’s success across markets comes down to repeatability. Guests expect the same experience whether they visit a store in Asia, the U.S., or Europe. That expectation forces the brand to build strong systems that travel well and support teams at every level.

Why Systems Matter More Than Scale (6:18)

“Growth only works if the fundamentals are locked in.”

As Gong cha expanded, Geoff emphasizes that scale alone does not create success. Without disciplined processes, growth can quickly erode the guest experience. He shares how clear standards and operational guardrails help franchise partners execute confidently while protecting the brand.

Balancing Local Flexibility With Global Standards (9:44)

“You have to respect local markets without breaking the brand.”

Geoff discusses the challenge of adapting to regional preferences while maintaining a global identity. Gong cha allows thoughtful localization, but only within a framework that preserves quality, service expectations, and brand trust across every location.

The Role of Feedback in Protecting Guest Trust (13:02)

“Feedback tells you where the cracks are before they become problems.”

Guest feedback plays a critical role in Gong cha’s operations. Geoff explains how listening at scale helps the brand identify small issues early, correct inconsistencies, and maintain a strong guest relationship even as the business grows rapidly.

Execution Is the Real Competitive Advantage (16:27)

“Most brands know what to do. Fewer actually do it well.”

Geoff highlights that long term success comes down to execution. Gong cha focuses on training, accountability, and clarity so teams can deliver reliably every day. In a crowded beverage category, strong execution becomes the differentiator guests notice and remember.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-henry/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/gongchagloballtd/about/

https://www.gong-cha.com/

https://www.instagram.com/gongchatea/

Transcript

00:00:00:06 – 00:00:26:23

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give An Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast. I’m your host, Zack Oates, and each week I get to chat with an industry expert to uncover their strategies and tactics to help you create a five star guest experience. This podcast is powered by Ovation the feedback and operations platform built for multi-unit restaurants. Learn what is actually happening in your restaurant and exactly how to improve while driving revenue.

00:00:27:00 – 00:00:50:01

Zack Oates

Learn more at ovation up.com. And today we have a legend of the industry, Geoff Henry, with us today. He has spent almost a decade with the Coca-Cola company. He was president of Jamba Juice. He’s the president of the Americas for Gongcha, which is just like a phenomenal drink brand doing such cool stuff. If you’ve never been to a Gongcha go, it’s really cool.

00:00:50:01 – 00:00:56:24

Zack Oates

A lot of fun. Well, Geoff, thanks for taking some time away from your drinking career to have some sips with us here. How are you?

00:00:57:01 – 00:00:59:17

Geoff Henry

I’m doing great. Thanks so much, Zach. Great to be here.

00:00:59:19 – 00:01:05:23

Zack Oates

Now, I gotta say, you went to HBS. Was that before or after Coca-Cola?

00:01:06:00 – 00:01:13:15

Geoff Henry

Before? Yeah, I basically did a few years in finance, then went back to HBS and then pivoted into brand marketing and strategy.

00:01:13:17 – 00:01:23:05

Zack Oates

And it sounds like specifically you have done quite a bit in the beverage industry. Like, what’s drawn you to drink the Coke? Jamba Gongcha?

00:01:23:07 – 00:01:39:02

Geoff Henry

If you ask me that question 30 years ago, I’m not sure I would have ever scripted out kind of how it’s all played out, but beverages are a lot of fun. Before I joined Coke, I worked for Colgate doing kind of toothpaste and personal care. Great company, but not nearly as much fun once I got into the beverage world.

00:01:39:04 – 00:01:58:17

Geoff Henry

I joined Coke back in 2006 and I joined working on brand Coca Cola. Kind of their flagship. And so just that kind of just pulled me into the whole beverage world. Got to see just so much great activity on the marketing side. On the innovation side. And yeah, so I went from basically on the soft drinks side of Coke.

00:01:58:17 – 00:02:11:10

Geoff Henry

After a few years, I moved over to more of that, the still beverages. So for about eight years I was running their water, tea and coffee businesses. And then that just kind of led into eventually Jamba Juice and then here at Gongcha, which I can talk more on that too.

00:02:11:11 – 00:02:26:21

Zack Oates

So when you were there with Coke, just out of curiosity, did you get to work on other beverages in the Coke family, like Diet Coke or Coke Zero? Or were you only focused on full sugar, full throttle Coca-Cola?

00:02:26:23 – 00:02:48:19

Geoff Henry

I was on Coca Cola, in fact, back in when I first started. We still called it Coca Cola Classic because again, back in the 80s when Coke had the whole Coke new Coke. Oh yeah. This is example. Well, after all, that basically went down and Coke reintroduced Coke. That’s when they added the word classic to Coca Cola Classic, and it stuck on it.

00:02:48:21 – 00:02:59:12

Geoff Henry

Stayed on there for 20 years. Basically I was the brand manager there. What we decided all right, it’s been long enough. Let’s take the classic off of all the packaging and just call it Coke again.

00:02:59:14 – 00:03:19:22

Zack Oates

Oh, wow. That’s interesting. Anyway, well, as an avid soda drinker, I feel like it’s part of the questions. If you want to get your driver’s license here in Utah, it’s like you have to drink a minimum of 44oz of soda a day. Anyway, just grateful for all your hard work because I’m a much happier man. In the afternoon after my lunch.

00:03:19:22 – 00:03:29:18

Zack Oates

Coke. So love it. What drew you to Gongcha? What was it that got you interested there? And maybe for people who aren’t familiar, if you want to explain a little bit about Gongcha.

00:03:29:20 – 00:03:54:23

Geoff Henry

Yeah. So Gongcha has been around for 20 years. We are the world’s largest bubble tea brand. We started in Taiwan back in 2006, and we are a high quality premium bubble tea. And Gongcha literally means tea served up to royalty. It’s ceremonial tea grade and we pride ourselves on the quality and consistency of the tea that we deliver around the world.

00:03:55:00 – 00:04:17:00

Geoff Henry

We’re now in 30 countries, were in 2200 locations in the US. We have just shy of 250 locations. We’re kind of in 22 different states, and then we have a good presence up in Canada, 100 stores, Mexico 100 stores. So we’re just rapidly growing the brand around the world and certainly here in the Americas. And it’s just a lot of fun.

00:04:17:01 – 00:04:33:20

Geoff Henry

I mean, the bubble tea category has been on fire in the US now for ten plus years, and I first started to see it when I was at Coke because I was running the tea and coffee brands for the North American Coke business, and I started to see bubble tea, I was skeptical, I didn’t know if I was going to stick around.

00:04:34:01 – 00:04:53:23

Geoff Henry

I thought maybe be more of a fad. I left Coke to run Jamba Juice for five years, and I just continued to see bubble tea proliferate, shops opening up all over the country as the whole category moved from like heavily Asian communities into college and university towns. And then basically now every major metro in the US has a number of bubble tea shops.

00:04:54:00 – 00:04:58:10

Zack Oates

What do you think it is about bubble tea that gets people so interested?

00:04:58:12 – 00:05:17:08

Geoff Henry

I mean, if you been to a bubble tea shop and you’ve had a bubble tea or some of the other beverages we offer, I mean, first off, they’re just great to look at, right? Like visually they’re testing. So in this world of Instagram and our core guests tend to be like 18 to 30 years old with their phone and Instagram basically always on.

00:05:17:10 – 00:05:42:17

Geoff Henry

We’re a perfect complement to that lifestyle. We’re very much it’s a lifestyle category. And so I’d say for this Gen Z age group, like they see bubble tea as like the drink of their generation. The drink of maybe my generation was the latte from back in the 1990s. This is very much the drink of the younger generation, and you can personalize it however you want the tea type, the toppings, the sugar level.

00:05:42:17 – 00:05:58:15

Geoff Henry

We’ve also got fruit drinks. We’ve got smoothies so you can make the drink however you want it based on your mood in that day or at that moment. So I think that personalization customization just lends itself to the rapid adoption of the category and our brand in particular.

00:05:58:17 – 00:06:14:16

Zack Oates

Yeah, and I actually used to live right by a Gong chai in San Francisco, and it was a great place to just go and meet up for a business meeting when, you know that after a business meeting where I’m not quite I’m not looking for, like a soda, I’m not looking to sit down and like, have a coffee with someone.

00:06:14:19 – 00:06:35:13

Zack Oates

It’s a great alternative there. And also, I feel like this generation is so much about textures, and textures is such a critical thing. Like, you look at all the candies that are coming out, which again, utilize it in here, all the candies that are coming out, there’s so much about interesting texture as opposed to just adding different flavors.

00:06:35:13 – 00:06:57:15

Zack Oates

It used to be let’s throw this flavor in, in that flavor it and now it’s like, hey, let’s throw this crunch in and this creamy in and this new getting like in layering this. And so I feel like that’s another thing that bubble tea has up against some of the competitors is just that fun surprise with the other tapioca pearls or any of the other kind of bursting pearls.

00:06:57:17 – 00:07:21:19

Geoff Henry

I mean, the texture is definitely a big part of it. I think part of why bubble tea has done so well, particularly with the at the younger generation. And, you know, college towns is because people often consume it while they’re studying, right? Like there’s actually like zero benefits that show that they’re drinking the bubble tea, which gives them a little bit of caffeine from the tea, maybe a little bit of sugar boost and kind of carbohydrate energy.

00:07:21:21 – 00:07:41:13

Geoff Henry

But it’s also like the actual chewing of the tapioca pearls. It’s actually soothing, like so they’re studying, they’re getting the caffeine uplift, but they’re also kind of bringing their blood pressure down a little bit just through the actual chewing. So to your point, like they’d hope the textures and all the different layers, I think just add to the whole experience and it kind of have made it.

00:07:41:13 – 00:07:43:08

Geoff Henry

Why it’s, it’s been so successful.

00:07:43:11 – 00:07:50:01

Zack Oates

So what do you think is one of the most important aspects of guest experience nowadays?

00:07:50:03 – 00:08:09:03

Geoff Henry

Yeah. Great question. I think it’s changed a lot, largely dependent on like the store type and what the guest is wanting. In the case of bubble tea, we obviously wanted the guest to have a great experience, but in many cases the guest is just coming in getting the beverage and leaving, or in many cases, they’re ordering in advance.

00:08:09:03 – 00:08:29:03

Geoff Henry

I mean, we often have 40 or 50% of our orders coming through the mobile app or third party delivery. So it’s almost like we don’t actually see the guest. And then even as they come into the store, we actually have cell order kiosks, and 90% of our transactions in the store go through the support kiosk because our guests would rather see the full menu.

00:08:29:03 – 00:08:46:02

Geoff Henry

They want to take the time to peruse like, hey, I want this tea with this topping, this layer of milk foam. So that’s all part of the experience. And the kiosk, I think, helps deliver that more comprehensively than even the probably a team member can do behind the counter. Now, if you’re a first time guest, we want you to go up to the counter.

00:08:46:07 – 00:09:06:04

Geoff Henry

But the team member kind of take you through the menu, help you kind of understand maybe what you want to start. Try first. But if you’re a regular guests, like helping actually guide them to a kiosk and letting get more familiar with other categories that we offer tends to work out well for the guests, and that tends to work out well for the operator, because the guest gets the ultimately the drink that they want to try.

00:09:06:06 – 00:09:12:01

Geoff Henry

And we tend to see actually a higher average ticket through the kiosk too, just because of the suggestive sell mechanism at the end.

00:09:12:03 – 00:09:39:24

Zack Oates

Sometimes I go into this a drink place. I don’t want to throw them under the bus, but I went to this drink place and I hate ordering from the kiosk because I like my drink a specific way and it doesn’t allow for customizations on the kiosk. And so that’s one of the things where I literally have not ordered from there and have gone to someplace else because I’m like, they always seem annoyed when I order from the register and the kiosk doesn’t let me do my customizations, you know that.

00:09:40:03 – 00:10:02:22

Geoff Henry

Yeah. And for us, like customizations at the core of what we offer our kiosks have to be pretty robust. Like, we don’t want to send somebody to the kiosk and then have them have a subpar experience. So for us, again, you might spend a minute and a half at the kiosk is making your drink. We tend to have two, if not three kiosks in our locations just because of how important it is for us and for the guests.

00:10:02:24 – 00:10:22:15

Geoff Henry

So I think it just based on your question, part of it depends on like what type of transaction is it? Right? Like if somebody basically just wants the great product and they want it with speed and convenience, then we got to make sure that that kiosk experience is great. To your point. Like we’re actually delivering all the customization that they need so that they can kind of do the transaction quickly.

00:10:22:17 – 00:10:39:09

Geoff Henry

If it’s somebody who’s a first time guests, we want them to feel like we’re holding their hand. The team member behind the counter can kind of show them the few categories we offer, maybe the top ten drinks that people tend to order and kind of just take off some of the intimidation factor of entering a bubble tea shop for the first time.

00:10:39:09 – 00:10:54:18

Zack Oates

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, because it can be a bit intimidating when you go in there, especially when you guys really have that authentic vibe to it. It doesn’t say like, this is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a drink like you keep it very authentic. And it’s like some of the stuff I was like, what is that?

00:10:54:18 – 00:11:10:06

Zack Oates

But it’s fun to have that exploration because of it, but the familiarity. So when you’re thinking about some tactics that you’ve used to improve the guest experience throughout your career, other CPGs or in FNB, what do you think.

00:11:10:08 – 00:11:38:01

Geoff Henry

Data is a great thing to have? We’ve done some customer surveys, either through our loyalty platform. We do a kind of a quick survey at the end of our transactions, and so kind of getting an average pulse on, you know, how people are feeling is obviously critically important, obviously an area of you and your firm’s expertise. So for us having that, you know, a firm grasp on how are the guests feeling about both the product quality, the service, the cleanliness of the store?

00:11:38:07 – 00:11:56:02

Geoff Henry

Would they come back? Would they recommend us like those are kind of four key areas that we often look at and try and track over time. So and I think that’s our baseline is like making sure we get the data. And sometimes it’s hard to get enough of that data to make it worthwhile. Right. Like if you’re only getting a few surveys per month, it’s probably not statistically significant.

00:11:56:04 – 00:11:58:21

Geoff Henry

So, you know, we still kind of work through that as well.

00:11:58:23 – 00:12:16:24

Zack Oates

Yeah, I think that it’s so critical that as you’re looking at, there’s a phrase that we always say here at ovation, which is the values in the volume. And there’s wisdom to that, because as you’re able to get more people to give you feedback, if it’s negative, then guess what? You can recover them. And if it’s positive, then guess what?

00:12:17:03 – 00:12:44:23

Zack Oates

You could market to them. The more people that you get to take your survey, they’ll get to give you feedback. Not only the better can you do as a brand, but the more people you get to connect with. And I think that’s something that we’ve seen, and especially with drinks, we see other drink companies that were with where the highest percentile of people will come into a restaurant more days than they are open in a given month.

00:12:45:00 – 00:13:03:19

Zack Oates

So it’s like there are people that will come into these drink places twice a day, sometimes on like twice a day on Saturdays and once a day throughout the week. It’s nuts to see, but when you’re able to get that kind of data and able to understand who the guest is, it helps push you in such a smarter direction.

00:13:03:21 – 00:13:12:17

Zack Oates

Speaking of smart direction, there’s a lot of smart people that you know. I mean, you’ve had an incredible career, but who is someone that you think deserves innovation? Who’s someone that we should be following?

00:13:12:19 – 00:13:28:00

Geoff Henry

Yeah. Great question. There’s a lot of folks that I have a lot of respect for, a brand that I wasn’t all that familiar with up until a couple of years ago. It’s because they just didn’t have that much of a presence here. I live in Atlanta, so they didn’t have much of a presence in the southeast. Is Culver’s and the whole Culver’s family.

00:13:28:02 – 00:13:56:16

Geoff Henry

I have been very impressed with just the quality and the consistency of how that brand shows up, and the level of service and real appreciation that the team members in. That’s and those stores are showing to the guests. If you’d asked me that question three years ago, colors wouldn’t have been on my shortlist. I think based upon what I’ve experienced the past couple of years, and as I’ve learned more about the brand and had more interactions there, definitely on my short list of brands that are doing it right now.

00:13:56:16 – 00:14:24:03

Geoff Henry

Again, they’re very different in terms of their footprint compared to my experience in the beverage space where I’ve got, you know, typically small stores, they’ve obviously got a much bigger menu. They got drive thrus and almost all their locations. So they have to deal with different things as well. But and my experience is primarily been going into the store and ordering at the counter, but then ordering at the counter and then sitting down and then having somebody stop by a few minutes after I start in a fast casual like that, like people ask me how the meal is going.

00:14:24:03 – 00:14:27:11

Geoff Henry

I was like, I’ve been blown away. So I think they’re doing a really good job.

00:14:27:13 – 00:14:44:20

Zack Oates

Well, speaking of personalization and customizations, I have a good friend who worked at Culver’s for a long time all through high school, and you want to know a drink that a milkshake that he said he would probably get asked to make once a day. Okay, you ready for this?

00:14:44:22 – 00:14:45:19

Geoff Henry

I’m ready.

00:14:45:21 – 00:15:01:18

Zack Oates

A vanilla milkshake. And Culver’s is famous for their really thick custard. And they do some great milkshakes he would order, or he would get ordered and it would have to make vanilla milkshake with hamburger patties ground up into it.

00:15:01:20 – 00:15:03:24

Geoff Henry

That was a frequent request that they were getting asked.

00:15:03:24 – 00:15:20:16

Zack Oates

And I was like, oh, like once a year. Did you make this? Like he’s like, no, probably like once a day, once every other day someone would come in and order a milkshake with a hamburger patty ground up into it. I mean, it just seems so bizarre. But then you think about it and you’re like, well, I did my fries in my frosty.

00:15:20:16 – 00:15:27:20

Zack Oates

Like, maybe that’ll work. Anyway, I don’t want to yuck someone’s yum, but that seems a bit odd to do.

00:15:27:20 – 00:15:29:12

Geoff Henry

Where to get your protein delivery, right?

00:15:29:12 – 00:15:47:08

Zack Oates

Yeah, exactly. That’s cool, but I do. I love Culver’s as someone who didn’t grow up with Culver’s, I do have to say, when I moved to Utah and I saw the signs for Culver’s, for the first two years I lived here in Utah, I thought it was a furniture store. It’s not a traditional restaurant of like, you got the reds and the yellows.

00:15:47:08 – 00:15:48:02

Zack Oates

I mean, like, it’s.

00:15:48:02 – 00:15:48:14

Geoff Henry

Just toned.

00:15:48:14 – 00:16:02:19

Zack Oates

Down. Yeah, it’s very toned down. It’s very blue. You’ve got carpeted interiors. It’s a very different vibe, but they’ve got a great product, so good on them. I actually just had Culver’s this week drive and on my road trip to Vegas. It was great. So.

00:16:02:22 – 00:16:03:21

Geoff Henry

Oh, nice.

00:16:04:02 – 00:16:08:04

Zack Oates

Anyway, well, Geoff, how do people find and follow you and Gongcha?

00:16:08:06 – 00:16:21:20

Geoff Henry

Yeah. So it’s funny. Gang Gongcha Instagram. Yeah, gang Chatty is where you can check us out, and we’d certainly encourage you to do so. And me, I’m not worth following. You can find LinkedIn. Geoff Henry.

00:16:21:22 – 00:16:26:11

Zack Oates

A LinkedIn Geoff for the G team. We’re talking like Geoffrey Giraffe.

00:16:26:13 – 00:16:44:10

Geoff Henry

Exactly. Geophys. And Henry and Linda. So for you. But yeah, I think our Instagram handle, we’ve always got some fun stuff. And because we’re a global brand, you’ll often see stuff on there, not just from like, the Americas, but from around the world. You know, we’ve got 800 stores in Korea, a couple hundred in Japan, a few hundred in Australia.

00:16:44:10 – 00:17:02:14

Geoff Henry

So again, the fun thing about Gongcha and this brand is it truly is global in nature. And we’ve got even before we come into new markets here in the US, just because of the strength of the brand in Asia. Now when we come in, we already have lines and people asking what are we opening? There’s just a lot of excitement for the brand.

00:17:02:16 – 00:17:11:18

Zack Oates

Well deserved as well. Well, Geoff, for spending two decades hydrating Americas, today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us and giving ovation.

00:17:11:20 – 00:17:13:23

Geoff Henry

Thanks so much, Zach. Great being with you.

00:17:14:00 – 00:17:36:12

Zack Oates

Thanks for joining us today. If you like this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen. We’re all about feedback here. Again, this episode was sponsored by ovation, a two question, SMS based, actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants. If you’d like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience, visit us at ovation up.com.