Dear Neko,
Thank you for confirming William Gibson’s aphorism that the future is already here, it’s just not well distributed yet.
I recently experienced your Body Scan…at your Spitalfields Health Centre.
And I was totally blown away - the whole experience really did feel like I was a living in a utopian science fiction movie.
For any readers not aware of the Neko Body Scan, check out the website or this intro video:
It felt like a movie - or in an episode of Black Mirror – but only the comforting part at the beginning when everything is blissfully working as it should. Not the bad part in the middle where the human psyche and the tech we’ve invited into our lives dramatically fall-out, with horrific consequences.
And whilst I don’t have other health check-up services as a reference point (you were my first, pipping Bluecrest), I already know that you’re on an altogether other level. As might be expected from the founder of Spotify.
You’re more like a spa treatment than a medical appointment. Pastel hues, soothing voices coming from the sky, funky rubber shoes with square edge toes, celestial lighting accompanied with angelic sound effects. Revolving walls, lasers and touchscreens.
And, literally, a seamless journey from reception (felt like a trendy hotel), to the locked changing area, with wireless charging pad (felt like what I imagine the fitting room of a luxury brand boutique to be like).
Through to the consultation area (where the lasers and other special machines were), to the other bit behind the revolving wall where the main machine with all the cameras was.
And then onto the deskless debrief room where the doctor told me everything about me, with keyboard and mouse-free swiping actions on the satisfyingly matt finish screen.
You have done some seriously brilliant forensic work on mapping out your CX. And I haven’t even mentioned the pre-arrival / post-arrival digital part. I would love to have seen you do that work, the level of detail you must have gone to in order to create something so unique. So precise, so considered, so effective - so effective in fact that I booked and paid up for next year’s appointment on the spot. Just the flow from one zone to the next, maximising the use of the expensive machines but minimising the contact with other people was impressive enough.
Humans (friendly, informed, expert, first names only) and tech (oh, that is an avatar of my body on the screen, those are my blood test results from the blood sample I gave only 15 minutes ago) all working together in beautiful synchronicity.
And all in answer of a wonderfully simple insight…and the Vision statement you have formulated in response.
I’m highly conscious of how fortunate I am to be able to access you. Both the cost (£299) and the access - code scarcity, and getting a skip-the-waitlist code from a friend, played its part in hastening my sign-up.
Yes and, you really did make me feel like I was experiencing the future.
So thank you for giving me a glimpse into the future of Preventative Health.
A version of your service, with all of the luxury experience cues stripped away, could be the answer to this much repeated and massively true summation of modern healthcare.
Thanks again Neko.
Ned