At The Distance, we are absolutely thrilled to share the news of our recent achievement: winning the App of the Year award at the 2023 UK Business Tech Awards in partnership with GoodShape. This award is not just a testament to the hard work from both companies, but also a celebration of our shared commitment to making a positive impact on the world of health and wellbeing.
Our journey with GoodShape began at the start of this remarkable year, and it has been nothing short of an incredible partnership. The fusion of our expertise and GoodShape’s vision allowed us to create a mobile app that truly transforms the landscape of health and wellbeing services for enterprise employees. GoodShape, as a company, has a clear mission: to reduce the personal and financial impacts of work absences due to injury, physical or mental ill-health. Their approach involves smart interventions, reliable management tools, and effective referrals.
The GoodShape app, which is the heart of our collaboration, serves as a lifeline for employees to manage their wellbeing and work absences. It offers a tailor-made back-to-work program that supports healthy returns to the workplace, direct access to clinical staff, and a wealth of health and wellness content. With a staggering 42 categories of clinical content, 374 unique wellbeing activities, 31,000 words of medical advice, 26 demonstration and exercise videos, and full medical profiles, the app is a comprehensive resource for users. And the 24/7 chatbot, always ready to engage and assist, enhances the overall in-app experience.
This success story represents the synergy between partners, agencies, and software providers. We worked closely to deliver a unique app solution that stands to benefit thousands of users worldwide, offering support for their health and wellbeing in the workplace.
James Arquette, Chief Product Owner at GoodShape, was particularly impressed with The Distance’s documentation. He praised our comprehensive and detailed feature document, which included every piece of text on every screen of the app. It’s testimonials like these that remind us why we do what we do, and the value of our meticulous approach to our work.
Our commitment to innovation and user experience led us to introduce a trusted chatbot technology from EBM, replacing traditional form-based data collection with a chat-bot interface. This humanised the process and made the app much more engaging for users.
The partnership continues to evolve, and we are now collaborating with Terra to integrate health and fitness data from various third-party sources into the platform. This will further enhance GoodShape’s ability to provide employees with the best advice and support during any absence from work.
The GoodShape app has not only resonated with users but has also exceeded all of its objectives. As a result, our partnership has outlined a 12-month roadmap for new features and has increased project budgets to ensure a continually improving product. We are dedicated to pushing the boundaries of user engagement through intuitive, humanised, chat-based interfaces.
For us at The Distance, this project has been an excellent opportunity to showcase our technical expertise and customer service. By introducing two other technical suppliers, we’ve demonstrated what success looks like when companies appreciate each other’s expertise.
Founder of The Distance, Anthony Main, encapsulated our collective feelings when he said, “The GoodShape app is already a win for professionals’ health and productivity, as well as the partnership, so there’s plenty of fingers crossed for the award to further celebrate that success!”
In conclusion, we would like to express our gratitude to GoodShape for being an incredible partner and to all those who have supported and believed in our journey. This App of the Year award is not just a testament to our success; it’s a recognition of our shared commitment to making a difference in the world of health and wellbeing. We are excited about the future and look forward to continuing our work together to create meaningful and impactful solutions.