Customer Experience 
Customer experience (CX) is especially important in healthcare when health and wellbeing are on the line. Ontrak Health, a leading AI and technology-enabled behavioral healthcare company is improving the health outcomes of its members through incredible CX.
Mandi Thomas, VP of Customer Journey at Ontrak Health, sat down with us to discuss her perspective on innovative CX and how she’s reshaping healthcare CX through a blend of technology and compassionate care.
Let’s dive into Mandi’s top CX insights!
An Early Start in CX
Mandi Thomas’ career in customer experience started with her first couple of customer service jobs as a waitress and a retail clerk. From there, she developed a passion for meeting new people and bonding over her ability to help them.
After initially attending school for teaching, she pivoted to getting her Master’s degree in counseling and human services. For the next ten years, she put that degree to good use, working in inpatient and outpatient substance abuse and mental health clinics throughout her home state of Kentucky, teaching patients tools for managing anxiety and preventing relapse.
At Ontrak Health, Mandi rose from member enrollment specialist to VP of Customer Journey. Her path shows how industry expertise combined with customer-first thinking drives healthcare innovation.
The Evolution of CX in Healthcare & How to Navigate It
Healthcare CX has evolved beyond traditional phone calls and office visits.
Customer experience has changed a lot over the last ten years. Modern healthcare providers now connect with patients through phone, text messaging, social media, email, live chat, and more.
Successful healthcare organizations master these communication channels while maintaining consistent care quality. Here’s how leading providers make it work:
- Collect communication preferences – Survey patients about their preferred contact methods during intake. This simple step personalizes every future interaction.
- Create approved messaging templates – Standardize responses for common requests across channels. This ensures consistency and compliance while reducing response time.
- Implement a robust follow-up system – Schedule automated check-ins at key treatment milestones. Mix automation with human oversight to maintain the personal touch.
Mandi Thomas looks at this expansion of customer communication channels as more opportunities to help people and give them what they need on whichever channel they prefer. “We have been using different forms of communication to reach members, and as the technology field grows, this will create more ways for us to get in contact with those individuals and let them know about the amazing benefits they have to get the support and help they need,” says Mandi.
The one big challenge is keeping members engaged for continuous, long-term support.
Delivering enhanced healthcare outcomes takes more than instant communication. It requires an ongoing relationship with your healthcare provider. Mandi’s job is to ensure she fosters connections with Ontrak’s members so they feel seen and heard immediately while also letting them know that Ontrak is here for the long haul.
Mandi knows that conversational AI might be the main point of contact for members in the future. Still, she acknowledges that you will always need that human connection to make people feel engaged and supported throughout their health journey.
Keeping Healthcare On Track with Nextiva
Ontrak Health switched to Nextiva while looking for a cloud-based contact center solution that could meet regulatory needs and offer a user-friendly interface. This gave them a competitive edge they couldn’t find anywhere else.
“Over the years, we have seen continuous growth,” says Mandi. “It seems like every month there is a new release [from Nextiva] with new features we are able to implement, and it not only helps us reach our members but it also helps us streamline processes for our employees, because it’s so super user-friendly, it’s easy to implement something new…It gives us more insight on other ways we can continue to evolve.”
Thanks to AI-powered contact center features like real-time call summarization, Ontrak can reach more customers by reducing time spent on manual tasks like note-taking. And they’re not stopping there.
The healthcare industry faces unique challenges in digital transformation. For starters, regulatory compliance, patient privacy, rising costs, and the need for personal connection create high requirements for any technology solution.
Hosted contact center technology enables healthcare providers to do more than just communicate. It helps them understand patterns in patient behavior and anticipate needs before they arise. For instance, analyzing call patterns helps identify peak times for patient contact, allowing for better staff scheduling and reduced wait times.
Mandi shares that Ontrak’s goal is to continue incorporating more of Nextiva’s built-in AI capabilities and automations into their processes to improve CX and deliver even more amazing member experiences. Through Ontrak’s monthly meetings with Nextiva, they can learn about new features and use cases to help them achieve this goal.
Advice for CX Leaders in Healthcare
Delivering the industry’s best customer experience requires balancing technological innovation with human connection. Here’s what works for Ontrak:
- Map patient touchpoints – Document every interaction from first contact through ongoing care. Critical moments often occur during provider changes or treatment transitions.
- Maintain personal handoffs – Guide patients in navigating additional providers together. Each department switch includes a personal introduction to new care team members.
- Establish clear communication standards – Maintain consistent voice and tone across all patient messages, from routine reminders to complex care discussions.
- Gather regular staff feedback – Create direct channels between frontline teams and leadership to solve patient experience issues quickly.
- Sharpen training focus – Develop both technical competency and emotional intelligence. The best healthcare CX comes from teams that master both.
Success in healthcare CX requires constant refinement. What works today may need adjustment tomorrow as patient needs and technologies evolve. The key is building flexible systems that can adapt while maintaining the human touch that makes healthcare personal.
Mandi Thomas has some inspiring insights for anyone looking to become a CX leader: “Keep reading, keep listening. There is a wealth of information out there, all we have to do is go seek it. Don’t stop learning. And keep that compassion and empathy in you, because any time you’re dealing with other people, you have to have that. And that helps get you further than anything.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
Hear More from Mandi and other CX Innovators
Watch the on-demand virtual summit, Inside the Mind of a Customer Experience Innovator, to hear from Mandi Thomas at Ontrak and several other key leaders in the space.
