Support Center team at Basin Electric achieves Help Desk International certification

At Basin Electric, one of the seven cooperative principles is Education, Training, and Information. The Support Center team at Headquarters recently lived out this principle by having every team member become Help Desk International (HDI) Support Center Analyst certified.

HDI is an organization that sets internationally recognized standards for service desk organizations such as the Basin Electric Support Center. The training for the certification focuses on support center strategies for effective customer service, emphasizing problem-solving and trouble-shooting skills, contact handling procedures, incident management, communication skills, and an introduction to service management process.

LaDonna Carpenter, Basin Electric Support Center supervisor, has more than 20 years of experience in support organizations and call centers. When she joined the Basin Electric Support Center six years ago, she saw opportunities for improvement and growth. She attended the annual HDI conference in 2022. 

"I spoke to several other managers and supervisors of support organizations that advocated for this certification as a means to expose our representatives to the best practices from around the world," says Carpenter. "It gives us a common language and helps us to standardize our practices to continue to grow the capabilities of our Support Center."

To obtain this certification, all team members were required to take a two-day class, followed by a study period averaging three-to-four weeks. Then, a 65-question exam was administered, with a score of 80% required to pass and become certified.

Carpenter says the certification will be useful for the Support Center and Basin Electric as a whole.

"Since we were able to learn industry recognized best practices, we can use those to increase the capabilities and offerings of our Support Center," says Carpenter. "One specific example is part of the analyst course focused on customer service, while the manager course discussed the overall customer experience. We are already using that information to make small changes that improve employee interactions with our Support Center team."

Carpenter also became certified as an HDI Support Center Manager. She says the certification will help her continue her efforts of improving the Support Center by exposing her to the internationally recognized best practices HDI teaches. It will also give her access to a network of other HDI certified managers, supervisors, and directors to learn from their experiences putting those practices into practical application. 

The Support Center team took the training as a chance to encourage each other and share the information learned. 

"It has really opened up some conversations for us, some of which relate directly to the topics we are discussing based on the Gallup survey results," says Carpenter. "By tying the two together, we are able to work as a team to ensure that expectations are clear, processes and procedures are followed, and the voices of each employee are heard."