Service orientation is the ability to take in to consideration others' needs and help them achieve their goals. Therefore, service orientation is built upon empathy for a person's situation. Knowing and understanding the type of environment that dominates your organization prepares you to be ready to help your employees or colleagues achieve their professional goals, be better employees and a happier people. Let's say you have an employee that suddenly started performing poorly. You have a conversation with him about what is going on. You discover that he is no longer feeling challenged in his current position. You use your questioning skills to determine that he is feeling ignored and that the organization does not care about developing him. So with your empathy for his feelings and your awareness of the organization in which you both are operating, you help him identify areas where he could increase his performance level so he feels challenged. Rather than ignoring or belittling his feelings or judging him as a poor employee, you are taking in to consideration his needs and helping him achieve his goals. There you have a win-win situation, because you also win by having a motivated and engaged employee.

How to have service orientation:

• Start at the top: If you want your team to care about customers, start by making it a priority at the top. Don't just "say" that you value great service or write it in a memo - live it! Reward it on a regular basis, recognizing those that go over the top publicly and often. Make it clear to everyone that customers have a say at your company.
• Hire people who fit: When evaluating potential new hires, consider whether or not they will fit into the culture you have created. Do your best to build a team that's enthusiastic about customer service and is a good personality fit.
• Get everyone involved: Everyone should do at least a little bit of customer service, no matter what their job title is. Having your designers, developers, engineers, and everyone else talking with your customers means they all have a good understanding of what the customers want.
• Trust your team: Once you have implemented your company values and hired the right people, be sure to let go! Not only will this encourage employees to develop creative ways to serve customers, but your employees will also be happier. Everyone likes to take ownership in their job. Throw away the scripts and free employees to treat customers with their own voice and heart. Let them do whatever it takes to make your customers happy.
• Establish good lines of communication: Make sure it is easy for everyone to stay on the same page so that nobody feels like they are facing a difficult problem alone.