Why is it important to stop what your're doing to help a customer?

I'm a sales assistant lol...and learning :) best answer given!

Because if you continue what you are doing, the customer may take offence and think that he is being deliberately ignored. While he is standing and waiting and wondering, time drags by at a snail's pace. One minute feels like ten. What's more, if you don't make eye contact with the customer and at least reassure him that he will be attended to soon, he may become uneasy in his mind and think that he hasn't been noticed and start making "ahem" noises or saying: "excuse me!" in a pointed manner. This may well be noticed by other customers, who will take a dim view of the standard of service in the store. Some people have a very short fuse and will become irritated very rapidly at the way in which they perceive themselves to be treated. It is all too easy for them to take their custom elsewhere.

Your customer is the one helping to pay your salary more or less. Without them then you wouldn't have a job. You need to pay attention to them. That doesn't mean that you have to necessarily jump but you do need to let them know that you will be right with them and follow through.

What I do is treat the customer the way I'd want to be treated if it were me. Retail has changed the way I shop, I'm not the cranky complaining customer, EVER. But alot of people are. Just try to think like a cranky shopper and do what would make you happy if it were you! You don't want to stand there while being ignored by the 17 yr. old flirting with the stock-boy. But the most important answer is, if you make them happy, they'll come back.

1. If you don't stop what you're doing to help a customer that's considered rude...in the retail industry.

2. Customers need to be taken care of right away to keep them happy and coming back to your store. Other wise you lose them...you'll be out of work.

It's simple. The company you work for is completely dependent on the money that comes from it's customers. If the customers aren't happy with the service they are getting, they will take their money to another company. If the money stops coming in, the company can no longer do business and make a profit. No profit, no employees. No employees, no job for you. No job, no paycheck. Make sense?

because customers are how you make money. If you do not help the customers, they might refuse to come back. Eventually you will have no customers which will lead to unemployment. Help them. Be nice to them. Answer their questions, and at least pretend to be concerned lol try to find the answers they need. Ahhh the joys of customer service! lol

Easy, if i am looking for something specific and I do not know where it is I would ask for help. I do not want to waist 30 minuets trying to muddle my way through isles & isles of goods and to become frustrated when I may have passed it 1 or 2 times.
My time is valuable to me and I hate wasting it.
It is a great experience when you ask for help and the sales assistant takes you directly there!!!
On the other hand... when you ask a S.A. to help, then they go away to get someone else to help me, and that person does not know a freaking thing... My blood boils.... It is extreamly frustrating dealing with people on the floor that are idiots!!! Espically frustrating when you know more that the clerk that is supposedly helping you... If you ignore a customer or pass them of to some idiot that does not know any thing you lose a customer... YOU lose the sale...
There are some store that I refuse to go to because of lousy service... I will drive out of my way to avoid specific stores. I will give them another chance, but you bet your bippy, that if I get a sales recipt with a web address, it will get a schathing review... This goes with public employees also...