How important is patience in a customer service or front office job or for any other profession?

Patience is one of the most important things in customer service

as the old saying goes "Patience is a virtue" and this goes true for everything and anything that you do.
as for the customer service point of view, patience is important because that's part of giving service to the customer or the client.
That means waiting on them and that requires patience, lots and lots of patience.

A lot, because it's all about customer retention.

Having patience means having self-control.
Being in control of your emotions can prevent you from doing impulsive decisions and makes you a more effective front desk officer or similar jobs.

"A person who angers you, captures you" is an old saying which is very true.
If we do not learn to be patient in any job or our personal life, then we tend to loose control of the situation and we end amplifying the damage.
So it is very important to be patient and this enables us to make better decisions.

I agree most of the comments mentioned earlier.
However, I have a theory if the next person acting like a jackass then I believe it is not very important to be patient.
I encounter several people everyday most of them are very nice and all of a sudden a stupid rude guy turns up and ruins your day so I reckon it is better to return the favour right away rather than holding grudges.
People around you understand you did the right thing and I am not bragging its my personal experience.

Serving a customer needs alot of patience from the the front desk employees as we all know the rule that says "customers are always right"with this we could keep our customers with the company and increase the number of of our customers     

Satisfy the needs of the client is the means to achieve growth and Alastaqrartamin the material and moral support for the year increased demand.
Service through the Customer Retention  Earn their loyalty.
Reduce the cost of service performance.
More freedom in pricing of services.
Good customer service contribute to attract and keep talent (internal customers).

Patience is the key ingredient for dealing with different stake holders, every customer has different choices, attitude, way of bargaining and level of satisfaction which become some time irritating for service provider or customer dealer then the patience is the single weapon to conquer that situation.

Patience is an incredibly valuable trait in customer contact roles as well as many back office roles.
Customers are more likely to calm down and be willing to listen in the face of a calm , empathetic and solution oriented employee.
Having said that in certain job responsibilities it is more important to be quick and sieze the day rather than being patient and let opportunities slip.

Sometimes the customer feels that he needs to talk with agent win deeply details here the patience from the front office is required.