Sometimes, busy people behind counters like to pretend that customers are invisible until they’re acknowledged. That the best policy is to ignore the patron until she can be served.

For customers, however, the better experience is hearing, “Hello! We’ll be with you in just a minute.”

A simple acknowledgement of someone’s existence.

The same thing goes for when a coworker darkens your office doorway.

You may indeed be in the middle of something important. Deep into your work. Great. That’s a good thing.

But there’s a human in front of you. A human who is much more likely to appreciate a simple “please hang on a second” than to be silently ignored.