Give It Some Time

Give It Some Time, It’ll Get Better

Change happens.

We all deal with it. Some handle it better than others, but whether you like change or not, it is going to happen.

It might be little, inconsequential changes like updating your password every 60 or 90 days or taking a detour while roadwork is done on your normal route to work.

Sometimes it is major change. Companies get bought or sold. Leadership shuffles. Or a major airline like Southwest Airlines, my preferred air travel partner, changes the very policies it was known for.

“What?” the congregation screamed.
“We have to pay for luggage now?”
“You charge more for certain seats on the plane? That’s not fair!”

It almost feels like Southwest suddenly became just another airline.

That is a big change inside an industry that deals with change all the time. As someone who knows that change happens, I will wait to see how things shake out 6 to 12 months from now. It is easy to complain while change is happening. I should know. I have been tempted to snarl and demand my “old Southwest” back.

Just look at how upset people get when a grocery store rearranges its aisles.

One thing that will likely keep bringing me back to Southwest is the people. From the team members at the check-in desks to the gate agents, from the crew in the cockpit and throughout the cabin to the social care team online and the crew on the tarmac, they do their best to get me to my destination safely, with as little inconvenience as possible and a few smiles along the way.

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We Should Know About Change

It has been almost 18 months since the Sitzer/Burnett and Moehrl cases were settled. Those cases led to major shifts in the real estate landscape and created significant changes in the way we do business.

Many people did not like it. Some still do not.

The industry did not collapse. It changed.

We discovered new ways to do old things. New forms. New conversations. We had to educate customers and clients who remembered how it used to work and show them how it works now.

Great Realtors and real estate companies, along with their affiliate partners, who earned trust through words and actions, provided great service, and delivered memorable experiences before the lawsuits are finding that strategy still works.

It might be even more valuable now.

Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines, once said:

“We’re in the service business, and it’s incidental that we fly airplanes.”

I hear you, Herb.

We are in the service business too. Houses just happen to be the product. It has always been about the people.

Rules change. Leadership changes. Procedures and politics shift.

But if you keep building relationships, solving problems, and having fun, you will be pretty hard to put out of business by a policy change.

Give it some time. It will get better.