We live in a world designed to make everything automatic.

Auto-pay. Auto-renew. Auto-ship. Automated emails. Scheduled social media. Artificial intelligence. Even our cars can practically drive themselves.

Technology has made many parts of our lives easier and more efficient. I use technology every day, and I believe it has an important place in both life and business.

But I was recently reminded of something I’ve believed for a long time:

Some of the most important things in life should never be put on cruise control.

A 45-Minute Reminder About Auto-Pay

I recently sold an investment property. Like many people, I had several recurring expenses associated with the property set up on auto-pay, including the cable service.

The property sold. The service was supposed to be canceled. I moved on.

Four months later, I noticed something.

The cable company was still charging my account every month.

The service had been canceled—or at least I thought it had—but the automatic payments continued.

What followed was more than 45 minutes on the phone trying to straighten everything out, reconcile the charges, and finally put the issue to rest.

Was it a major crisis? No.

But it was a great reminder of what can happen when we stop paying attention.

Auto-pay is convenient. Cruise control is convenient.

But convenience should never be confused with oversight.

And that lesson goes far beyond a cable bill.

Marriage Doesn’t Have an Auto-Pay Button

The same principle applies to relationships.

You can be married for years. You can know each other’s routines. You can become comfortable with your life together.

And that’s exactly when it becomes easy to put the relationship on cruise control.

Work gets busy. Kids need attention. There are houses to maintain, bills to pay, emails to answer, and a hundred other things competing for your time.

Before you know it, the person sitting across from you at breakfast can start becoming part of the routine rather than the person you chose to build your life with.

Relationships require attention.

Take your wife out to dinner.

Plan the date.

Put the phone away.

Have a conversation that isn’t about work, schedules, kids, or what needs to get done tomorrow.

After years together, you shouldn’t stop dating your spouse. If anything, you should become more intentional about it.

Love isn’t something you establish once and then assume will automatically maintain itself.

You have to keep making the payment.

Not with money, but with time, attention, and effort.

Your Clients Know When You’re on Cruise Control

Business works the same way.

I’ve spent more than 25 years in real estate, and technology has completely transformed our industry.

We have automated property searches, CRM systems, email campaigns, text messaging, social media, transaction-management software, artificial intelligence, and countless other tools designed to make us more efficient.

I use technology. I believe in technology.

But technology should help us build relationships—not replace them.

One of the simplest and most powerful tools in real estate is still sitting right in your pocket:

The telephone.

Pick it up.

Call your client.

Don’t always send another automated email.

Don’t assume they’re seeing the market updates your system is sending them.

Don’t assume a seller knows what’s happening because they can log into a portal and see showing activity.

Call them.

Ask how they’re doing.

Explain what’s happening in the market.

Tell them what you’re seeing.

Listen to what they’re concerned about.

Sometimes a five-minute conversation accomplishes more than 20 automated emails ever could.

Interaction Is the Key to Success

Real estate is ultimately a relationship business.

People aren’t hiring us simply to unlock a door or put a property into the MLS. They’re trusting us to help them navigate one of the largest financial decisions of their lives.

That requires interaction.

It requires listening.

It requires paying attention.

It requires being present.

The best technology in the world cannot replace the feeling a client gets when their agent calls and says:

“I was thinking about you and wanted to check in.”

That matters.

And I believe it’s becoming even more important as the world becomes increasingly automated.

Don’t Let Convenience Become Complacency

There’s nothing wrong with auto-pay.

There’s nothing wrong with cruise control.

There’s nothing wrong with automation.

The problem starts when automation causes us to stop paying attention.

My four months of unnecessary cable bills were relatively inexpensive tuition for a valuable reminder:

Inspect what you expect.

Look at the credit-card statement.

Review the bank account.

Call the client.

Take your wife to dinner.

Check in with your kids.

Walk through the investment property.

Follow up with the past client.

Have the conversation you’ve been meaning to have.

Technology can remind us. It can organize us. It can make us faster and more efficient.

But it can’t care for us.

That’s still our job.

Keep Your Hands on the Wheel

Cruise control is great when you’re driving down a long, straight highway.

But even then, you don’t climb into the back seat.

You keep your eyes on the road and your hands close to the wheel because circumstances change.

Life changes.

Relationships change.

Markets change.

Clients’ needs change.

Businesses change.

The people who recognize those changes early are usually the ones who were paying attention.

So use the technology. Set up the auto-pay. Automate the repetitive things. Take advantage of every tool that gives you more time.

Then use that extra time to do the things that should never be automated.

Call someone.

Have dinner together.

Listen.

Ask questions.

Pay attention.

Be present.

Because whether we’re talking about life, love, or business, interaction is still the key to success.

And some things are simply too important to put on cruise control.