If loyalty is the goal, simplicity is the virtue. Jack Welsh, CEO for GE and a long-time pariah of bureaucracy took this to heart when steering the company through hard times. Everyone in the company was responsible for finding ways to dismantle bureaucracy wherever possible and no one was permitted to hide behind it when things "couldn't" get done.

From decision-making to planning to communication to organizational structure, simplicity is instrumental to staying sane and successful in a business world complicated by globalization, rapid-fire communication and boundary-less competition. We are in a world where instant gratification and response is expected. You don't have to be as big as GE to have clogged systems, complicated procedures and slow moving responses.

Imagine a customer coming into a store, near hysterical because the 2,000-inch GIGUNDO model TV he bought a week ago stopped working the night before Superbowl Sunday. When he reaches the counter, sweaty-browed and near breathless with dismay, the 15-years-old sales clerk doesn't know what she can do to help. After she looks around for the assistant manager, she fumbles through dinner schedules and a pile of documents to finally find the code for the loudspeaker. With an air of "Icouldn't- care-less", she calls for the assistant manager to come to the front desk. The assistant manager arrives and explains that there are policies and procedures for this sort of thing. "Did you fill out your warranty? Do you have a receipt? Did you bring the 2,000-inch TV with you? I cannot issue any kind of refund. This needs to be taken up with GIGUNDO."

The customer is furious, so the assistant manager calls for the manager to back him up. The manager doesn't really know the policy and calls another store manager. And at the end of the day, everyone is exhausted and frustrated. A business with systems such as these is doomed to fail. While they may have the customer's initial $3,000, they will never see him again. And he is very likely to spread the word about how the company doesn't have its act together. In the meantime clerks, managers and the rest will drown in a pool of confusion, complicated policies and illogical procedures.

Here's how the company could get it right. If the company had a simple policy to do whatever is in the customer's best interest, the clerk and the manager or the assistant manager could have resolved the problem immediately. If that policy was clearly communicated to all employees and the clerk knew how to quickly and easily contact the appropriate team member, the customer's experience could have been far more positive and smooth.

Likewise, if there were small and clearly defined teams working together, this could have been much more positive. Instead roadblocks or don't-blocks to customer loyalty were quickly constructed: don't know, don't come here, don't make things too difficult for me, and don't bring your problems here take them somewhere else.

Are you keeping it simple or keeping it slow?

Small businesses can be overwhelmed with complexity just as easily as the big guys. Use this list to consider if there are areas of your business that could be simplified in order to better serve your customers and employees.

-          When you are a customer and have a complaint or problem with a business, how soon do you want a resolution to your problem?

-          On average what is the turnaround time for resolving a complaint or concern for a customer of your business?

-          Are your customer complaint procedures clearly defined, incorporated in employee training and easy to use? Ask your employees. What is clear to you may not be clear to them. If they don't know, reassure them that this isn't an exercise in humiliation but an attempt to improve things.

-          Ask your employees these questions:- Are job descriptions, duties and responsibilities clearly defined? Or is there a lot of everyone doing whatever whenever because it needs to get done? This is not always a bad thing, but there has to be clarification regarding who is responsible for what. This prevents disappointment, confusion and resentment and fosters retention.

-          When focusing on customer loyalty, be sure to ask the people on the frontlines how they would improve things. Don't leave it just to management. The people who deal most directly with customers are likely to have specific insights about the policies and procedures and have probably given a lot of thought about how their jobs could be easier if it was easier to please the customer. Think about including people who handle operations, product delivery, billing and any other part of the organization that has a direct impact on the customer experience. Their involvement will not only increase your chances of coming up with the best solution, but will reinforce the idea that employee contribution matters and that their job has a sense of purpose.

-          Are there opportunities to share and learn from mess-ups so they won't be repeated?

-          Is there a way for employees to identify frequent problems with products or services, delays in delivery or roadblocks to superior service? Is it clear how employees go about solving these problems?