A luxurious experience can mean sumptuous, elegant and rarified. However, for me, luxury means hassle-free, pampered and reassured. Simplicity delivers the latter by making people feel confident that they've made the "right choice"—assuring them that they don't have to second-guess themselves. Luxury services achieve this by doing the legwork for the customer, anticipating needs and exceeding expectations. They give the customer a simplified experience by foreseeing and removing customer burdens.

Complexity and unpleasant purchase surprises are so commonplace that eliminating them is a luxury. Consider a luxury vacation—elegant surroundings and comfort are essential but eliminating the fine print, removing hidden fees and simplifying choices are also part of delivering a feeling of luxury. Simplicity means shortening the distance between the customer and the company—whatever that takes. Delivering this type of simplicity is so rare that it warrants a premium price and delivers an exceptional experience.

As a side note—many luxury brands make a mistake by overwhelming customers with options, choices and features. They equate luxury with choice rather than service. Research shows that people feel bad about their decisions when they are confronted with too many choices, often suffering from a nagging feeling that they made the "wrong" choice. For example, I just purchased a Mercedes E350—the car has so many features that I keep losing track of how to access them from the dashboard computer screens. To me the luxury is in the handling, the styling and yes, in the plain English leasing document which Siegel+Gale rewrote ten years ago and that Mercedes is still using (it's called the First Class Lease—the name Siegel+Gale recommended). I also like the service feature of free car washes and free at-home delivery of a loaner car when my car needs maintenance. To me, that's a luxury because it saves me time and hassle—after all, time is the greatest luxury.

Irene Etzkorn is the executive director, simplification for the Siegel+Gale New York office.