1. Introduction
In economics, service is the non-material equivalent of goods. Services are the action of
organisation that maintains and improves the well-being and functioning of people. The
perception of services was remained confined to work with only “service motto “. Without
charging any fee or without accepting any obligation. But during the past decade the term
“service” includes a wide variety of services.
Definition of service
A service as an act of performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially
intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything
Philip Kotler
Variations in demand patterns
Main type of constraints
Following are some of the main constraints faced by the service business
Time
Time primary constraint on service production is time e.g. a consultant hairdresser, doctor
chartered accountant, all selling their time.
Labor
From the point of view of a firm the employs a large number of service providers, labor or
staffing levels can be the primary constraint
Equipment
Delivery services, Tele communications, network service utilities health club equipment of these
service providers can be a difficulty in satisfying the demands of the customer. During the
Christmas holidays federal express and other delivery service providers face this issue.
Facilities
Many service firms face restriction brought about by their limited facilities. Hotels have only a
certain number of rooms to rent out, airlines have a limited number of seats, and educational
institutions are constrained by limited seats for every class.

2. Shifting demand to match capacity
It is a strategy to convince the customers to use the service during periods of slow time. In case
of some customers, it is possible e.g. business travels cannot be shifted to some otter schedule
but pleasure travels can shifted.
Approaches of demand to match capacities
During periods of slow demand the organization seeks to attract more or different customers to
utilize its productive capacity. Following are the approaches or mixing of above alternatives for
shifting of demand to match capacities.
 Changes in service offering
 Communication with customers
 Modifies timings and location of service delivery
 Differentiate on price
Shifting capacity to meet demand
A second strategic approach to matching supply and demand focuses on adjusting of shifting,
flexing capacity. It is to adjust, stretch and align capacity to match customer demand.
 Stretching existing capacities
 Stretch time
 Stretch labor
 Stretch facilities
 Stretch equipment
Demand be reshaped by using effective pricing
 Differential or flexible pricing
 Discount pricing
 Dynamic pricing
 Group pricing

3. Important functions of a Service Product Manager
Service Idea Generation/Management
The function deals with capturing market's unmet and/or under-served needs, filtering the ideas
based on business viability, business feasibility and potential, scalability, company strategy, and
capital rate of return considerations. The end result is a potential set of market feasibility and
market features captured in a marketing requirement document.
Service Product Creation
Potentially saleable service features are captured and productized. That means creation of
necessary product documentation like executive materials, service product document, technical
services document, service scope etc.
Service Sales Support
Service product management supports service sales by providing accurate resource estimate and
in the right mix to provide an efficient product cost base on which to baseline the customer
pricing.
Demand Supply Planning
Services profitability management by supporting balance between service demand and supply of
necessary service resources.
Business Management System Support
Efficient management of service product cost and revenues according to service contract and
incurred costs. The same is generally needs a service product manager to provide product data
management for Enterprise resource planning systems.
Marketing and Market Communications
Industry event participation, press release, consensus building, delivering service messaging
through various available marketing channels.
Knowledge Management
Manage the knowledge management process and best practices for the service.
Service Ramp Down
Manage the decision process of ramping down service product, and executing the service ramp
down thus ending the service product management process

4. Conclusion
Service Demand management a unified method of controlling and tracking business unit
requirements and internal purchasing operations. It helps organizations remain engaged in their
supplier relationships and related advantages. Organizations use demand management systems to
address external spending factors, arrange purchase orders etc.