DEMAND MANAGEMENT‐TODAY'S CHALLENGE FOR SERVICE INDUSTRIES

This study examines the issue of demand management in service industries, proposes an expanded description of the term, presents evidence of the importance of demand /capacity management, provides a classification of demand management strategies, and identifies some of the factors that may influence the choice of demand management strategies. The results indicate that industries have different resources, demand patterns, and strategic objectives; this suggests that these differences should influence the choice of demand management strategies. However, the industries studied were less different in their choice of demand management strategies than in the differences indicated by the independent variables. This may result from the. fact that most companies, except utilities, indicated that their demand management programs were largely informal in practice. Most companies use demand management strategies that emphasize customer service‐the provide and match strategies. However, almost without exception, all industries indicated a desire to shift their focus toward the resource utilization side of the range‐the influence and control strategies. In this exploratory study, the findings suggest that there is a need for companies to spend more time in evaluating and planning their demand management strategies.