automobile tire sales. Lower prices can increase demand for the product or service from new and existing customers during traditional slack periods or encourage customers to move up future buying.Prescheduled Appointments Service providers often can schedule customers for definite periods of order fulfillment. With this approach, demand is leveled to not exceed supply capacity. An appointment system assigns specific times for service to customers. The advantages of this method are timely customer service and the high utilization of service personnel.Doctors, dentists, lawyers, and automobile repair shops are examples of service providers that use appointment systems. Doctors can use the system to schedule parts of their day to visit hospitalpatients, and lawyers can set aside time to prepare cases. Care must be taken to tailor the length of appointments to individual customer needs rather than merely scheduling customers at equal time intervals.Reservations Reservation systems, although quite similar to appointment systems, are used when the customer actually occupies or uses facilities associated with the service. For example, customers reserve hotel rooms, automobiles, airline seats, and concert seats. The major advantage of reservation systems is the lead time they give service managers and the ability to level demand. Managers can deal with no-shows with a blend of overbooking, deposits, and cancellation penalties. Sometimes overbooking means that a customer with reservations cannot be served as promised. In such cases, bonuses can be offered for compensation. For example, an airline passenger might not only get on the next available