SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Janet Wagner knows firsthand the importance of building relationships with vendors as a buyer in the retail business. She started her career as a swimwear buyer at a New York City department store. Though she soon realized a long-term retail career wasn’t for her, the experience got her interested in studying marketing and customer service.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – It happens. Sometimes companies let their customers down. And when they do, they need to fix it fast, says Janet Wagner of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Let’s say your company has had a very profitable year, and has decided to reward you, one of its top contributors, with a handsome, 8 percent pay increase. Well done. Now, let’s say it’s just before the holidays. Should your friends and relatives expect an 8 percent raise in your gift-giving budget? No. They should expect even more than that, says research from Smith School professor Janet Wagner. She and a co-author found that gift-giving is a luxury. As income rises, gift expenditures increase at an even higher rate. Read more...
It's almost a new year, and across the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, some prognosticating has begun. We asked a group of professors to look ahead at the trends and developments we might see in the next 12 months. They turned their focus to the stock market, tax policy, Amazon, McDonald's, finance, real estate, Obamacare and more. Here's what they said. Read more...
On Oct. 17, 2016, undergraduate students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business who are in the Hospitality Business Fellows (HBF) program traveled a few miles down the road to visit the headquarters of Chesapeake Hospitality, a nationally-recognized hotel management company.
Online services such as OpenTable make it easy for consumers to make restaurant reservations and not show up. But higher-end restaurants are countering this.
Recent headlines signal breakfast has been sizzling at U.S. restaurants. But Smith School experts warn that profitably pivoting to meet the demand is not a sure thing for restaurateurs. "Like any other innovation, consumers get used to it and start to lose interest," Smith School professor Janet Wagner says. Dingman Center entrepreneur-in-residence Harry Geller shares three questions that restaurant owners should ask themselves before moving to breakfast. Read more...
Online services such as OpenTable make it easy for consumers to make restaurant reservations — and not show up. But higher-end restaurants are fighting back, and the trend is global. Smith School marketing professor Janet Wagner says the lack of human interaction in online reservation systems lets consumers cancel without feeling responsible for the consequences. Read more...
High-performing marketing managers from four global firms met at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business as part of Cohort Two of the Professional Services Leadership Initiative (PSLI). This two-session program is organized by the Center for Excellence in Service and the Office of Executive Programs at Smith.
Janet Wagner talks about holiday retail outlook. [VIDEO]
