You Are Our Ideal Customer!
By Hank Schrader, USMA ’71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
This might seem like a strange topic for our blog, but in reality, it may be the most important aspect of our business—who is our ideal customer?
We believe you, our readers, our friends and associates are our ideal customer!
In my work lifetime of 49+ years, I have been a career Army Officer, a teacher and coach, and a travel advisor. These 3 careers have one item in common-it’s all about relationships with people. We think our best asset, while advising you about travel, is our relationship with you—we strive to be your trusted travel advisors.
We will do our best for you by matching you with the right trip so you can experience the joy of being in a wonderful place and learn all about it and share these experiences with family and friends.
So this week, I would like to boldly tell you who you are; what you want from travel; how we can help you achieve your travel goals; and how we recognize you.
Ready?—Let’s go on this journey together!
Who You Are
Here are some characteristics of most of our clients—how many of these match who you are and what you want from your travels?
First and foremost you are active folks. You have succeeded professionally, physically and socially in your lifetime. Probably, you are a college graduate and you are married. You may still be working or just recently retired but you have been in the workforce for over 40 years.
Ready for a bike ride—Jane, Len and AmaWaterways Wellness Host June 2019 River Cruise
You are reasonably affluent and willing to spend $10,000 or more on a trip that matches a travel experience you want. You are well traveled—you probably have visited Alaska, Hawaii or Europe, or all three or other great places in the world. You might have even lived for a while in a foreign country. You probably have been on a 7 day ocean or river cruise. You have realistic expectations—you know great trips are expensive.
Christmas Eve Dinner in the Netherlands with Mark and Denise Thomas 2018
You seek great value in your trip—the best experiences for your money. You know geography and world events—chances are you read a lot. You like art and history. You like both big cities and small villages and historic sites. Most of you really like good food and wine.
Vienne, France Picnic—many of clients love great food and wine
You often seek Authentic Travel. You often want to venture beyond the ordinary by getting to know a destination through its people and customs. These travel experiences are both educational for you and entertaining. You seek out local history and lore; local food; delight in meeting local people and like hands on experiences.
A night visit to Cologne Germany Christmas Markets—Authentic Travel at its Best!
Sometimes you want to be pampered—you want to have a temporary lifestyle that exceeds your daily lifestyle. You want to mark milestone celebrations with unique travel experiences. You have worked very hard in your lifetime and you want to reward yourself for your past and future achievements.
Room Service in Suite 809 on SilverSea—awesome breakfast—luxury at its best!
What You Are Seeking From Your Travels
Here are some common items we feel most of you seek during your travels—again, we would like you to see how many of these align with your travel desires:
You want travel to enrich your life with experiences. You want to travel with friends and family to share these experiences.
What an experience—for Anne’s 60th birthday, we prepared a chef’s meal in Wales by attending a cooking school led by famous chef Angela Grey at a vineyard. We prepared Cog au Vin, Lyonnaise Potatoes and Crepes Suzette!
You want a way to make your dream travels happen as easily as possible. You have done your research before you seek us out and you want to turn your dreams into reality (according to Google, 62% of all leisure travelers use the internet to research their trip and the average traveler visits 20 different websites prior to making a purchase—you may be one who has done such extensive research). But, you probably would prefer avoiding the hassle of making choices without all the facts and are often thankful for help you can trust, especially if it does not cost you extra or come with hidden expenses or deceptive descriptions of any aspect of your trip.
Many times your trips have different goals. Sometimes it is a new experience. Sometimes it is a familiar place. Sometimes it is an escape. Sometimes it is pure luxury—the best the world has to offer. Sometimes it is active and full of adventure.
Great Family Trip—the Boins in Chichen Itza
You dream about travel a lot. I’ll bet if you close your eyes and start thinking about where you would like to go and what you would like to experience, you can quickly think of 3 or more places—your own personal bucket list.
Brugges, Belgium—Anne’s favorite place to dream about!
The bottom line: You want a vacation that is fun, safe, hassle free and a good value for your money.
How We can Help You Achieve Your Travel Goals
According to Google, there are 5 distinct stages of travel. They are 1) Dreaming; 2) Planning; 3) Booking; 4) Experiencing; and 5) Sharing. We help you in all of the 5 phases of travel by turning ordinary trips into extra-ordinary experiences.
How do we do this?—we really know who you are! We know what you like and do not like. We do not want your trip to be okay or good—we want it to be the best vacation you ever take! We always ask a lot of questions about your travel desires so you dreams become reality by our careful planning and booking on your behalf.
We are not Hank.com or Anne.com—we do not work for a cruise line or a resort or a travel company—we work for YOU! There is no booking engine on our website—we need to talk with you, really know you and then plan and book your trip.
Then once are the details are in place, you get to experience a great vacation and share those experiences with your friends and family. Pretty cool, huh! We have been in business for 24+ years helping folks just like you have great vacations—believe me it is an honor to get it right for you and try our upmost to exceed your expectations.
We know what a great value is in travel and will find it for you. Ask yourselves—who do you know who have been on 27 ocean cruises, 18 river cruises, visited over 80 countries and written 50 city guides for European destinations and 51 port guides for Europe River Cruises?
We really know our stuff about travel and we use our experiences to enhance your trip. Maybe most importantly, we don’t want to be one and done with your travel—we want to be your trusted travel advisors for life.
You aren’t only our customer—you are our friend and we treat all our friends with respect and will do the right thing to help you achieve your travel goals.
Almost every time we plan a trip for someone, we ask ourselves why would anyone try to do it themselves, especially since it usually cost nothing extra to use us, as the vendors pay us and you will pay the same regardless if you use us or not.
The bottom line is we know what you are seeking from your travels and we can help you achieve your travel goals so we can get you the right experiences on all of your trips.
Our Traveler Hall of Fame
We have a unique way to recognize your trust in us by selecting us as your travel advisors. We have created the Dream Destinations Traveler Hall of Fame to thank you. Hall of Fames are design to recognize noteworthy people and their achievements and contributions and we are thrilled when we get to add a new person to our Hall of Fame.
So, doesn’t it make sense that we induct you into our Traveler Hall of Fame for using us to make your travel dreams reality? We love to recognize your value to us by expressing our appreciation that you trusted your travels to us. Any time we get it right, it motivates us more to maintain and improve our efforts on your behalf.
Erkuns at London Bridge—Great Father and Son trip!
Bob and Johanna on our 75th Anniversary of D Day Trip 2019 at Pointe du Hoc with Ranger Monument in the background
On our website we post pictures and the stories of the folks who have enjoyed their travel with us. Here is the link to view some of the wonderful folks we have helped have great vacations and we hope to add your name here soon!
Dream Destinations Traveler Hall of Fame
My Final Thoughts
Did we get it right—are you our ideal customer? We are pretty sure you are! The next time you are thinking about traveling, why not contact us to help you achieve your travel expectations?
Let us make you member of the Dream Destinations Traveler Hall of Fame.
We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise experts, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations. As you can see, our full service agency can get you to almost anywhere you desire to travel and provide you a great experience and vacation.
When you are spending your hard earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience.
Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you high quality, expertly planned travel.
Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@dreamdestinations.com. We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!
HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 48+ years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:
AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent
