In RE database, we go to great lengths to set up the Addressee/Salutation fields, and additional Addressee/Salutation fields for various situations, so we can use the appropriate, most personalized, names whenever we contact our constituents. In any format.

However, strangely, NXT’s email merge function does not offer a Primary Salutation field, nor an option to use Preferred/Nickname name if present, otherwise use First name. This makes personalizing salutations in email correspondence very limited, and often incorrect. Currently, in NXT emails, you can select First name or Preferred name (and add titles, last name, etc). Names are often more complicated than that. In our database, maybe 65-70% people use their first name. But the remainder use a nickname. Many nicknamed constituents have both First name and Nickname in their record. We add their First name whenever we can, so we know their entire name, but most correspondence is addressed using their nickname. Sometimes, though, a nickname is only used by someone here who has close, direct contact with the constituent. All other correspondence is formal, using their first name. Primary Salutations take care of this.

This NXT email issue needs to be improved. The merge feature in emails in NXT should include either #1) a function where we can select to use first names, but if there’s a preferred name/nickname present, use that instead; or, better yet, #2) a field for Primary Salutation, drawn from the database, where administrators have the field set up appropriately for everyone.

Nothing screams canned, impersonal correspondence more than using wrong names. That definitely reduces any positive responses that we might be seeking.

I’m a perfect example of this issue because I go by a nickname. From birth, my parents always called me by a nicknamed version of my middle name. It annoys me when I receive mail or email addressed to my first name, which I’ve never used my entire life. I tend to delete, disregard and/or throw away nearly everything addressed to my first name, knowing it’s not sent by anyone who actually knows me.

We really need to ensure emails are sent out using the correct names.