Get Their Name Right
The other day I recieved an email from someone who wanted to introduce me to their publishing company and the services they provide to authors trying to promote their books. I am always excited to find new ways to get the word out about "Some Assembly Required" and "The ABC's of Networking", and continuously search for new and creative ideas (especially when they are "bootstrap" ideas, or mutually beneficial partnerships!!!).
This email, however was addressed "Dear Tim". Additionally later it referred to "Tom Singer's books". Since my name is Thom Singer....and they had gone so far as to personalize the email, it was disappointing that they did not have it correct.
I have some friends who were invited to a wedding of some old friends. The beautiful engraved invitation was formally addressed to Donald and Laura Mooney. The bad part was that the wife's name was not Laura. In fact, Laura was the name of Don's ex-girlfriend. Ouch.
Another friend got a beautiful blanket from a co-worker when his son Brandon was born. The bad news was that the embroidery spelled out the name Brendan. Bummer...the baby never got to use this blankie.
If you are going to reach out to someone, be sure that you have their name right. Some people have odd spellings of common names (aka: THOM), so be sure to do your research and find out how they prefer to be addressed. My dad has an odd first name, Olvin, so he has gone by "Al" his whole life. He always knows when someone he does not know well is calling, as they try to use his given name or some other version of a possible nickname.
I deleted this email from the publisher, as it was clearly SPAM. I could not take anything else they said as very serious after they made two mistakes with my name.
Do not get dismissed because you messed up their name!!! Take the time to get their name right!
Have A Great Day.
thom
www.thomsinger.com
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Thom,
ReplyDeleteYou are so correct. This is something that shouldn't have to take to much effort and goes such a long way.
My wife and I just had this conversation last week. On a regular basis people will reply to an email FROM HER with her name signed at the bottom and they still spell it wrong! Talk about inconsiderate. It lets her know they really don't care all that much.
We definitely need to take the time and show that we care. It makes such a difference.
Have a great week!
Take care,
Dale
www.DaleChumbley.com
Thom, this is one of the things that I continually have to work on! In fact, half the time I don't want to say the name because I'm sure I'll get it wrong, the other half I *try* really hard (and sometimes mess it up).
ReplyDeleteIt's almost like it's not part of my DNA. Alas, I'll keep trying to get names down better, and use them when I talk with people :) Thanks for the nudge/reminder.
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com