To quote Shapespeare - "What's in a name?" Being someone who has an unusually spelled name, I'm in a position to answer that. What's in a name? Everything! It's MY name. It's not spelled Kelly or Kellee or Kellie, it's spelled Kelle. I know it's phonetically stupid. I've had long discussions with my mother on this exact topic. But, nonetheless, whether you like it or not, it is the way that it's spelled.
And yet, often I get emails from people who are trying to sell me something or ingratiate themselves in some way to me and these people have mispelled my name. Sometimes they've even done it in response to something I've emailed them - so my name is there for them, right on the same page. Now, does this mean that I won't do business with them? No. But I do take note that they do not have attention to detail, that they are clearly not being conscious as they write their note to me, otherwise they would have taken the time to notice how I spell my name. It gives me pause. It tells me that we are not on the same page in the way we view customer/client service.
How many of your clients are getting mail from you that looks like this? How often do you stop to check the way you spelled someone's name? I'm of the opinion that it's better to do without a greeting at all than to mispell the client's name (although I don't recommend dispensing with greetings). I know it's a small thing in practice, but it's more significant than we realize. If you address your letter to Kellee, you're not talking to me. I pay less attention - because clearly you did.
Our names are how we define ourselves in the world. Don't insult the recipient of your email by slaughtering their personal identifier. It's just bad form.
Kelle Sparta is the author of The Consultative Real Estate Agent - Building Relationships that Create Loyal Clients, Get More Referrals, and Increase Your Sales, as well as being a speaker and trainer specializing in the real estate industry. Kelle is the founder of Sparta Success Systems, a real estate training company that provides tools, products, and training to empower agents and brokers to create lives and businesses they can love. For more information, visit her website at http://www.spartasuccess.com/. © 2007, Kelle Sparta.
I can relate. I have a fairly common last name with an uncommon spelling. I have to spell my name at least twice to people before they write it down correctly. I try my best to spell people's names correctly. When talking to a prospect for the first time, instead of simply asking for their first and last names, I ask them to spell them. At first it sounded strange to me, but at least now I know how to spell their name.
I received an email from someone saying that she always took pains to make sure she was attentive to my account, and she spelled my name wrong. It didn't seem like she was paying attention.
So true! My name is "Allan" not "Allen". Of course, no one means harm when they misspell it, but it certainly takes my enthusiasm down a notch for that person!
When I first moved from Missouri to San Francisco, a woman I worked with introduced me to a client as being from Kansas. Later, I corrected her and said I was from Missouri, not Kansas. She tossed her (Berkeley, not Stanford-educated) head and said "Kansas, Missouri, what difference does it make?" That was 20 years ago. And THAT'S what I remember about her. Not fondly.
I can relate to the name thing. Because my name is Theron, I have countless people address me as a guy. They address me as mister Theron. I get emails, letters, voicemails, and so forth. They do not mean any harm, but I do feel like people should use a generic greetings until they are sure of who they are talking to. There are so many women that have masculine names these days. You hear of females that are named Toni, Alex, Terry, etc. I just finished doing business with a female name Henri. Even though you understand the mistake, a generic greeting will help with their embarrassment when I say that I am a GIRL. :)
Oh, heck, ladies! My last name is Jumonville, my first name Tricia. I learned early on (like, before the ink was dry on the marriage certificate) to spell my last name immediately after saying it, and to say it for people when they were reading it for the first time. Doesn't help that it's pronounced differently north and south of the Mason Dixon, and entirely differently in Louisiana and Canada from either of those, and that the original family name from which we get Jumonville is Coulon de Villier, AND that it's misspelled from the original French place name.
Add to that that I spell my name Tricia, and many people spell it Trisha, and if I hadn't gotten a sense of humor about it all very early on I would have just flat lost it long ago!
In my business, if they call me, that's my goal, right? I'll take care to get their name right, of course, but if someone messes up mine, since it's unusual (200,000 Jumonvilles in the entire country at last count), I figure it's really my problem, not theirs.
Kelle-
Great point about the spelling of a name. I try to be careful and yet I know I've blown it from time to time. I too have a unique way of spelling my name. I did this purposely several years ago when I felt I had changed a lot about who I was. People mispell it often. I've learned to live with it. But I do know that working with a client and mispelling the name could cause problems.