Email personalization does not work with no first name

[Flat Creek Digital]

In Business Catalyst, if you insert the tag { tag_recipientfirstname}, the tooltip on this feature advises that "First name of the recipient (replaces with 'Friend' if first name is empty)".

This is false advertising.

It does not replace with 'Friend', it just leaves it blank.

Obviously, this is a major problem when trying to send out personalized emails, and doesn't help us make the case for a client to use Business Catalyst instead of MailChimp, iContact, or any of dozens of other email tools that reliably provide this simple, simple feature.

When can we expect this simple, basic feature to function as advertised?

[Liam Dilley]

Hi there, I use this many times and works just fine.

Have you checked the CRM entries for that? Do they have a first name in the CRM entered? If not then this is your problem.

Also probably just something you did on the forums but { tag_recipientfirstname} - You have that in the email layouts without a space correct?

[jemma_c]

Hi there,

We have just raised this issue via Live Chat and they have identified this as a bug.

This was there response.

"I have investigated this issue further and this is something I can replicate. As you have mentioned, both {tag_recipientfirstname} and {tag_recipientname} should render 'Friend' if the associated information is missing from the contact's CRM, however it is not at this stage. 

Therefore what I have done here is submitted this issue as a Bug. For your reference, the bug ID # is 3799812.

Please refer to our blog closely where out development team announce bug fixes such as this with each release: http://www.businesscatalyst.com/bc-blog."