A look at my voicemail app last week reminded me of the importance of personalization because of how important names are to people. 

This image shows how YouMail tried decoding my name as pronounced in voicemails. 

I’ll be the first to admit that my first name, Kurian, isn’t easy for most people to get, let alone automatic voicemail transcribers. 

You can see that in the space of just 1 week, YouMail referred to my name as:

1. Carrion
2. Kareem
3. Karina, and even
4. Brian (How in the world! But I’ve seen worse.)

People don’t like getting their names butchered, even if they don’t like their names.  

Here’s a quick guide to avoid starting off on the wrong note:

1. Ask how the name is pronounced.
2. Double check to ensure the right spelling.
3. Triple check to avoid having it autocorrected to a commonly used word.
4. Proofread to ensure that email automation doesn’t address people as {first_name}.