HubSpot Ideas

Arne

Automatically set the correct salutation

We are working with clients in 70 countries including Germany, Austria and Switzerland which adds a level of complexity since we do not only have to identify the right gender but also need to select if a last name is German thus using Herr / Frau (English: Mr./Ms.).

The forms we use do not ask for salutation and we wouldn’t want to add yet another mandatory field that contacts have to fill.

What I have created is a set of name lists:
- German female first names
- German male first names
- International female first names
- International male first names

Also, I have created a list with the top3000 German last names.

My plan is to check the following:
- first name is in one of the female/male lists IF not found, don’t set a salutation.

A) IF only in International male/female first name then everything should be clear and we add the respective Ms. or Mr.

B) IF the first name is in both lists (e.g. Diana) THEN check the German last names (Schmidt) for a match.

E.g. Diana Schmidt is female AND most probably German speaking thus set Salutation to „Frau“

If her last name is not on the German last names list, we would either not fill the field or set it to Ms.

I have all those nice and extensive lists with thousands of names. I have imported them into custom properties using radio select field type and try to actually build the workflow.

What I am struggling with is the combination of check first name, compare with list A, B, C and the German last names.

Anyone with a similar challenge and a solution?

If not, adding such first name, last name list for recommendations on gender and language dependent salutations would be a great functionality to add to HubSpot.

Alternatively, the freedom to make such checks across multiple list in an easy way would be great.
5 Replies
Sabine
HubSpot Employee

Hi Arne,

 

for this DACH specific case I am outlining a solution in this video.

 

Hope it is useful!

 

Best,
Sabine

NinaAchnitz
Participant

Hi Arne,

 

we have the same problem.

We are working with 40 countries and I have a list of 96 rules to create a salutation. There is no idea from hubspot side to copy a content of property (e.g. the last name) as a part into another property. E.g. Dear [Mr.] [Lastname] to use one field in the e-mailing....

 

My idea is to create a richtext module and make it smart and put it into all e-mails. Then I can use is in every mail.

To create the smart rules, I would do it like in Sabines video...

 

I have voted for your idea!

isabellweiss
Contributor

Hi Nina,

 

following up with your comment: Maybe you have this already in use, but it is now possible to copy the content of one propety into another property using workflows. In your case, you can create a single line of text custom property, e.g. "Entire Salutation" and then set up a workflow and choose the action "Set property value", choose your custom property and then you can add the contact tokens of your choice:

 

Screenshot 2021-05-05 at 17.35.01.png

 

Is this what you meant by it?

 

Best,

Isabell

S_Schrimpf
Member

Yes, it would be great to be able to create something like conditional blocks per language which could be reused in an email so you don't need to invent the wheel all the time and would for example just exchange the default value in the email itself based on the audience you target. I saw the video for German salutation above but this one is a very easy and limited workflow just for one language and one small use case with gender. Such a workflow will be much more complex if you need to consider academic titles as well and need to bring salutations in an order based on the contact data which is available for the contact (depending how qualified the entry is from highest priority 1. Dear Prof. Last name, 2. Dear Mr. lastname, 3. Dear Ms. Lastname, 4. Dear Firstname Lastname to 5. Dear colleague as default). Plus you need to have at least country information to process the right language. I guess you might need several different workflows, one per language to achieve that. Really tricky. 
I know there are systems outside which provide the option for conditional, reusable blocks for email with personalized fields which can also be brought in defined order. I used to work with such an email creation tool and created a huge amount of reusable salutation blocks for different languages quite easily. So I really hope Hubspot will come up with a solution as well. 

HWilliams70
Member

Yes I would prioritise @S_Schrimpf 's development idea