It can be funny until these customer names show up in YOUR data.
And how about Slime Ball, Welfare Leech, Ray Rat, Busy Body, or Dick Jiggles? And right up there with Captain Underpants, the ever popular Poop Pooper.
The worst ones are not always the standard curse words, although we certainly do see plenty of those.
What happens if you (or your marketing agency) never check your customer database and a mail piece or email reaches your customer using an insulting name?
“Dear Slime Ball, We need your vehicle…”
How do these even get into a customer database?
And even more importantly how do you identify and remove these?
How do insulting names enter your database?
- Believe it or not, a customer or prospect may actually enter that information themselves: An example would be a coupon code or a free download of an e-book or something similar. Since payment is not required, their real name is not necessary.
- Stressed Employees dealing with a challenging customer or difficult work situation can feel some type of vindication by entering these insulting names.
How can you Identify these insulting names?
It is definitely a sophisticated process that requires contextual searching.
Some names can be insulting in certain circumstances but in other circumstances are actually people’s real names. Some examples:
- Moron
- Nimrod
- Dick
- Ball
Humans are crafty creatures and can be very creative when it comes to disguising insulting words from standard searching. “Yankamad*ck” is another real-life example.
Searching and flagging utilizing basic functions can remove valid records while leaving the offending data.
Contextual searching is required and includes (but is not limited to): checking the total name, identifying if the last name is a probable family name, and searching within the name.