Skip to main content

​
What it’s for

A First name question collects the respondent’s first name — or confirms a name you already hold — so you know who you spoke to and can use their name later in the call. Names are hard to hear correctly over the phone, so this type is built around checking: it reads the name back by default, can spell it back letter by letter, and asks for a spelling when it gets the name wrong.

​
Settings

Alongside the settings every question shares (Question settings), a First name question has a Collect group: In the Voice panel: In the Behaviour panel, First name has an extra attempt cap, Spell — how many times the interviewer asks for or checks a spelling (default 5). See Attempts and step levels. A First name question has no answer options, format or screen-out settings.

​
Confirming a name you already hold

To confirm the name on the contact record, enter {{contact.first_name}} in Value we already hold. With the field empty, the respondent is asked for their name.

​
What the respondent hears

The ask. The voice prompt — for example “Could I start with your first name?” When the interviewer has to ask again, it uses lines such as “What’s your first name?” or “Can I get your first name?” Confirmation (on by default). “Jared — have I got that right?” With spelling on: “I have your first name as Jared, J-A-R-E-D — is that right? If any of it’s wrong, just spell it out for me using phonetics that suit you, like B for Bob.” Getting it wrong.
  • A “no” to the read-back asks for the right name — “Apologies for that — what should it be?” — and moves to spelling.
  • A second ask requests a spelling — “Sorry, that didn’t come through right — could you spell your first name out for me, letter by letter?”
  • A correction replaces the whole name, not just the part that was wrong.
Don’t know and refusal. Each gets one nudge through a re-ask; after that the question is skipped and the Move-on line is said. Timing. The interviewer waits longer for a name than for other answers, because people pause mid-spelling. You don’t need to change Eagerness for this. Silence, FAQs, busy and stop work as on any question — see Question settings.

​
What is recorded

The name is written to the call’s contact.first_name variable for the rest of the call. To update your contact list in Contacts, use the recorded answer from Results or the export.
In the CSV export, the name is in the answer column. See Responses and export.

​
Next Steps