I had entered the following feature request which has been merge to this one - but has a different component: the matching of constituents by online forms.
We have a Constituent Information form which we are using to allow people to register for an activity. Over 300 people registered last year, and we expect even more this year. With 35 in so far, about 1/4 have been duplicates. In almost all cases the difference between the original account and new one created by the form is a subtle difference in the constituent name - such as there being a middle name or initial in the Bloomerang account (which isn't even a field on the form) or a Nickname such as Mike instead of Michael. The email and address have matched. It is very frustrating to have to clean up this accounts regularly.
Original feature request:
Search and comparison by names so frustrating! So often if you are slightly off in the spelling of a name, the search will include it but VERY far down - and it's even worse if nicknames or shortened versions of names are involved. For example
It would really help if the search would at consistently check the variations of the name that are already in the account, such as the informal name or just the first and last name (not including any middle name).
The problem is even more frustrating when online forms are used. If the person submitting the form enters a name that does not exactly match the name in the account (even if emails and/or addresses match) a duplicate is often created. A recent example was the user entered her name as Marilyn Ellsworth, but the constituent that was already in Bloomerang also has a middle initial in the Middle field so she is listed as Marilyn A. Ellsworth. This was not an exact match (even though the email and address were exact matches) so a duplicate account was created. We had 176 people register for an event and over two dozen duplicates were created and had to be merged. This is a real make-work issue.
This morning (May 3) it appears that searching by the Account Number with using the All filter is bringing up the Account Number record first. If this tweak has been made, thank you, thank you, thank you! This is very helpful and appreciated because it saves me a considerable amount of time!.
Yes, I strongly support this request, and would reiterate the request that a matching account number be the first search result. For those users who have been using account numbers for years to look up constituents, even weeks into the new search functionality, it remains an aggravation and waste of time to either search for the account # among the search results, or to change the change filter to account number. Many, many thanks for consideration of this request.
I had entered the following feature request which has been merge to this one - but has a different component: the matching of constituents by online forms.
We have a Constituent Information form which we are using to allow people to register for an activity. Over 300 people registered last year, and we expect even more this year. With 35 in so far, about 1/4 have been duplicates. In almost all cases the difference between the original account and new one created by the form is a subtle difference in the constituent name - such as there being a middle name or initial in the Bloomerang account (which isn't even a field on the form) or a Nickname such as Mike instead of Michael. The email and address have matched. It is very frustrating to have to clean up this accounts regularly.
Original feature request:
Search and comparison by names so frustrating! So often if you are slightly off in the spelling of a name, the search will include it but VERY far down - and it's even worse if nicknames or shortened versions of names are involved. For example
It would really help if the search would at consistently check the variations of the name that are already in the account, such as the informal name or just the first and last name (not including any middle name).
The problem is even more frustrating when online forms are used. If the person submitting the form enters a name that does not exactly match the name in the account (even if emails and/or addresses match) a duplicate is often created. A recent example was the user entered her name as Marilyn Ellsworth, but the constituent that was already in Bloomerang also has a middle initial in the Middle field so she is listed as Marilyn A. Ellsworth. This was not an exact match (even though the email and address were exact matches) so a duplicate account was created. We had 176 people register for an event and over two dozen duplicates were created and had to be merged. This is a real make-work issue.
This morning (May 3) it appears that searching by the Account Number with using the All filter is bringing up the Account Number record first. If this tweak has been made, thank you, thank you, thank you! This is very helpful and appreciated because it saves me a considerable amount of time!.
Yes, I strongly support this request, and would reiterate the request that a matching account number be the first search result. For those users who have been using account numbers for years to look up constituents, even weeks into the new search functionality, it remains an aggravation and waste of time to either search for the account # among the search results, or to change the change filter to account number. Many, many thanks for consideration of this request.