In Chat, why are agents are seeing cases where the first name value is not rendered?

Environment:  

Chat / Agent Console

Issue:

We have standard text set up using the system defined contacts.name.first variable.  In Chat, agents are seeing cases where the first name value is not rendered.

Resolution: 

Within an incoming chat request and the resulting chat transcript, some contact related details are displayed based on what the customer entered on the chat request page and some details display from the associated contact record.

For example, details such as the name and email displayed in the top session summary area are pulled from the incoming chat request.  The name displayed within the resulting chat transcript is also passed in with the incoming chat request.

However, the “Contact” search field in the top summary panel is pulled from the associated contact record.  If the contact record does not have a first or last name value, the chat agent will see [Name not specified].    

The system defined contact name variables also pull from the associated contact record.  Here again, if the associated contact record has no first or last name values, the system defined variables of contacts.name.first and contacts.name.last will not render.  

To help agents avoid this on an incoming chat, if they see [Name not specified] in the “Contact” search field, they can edit the contact record and save name values while in a chat session.  Then, when they append the standard text message, the variables will render with the correct values they entered from the contact record.