E-mail templates not displaying names

[GrahamZA]

Operating system: Windows Server 2003
Sugar Version: Version 5.2.0i (Build 5757) Community Edition

I'm having trouble with e-mail templates. I want to create ones that when sent to people display their first name. I've followed the correct steps and inserted $contact_first_name. When the e-mail is actually sent is dispalys:
Dear ,

Instead of:

Dear Bob,

Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong here?

[salesagility]

is this for all records ... remember, first name is not mandatory for contact records ... so if there's no first name .... then it won't appear

[GrahamZA]

Yip all of our contacts have a first name (as it's mandatory in our company). The few I've been testing the e-mail templates with all have first names.