Re: BP 1.2 Member & Group Directories
The best possible option right now is using JJJ’s BP Member filter:
https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/bp-member-filter
That way you can let your users filter users by name or profile field. This way if you search for “Tom” in the field First Name, you will get correct results.
Since JJJ is working on improving this plugin, I think it’s meant to become a core functionality in the near future. Until that time comes, I think this is a pretty good alternative for solving your problems Mike 
