Half your customers are slipping away, and most are just waiting for a reminder

We surveyed 200 Canadians about how they buy glasses. Almost half of them, 46%, had not bought a pair in over a year. For 18%, it had been more than two.

That alone is not news. Glasses last. What matters is what the wait does to the customer’s tie to your store. We asked everyone whether they would go back to the same place next time. Among people who bought in the last year, 38% said definitely. Among people who had not bought in over a year, 21%. And 5% of them said definitely not.

1. 38%

   Bought in the last year

   109 people

2. 21%

   Last bought over a year ago

   91 people

The lapsed group is also further along toward buying online: 53% have considered it, against 40% of recent buyers. A customer who has not been in for eighteen months is not sitting still. They are drifting, and the drift has a direction. We wrote about what keeps them in a store once they walk in (Insight 3). This post is about getting them to walk in.

Why they say they’ve held off

We asked the lapsed buyers what had kept them from a new pair. They could tick more than one.

1. 58%

   My current pair still works fine

   47 people

2. 51%

   The cost

   41 people

3. 44%

   I haven't had an eye exam recently

   36 people

4. 30%

   My prescription hasn't changed

   24 people

5. 25%

   Waiting for my benefits to renew

   20 people

6. 17%

   I don't enjoy shopping for glasses

   14 people

Let’s be honest about the top of that chart. Some of these people are fine. Their glasses work, their prescription has not moved, and no message from you is going to change that. Trying to sell them a pair they don’t need is how you become the store they avoid.

But look further down. Three of those reasons are not “I don’t want glasses.” They are “nobody told me it was time,” “I’m waiting for a date,” and “I don’t know what it would cost me.” Each of those is a message you could have sent.

The 44% who haven’t had an exam

Thirty-six of the 81 said they had not had an eye exam recently. That is the biggest fixable reason on the list, and here is the number that goes with it: we asked every one of those 36 whether they wanted to be reminded when they were due. All 36 said yes.

Not most of them. All of them. The customer who has not been in for two years because nobody told them their prescription was aging is not avoiding you. They are waiting for a reminder that never came. That is the recall list, and it is 44% of your lapsed customers. Lume’s Communications Hub sends the exam and prescription-expiry reminders on its own, from the dates already on the customer’s record, so the list gets worked whether or not anyone has a quiet Tuesday.

The 25% waiting for benefits

Twenty people said they were waiting for their benefits to renew. Seventeen of them have coverage on file. They are not lost customers. They are customers with a date, and it is a date you can know.

In the last post we saw the same thing from the other side: benefits about to renew prompted the purchase for 15% of the people who bought where they had their exam, and 4% of the people who left (Insight 4). The customer who hears “your benefits reset on March 1” from you comes to you. The one who works it out on their own goes wherever they happen to be that week. Lume keeps the benefits reset date on the customer’s insurance card and sends the reminder before it lands.

The 51% who say cost

Half the lapsed group ticked cost. Eighteen of those 41 have coverage. So for many of them, cost does not mean “I can’t afford glasses.” It means “I don’t know what my plan would cover” or “I don’t know what a pair costs here.”

Both are answerable before the customer asks. Their insurance is on file, so you can tell them what is covered. And we already know what clear pricing does: customers who understood what the frame, the lenses and the coatings each cost were five times more likely to end up very satisfied (Insight 1). A reminder that says “your plan covers up to $300, and here’s what that gets you” is a different message from “time for new glasses.”

The 17% who dread it

Fourteen people said they don’t enjoy shopping for glasses, and one wrote, “I find the experience overwhelming.” This group is not a reminder problem. It is a counter problem. They are the customers who can’t see themselves in your mirror and feel watched while they try, and we covered what to do about that in Insight 3: be the honest second pair of eyes, take their picture, and don’t rush them. For them, the reminder only works if the visit it leads to is easy.

What to do about it this week

1. Work the recall list from due dates. The trigger is a prescription getting old, not a marketing calendar. Everyone who has not had an exam wants this message.
2. Put the benefits date on every profile. Then let the reminder go out before the date, so the customer comes to you and not to whoever is closest that week.
3. One message, only when due. In the same survey, 64% said the only acceptable time to hear from a store is when they are actually due. Send more and you spend the permission.
4. Make the visit easy for the ones who dread it. A reminder that leads to a rushed, blurry try-on is a reminder they ignore next time.

How we know

We surveyed 203 Canadians who wear prescription glasses or contact lenses. We found and paid them through Prolific, between July 21 and 23, 2026. Two hundred answered the question about when they last bought; 91 had last bought over a year ago. The question about what had kept them from a new pair was added after the first batch, so 81 of the 91 answered it. Every percentage is out of the people who answered that question. With groups this size, treat differences under about ten points as noise.

They came from nine provinces and bought their last pair everywhere a Canadian can buy glasses. Who they are and what we asked is in the series introduction.

One thing we’d rather say out loud than hide. The group leans Ontario, at 47%, and leans young, with 77% under 45. So it isn’t a perfect picture of Canada.