Contact lens wearers should schedule follow-up visits according to the instructions that optometrists have given. In these follow-up visits optician makes sure that contact lenses still fit and that the eye is healthy and allows the usage of contact lenses.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out the reasons for some customers not attending the contact lens follow-ups and if they have had some contact lens related problems. We also wanted to find out, has the optometrist instructed how important contact lens follow-up visits are and could optometrists do something else to get customers to participate in scheduled follow-up visits. The thesis was made as a survey and the answers were collected electronically using Webropol. The link to the survey was sent to students and staff of the Oulu University of Applied Sciences and we got 647 answers from contact lens users.

The results are showing that one fifth of the contact lens users are going to the follow-ups according to the instructions. The most common reasons to miss out follow-ups were that the contact lens users didn’t know about the importance of the follow-ups or they think that it’s not necessary to go there. Dry eyes and discomfort have been reported to be the most common problems when using contact lenses. Contact lens users experienced problems despite the fact how often they went to the follow-ups or how they took care about the contact lens hygiene.

The results also show that majority of the customers have been given either spoken or written instructions about the necessity of follow-up visits. However about 40 % of customers haven’t been aware of how often you should go to a follow-up visit. To get the customers to go these follow-up visits the optometrist should make the customer aware of possible contact lens related problems and risks. The importance of follow-up visits needs to be clear to the contact lens user. Other custom-relationship managements, e.g. discounts, reminder messages and calls, could improve customers compliance.