How customer needs drive Kaspi.kz’s decisions

Mikheil Lomtadze explained how the company makes decisions on product development and internal organizational changes based on customer needs

Customer needs determine which products Kaspi.kz develops and which decisions it re-evaluates. Kaspi.kz CEO and Co-Founder Mikheil Lomtadze discussed how the company makes decisions during a panel discussion at the Kazakhstan Growth Forum.

He cited the company’s branch network expansion as an example. After launching its new brand in 2008, the company opened a new branch every three days.

However, as more customers started using Kaspi.kz’s online services, the company began closing branches at the same pace. The need for physical branches simply declined.

As Lomtadze explained, the company’s goal is not to build branches but to meet customer needs. That is precisely what determines whether branches should be opened or closed.

«The only thing that matters here is whether the customer needs it. If the customer doesn’t need it, we close it. If the customer needs it, we develop it,» he said.

According to the CEO, a product must evolve alongside the customer, taking advantage of new opportunities to better solve their problems. This also requires a willingness to rethink the company’s very structure.

«We think about the customer first and foremost. If we need to change, we will change,» Lomtadze emphasized.

Kaspi.kz is applying the same approach to its next stage of development: creating a personal AI assistant for daily tasks.