Businesses often need separate financial solutions from personal accounts. Keeping track of client funds, payments and keeping account for tax filing all necessitate a strong software solution.
We hadn’t yet looked at a finance company for the Designerly award. September seemed like a good time to consider this category since many companies are cleaning up their spreadsheets and prepping for the busy selling season in Q4.
We looked at dozens of possible sites. There is no shortage of finance websites in any country. Finally, we narrowed the options down by country and Le Controleur–The Controller in English–stood out from all the rest as superior. It scored high in every category and offered some unique features to keep users engaged.
Winner: Le Controleur
Digital transformation has hit nearly every industry in the past few years. If you aren’t already tapping into the power of software as a service (SaaS), you’re missing out on ways to automate and streamline your business processes. However, it can be difficult to know which systems to use and what might be best for your business.
In a survey of business owners, researchers found around 48% want to improve management of SaaS products. One of the biggest challenges managers face is dealing with new digital environments.
Le Controleur falls into the finance and consulting industries, offering a financial service as a business to business (B2B) model. Some of the benefits they point to on their site include reliable data for other business owners, management of finances–accounts payable, cash flow, etc.–and customization. They will tell you what software would be most helpful to you, saving your endless hours of research.
When it comes to financial websites, there is a sort of standard look that most get trapped into. You’ve probably noticed the white backgrounds with red and blue accents. Even the shades of blue are often similar across different companies.
We really like how Le Controleur stands out from the competition by tapping into a rainbow of colors. They add a pale blue to their background to shake things up and combine it with a deep blue-green that is jarring but attention grabbing.
What Is Le Controleur?
One thing we really appreciate about Le Controleur is the customization they offer to each of their clients. They consult with business owners to figure out their needs. An e-commerce store might have different needs for tracking income and expenses than a mom and pop clothing boutique in a small town.
The company hires a multidisciplinary team, so any question you have has an answer by someone working there. They also focus on high IT security standards to avoid any data breaches. Protect your personal information.
On average, the team tests 50 possible solutions to find the one that streamlines your processes best. They walk with you through each phase, even teaching you how to best use new software you adopt.
Why We Chose a Canadian Finance Company for the Award
Each month, we cast a wide net and try to consider what types of businesses we haven’t looked at yet. We then narrow our options down to a business niche. From there, we pull examples of sites from that category and look at a number of different countries around the world.
As we look at sites, patterns start to emerge. We look for a winner that stands out but still fits the model of that industry. Typically, one site stands out above all the others for superior design and usability.
Excellent user experience (UX) can increase conversions as much as 400% for some businesses. We factor the overall UX heavily into our decision. For September, we chose Le Controleur for a variety of reasons.
Ample White Space
Although the negative space on the site isn’t actually white, the blank areas help the user hone in on where the site owner wants them to go. The call to action (CTA) button pops. The animated graphics don’t have a lot of elements close to them, which might create a busy feel to the page. We like a clean, uncluttered look and the soft blue areas provide that.
Excellent Engagement
People are busy in this day and age. They are easily distracted with dozens of other things they could be doing, such as chatting via text, streaming a video or family commitments. If your site doesn’t grab them, you risk losing them forever.
We love the way Le Controleur has animations above the fold and as you scroll down the page. Seeing the moving parts shows how busy most business owners are and makes one realize that outsourcing some of the tasks and automating others can improve the way your company functions.
Well-Placed CTA
The CTA button appears above the fold. It is over to the left near the bottom of the viewable screen. This separates the CTA from the animation but it still grabs attention because it is a contrasting color with the rest of the page. The darkness pops against the light blue background.
Clear Explanations
As you scroll down, the company offers clear explanations of how the process works. They have a team, everything is customized and they’ll even train you how to use any new software. The site isn’t bulky and things are easy for even an inexperienced user to understand.
Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
A site’s UVP can either convince people to give their brand a try or to bounce to a competitor. One thing we love about Le Controleur’s site is that they explain how they Improve your processes to reliable data. They outline the value they bring to the table for you.
A lot of companies make the mistake of explaining what their company culture is or what you can do for them. Customers don’t really care about that on a deep level. They want to know how you can solve their problems and improve their pain points. Le Controleur does an excellent job explaining the benefits of using their services.
High Value Content
Another thing we enjoyed about this site was the high-value content. They have a blog covering topics such as outsourcing, if you should use a carousel on your site and choosing the right products to increase sales.
Easy Lead Generation
We love that their lead generation form is easy to access and requires very little information to get started. You don’t have to spend countless minutes filling in every minute detail. The company wants to grab your information and start chatting with you.
Studies are mixed on what length of form is best. Common sense says a form that is quick and to the point would generate more leads.
Excellent Translation
Another thing we appreciated about this site is that it is originally in French Canadian but they offer an English translation. Because of their location, they could potentially see customers from the English-speaking parts of their country. Offering details in both common languages is extremely helpful to all of their customer base.
What We Would Do Different
As much as we love the overall design of this site, we would definitely tweak the mobile version a bit. More people than ever before use their phones to get online. Statista estimates there are around 4.67 billion mobile internet users globally, or about 90% of the population. If our site is optimized for mobile, you may lose some of your leads.
We noticed the animated graphic just doesn’t translate well on the mobile version. They’d be better served going with a different graphic or a small portion of what they have on the desktop version. It kind of falls off the screen and takes over the area above the fold. It just doesn’t work well.
Additionally, the site doesn’t translate easily to English on Safari but does offer the option for Chrome translation on mobile and works very well. However, since many people will use whatever default browser comes with their smartphone, just translating easily on Chrome isn’t good enough in this instance.
The look and feel of Le Controleur’s website is one we feel our readers can learn technique from. Pay particular attention to the headlines and CTAs on the page. They guide the user easily through the sales funnel and create a positive customer experience.
