Alliance Family Mediation from England cuts admin time by half and builds a smarter practice with Bigin

The company

Julia Love spent four years working as a mediator, helping families navigate the emotional and legal complexities of separation. Over time, she has guided hundreds of clients through some of the toughest chapters of their lives. But in 2023, Julia took a bold step forward: She launched her own practice, Alliance Family Mediation, with a clear mission—to help separating couples reach fair agreements.

Alliance Family Mediation quickly became a safe space for couples seeking support in areas like parenting arrangements, finances, and property settlements. The goal wasn't just legal resolutions, but also to help families move forward with respect and understanding.

The challenge

The operations at Alliance Family Mediation were anything but streamlined; forms were stored on Google Drive, schedules were managed in a separate calendar, and documents were tucked away in OneDrive. Every client journey involved a repetitive checklist: sending introductory emails, scheduling sessions, issuing invoices, and confirming payments.

The solution

Julia discovered Bigin while exploring Zoho and signed up for a trial. It immediately felt like the right fit for her business. Today, her team uses three pipelines to manage client journeys:

• Client Onboarding: This is divided into three sub-pipelines—Client 1, Client 2, and Archived. Clients who book initial meetings after making payments are tracked in this pipeline. Julia speaks to them individually and, when they're ready to proceed, sends consent forms and mediation agreements. Once the forms are signed, she moves deals to the last stage in the pipeline, which creates a connected record in the Mediation Pipeline via automation. Sometimes, deals are moved to the Archived pipeline depending on how things progress.
• Mediation pipeline: When both parties agree to proceed, they enter this pipeline. Julia tracks their progress through setup, documentation, and multiple sessions until a resolution is reached.
• Documentation: After mediation is achieved, Julia collects the necessary paperwork for legal purposes. A task is automatically created in Bigin two days after a deal enters this pipeline to prompt document collection from both parties.

Automation and integration: Once a contract is added, either manually or through Calendly (linked to Julia's website), an introductory email is sent out automatically. Based on the type of mediation, tags are applied, and if a joint session is confirmed, another email with meeting details is triggered.

Bigin's connected records feature links to stages across pipelines. For example, once all the documents are collected in the Mediation pipeline, the deal is moved to the final stage, which triggers a new deal in the Documentation pipeline.

Julia also uses:

• Zoho Books to send invoices and track payments from both parties
• Zoho Sign to get digital signatures on key documents before in-person meetings
• Over 10 saved email templates for quick communication at various touchpoints
• The checklist feature to ensure essential information is procured before a deal moves to the next stage

Benefit and ROI

For the team at Alliance Family Mediation, the biggest advantage of using Bigin has been the time saved on admin work—nearly 50%. With automation in place, tasks that used to take hours are now handled in just a few clicks.

They've also seen a 30% increase in revenue thanks to better lead management.