For many UK businesses, offshoring customer service, particularly to destinations like South Africa, became an attractive strategy for cost savings.
Deloitte1 suggests that you can save anywhere between 40-60% on operating costs by offshore outsourcing to countries like South Africa, India and the Philippines, driven by favourable exchange rates and local incentives.
However, while savings are substantial, offshore operations often come with limitations that can be difficult to solve when you’re so far away, such as language barriers, cultural differences and drops in service quality.
These disadvantages of offshoring are causing a shift back to UK-based customer service. A recent survey2 found that 34% of businesses are preparing to reshore part or all of their operations in 2026, due to wanting better staff retention, cultural familiarity and simplified management and training.
So is reshoring the right business strategy for you? Let’s explore the differences between offshoring and reshoring and their pros and cons so you can make the best decision for your organisation.
What is offshoring?
Offshoring is when you outsource some or all of your business processes overseas. It’s usually done to access a lower-cost labour market, but you may also decide to offshore operations if you want to take advantage of skilled labour that you have a shortage of in the UK, or if you want to establish a business presence in another country.
Advantages of offshoring customer service
Offshoring customer service has its benefits, and has been part of many businesses’ strategies over the last few decades. The top advantages of offshoring include:
Lower operating costs
One of the main reasons businesses choose to offshore is cost. Lower wages and operational expenses can make it significantly cheaper to run customer service teams overseas, particularly for high-volume contact centres.
Access to a larger talent pool
Offshoring provides access to a wide range of trained agents. Many offshore locations have a strong supply of customer service professionals, making it easier to recruit and scale quickly.
Extended service hours
Operating across different time zones allows businesses to offer longer opening hours or even 24/7 support without requiring expensive overnight shifts in the UK.
Disadvantages of offshoring
While there are advantages of offshoring, there are also disadvantages – mainly around customer expectations. Here are some to be aware of:
Language and cultural barriers
Even with strong training, differences in language and communication styles and a lack of shared cultural context can make conversations feel less natural, leading to misunderstandings that can impact customer satisfaction.
The 2023 Deloitte Customer Service Excellence report found that 42% of businesses saw drops in customer satisfaction due to language barriers, cultural gaps and slower resolutions. By the 2025 Global Business Survey, it showed that improving customer service had become a top priority for companies.
More complex management
Managing teams across different countries and time zones can make training, quality control and day-to-day communication more difficult. That’s why South Africa became a popular choice for offshoring, as they operate on the same time zone as the UK.
However, even if staff are in the same time zone, it’s still more challenging to deal with operational issues when your team isn’t right in front of you. For example, if a sudden issue arises with your CRM system or a campaign script needs updating urgently, resolving it remotely can involve delays, back-and-forth communication and reduced oversight, whereas an onshore team can implement changes immediately.
Lower customer experience
While offshoring might be better for your business, it might not be better for your customers.
Offshore contact centres often experience higher attrition rates, leading to frequent recruitment and training cycles that can affect service consistency. If your customers contact your support team, they expect their issues to be resolved quickly, and if the agents’ training isn’t up to scratch, it can leave you with unhappy customers who may not buy from you again.
Reduced brand reputation
Offshore call centres have long been viewed negatively, with surveys going back over 20 years showing that they can damage your brand.
Customers tend not to favour offshore customer services because they disapprove of the removal of job opportunities from their home country or community. Plus, your employees who are left in the UK may become dissatisfied if they believe that their jobs may be redundant in the future or think that their jobs will be made more difficult by offshoring some operations.
What does reshoring mean?
Reshoring is the process of bringing outsourced operations back to your home country. In the context of customer service, this means moving support functions back to the UK after previously being handled offshore.
You may also hear the term ‘onshoring’. While they are often used interchangeably, onshoring generally refers to outsourcing within your own country, whereas reshoring specifically describes bringing previously offshored work back home.
For many businesses, reshoring is about regaining control, improving service quality and aligning customer interactions more closely with brand values.
Why is reshoring becoming more popular?
There is a growing recognition that customer experience is a key differentiator. As expectations rise, businesses are placing more value on quality, consistency and trust.
Reshoring allows organisations to address some of the common challenges associated with offshoring, such as communication barriers and inconsistent service levels. It also makes it easier to manage teams, implement changes quickly and maintain closer alignment with company culture.
In sectors where trust and reputation are critical, UK-based support can provide reassurance to customers who prefer speaking with agents who understand their context and expectations.
Benefits of reshoring
There are so many benefits to reshoring that can have a real impact on your business’ bottom line:
Improved service quality
UK-based agents are more likely to share language, tone and cultural understanding with your customers, leading to clearer and more effective interactions.
Greater consistency
UK-based teams typically have higher staff retention levels than offshore contact centres. Lower turnover helps retain knowledge within teams, resulting in more consistent training, knowledge retention and better customer outcomes.
Simplified management
With teams based in the UK, it’s easier to oversee performance, deliver training and implement changes quickly. With everyone in the same time zone and working structure, you should notice a better flow of communication and more positive outcomes.
Stronger brand alignment
Reshoring allows your customer service to better reflect your company’s values, tone of voice and expectations, helping to build trust with your audience. At OpenContact, we treat ourselves as an extension of your team, maintaining tone, manner, and service quality that resonate with your customers.
Drawbacks of reshoring
Reshoring is not without its challenges. Like anything, there are a couple of drawbacks of reshoring that are important to consider when deciding who to reshore your customer services with:
Potential scalability challenges
Depending on the provider, scaling quickly during sudden spikes in demand may be more challenging than in some offshore markets. At OpenContact, we’re used to dealing with overflow calls during seasonal peaks in demand, so you can protect customer experience without increasing overheads.
Higher upfront costs
UK-based operations can come with higher labour and operational costs compared to offshore alternatives. However, there are still significant savings to be made. With OpenContact, you can achieve 20-25% operating cost savings by outsourcing within the UK, thanks to our efficient infrastructure and expert talent, with none of the offshoring drawbacks.
Why is reshoring a better strategy than offshoring?
For businesses that prioritise customer experience, reshoring often provides a more balanced and sustainable approach.
While offshoring can deliver short-term cost savings, reshoring focuses on long-term value. Better communication, stronger customer relationships and more consistent service can all contribute to increased customer retention and higher lifetime value.
Reshoring also reduces operational risk. With fewer barriers to communication and management, businesses can maintain greater control over their customer service and respond more effectively to challenges.
In many cases, the combination of improved service quality and reduced inefficiencies can offset the higher upfront costs associated with UK-based support.
Why reshore with OpenContact?
At OpenContact, we support businesses looking to bring their customer service operations back to the UK without compromising on flexibility or cost efficiency.
Our UK-based teams act as an extension of your business, delivering consistent, high-quality support across inbound calls, email, social media and live chat.
We combine experienced agents, tailored processes and scalable resources to ensure your customers receive the level of service they expect, whether during peak periods, campaigns or day-to-day operations.
By reshoring with OpenContact, you can improve customer satisfaction, strengthen your brand and maintain full visibility of your customer interactions, all while benefiting from a flexible outsourced model that grows with your business.
If you’re considering reshoring your customer service operations, get in touch with our team to explore how we can support your transition.
1: Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey
2: Directors Club News
