Patawee Chayawisan pursued his secondary education in Malaysia. His passion for the service industry led him to pursue a degree in International Hospitality Management at Sunway University. Patawee believes that not only is the hospitality industry a vibrant one, it is often highly-regarded for its strength in customer service. He also mentioned that the skills and knowledge gained through his tertiary education at Sunway University had given him an edge in his current career. Patawee often reminisces fond memories of projects and study trips during his undergraduate days, as well as the friendships and connections he made. Sunway’s multi-ethnic campus environment had helped him develop strong inter-cultural communication skills, something he has come to value and appreciate, now that he has multinational counterparts. Patawee also possesses a Master’s Degree in the same field from Switzerland.

With a strong academic background, Patawee returned to Malaysia to begin a career at Conduent Malaysia as a customer service associate. Patawee’s desire to pursue a service-related career did not hinder him from taking up a position away from his home country, Thailand. Conduent is a leading firm in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which provides services and solutions to large firms, and government entities. Having proven himself in his initial customer service role, he was made a Senior Team Manager and subsequently the Operations Manager with oversight of four countries comprising of more than a hundred employees – all in under four years!

One of Patawee’s biggest challenges is to drive customer satisfaction, which may be difficult when face-to-face interaction is limited. Nonetheless, Patawee attributed his ability to contribute to the firm with the theoretical and practical knowledge gained whilst a student at Sunway. Higher education has also equipped him to work in challenging environments, as well as provided him with the strong foundation to succeed in his role at Conduent.

A significant achievement that made Patawee proud was the industry recognition in call centre excellence for the site he serviced. Receiving the COPC Customer Experience Standard certification is a very significant achievement for call centres. Earlier this year, Patawee received another recognition for being certified as COPC High Performance Management Technique (HPMT).

Looking back, Patawee has come to the realisation that his journey as an undergraduate student has built his resilience. Additionally, he is grateful to the lecturers at the School of Hospitality and Service Management for their support and guidance in shaping the qualities he possesses today. On a closing note, Patawee encourages aspiring hospitality professionals to continually develop themselves, for learning is a lifelong journey!