Word of Mouth and Referrals: A Modern Compelling Tool for Customer Patronage Behaviour of Event Planning Business in Ekiti State

The study examined word of mouth and customer referral on customer patronage in Ekiti State. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was derived from 21 event halls in Ado-Ekiti Metropolis. The sample size was 84 using census sampling. Primary data used for the study were gathered through a structured questionnaire. Data gathered were analysed using linear regression. The result showed that word of mouth positively affects customer patronage (f=150.524, t=14.372, 0.000); Furthermore, showed that referral positively affects customer patronage (f=75.327, t=11.655, 0.000) all at 0.05 level of significance. Thus, the study concluded that word of mouth and customer referrals positively affect customer patronage of event planning businesses in Ekiti State.