Too assertive to recommend: The effect of assertive tone on referral behavior

Brands and retailers are increasingly adopting referral reward programs (RRPs) as a customer acquisition strategy. RRPs provide existing customers with referral messages and incentivize them to share those messages with other potential customers. Despite their growing popularity, there is a limited understanding of how to effectively promote RRPs, especially with regard to message tone assertiveness. In a large-scale field experiment (N = 61,401, Study 1), we discovered that consumers (i.e., senders) are less inclined to participate in referral programs when they are provided with a pregenerated referral message with a more assertive tone than when they are provided with less assertive alternatives. We found that an assertive message leads senders to anticipate greater psychological reactance from their recipients, a metaperception that diminishes their willingness to engage in RRPs (Studies 2A and 2B). Additionally, we identified two significant moderators: the detrimental effect of an assertive tone is mitigated when the product offers important benefits to recipients (Study 3) or when the referral promotion is time limited (Study 4).