I have been a regular customer of the Red Lobster in Clarksville, Indiana for the last 10 years, dining there at least once a week, but a recent change has made me rethink my plans.

I have always been able to come in as a call party for my favorite server, Tony Goforth, and be seated right away. When I came in in mid-November, the hostess said, "He has a table that is about done, so it will be a minute." I thought it was odd, since I was never seated in his section, but I sat and waited for 20 minutes and was finally taken to my "usual" table.
When Tony came out he told me that the reason for my wait was that Red Lobster had instituted a "3 table rule"..that no server could have more than 3 tables seated at a time.

I think that this rule will end up costing you business. When someone comes in to eat, they don't want to cool their heels in the lobby because a server has 3 tables. Most of the more experienced servers can handle many more tables than this, so it is unnecessarily limited the amount of money they can make by telling them they can only have 3 tables. In the past, the servers had the discretion to ask for more tables or ask the hostess not to seat them until some of their customers have left. The managers and hostesses also had a pretty good idea of which servers could handle more tables and which could only handle a couple at a time and seat them accordingly.

I don't know if this is a local policy or a corporate decision, but I ask that you please reconsider this. When I come to Red Lobster to eat, I don't want to waste up to an hour waiting for a table when the restaurant isn't busy because my server has 3 tables. Please return to the old policy of seating the patrons if the server has a table in their section and want to take that party..this is much better for the employees AND the customers, and ultimately will be better for your business.