96th/Keystone Talk Heats Up - Businesses Take Note!

Well here we go again.    Time to hold our breath as the plans move forward to inprove the 96th and Keystone intersection and YES, it badly needs an efficiency update.  There's a really nice piece by @danmcfeely in today's IndyStar that spells out potentially the where and when.  There's also a growing level of concern about hurting those businesses in proximity during the upgrade process.  I get that...but I would also offer that this upgrade is coming one way or another.  Given the ineveitability I would stronly suggest that these businesses (Bob Evans, McDonalds, etc) begin to adjust their marketing strategy to  a) establish a means to communicate with their client base during the work; b) offer incentives to get customers into their stores during construction and c) provide a clear and easy path for those customers to reach them during that time.  While it's true some of these things cannot be totally mapped out, what we learned during the northern portions of the upgrade is that many of these businesses held their breath and prayed....not a good solution.  It's absolutely true that this work will be a hardship on them but if they prepare as well as possible they may be able to mitigate some of the construction damage to their bottom line and in the process actually survive the upgrade.  The time to do plan for that survival is now.  Oh and by the way...as a consumer if I see you're putting in the effort with me for that time that the construction does get going I'll be a LOT more loyal to you as well. (photo courtesty carmellink).