What is ment by going the extra yard?

When a client has an issue nobody wants to spend time with (not in the scope of what we do or there is not enough money in it for me to bother) is sometimes the answer you'll get. Try telling your customer that one!I had a client that had a noise in his car when he would make a wye turn. backing up and turning in one direction the car would "Pop". He complained about the noise when he was covered by the warrenty of his new van.His first visit about the noise was visited by the most experienced technician he "couldn't make the noise" and it Must be something the customer was doing. on the next visit for an oil change he complained about the noise again and had me drive him to work so he could demonstrate the noise so I could reproduce it for another mechenic. I took the best and brightest mechanic and he drove the car . He told me I'll look but I am not dedicating the day to it.His diagnossis reflected pretty much the same attitude, he did other repairs but the noise remained.Tyhe last of the techs to look took the car home when he went to lunch (he din't memtion any possible Ideas. Our demonstration served no good)After 5 visits the warrenty is over and he still has a noise and still is getting the run around from my guys. I took the car home overnight with me and had my wife drive the car in my parking lot while I sat under the hood. I located the general area of the noise but could not see anything until the next day. As I was removing parts Battery case, fanguards) I noticed the anti lock pump was loose. The braket was broken and needed to be replaced. I went to the parts department to order a new one. The parts manager told me you cannot get just that part without ordering the whole pump assembly. I looked up failure codes for the assembly and noisy was not part of the discription. Frustrated I called the zone office about the whole thing expaining the story and the reactions of the techs and my manager (He is out of warrenty and who cares.) I explained he was complaining about the issue from his first oil change and I was still holding his warrenty ticket (now 1 year old) open. He said give me the part number it will be there in 3 days. I called the customer and informed him the part is on the way, he can keep the rental car for the duration and I will fix the car myself. He came in to pick up his car and was delighted that someone actually took the time and effort to locate the issue when nobody else would. The part in question a pump retainer was lated found to be defective and a national repair campagine started 2 months after his repair was completed.
I don't care if it is not in the scope, makes you enough money, is bothersome ot not worth your damn time! If it is important to a customer, It could be bigger than you think in the long run. My shop exchanged 175 of those pump supports because they were noisy. despite the mechanics who said it wasn't worth their while!