Capitol Nissan Ranks #1 in Workplace Culture

Want to know the secret ingredient to earning top national recognition as a car dealership? 

It’s a family-first attitude, according to Alex Casebeer, owner of Salem Capitol Auto Group. 

“Our employees are number one, ahead of our customers,” Casebeer said. “We have to take care of our employees first and make sure they’re super happy, because that will bleed out to how we treat our customers.”

The dealership, which represents Toyota, Subaru, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Nissan, received 11 national honors for excellence in workplace culture and employee satisfaction, with Capitol Nissan being ranked number one overall. Human Resources Director Heather Krieves accepted the award on October 9 on behalf of the autogroup at a ceremony held at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Customer Relations Manager Kyle Read said, “I think Capitol deserves this award because of the relationship they have invested between themselves and every employee that walks through the door. They give us the tools to make a difference beyond our walls and learn the benefits of being more than just ourselves.”

Every year, a publication called Automotive News hands out an in-depth confidential survey to all Capitol Auto Group employees, as well as to employees of other dealerships across the nation, and those results are compiled to form a list of top-150 dealerships. Results are confidential until the night of the ceremony. Awards are handed out to the top-10 dealerships. 

“We’ve been on the top 150-list before,” Casebeer said. Every year since 2011, in fact, and the only Oregon dealership to have those bragging rights. But finding out that Nissan was number one, “it validates what we’re trying to do here,” Casebeer said. “We preach all the time that we are a hospitality company, not an automotive company.”

One way that the dealership encourages their hospitality focus is through an internal program called Elevate the Moment – employees can take one of the several available company credit cards and use it to do something nice for a customer. “If someone is having a great experience, how do you take it from great to remarkable?” Casebeer said. 

That question spurred the idea behind this program. “One time,” he said, “A customer had to cancel an appointment for the following morning because his daughter was going into labor, so he dropped his car off at night. One of the service advisors grabbed one of the credit cards, went to Fred Meyer and grabbed a whole bunch of diapers, wipes, onesies, toys, and just left it in the car for the customer.” The customer described that experience as unforgettable, which is what 

Casebeer strives for every person who walks through Capitol’s doors. 

“Blow their minds if you can,” he said. “That is hospitality. That’s not customer service.” 

Capitol Autogroup has been in the Casebeer family for 98 years. Even back then, Casebeer’s great-grandfather had a similar mindset for how he wanted the company to operate. The original mission statement, which has since been revamped since 1927 but still retains some of the core ideas, was simple: have a fun and profitable atmosphere. 

“Finding Capitol Auto Group as a place to work has been like finding a family,” Read, who started with the company eight years ago, said. “Almost all of my closest friends are people I’ve met while working here. Capitol has also given me opportunities I’ve never had before. With how Capitol returns the love, you truly feel the reward of investing yourself into this place.”

Today, Capitol’s vision is “to be the best at providing a unique, customer-driven automotive experience that includes respect, integrity, and innovation.”

In alignment with their vision, Capitol hires speakers and companies to lecture on the topic of hospitality and hosts employee training sessions; the leadership team is provided educational literature to stay current on the subject.

“We’ve really created a culture of taking care of each other, taking care of the customers, and taking care of the community through philanthropy, volunteerism, and donations,” Casebeer said. “We want this to be a place where you don’t just come and punch a time clock. It needs to be more than that.”

Capitol Nissan3235 Cherry Ave. NESalem, OR

503-585-4141