diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/admin/orders/directives/customer_search_override.js.coffee b/app/assets/javascripts/admin/orders/directives/customer_search_override.js.coffee
index 6f36322d91..08d4ceeb5d 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/admin/orders/directives/customer_search_override.js.coffee
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/admin/orders/directives/customer_search_override.js.coffee
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 angular.module("admin.orders").directive 'customerSearchOverride', ->
   restrict: 'C'
+  scope:
+    distributorId: '@'
   link: (scope, element, attr) ->
     formatCustomerResult = (customer) ->
       customerTemplate
@@ -9,13 +11,14 @@ angular.module("admin.orders").directive 'customerSearchOverride', ->
 
     element.select2
       placeholder: Spree.translations.choose_a_customer
+      minimumInputLength: 3
       ajax:
         url: '/admin/search/customers.json'
         datatype: 'json'
         data: (term, page) ->
           {
             q: term
-            distributor_id: $('#distributor_id').val()  # modified
+            distributor_id: scope.distributorId  # modified
           }
         results: (data, page) ->
           { results: data }
diff --git a/app/overrides/spree/admin/orders/customer_details/edit/replace_customer_search.html.haml.deface b/app/overrides/spree/admin/orders/customer_details/edit/replace_customer_search.html.haml.deface
index db8cebfb0e..1fb13ef009 100644
--- a/app/overrides/spree/admin/orders/customer_details/edit/replace_customer_search.html.haml.deface
+++ b/app/overrides/spree/admin/orders/customer_details/edit/replace_customer_search.html.haml.deface
@@ -3,6 +3,4 @@
 - content_for :app_wrapper_attrs do
   = 'ng-app=admin.orders'
 
-= hidden_field_tag :customer_search_override,  nil, :class => 'fullwidth title customer-search-override'
-
-= hidden_field_tag :distributor_id,  @order.distributor_id
+= hidden_field_tag :customer_search_override,  nil, distributor_id: @order.distributor_id, :class => 'fullwidth title customer-search-override'