diff --git a/rattail/batch/custorder.py b/rattail/batch/custorder.py
index 947508ad5f64a57688d623136e52014a7757eb39..e54b2e64033c8ce87c9d6ccca43c55485d26a189 100644
--- a/rattail/batch/custorder.py
+++ b/rattail/batch/custorder.py
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ Handler for "customer order" batches
 
 from __future__ import unicode_literals, absolute_import, division
 
+import re
+
 import six
+import sqlalchemy as sa
 from sqlalchemy import orm
 
 from rattail.db import model
@@ -48,6 +51,7 @@ class CustomerOrderBatchHandler(BatchHandler):
     """
     batch_model_class = model.CustomerOrderBatch
     has_custom_product_autocomplete = False
+    nondigits_pattern = re.compile(r'\D')
 
     def get_case_size_for_product(self, product):
         if product.case_size:
@@ -57,6 +61,61 @@ class CustomerOrderBatchHandler(BatchHandler):
         if cost:
             return cost.case_size
 
+    def get_phone_search_term(self, term):
+        """
+        Try to figure out if the given search term represents a whole
+        or partial phone number, and if so return just the digits.
+        """
+        digits = self.nondigits_pattern.sub('', term)
+        if digits and len(digits) >= 4:
+            return digits
+
+    def customer_autocomplete(self, session, term, **kwargs):
+        """
+        Override the customer autocomplete, to search by phone number
+        as well as customer name.
+        """
+        model = self.model
+
+        # define the base query
+        query = session.query(model.Customer)\
+                       .options(orm.joinedload(model.Customer.phones))
+
+        # does search term look like a phone number?
+        phone_term = self.get_phone_search_term(term)
+        if phone_term:
+
+            # yep, so just search for the phone number
+            query = query.join(model.CustomerPhoneNumber,
+                               model.CustomerPhoneNumber.parent_uuid == model.Customer.uuid)
+            query = query.filter(sa.func.regexp_replace(model.CustomerPhoneNumber.number,
+                                                        r'\D', '', 'g')\
+                                 .like('%{}%'.format(phone_term)))
+
+        else: # term does not look like a phone number
+
+            # so just search by customer name
+            criteria = [model.Customer.name.ilike('%{}%'.format(word))
+                        for word in term.split()]
+            query = query.filter(sa.and_(*criteria))
+
+        # oh, and sort by something useful
+        query = query.order_by(model.Customer.name)
+
+        # generate result list from query
+        results = []
+        for customer in query:
+            phone = customer.first_phone()
+            if phone:
+                label = "{} {}".format(customer.name, phone.number)
+            else:
+                label = customer.name
+            results.append({'value': customer.uuid,
+                            'label': label,
+                            'display': customer.name})
+
+        return results
+
     def custom_product_autocomplete(self, session, term, **kwargs):
         """
         For the given term, this should return a (possibly empty) list