Haha found the solution myself:

$(“#customerSearchForm”).submit(function (e) {

e.preventDefault();

$('#customerResults').jqGrid().setGridParam({

url: $('form:first').attr('action'),

postData: $('form:first').serialize(),

datatype:'json',

jsonReader : { root: “rows”, page: “page”, total: “total”, }

}).trigger(“reloadGrid”, [{page:1} ]);

});