Account health is a leading indicator, not a report card
Most sellers open Account Health after something has gone wrong. By then the metric that caused it has been drifting for weeks.
The metrics that matter
Order Defect Rate. The headline metric, calculated on a rolling window. It combines negative feedback, A-to-z claims and chargebacks. Because it is a rolling rate, a bad fortnight stays visible long after it has ended.
Late Dispatch Rate and Pre-fulfilment Cancel Rate. Seller-fulfilled metrics that are almost entirely operational. They are also the easiest to fix, because the cause is usually a routing rule rather than a judgement call.
Policy violations. These are categorical, not statistical. One authenticity complaint carries more risk than a hundred late dispatches.
Product condition and safety complaints. The fastest route to an ASIN-level enforcement, and the one that most often escalates.
The cadence that prevents enforcement
Weekly, not monthly:
- Read Account Health and note anything that moved, not just anything that is red.
- Read every negative review and A-to-z claim from the week. Look for the
pattern, not the individual case.
- Check the listings flagged for condition or safety language.
- Confirm inbound and prep instructions are being followed for the SKUs that
generated complaints.
If enforcement arrives
A Plan of Action succeeds on evidence, not on apology. It needs three things, in this order:
- Root cause. The specific operational failure, stated plainly. "We did not
have a process for X" is a better root cause than "an error occurred".
- Immediate correction. What you did about the affected inventory or
listings.
- Preventive action. The process change, with evidence that it is in place
— a document, a system change, a supplier agreement.
Arguing with the policy citation is the most common reason appeals fail.
Where to learn the full model
The Amazon Account Management Playbook covers account health across nine modules, including the 60-day rolling ODR window and the Plan of Action structure that reinstatement decisions actually turn on.