What do you do when you receive poor service or shoddy products? Write a letter or perhaps call the company? Leave feedback on a website? To escalate things further, you might tweet, post on Facebook, or even write a blog post about the experience. But if you really want action on your complaint, I suggest taking a picture.

We’ve written several times about the power of technology to create transparency and expose poor business practices. I can’t believe that up to this point we haven’t mentioned one of the oldest forms of this practice: photography.

Now that nearly everyone has a digital camera on them at all times (thanks to cell phones), publishing a picture in the moment is as trivial as sending an email. Citizens are wielding this power to hold governments and police accountable for their actions. We should expect them to do the same for companies.

Most people prefer their food without a layer of oil on top.

The UK was abuzz yesterday over “the world's best passenger complaint letter”. In this letter, a former Virgin passenger writes at length about the horrible food and entertainment he experienced on a recent flight. While I found the prose entertaining, I was more swayed by the pictures he took with his cell phone.

Apparently, the one one the left (with the tomato) is the dessert.

From the letter alone, one might come to the conclusion that the author was merely exaggerating for effect. But to actually see the food in question is another matter. Pictures provide evidence to one's claims. Moreover, pictures require minimal investment. Reading takes time and attention. It takes a person practically no time to scan a picture and form an opinion.

Look at that picture and come to your own conclusion. Would you want to eat that stuff? How can an airline (especially Virgin) possibly find that acceptable?

If you run or work at a company, the next time you see something that looks wrong or is of substandard quality, ask yourself: “What would somebody think about my business if they saw a picture of that?”

Because, these days, they just might.