If you want better gearing and you don't want to spend a bomb, get a different compact crank say one that has 46-30 chain rings. A 30 running on 36 is a heck of a low gear (you were going to buy a crank with a 30 inner ring in any case) and a 46 running on a 12 is a very decent high gear.

Here is one, VO Polyvalent Crankset

You'd need the appropriate BB as well. This way, you only need to change the crank. Cheaper solution to your problem.