diff --git a/splunklib/binding.py b/splunklib/binding.py
index 94cc5581..d6489950 100644
--- a/splunklib/binding.py
+++ b/splunklib/binding.py
@@ -1290,7 +1290,10 @@ def __init__(self, response, connection=None):
         self._buffer = b''
 
     def __str__(self):
-        return self.read()
+        if six.PY2:
+            return self.read()
+        else:
+            return str(self.read(), 'UTF-8')
 
     @property
     def empty(self):