Set default charset for sqlsrv driver to utf8

config/database.php

@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ return [
             'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'forge'),
             'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'forge'),
             'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
+            'charset'  => 'utf8',
             'prefix'   => '',
         ],